2019 Q2 Social Media Trends Report Offers Key Metrics for Marketers Seeking Big Returns on Social Media Ad Spending
NEW YORK — Socialbakers, the unified marketing platform for social media marketers, today released a comprehensive report on the Must-Know Social Media Trends for Q2 2019. The report reflects the current state of social media as well as key data on platform engagement, cost per click (CPC) and click-through rate (CTR) trends, best converting ad placements, and the latest influencer marketing numbers.
Socialbakers Launches its Must-Know Social Media Trends for Q2 2019. Download your free copy here: https://www.socialbakers.com/social-media-content/studies/must-know-influencer-trends-for-2019-the-complete-report/
“The Q2 2019 data suggests that those marketers who aren’t putting most of their efforts into paid social media optimization, benchmarking, and maximizing cross-channel visibility are falling behind,” said Socialbakers CEO, Yuval Ben-Itzhak. “The importance of closely monitoring and optimizing your paid strategy across channels and ad accounts is clear as you delve into the numbers about what’s performing well and where there’s still potential for the future.”
Key findings from the report:
- Despite marketers increasing their overall spend on Instagram, for over 140 thousand brand profiles analyzed in the report, more than 60% of all ad spend is still allocated to the Facebook News Feed rather than being diversified across Instagram Feed, Stories, Suggested Video, and Instream Video placements (Top 5 ad placements were selected for the analysis based on their relative spend).
- Mobile remains the most critical platform for brands. Advertisements are seen on mobile devices a staggering 95.1% of the time, but viewed only 4.9% of the time on desktop.
- Among the 50 top brands analyzed on Facebook and Instagram, top 50 brands on Instagram now have the same audience size as the top 50 brands on Facebook. Note that the data specifically refers to audience size for the top 50 business profiles and not the entire platform user base.
- Influencer marketing continues to surge. Among the 3 million+ influencer profiles analyzed in the report, the number of Instagram influencers affiliated with brands who made posts using #Ad (to denote sponsorship) increased by 33% compared to Q2 2018.
Top brands on Instagram match Facebook audience size, Instagram generates higher engagement
For the top 50 business profiles analyzed on Instagram and Facebook, audience size (measured by the number of followers on Instagram and Page likes on Facebook) was nearly identical. That’s a key milestone for Instagram and points to how critical the platform is becoming for brands. While the audience sizes are identical, the majority of the user engagement happens on Instagram. Instagram performs best for Fashion and Beauty while Facebook News Feed continues to lead for brands in Ecommerce and Retail.
Additionally, over the past year, Instagram’s interactions remained steady. Meanwhile, median interactions for Facebook posts are just -3.3% behind where they were in June 2018.
Ad spend requires deeper insights, better strategies
Although marketers have been increasing their spend on Instagram, more than 60% of all ad spend is still allocated to the Facebook News Feed. Instagram Feed comes in a distant second at 20%, and the rest of the top 5, including Instagram Stories, Facebook Suggested Video, and Facebook Instream Video combine for about 10%.
The Socialbakers report also shows that around 30% of paid ad spend is being invested in non-performing content that earns a C or D on post quality (an average to below average score determined by the Socialbakers AI).
While MarTech and AI are helping businesses better invest their budgets into the most appropriate content – the Socialbakers AI scored 62% of posts as an A+ or A – there’s still room for improvement. With the inundation of data and lack of direction, it’s important to have a tool to help choose the best path forward and avoid unnecessary budget waste.
Missed opportunities for organic impressions
Based on nearly 50,000 Instagram brand profiles, Carousel is the leading format for organic interactions, at more than 120 per post. Yet, Carousel is used only 15-18% of the time. Similarly, based on more than 140,000 Facebook brand profiles, Live is by far the platform’s leader in interactions, but is utilized in only 4% of posts.
The data indicates that by utilizing a more popular format, brands can avoid wasting resources on posts that won’t resonate with their audiences. As the numbers demonstrate, there is ample untapped potential with Instagram Carousel and Facebook Live. This represents an easy opportunity for marketers to boost their content engagement.
Influencer collaborations gain momentum, use of #Ad grows a healthy 33%
The number of Instagram influencers affiliated with brands who made posts using #Ad increased by 33% in Q2 2019 compared to Q2 2018. It’s a giant leap and doesn’t take into account the influencers who are required to, but sometimes don’t, include #Ad on sponsored posts.
“For marketers who need to know where to best invest their ad spend, make higher converting ad placements and take on top-performing influencers, the data in our Q2 trends report can lead them in the right direction,” added Socialbakers CEO, Yuval Ben-Itzhak. “More than ever, it is critical for brands to use data-driven insights to build smarter social media strategies that capitalize on the latest trends and opportunities.”
The complete Socialbakers Must-Know Social Media Q2 2019 Trends Report with supporting graphics is available for free download now.
About Socialbakers
Socialbakers is the trusted social media management partner to thousands of enterprise brands and SMBs. Leveraging the largest social media data-set in the industry, Socialbakers’ social media marketing platform helps brands large and small ensure that their investment in social media is delivering measurable business outcomes. With over 2,500 clients across 100 countries, Socialbakers is the leading social media management platform. Socialbakers has been a Facebook Marketing Partner since 2011, a Pinterest Marketing Partner since 2017 and a LinkedIn Marketing Partner since 2017. Socialbakers was named in the 2018 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in Europe. For more information, visit www.socialbakers.com.
