Survey Reveals Instagram Advertising Trumps Twitter

A new survey has found that advertisers prefer Instagram over Twitter.

In terms of traffic, the world’s most popular 140-characters-or-less social media network remains ahead of Instagram – but not by much. While exact numbers remain unknown, reports indicate that Twitter has some 310 million monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2016, whereas Instagram has around 400 million monthly active users. But Twitter’s larger user base doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the better choice for advertising.

The market research firm Strata recently conducted a survey in which it asked 83 different advertising agencies which social media network they prefer for ad campaigns. The survey revealed that 63% of advertising agencies were most likely to use Instagram. In comparison, only 53% said they were most likely to use Twitter.

According to Reuters, Instagram has around 200,000 advertisers, while Twitter has just 130,000.

This begs the question: why are so many advertisers choosing Instagram over Twitter?

Well, there are a few things to keep in mind, one of which is the “simple” nature of Twitter. While there’s been some talk of Twitter increasing the character count of users’ tweets to 10,000, the Big Blue Bird has yet to implement this change. Perhaps the 140-character tweet limit is restricting the utility and effectiveness of Twitter for advertisers. Instagram also has the added benefit of using Facebook’s own advertising technology, facilitating the process of creating and managing ad campaigns for advertisers.

Twitter responded to this survey, however, saying it’s the better choice for advertising. A spokesperson for Twitter even cited a separate 2015 study conducted by Advertiser Perceptions which found that 37% of advertisers intended to buy Twitter ad space, while just 28% intended to buy Instagram ad space.

“The data presented in this survey couldn’t be farther from the truth,” a Twitter spokesperson said. “We have close relationships with our agency clients and continue to hear that Twitter offers the most powerful creative canvas.”

Instagram may offer an attractive platform for business owners and advertisers to promote their products and service, but it still pales in comparison to Facebook, which according to Strata’s survey is the preferred social media ad platform for 96% of its respondents. But with social media networks like Instagram and Twitter growing larger on a daily basis, there are new ways for business owners to reach their target audience. Instead of focusing your efforts strictly on Facebook, try experimenting with other social media.