Social media platforms have been undergoing a massive shift in the status quo that has been brought about by numerous shakeups including the launch and huge success of TikTok as well as Elon Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter. This impacts a wide range of things, not the least of which is the world of social media marketing with all things having been considered and taken into account. Emplifi recently put out the latest iteration of their Social Media Report, and it revealed some useful insights about the state of social media.
One of the biggest revelations in this report was that social media ad spends has seen a 16% increase year over year. Last year, brands spent an average of $4,827 on social media marketing, and this has gone up by 16% to reach $5,622 in the second quarter of 2022. However, the only major sector that has consistently been upping its social media marketing spend is the retail sector, which means that other niches are less enthused about social media marketing these days.
It will be interesting to see if the growth rate continues over the holiday season because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up revealing whether or not the effects of inflation would be strongly felt. Another recession may be on the cards, and that might prevent a lot of brands from investing in social media marketing.
The showdown between Instagram and TikTok was also front and center in this report. Instagram is winning out in the post interaction category, with the median range of interactions on Instagram superseding that of TikTok and the gap is only continuing to grow. The second quarter of 2022 saw TikTok outperforming Instagram in this metric, so Instagram’s reversal of its fortunes is definitely a signal that the battle has not quite ended yet.
TikTok is still managing to hold its own, though. Median engagement rate is still in TikTok’s favor, so while Instagram provides more views and reach, brands might be able to get much more user engagement from TikTok even though the view count might be somewhat lower than might have been the case otherwise.
TikTok is also doing a great job at growing the follower counts of its participating brands. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that TikTok is currently seeing a massive growth rate in the number of followers that it can provide, with a 200% increase being the most concrete sign that we can provide. Instagram, meanwhile, is seeing next to no follower growth which suggests that it has reached a saturation point that TikTok is also hurtling towards.
The click through rate that most brands are receiving from their ad campaigns have been seeing an unfortunate decline, however. The downward trend is noticeable in almost every single region and across most industries. Africa was the worst effected, with the click through rate in this region plummeting 30% YoY. It now sits at 12.9% which is a far cry from the 18.4% that ads targeting this region managed to receive back in the third quarter of 2021.
Brands would also do well to look into their response times. While Twitter was the platform where brands were the best at responding quickly, they were more likely to respond to comments that they received on Instagram posts. The median response time on Twitter is twice as fast as that on Facebook. However, Facebook Messenger is an excellent resource for responding to customer complaints and queries with an average response rate of 70% which is far better than the 40% that was seen for Twitter. Finding a balance between the two may be the key that helps brands maximize their social advertising benefits.
Take a look at the infographic below for more insights:
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One of the biggest revelations in this report was that social media ad spends has seen a 16% increase year over year. Last year, brands spent an average of $4,827 on social media marketing, and this has gone up by 16% to reach $5,622 in the second quarter of 2022. However, the only major sector that has consistently been upping its social media marketing spend is the retail sector, which means that other niches are less enthused about social media marketing these days.
It will be interesting to see if the growth rate continues over the holiday season because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up revealing whether or not the effects of inflation would be strongly felt. Another recession may be on the cards, and that might prevent a lot of brands from investing in social media marketing.
The showdown between Instagram and TikTok was also front and center in this report. Instagram is winning out in the post interaction category, with the median range of interactions on Instagram superseding that of TikTok and the gap is only continuing to grow. The second quarter of 2022 saw TikTok outperforming Instagram in this metric, so Instagram’s reversal of its fortunes is definitely a signal that the battle has not quite ended yet.
TikTok is still managing to hold its own, though. Median engagement rate is still in TikTok’s favor, so while Instagram provides more views and reach, brands might be able to get much more user engagement from TikTok even though the view count might be somewhat lower than might have been the case otherwise.
TikTok is also doing a great job at growing the follower counts of its participating brands. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that TikTok is currently seeing a massive growth rate in the number of followers that it can provide, with a 200% increase being the most concrete sign that we can provide. Instagram, meanwhile, is seeing next to no follower growth which suggests that it has reached a saturation point that TikTok is also hurtling towards.
The click through rate that most brands are receiving from their ad campaigns have been seeing an unfortunate decline, however. The downward trend is noticeable in almost every single region and across most industries. Africa was the worst effected, with the click through rate in this region plummeting 30% YoY. It now sits at 12.9% which is a far cry from the 18.4% that ads targeting this region managed to receive back in the third quarter of 2021.
Brands would also do well to look into their response times. While Twitter was the platform where brands were the best at responding quickly, they were more likely to respond to comments that they received on Instagram posts. The median response time on Twitter is twice as fast as that on Facebook. However, Facebook Messenger is an excellent resource for responding to customer complaints and queries with an average response rate of 70% which is far better than the 40% that was seen for Twitter. Finding a balance between the two may be the key that helps brands maximize their social advertising benefits.
Take a look at the infographic below for more insights:
