Within the investment in online marketing, social media has been the big winner in increasing marketing budgets in 2013.
Investment in social networks increased by 20.2% per user worldwide, while in Western Europe the increase was 17.6% in 2013. It is expected to continue increasing in 2014 by 13% and 14% respectively. In 2013 European companies invested $ 12.04 per user on social networks. Looking at the overall cost, not per user, the numbers are even more telling and global investment in social media advertising increased by 37.3% globally and 27.2% in Western Europe.
Increased spending on online marketing and specifically in social media, is due to two main factors: the success of social media for corporate communication and the fact that companies are almost obligated to pay to display their content on social networks like Facebook.
Facebook has made relevant changes in its EdgeRank algorithm, which meant that by the end of 2013 the organic or unpaid publications saw viewing dropped by 75%, ie unpaid advertising our publications on the social network Facebook go absolutely unnoticed forcing us to pay companies, a trend that will continue in the coming months.
These new policies will make companies to invest more money in online marketing but it could also make Facebook to pay a high price due to migration of many companies to other social networks like Google Plus, a factor that is already beginning to show.
