The Evolution of Social Media Marketing: A 2020 Perspective

COMPARISON BETWEEN FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM

 

Facebook and Instagram are two popular platforms that social media marketing strategies typically pays more attention to in comparison to other platforms. While there are similarities between the apps and integrated features, the state of social media marketing in 2020 gives one a clear idea of the performance of Facebook and Instagram.

 

• Monthly Active Users

In terms of monthly active users, Facebook is somewhat ahead of Instagram. The former has 2.5 billion monthly active users while the latter has 1 billion monthly active users. The majority (84 percent) of Facebook users are within the 25 to 30 age group, while 75 percent of Instagram users belong to the 18 to 24 age group.

Data published by socialbakers.com shows that Facebook is most used in India, where the app has 280 million users. Facebook has 190 million users in the U.S. and 130 million users in Indonesia.

The top location for Instagram is the U.S. where 120 million users are recorded. Socialbakers.com adds that 88 million from India and 82 million from Brazil also use Instagram.

A digital marketing agency in Sri Lanka like Ontomatrix will also consider the average time a user spends on each app. A Facebook user spends an average of 58 minutes per day on the app while an Instagram user spends an average of 53 minutes a day on the app.

• Revenue Contribution

An increase can be seen in Instagram’s revenue contribution. In 2016, Instagram’s revenue contribution was 15 percent while Facebook’s contribution was 85 percent. Three years later, Instagram’s contribution rose to 29 percent and Facebook’s contribution dropped to 71 percent.

• Audience Engagement

An indicator that any digital marketing agency would track is audience engagement. Industry-specific engagement is easier to study on Instagram, where only 12 percent of engagement falls into the non-specified ‘other’ category. In comparison to this, 30.4 percent of Facebook’s engagement was categorised as ‘other.’

On Facebook, ecommerce made up for 17 percent, retail made up for 13.8 percent, and services made up for 8.8 percent of engagement.

On Instagram, fashion made up 25.9 percent, ecommerce made up 18 percent, and beauty made up 11.7 percent.

 

Key Takeaways

There are three key takeaways a digital marketing agency can incorporate into their content marketing and social media marketing strategies.

1. Facebook is a market dominated by millennials while Instagram is more popular among Generation Z.
2. Ad spending has increased on Instagram over the years.
3. Audience engagement on Instagram is more defined, acting as a sales funnel, whereas Facebook marketers are mostly paying for post engagement.