Twitter ad revenues to hit $150m this year

eMarketer expects Twitter to make $150 million in ad revenue this year, the vast majority of which will come from the US.

This will represent a substantial increase on the $45 million it made last year (2010 was the first year the micro-blogging site sold ad space). By 2012, Twitter’s ad revenues will reach $250 million.

“If Twitter can grow its user base and convince marketers of its value as a go-to secondary player to Facebook, it will succeed in gaining revenue,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer analyst. “In 2011 it must work overtime to give its early advertisers a positive experience.”

In a bid to boost advertising activity, Twitter will launch a self-serve platform this year, similar to Facebook’s successful ad targeting system.

By next year, eMarketer predicts that Twitter will take more ad revenue than MySpace. According to comScore figures, Twitter had overtaken MySpace in unique monthly visitors by August 2010.

In general, ad spending on social networks is set to rise significantly over the next few years. eMarketer predicts that ad spending on social networks in the UK will double by 2012 – rising from £130 million this year to £275 million by 2012 (an increase of more than 110%).  This would boost social network ad spend from 3% of all online ad spending to 6%.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook is expected to take the greatest share of spending as the most popular site in the UK (and the US).