Forrester Research Social Media Forecast, 2015 To 2020 (US)

Social media spending in the US is expected to reach $27.4 billion by 2020, up from $12.3 billion in 2015, growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4%. This represents an over 12-fold increase from 2010, when social media spending in the US was close to $2.2 billion. This forecast estimates both the number of social media users and the social media spending by the type of device: desktop and mobile. Social media spending is segmented by spending on in-feed ads versus out-of-feed ads on social networks, as well as agency fees and technology spending. We segment social advertising spending by 12 industries such as financial services, retail, travel, consumer products, and more, and we break out agency fee spending by company size. The report provides historical data going back to 2008 and a five-year forecast.