Brands spent 65 percent more on social media advertising in 2016 than the year prior, according to a new report by Chicago-based data science and media technology company 4C Insights.

4C’s “The State of Social Advertising” report analyzed paid media spend activity over Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest in the last year, and revealed how advertising at social channels is now taking an increasing share of media budgets.

4C

The report discovered that photo-sharing site Instagram boasted the highest levels of growth in social media advertising last year, revealing total ad spend growth of 138 percent in 2016. Several new features introduced at the Facebook-owned service, including its popular Stories feature, which allows users to post photo, videos and ads that disappear after 24 hours, were cited in the report as reasons why brands have flocked to the social media site. Instagram saw membership total more than 600 million users by the end of the year, according to the report, 100 million of which joined the site within the previous 6 months.

LinkedIn was a close second, revealing ad spend growth of 130 percent in 2016. The professional networking site, which was acquired by Microsoft last year for more than $26 billion, launched its personalized conversation starters tool within its messaging feature last year.

Pinterest experienced 109 percent growth in ad spending in 2016. The site, which unveiled new advertising offerings such as its Promoted Video and Promoted App Pins, as well as targeting enhancements capabilities, grew to more than 150 million monthly users last year.

Advertising at social media mainstay Facebook saw year-over-year growth of 74 percent and 52 percent growth during 2016’s fourth quarter alone, led by particularly strong gains in the home and garden and government categories.

Twitter, which also expanded its video features in 2016, came in last, with the micro-blogging site experiencing 13 percent ad spend growth over the year, according to the report.

The report particularly noted digital video advertising’s growth over social platforms — with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat all launching new tools that allow marketers to engage with video content — and predicted this format would grow by 140 percent in the coming year. 

4C analyzed more than $150 million in media spends across 900 brands that manage its social activity through the social intelligence platform’s Social Ads tool.