Facebook has successfully managed the changing global digital advertising landscape for more than 20 years. With 2.2 billion users worldwide and an estimated $100 billion in ad income this year, it remains the most popular and heavily monetized social media network globally.
APAC advertisers aiming to reach Western customers, the results of AI advancements, and a shift away from targeting in favor of results have all contributed to its resurgence since 2022.
According to the report’s Author, Alex Brownsell, and Head of Content at Warc Media: “In this Warc Media report, we prise apart Facebook’s latest advertising revenue and user behaviour trends from those of its Meta parent company, and explore the platform’s latest revival in its quest to win a new Gen Z audience.”
This most recent Platform Insights report from Warc Media gives marketers a summary of the important information they need to know about Facebook, covering investment, consumption, and performance, while also offering evidence-based insights on the platform’s prospects and difficulties.
By 2024, Facebook’s ad income is expected to surpass $100 billion. Facebook’s Q3 2024 ad revenue increased 13.2% year over year, although less quickly than parent company Meta’s 19.0% growth, according to Warc Media projections, even though Meta does not break revenue by platform.
Facebook is only the second media company, following Google in 2020, to surpass $100 billion in worldwide ad sales. It is expected to generate $100.1 billion in ad revenue this year and $112.8 billion in 2026. However, it is losing market share in the worldwide social market.
Facebook received 88.9% of all social media advertising spending in 2013. Instagram and TikTok, in particular, will quickly catch up, with Facebook’s spending halving to 38.2% by 2025. Retailers of all sizes are increasing their Facebook spending due to advancements in AI and commerce.
Retailer investment is expected to reach $20 billion by 2024, according to Warc Media. According to meta-studies, AI solutions like Advantage+ Shopping Campaign (ASC) increased ROAS by 12% in just two years. Advantage+ accounted for more than a third (38%) of the Meta spend examined by Fospha, indicating a strategic shift in brand priorities towards “ease of management” and higher performance advantages from AI automation.
According to Warc Media analysis, Asian marketers are pursuing users in other areas while spending more on advertising on Meta platforms like Facebook. Over the past 12 months, this trend has intensified.
In 2024, Facebook advertising spending in the US is expected to reach $39.5 billion, an increase of 11.6% from the previous year. However, according to the most recent estimate statistics from WARC Media available to BrandSpur digital news brand, the growth of ad income will significantly drop in 2025 and 2026.
Instagram, on the other hand, is predicted to expand by about 20% over the next two years.
According to Sensor Tower, Facebook’s advertising company is still twice as large as the US OTT industry, four times larger than TikTok, and accounts for 29% of US store spending, even though its growth has halted.
Facebook has more than 2.2 billion users worldwide. Over three-quarters of adults in the US utilize the platform. With 3 billion monthly users and a global advertising audience of 2.2 billion, Facebook is one of the most widely used digital platforms worldwide.
According to a GWI survey, nine out of ten Americans use Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family, and more than three-quarters of US citizens use it. However, Facebook has long been associated with “age issues” and Gen Z users in the US use it less frequently than Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Facebook is focusing on creators, groups (for communities and information), and long-form videos (like Stories and Reels) and shifting away from news and political material to draw in a new Gen Z audience for long-term growth. The platform is in second place for all adults, behind only ITV, and is one of the top three commercial media brands in the UK for reach across all age categories.
According to GWI, Facebook is the most significant platform for purchases in Asia Pacific.
Continuing, AI gives Facebook more power. As marketers hand over power to AI tools to achieve their desired campaign goals, trust is going to be a crucial criterion for ad spend in the algorithmic era of media. Only Alphabet-owned Google and YouTube performed better than Facebook in a Kantar poll of international marketers about the reliability of its data.
In the past month, Meta’s AI capabilities have been used by over a million advertisers. In addition to providing creative diversity, Meta wants marketers to trust its AI algorithms to assist advertising reach areas that aren’t reached by conventional targeting techniques. On Meta platforms like Facebook, some performance-driven advertisers are shifting to “full-funnel” strategies.
According to research, it may be more cost-effective to balance conversions on Facebook with upper-funnel objectives (like reach and awareness) to increase future demand.
According to the firm, conversions for brands who used Image Generation increased by 7%, and preliminary testing by Fospha indicates that marketers are maximizing ad spend returns and optimizing for conversions with the help of Meta’s AI products like Advantage+.
