Social media ad spend overtakes search

When Strata surveyed 90 media buying executives that together process $50 billion in media buys annually, they found 69% focused their digital spend on social media. That's more than those who focused on search (65.5%) and just short of online display (71.3%).

Within social media, the majority (85.1%) said they and their clients focused most on Facebook, 44.8% on YouTube, 39.1% on LinkedIn, 24.1% on Google+, 9.2% on Foursquare and 1.1% on MySpace.

Two in ten agencies felt they'll have greater spend in digital than traditional in the next one to three years, although 46% say it will never overtake traditional.

"The advertising community is facing new challenges as the economy returns to a new normal," said John Shelton, CEO and president of Strata. "The introduction of new ad choices is causing the environment to become more complex, changing how agencies and clients view campaigns.

Overall, television is still way ahead of digital as the medium of choice for agencies. Over half (54%) said their clients were most focused on television, with digital coming in second with 24%.

Tags: advertising trends, digital advertising, marketing spend, media buying, online display, search advertising, traditional