THE MARKETER QUARTERLY
SPRING 2016 26 | MQ
MOBILE DOMINATES the social media landscape and is the gas that fuels the so-
cial engine (Figure 5). Among the nearly 1.6 bil-
lion monthly active users of Facebook, 91 per-
cent access the service from their phone or tablet
through either a mobile app or the mobile ver-
sion of the website. In Q4 of 2015, 51 percent of
Facebook’s active users ONLY accessed the ser-
vice via mobile. YouTube recently reported that
mobile usage is up 100 percent year-over-year.
This tremendous shift towards mobile consump-
tion will continue in 2016. This trend has huge
implications for brands and marketers looking
to engage highly targeted audiences contextu-
ally with appropriate messaging, designed to
drive desired actions. The opportunity to draw
consumers with hyper relevant experiences away
from the desktop is the number one force driv-
ing social marketers today. Marketers and brands
able to capitalize on this trend, and provide value
to consumers, will be at a distinct competitive ad-
vantage.
ROBUST BUT STABLE GROWTH IN WALLED GARDEN ADVERTISING SPEND
THIRTY-SIX PERCENT of respondents to The Relevancy Group’s April 2016 Executive
Marketer Survey reported that 25 percent of their
overall ad buys were placed in walled garden
social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
(Figure 6.) This is a substantial number, which re-
sulted in more than $17 billion in advertising rev-
enue for Facebook alone in 2015. In Q4 of 2015
Facebook saw a 31 percent increase in advertising
revenue over Q3 and a year-over-year increase of
nearly 57 percent over Q4 2014. Facebook fore-
casts robust growth in 2016, and the results of
our April survey allude to that growth, as well as
to significant budgets as a percentage of total ad
spend. In 2015, 36 percent of responders allo-
cated more than 25 percent of their ad purchases
to walled gardens, and in 2016, 39 percent plan
to do the same in 2016. Channel proliferation en-
sures that other compelling advertising opportu-
nities will present themselves this year and could
pull budget from walled garden spend. MQ
