Advertising on social networks is set to reach almost $36 billion (€34 billion) by 2017, research from eMarketer claims, with Facebook set to benefit most from the trend.

As social network popularity continues to rise with consumers, advertisers are spending more to reach their target market.

The research estimates almost $24 billion will be spent by advertisers worldwide this year, an increase of 33.5 per cent. By 2017, the medium will account for 16 per cent of global digital ad spend.

Leading the way is the US and Canada, where advertisers are expected to increase payments to social media networks by 31 per cent this year, taking it past the $10 billion milestone for the first time.

That translates to more than $50 for each user across the social landscape, a figure expected to rise to $71.37 per user in two years.

In second place is Asia- Pacific, where $7.4 billion will be spent, with western Europe rounding out the top three at $4.74 billion. However, Asia-Pacific advertisers will invest only $8.04 per user in 2015, rising to $10.54 by 2017.

Increased spend

Benefiting most from this increased ad spend is Facebook, which could net an estimated $15.5 billion in ad revenue this year, according to eMarketer.

That is about 65 per cent of the entire spending for the year, with Twitter in second place at 8.8 per cent.

On a country-by-country basis, the US and China lead the way, spending $9.59 billion and $3.41 billion respectively on social ads this year.

By 2017, the US total is expected to rise to $14.4 billion, while China will increase to $6.11 billion.