The rate of spending in the Australian social media advertising market will substantially outpace the same spend in both South Korea and Japan over the next few years.
New research from firm Forrester has found the South Korean and Japanese markets are significantly more mature than the Australian market, meaning it's probable Australians will punch above their weight on a per-capita basis.
It forecasts that $US706.3 million ($A810.05 million) will be spent in the Australian market in 2019, up from its current base of $US204.9 million ($A235.2 million), meaning an annual compound growth rate of 24%.
The growth figures from Japan and South Korea are much lower (13.2% and 13.4% respectively), however those figures are based of $US864 million ($A990.93 million) and $USD407.7 million ($A467.6 million) respectively.
India has been pegged as the major growth market in Asia, with Forrester forecasting growth of 51.5% as more Indians head to social media, while China is expected to be the largest market, with social media advertising expected to reach $USD1.7 billion ($A1.95 billion) in 2019.
The key driver of the growth will be social users swithcing to mobile, according to Forrester.
It says the percentage of Asian social media users accessing through mobile will rise from its current base of 77% to 87.6% in 2019.
The growth of mobile social media in turn is being driven by the prevelance of Asia-focused messaging apps such as WeChat and Kakao Talk.
Another driver of growth will be the introduction of more tools to gauge return on investement, giving marketers increased confidence as the markets develop.
"It's the biggest challenge for us to measure the actual business impact of social marketing," Nestle China's senor marketing manager Oliver Jakubowicz told Forrester.
Starcom Mediavest's national strategy director Patrick Whitnall told AdNews that this was a key concern for clients, but social media platforms were getting better at demonstrating ROI.
"I think that's an area we've had to work hard in, to prove that return on investment," Whitnall said.
"I know Facebook are working hard on proving ROI in terms of going beyond the clicks and showing how it fits within the overall ecosystem towards pruchase.
"There are certain other social channels which people may have held back on utilising that because of the return on investment."
He said it also came down to clear communication between client and agency on just what the R in ROI stood for.
"That comes down to agreeing what your constant variable is and looking at data to try and see the increase," Whitnall said. "Is a return an actual hard sale? It all depends on the metrics camapigns come out and do from the beginning."
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