Survey: 62% of Executives Expect Increased Advertising/Marketing Spend on Facebook

It appears that the momentum social media marketing has won’t be slowing down anytime soon. According to a survey from The Creative Group, the majority of advertising and marketing executives expect increased investment in Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ in the next 12 months. The expectations for Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram are more mixed.

The survey found that 62 percent of the more than 400 advertising and marketing executives surveyed expect companies to boost their spending on Facebook marketing in the next 12 months, while just 6 percent expect decreased spending and 30 percent expect no change in spending. Last year, 53 percent of executives expected increased investment in Facebook marketing initiatives.

Facebook just declared that the number of its users accessing the social network with their mobile phones has risen to about 20 percent in the U.S. and the U.K. This bodes well for the company’s ability to keep up with the growing demand for mobile marketing solutions.

Meanwhile, 51 percent of respondents said they expect increased spending on LinkedIn marketing in the coming 12 months, up from 38 percent who said the same last year. Fifty percent of respondents said they expect increased spending on Google+, up from 41 percent who said the same last year.

For Twitter, the expectations aren’t as rosy: 48 percent of advertising and marketing executives expect increased spending on the channel in the next 12 months, up from 43 percent last year. However, 12 percent of respondents expect spending on marketing efforts on Twitter to decline, up from just 5 percent who expected the same last year; 37 percent expect spending to remain flat. In other words, there are more respondents who expect flat or decreased spending on Twitter in the coming 12 months than there are marketers who expect increased spending on the microblogging platform.

For YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram, more respondents expect flat or decreased spending than increased spending.

A first-quarter survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) found that 55 percent of marketers were investing more in social media, while 45 percent said they were keeping their spending the same. No respondents said they were pulling back dollars from social.

According to BIA/Kelsey, social advertising revenues in the U.S. are expected to hit $6.1 billion this year and $11.0 billion in 2017.