Mobile is an increasingly important territory for social networks, as we’ve seen from Facebook’s recent efforts and Google’s push with Android and G+.  And so there’s an obvious pressure to monetize this new consumer market, where iPads and smartphones run rampant while completely shifting the web experience.

Analyst firm eMarketer has published the results of their latest study in terms of sales revenue for mobile advertising amongst leading social networks and online platforms in the U.S. The value of mobile advertising is growing, as more and more people use tablets and smartphones to access the Internet.

The report predicted that Twitter will generate more profit from mobile advertising this year in the U.S. than the largest social network in the world, Facebook.

According to report published on the company’s analysis and research website, Twitter will earn $129.7 million on mobile advertising in 2012. Facebook, which has launched mobile ads for the first time this year, wins a little more than half that amount at $72.7 million. The revenue is even lower than that of Apple ($75.1 million), which is receiving only 30 percent of advertising fees from developers of applications for iPhone and iPad.

The increasing focus on mobile platforms, by Twitter and Facebook and other major publishers, will contribute to the growth of the total mobile advertising market in the U.S., which is expected to reach $2.61 billion this year, according to eMarketer. In 2016, the prediction is that this same market will reach $12 billion.

Sponsored tweets make the difference

Several factors support the business growth of mobile advertising on Facebook and Twitter. With users increasingly accessing the microblogging via mobile devices, eMarketer believes that integration between business ad products, particularly those featured in promoted tweets, and the user experience, will make the difference.

“Twitter advertising often takes the form of sponsored tweets and its adaptation for mobile use was simpler than Facebook, which derives more than 60 percent of its revenue from advertisements that appear in a column to the right the screen on a computer, but does not appear on its mobile platform,” says the report.

The CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo, reported that, on most days, the service generates more ad revenue from mobile device users than visitors to Twitter.com. These sponsored tweets are targeted by advertisers based on user profiles and their interests.

A different pattern for Facebook

Facebook by comparison just debuted Premium ads to mobile devices and desktop earlier this year. eMarketer estimates that the social network obtains more than 60 percent of its revenue through its advertising tool, mostly generated by ads that displayed on desktop computers.

However, the social network should catch up next year and make $387 million of revenue with mobile advertising next year compared to $272.6 million by Twitter. The revenue would then increase further to reach $629.4 million in 2014, against $444.1 million for Twitter, reaching the number two spot in the mobile ad market behind Google.

At the end of June this year, Facebook had 955 million registered users, while Twitter had 500 million users. In addition, eMarketer estimates the monthly number of Twitter users in the US for the year 2012 will reach 31.8 million, with an increase to 39.6 million by 2014. Facebook, on the other hand, will have more than twice as many people, adding 100 million in the next two years.

The social media service was late to add mobile ads into their apps, making smartphones a weak point for Facebook monetization. The good news for Facebook is that the photo sharing service Instagram can be good bet for the company to score on the mobile ad front. The Android launch of Instagram will only further this cause, making it a highly popular tool for sharing photos and enhancing Facebook’s extended mobile reach.

Google remains the leader

The confrontation of two popular social service pales in comparison to Google’s success in this market. Today their revenue from mobile advertising in the U.S. is estimated at $ 2.6 billion, 54.5 percent of them in the search engine.

In coming years, Google in the mobile segment will grow along with the market and by 2014; the search giant will be able to capitalize for more than $3.5 billion. The profits of the mobile services will exceed $6 billion by 2016.