Social advertising is just good business - it’s where your audience is, after all.
Most likely.
More people use social media now than ever, and with a growth in social media usage comes a growth in business potential.
But just how big is social advertising, and why is it still worth investing into? Well, that was one question that kept me up one night, so I decided to search for the best stats and gather them here. There are tons of great insights that will help you fine-tune your next campaign - enjoy!
By the way, social advertisements are the perfect place to reuse content sourced from creators or influencers - our blog post explains everything you need to know.
Social advertising stats
- Global sales through social media platforms are estimated to reach 560 billion USD by the end of 2022. Social media is the new shopping mall! (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2022)
- The value of social commerce sales in 2022 is estimated to reach 958 billion USD. Social media platforms are making it easier to sell your products directly within their app, meaning your customers can find something they love and buy it with zero friction. (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2022)
- Social commerce is expected to account for 17% of all eCommerce spending by 2025. (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2022)
- Social ads take a staggering 33.1% of global digital marketing spend. But what better place to advertise than where your audience is? (Hootsuite, 2022)
- The annual spend on social media advertising rose 17.4% ($23 billion) to $154 billion. I just had to include the 23 billion in there because 17.4% is okay… but 23 billion… (Hootsuite, 2022)
- The average CPM in Q1 2022 rose 20.7% to $9.13. Naturally, this accounts for some of the above rise in spend on social advertising. But as more businesses move on to more social media channels, competition increases. (Hootsuite, 2022)
- 69% of retailers expect to invest more in TikTok as an acquisition channel in 2022. And they’ve got a ton of options to help you Reel in your next customer. That’s kind of an Instagram joke. (CommerceNext, 2022)
- 80% of influencer ad viewers can recall seeing the brand featured in the ads. That’s the dream collab - influencer marketing and social ads. And it seems to work! (Nielsen, 2022)
Photo by @rikukyla
- Instagram Stories ads will bring in $15.95 billion worldwide in 2022, more than 1/4th of Instagram’s global net ad revenue. With 500 million people using Stories every day, it’s no wonder that Stories ads will bring in so much moolah. (Insider Intelligence, 2022)
- The average price per ad on Meta increased by 24% YOY. Yep, it’s not just you - it’s getting more expensive to advertise on Facebook and Instagram. (Meta, 2021)
- Gen Z had the highest brand recall (55%) after seeing an ad for less than 2 seconds. These video-savvy youngsters capture more from videos than their older compatriots. (Snapchat, 2022)
- 79% of consumers want to see ads that blend in to the page or service they are currently using. Context is key - doubly so with advertising! (WARC, 2019)
- Just 17.3% of internet users feel represented in the advertising they see. (Hootsuite, 2022)
- 37% of internet users report using ad blockers at least some of the time. There are ads everywhere we go, and if we don’t feel represented in the ads, it’s difficult to relate to them, which means they’re just noise, or worse.(Hootsuite, 2022)
- 62.1% of internet users list their #1 reason for using ad blockers as “too many ads”. When it’s estimated that the average person sees roughly 10,000 marketing messages per day, can you really blame them? (Hootsuite, 2022)
- The average internet user spends 2 hours and 27 minutes on social media, or 35.2% of their total time on the internet, every day. That’s a lot of liking, swiping, sharing, and creating! (Hootsuite, 2022)
- 58.1% of internet users aged 16-64 visited a shopping, auction, or classifieds digital property in January 2022. We like to shop, and our expectations have changed drastically since 2 years ago. (Hootsuite, 2022)
Image by @tamina_dox
- 91.9% of internet users watch at least one kind of video online each week. (Hootsuite, 2022)
- 27.7% of internet users watch one product review video each week. (Hootsuite, 2022)
- 26.7% of internet users watch one influencer video and vlog each week. (Hootsuite, 2022)
- 27.7% of social media users use social media primarily to find inspiration for things to do and buy. And while they’re looking for some inspiration for their next activity, or what they can do to spice up their decor, your ad could be just the thing to convince them! (Hootsuite, 2022)
- 26.3% of social media users use social media primarily to find products to purchase. Social media is full of amazing content, and it can be especially valuable when you’re looking for your next purchase. From fashion to household appliances, getting an idea of how it looks or works can be the difference between buying or not. (Hootsuite, 2022)
- 42.5% of social media users use social networks for brand research. When you’re looking for the DL on something, where do you go? You go to where the people are. (Hootsuite, 2022)
- 27.6% of internet users discover new brands, products, or services through social media ads. (Hootsuite, 2022)
Image by @jennipauliinav
- 39% of Instagram app users open the app every day. And with the average time spent per user being around 50 minutes daily, that’s lots of time to interact and engage with your ads. It’s a popular platform still, the recent changes notwithstanding. (SensorTower, 2022)
- The average Instagram user spends 51 minutes per day on the app. (SensorTower, 2022)
- 29% of TikTok users open the app every day. TikTok also offers potential for full-screen ads as soon as users open the app, meaning you can get a lot of impressions daily. (SensorTower, 2022)
- The average TikTok user spends 95 minutes per day on the app. (SensorTower, 2022)
- 82% of Gen Zers use social media to find new brands. Gen Z lives on social media, so that’s where they’re ready to find and engage with brands. So with your social ads there, you’re connecting with this burgeoning market in their own home.(Smartly, 2022)
- 87% of Gen Zers are open to seeing ads from new brands on social media. If you can catch their attention with something they’ve never seen before, Gen Z will happily engage with your brand. (Smartly, 2022)
- 40% of Gen Zers prefer Story/Reels/TikTok style ads. (Smartly, 2022)
- 3/4ths of Gen Zers said they had clicked on a social ad within the past 30 days, but 55% of those did not make a purchase based on that ad. (Smartly, 2022)
- Ads reach over 72% of Facebook’s monthly active users. (Hootsuite, 2022)
- Nearly half of all TikTok users say they bought a product after seeing it advertised in the app. #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has had over 6.6 BILLION views, and was the most popular hashtag in 2021. TikTok's got clout. (World Finance, 2022)
Outro
There you have it - 33 stats about social advertising that will help you optimize your next campaign.
Which one was the biggest surprise? Personally, I was surprised that 82% of Gen Zers use social media to find new brands. But it makes sense - anyone who is anyone is on social media, and you instantly get a feel for a brand from their social media accounts and advertisements.
One of the biggest challenges we hear from our clients is getting the right creative to use in social ads. If you're struggling with the same issue, well, we have a guide on the matter. Influencer campaigns are amazing for reach and impressions, but they're also incredible for generating content you can reuse in, for example, social ads!
We have an amazing guide waiting for you that covers the best ways to reuse your influencer content in social ads - what are you waiting for?
Read the guide