Until recently, Snapchat was the fastest-growing social media platform in the world… until Instagram Stories arrived. Moses Velasco, Chief Product Evangelist, Socialbakers takes a look at both platforms to see which is best for your brand.
Watch out Evan Spiegel, in the last few months we have seen Snapchat challenged in a way it never has been before and it is all because Instagram stories up and decided they could do it better. Stories are the lifeblood of Snapchat, but Instagram’s offering is already more popular and growing at a rate Snapchat can only dream of. This is because Instagram know exactly what demographic it’s targeting, and just the right way to curate content to this audience.
According to Instagram’s blog, Instagram’s Stories have 200 million viewers a day, which makes up half of Instagram’s 400 million daily active users. Still, Instagram does not say how much time users spend viewing stories, which are curated by everyday users, brands and publishers
Young people on Snap spend 25-30 minutes on average on the platform.
However, we can see from brands like Califa Farms and Lorna Jane that investing in Instagram has been beneficial to the bottom line. According to Socialbakers’ data, the top 100 largest brands on Instagram have tripled their audience size over the past two years. The company examined the medium and other successful brands while asking themselves what would work.
As Snap and Instagram continue to go head to head, let us examine a few categories both platforms should keep top of mind:
- Ad prices and viewability metrics – An Instagram story ad can cost half the price of a Snap ad. The Instagram ads cost $4 CPMs (price per 1,000 impressions) versus $8.50 for Snapchat. Additionally, industry consensus says that Instagram is more transparent with their viewability metrics than Snap is.
- Users –Given that Snap’s target demographic is 15-24 years olds, it seems like mid-twenties millennials are turning towards Instagram for more of their content to be curated. This means they don’t have to go switching back and fourth to view their friend’s stories alongside their favorite influencer or brand.
- Publishers – In this realm, Snap is the clear winner. In the past year and a half, we’ve seen almost every major content publisher step up their game and invest in the Discover portion of the app. Examples include, Vice and BuzzFeed. Even Condé Nast owned publications like Vogue and GQ have been stepping up their game and adding content to Snap’s discover section.
The winner here is not yet clear. As a publisher or brand, if you’re a partner you receive all the benefits of working with Snap. However If you’re not a partner, Instagram is the place to invest time and resources – as the partner relationship with Snap can be more than pricey. With this in mind, if done strategically, tasteful curated content on Instagram can be the way to go to get ahead of your bottom line as a brand.
By Moses Velasco
Chief Product Evangelist