U.S. Social Network Ad Spending to Increase 55% in 2011

eMarketer predicts that US marketers will spend $3.08 billion to advertise on social networking sites this year. Spending will be up 55% from 2010 and will rise by a further 27.7% in 2012 to reach nearly $4 billion. This year’s dramatic increase will bring social media ad dollars to 10.8% of the total spent online in the US.

Worldwide, social network ad spending will rise 71.6% to $5.97 billion, with social media ad dollars representing 8.7% of the total.

The spending increase is driven in great part by the increase in Facebook ad spending, which this year will reach $2.19 billion in the US and just over $4 billion worldwide—both more than double last year’s figure.