Social network ad spending to exceed $2 billion in 2011

U.S. spending on ads for sites such as Facebook is expected to reach $1.68 billion this year says eMarketer, a more than 20% increase from 2009. That figure will mean social media accounts for almost 7% of all U.S. online spending.

Next year social network advertising could top $2 billion.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook will account for half of all social networking ad spending. Many marketers can't resist the network's huge subscriber base and the amount of time consumers are spending on the platform.

"[Ad companies] are looking at Facebook's 500 million active users worldwide, and they're saying, 'I need to be there, that's a heck of a lot of people," said Debra Aho Williamson, a senior analyst for eMarketer.

MySpace, however, hasn't been enjoying the social media advertising ride quite as much. Interest in the network has declined, with the number of U.K. visitors alone having halved in the last few months, and U.S. marketers will spend just $323 million with it this year compared to $445 million in 2009.

Tags: advertisers, online advertising, social advertising, social network