Key Findings Include Data About Ad Spend, Social Commerce, Influencer Marketing and Video Engagement
Socialbakers, the unified marketing platform for social media marketers, released a comprehensive report on Instagram and Facebook Trends for Q3 2019. The report reflects the current state of online marketing, with data and graphics that reveal the trends and changes shaping the social media landscape. Key insights from the report include the expanded importance of Ecommerce and social commerce, ad spend on Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories, trends in video content through various channels, and the evolution of CPC (Cost per Click) and CTR (Click through Rate).
Instagram’s superior engagement attracts ad spend
Although brands still put the majority of their ad spend into Facebook feed (more than 60%), over the long term the data shows that the volume of ad spend on Facebook has been decreasing. With a 10x jump in ad spend on Instagram Stories from January 2018 to the end of Q3 2019, it’s clear that marketing budgets are increasingly shifting their investments towards Instagram. The reason is obvious – Instagram has a much superior engagement rate compared to Facebook.
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Looking at the world’s 50 biggest brand profiles on Instagram and Facebook, Instagram continues to have more interactions on profile posts than Facebook, which was also true in Q2 2019. Because Instagram now offers both large audience size and high engagement, it is pulling more ad spend to the platform. As Facebook ad spend declines, Instagram feed placement has been growing and has reached at least 20% of total ad spend since Q1 2019.
Social Commerce takes off
With its leading position for total interactions on both Facebook and Instagram, the Ecommerce category is hot. And one of the biggest trends within Ecommerce is the expansion of social commerce. More and more, users are able to make purchases directly from social media platforms after they discover a product, instead of having to visit a shopping site’s app or an online store. There’s plenty of reason to believe that the growing social commerce trend will only continue.
Influencer marketing is growing, not waning
Influencer marketing proved in a big way that it’s still a popular marketing tool. Reversing an overall downward trend, the use of #ad by influencers (to denote sponsorship) on Instagram really spiked at the end of Q3 2019, jumping up 60% by the end of the quarter. As these numbers demonstrate, consumers are increasingly seeking out reviews and trusted voices when making purchasing decisions. This will likely continue as holiday campaigns ramp up in Q4 2019 and the use of #ad is expected to soar over the previous high from December 2018.
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Video engagement is exploding
Although images remain the leading post type on both Facebook and Instagram, the popularity of video and its ability to engage users is exploding. Facebook and Instagram have both added new formats for video content such as Facebook Live, IGTV, and interactive and moving add-ons for IG stories. Facebook Live is now the leading performer on that platform, with more than twice as many median post interactions as the second-closest post type.
The latest data shows that different versions of video perform well and have grown. Facebook Live and regular video both had slight increases in interactions from Q2 to Q3, with regular video now ranking third in media post interactions. And on Instagram, video surged in Q3 2019 to nearly catch up with images in terms of media post interactions. For marketers, the popularity of video is a trend they should keep an eye on this holiday season and in the coming year.
‘Mobile First’ is a must for social media marketers
Looking at all brands ad accounts across Facebook and Instagram, the cost per click is nearly double for users engaging via desktop (0.25 USD) than via mobile (0.13 USD). In addition, paid ads are seen on mobile devices 95.8% of the time compared to just 4.2% of the time on desktops. This is a slightly bigger disparity than we saw in Q2 2019 and reinforces the fact that ad spend plans need to always think of ‘mobile first.’
“Of all the trends we uncovered this quarter, the rapid expansion of social commerce is one that we expect to have a tremendous impact in the year to come. Very soon it will be possible to run the entire marketing funnel from discovery to post-purchase customer care via social media,” Ben-Itzhak said. “We don’t need a crystal ball to predict that social commerce will eventually overtake Ecommerce as we know it today. Moving into 2020, we will see more and more Ecommerce features being added to the social media platforms.”
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