Where Should Brands Prioritize Their Social Media Ad Spending?

Ad spending on social media is expected to reach near $38B in the year 2020. That’s equivalent to a ¼ of all digital ad spend, which for brands, means a massive chunk of their marketing budgets.

As the landscape becomes increasingly pay to play, we wanted to understand how marketers can get the highest returns for their investments in social media advertising by asking almost 400 US consumers about their social media use habits and how they perceive ads on different platforms.

Surprisingly, YouTube is the most popular social media app among users aged 18-29. Seventy-two percent report using the video sharing platform daily, compared to only 47 percent for Facebook. These numbers almost inverse themselves when you look the use habits of the next age cohort. For social media users aged 30 - 39, 72 percent report using Facebook daily compared to 46 percent for YouTube. Brands should keep this in mind when allocating ad dollars to different platforms for specific target groups.

Beyond usage, YouTube is the most popular platform for learning about new products. Sixty one percent of all consumers use YouTube for product research versus 50 percent who use Facebook. What’s more, 46 percent of 18-29 year old YouTube users report that they are either likely or very likely to make a purchase off of the platform in the near future. This number is even greater on Instagram, where 57 percent of 18-29 year olds are either likely or very likely to make a purchase off of the app.

Where are consumers least likely to buy something? Snapchat. Only 16 percent of all users are likely or very likely to buy something off of the ephemeral platform.