Many businesses that launch an ad campaign on social media will focus on only one or two outlets. For most, the choice is Facebook, indicated by its close to $9 billion in revenue earnings for Q4 2016. The second outlet for a social media advertising campaign is often the tricky decision, and nowadays comes down to Snapchat marketing vs. Instagram.
Both outlets offer advertisers a unique set of tools for connecting their brand with users. With competition between the two increasing, their features are becoming more similar to each other. Snapchat Stories and Instagram Stories, for example, are quick and engaging ways to reach consumers. Which one is best for your brand, though, comes down to audience: Who is using Snapchat Stories? Who is on Instagram? With a far greater millenial audience that is actively engaged to maximize a social advertising campaign, Snapchat Stories beats Instagram Stories every time.
Who Uses Snapchat vs Instagram?
The users on each social media platform vary, and this affects your ad’s performance. As a result, it’s important to be aware of both the type of person on these apps and the overall population.
Here’s what Instagram users look like:
- 250 million daily active users on Instagram stories
- 75% of users take action after seeing a brand’s post
- 59% of adults ages 18-29 use Instagram
- 80% of users are outside the U.S.
And here’s an overview of Snapchat:
- 166 million daily active users
- 85% of users are ages 18-34
- On average, users spend 30 minutes per day in Snapchat
- 48% of users ages 13-24 watch snaps/stories from brands at least once daily
How Snapchat Stories Succeed
Brands that optimize their Snapchat ad to publish in Stories have the benefits of reaching an engaged, target audience. For example, 58% of college students said they would purchase a product if they saw a coupon for it on Snapchat.
The instantaneous and raw nature of Snapchat Stories make consumers feel more connected to a brand. For larger companies that value a younger audience, this outlet is especially effective at expanding brand awareness.
Though Instagram has tried to complete by launching a similar set of engagement tools within Stories, Snapchat users are already accustomed to these since they originated in Snapchat. Therefore, they are able to engage and connect more easily than on Instagram with brands that incorporate these features. Essentially, Snapchat Stories are more intuitive for users.
With Snapchat continuing to roll out new features to its advertising platform, Snapchat Stories are becoming even more accessible to smaller businesses. An ad running on this platform has the potential to increase campaign engagement over 200%, reach hundreds of millions of people, and have a high conversion rate at low costs. Geofilters still represent one of the biggest bargains in social media marketing, starting at $5.
Facebook will remain the paid social media outlet priority for advertisers. However, for an additional option that complements the ROI-driven strategy of Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram represent methods focused on brand engagement and awareness. Of these two, Snapchat is the choice, especially for large brands, due to its wide reach with an ideal audience, intuitive interface, and instantaneous appeal.
