BIA/Kelsey a consulting firm in the local media industry, is projecting that US social media advertising will increase from $4.7 billion in 2012 to $11 billion in 2017.  This would be an 18.6 percent in the compound annual growth rate (CAGR).   The company believes that social media networking companies will continue to improve targeting and campaign metrics for companies and this will lead to the steady increase of social advertising. Ad revenues for locally targeted social ads will increase from $1.1 billion in 2012 to $3.6 billion in 2017, a CAGR of 26.4 percent.

Jed Williams, director of consulting and senior analyst at BIA/Kelsey said, “Social networks are evolving their ad products and features to improve performance.  Native social formats, including video and mobile-social advertising will be the principal market growth drivers.”