Forecast to total £198.1bn in 2024, spending on social media has far surpassed every other channel of advertising investment. Meta alone is on track to surpass TV advertising in global ad revenue for 2025 according to WARC Media’s ‘Global Advertising Trends’ report.
If one decides to break down the numbers further within the UK, social media spend grew 15.6% year-on-year in 2023 and is forecast to reach £8.8bn in 2025 according to WARC’s report. Much of this growth is attributed to a rise in spending on social video formats—up to 20% last year.
But what is driving this trend?
Well, according to WARC, users have significantly increased their social media usage—according to GWI there has been a 50% increase since 2014—from an average daily consumption of 95 minutes to 152 minutes in 2024.
One company that has benefited immensely from this is Meta. According to the WARC report, Meta is predicted to earn £124.64bn in ad revenue in 2024, representing a 63% share of global social spend. With both Facebook and Instagram growing by more than 20% in quarter 1 of 2024, one can see this prediction coming true quite quickly.
Considering how much time we all spend on our phones browsing through social media, is it any surprise that social media spending is increasing? With things becoming more portable as time goes on, this trend is only going to continue.
Vivek Rajkhowa 
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