Advertising and Social Media in 2015

When advertising through social media, each of the major platforms provides different demographics and statistics that make them unique. Let’s take a look inside the numbers of the social media heavyweights as we move forward into 2015.

Let’s start with the heaviest hitter of them all, Facebook (at least in terms of active users). Facebook claims to have almost 1.4 billion active consumers with 890 million of them using on a daily basis. The U.S. leads Facebook consumption with 151.8 million users while India comes in second with just under 109 million. The emergence of social media apps on mobile phones have given users instant accessibility in any given moment. Because of this, nearly half a billion people access Facebook through their mobile phones only. Approximately 54% of all Facebook users are between the ages of 16-34. This group, known as “Millenials,” grew up during the Internet boom and the birth of social media. The highest number of consumers for a single platform has given Facebook several additional advantages. Facebook had the highest conversion rates at 1.85%, leading to a $55 average order value. They have the highest allocation of ad spending at 57%, and Facebook comprises of 85% of all social media purchases by platform.

Twitter, known for instantly posting ones thoughts, news updates, or pictures, currently has nearly 285 million active consumers. Surprisingly, only 22% of all twitter accounts come from the U.S. with the highest percentage of users coming from Asia Pacific at 35%. Approximately half a billion tweets are sent daily with the majority of users (80%) doing so from their mobile phones. Although the U.S. isn’t the top twitter consumer by country, it does have the most followed users with Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and Barack Obama all having 50 million+ followers. Twitter also makes up 13% of all social media ad spending, and has a conversion rate of .77%, which has lead to a $46.29 average order value.

With an astounding 2.2 billion profiles, Google+ is definitely a major player when it comes to social media, although looks may be deceiving. Despite the 2.2 billion profiles, only 300 million of those are active, and only 22% of those accounts are visiting monthly. Conversion rates for Google+ are just under 1% and the average cost per order is $40 even. The biggest populations of Google+ users are in Indonesia, India, and Vietnam, all with over 80% of their online population having a Google+ account.

The photo giant known as Instagram consists of over 300 million consumers with the largest percentage of those users coming from the Middle East and Africa (34%). Since Instagram’s inception, over 20 billion photos have been shared and more than 70 million photos are distributed daily across the platform. According to recent studies, an astounding 76% of all Instagram users fall between the ages of 16-34 and 1/5th of all Internet users have an Instagram account. Since Instagram is such a specialized niche platform, only posting pictures and short videos, this has led to many users adding additional social media platforms to be used in conjunction with Instagram. Approximately 95% of Instagram users also have a Facebook account, and 83% of Instagram consumers have Twitter and/or Google+ accounts as well. Instagram claims a conversion rate of 1.08% but also has the highest average order value of any other social media platform at $65.00.

LinkedIn, the career-networking platform, has over 347 million registered users from over 200 different countries worldwide. The majority of users comes from the U.S. at over 111 million, but according to a 4th quarter study from 2014, 75% of all new LinkedIn subscribers came from outside the U.S. The fastest growing demographic according to LinkedIn are college students and recent graduates which comprise over 39 million consumers.

Last but certainly not least we have Pinterest, where 56% of the 70 million active users are women. Similar to LinkedIn, the majority of users come from within the United States, and like Facebook, the majority (65%) of consumers are between the ages of 16 and 34. Pinterest has had over 30 billion pins since it was first created and similar to Instagram, its users are likely to have additional social media platforms that coincide with Pinterest. Of all Pinterest users, 81% or higher have at least one additional social media platform between Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and Twitter. Despite having the lowest conversion rate of the major platforms at .54%, and only 2% of ad spending being allocated to Pinterest, it boasts the second highest average order value at $58.95.

All in all, social media has changed the way we look at advertising and conduct business across the Internet. The billions of daily social media consumers have given businesses an audience and voice like they’ve never had before. Each social media platform provides its own unique characteristics, functions, and demographics, allowing us to determine what best fits our company and ourselves. When deciding which social media platforms your business should join, there is no right or wrong, just good, better, and best. The only wrong is not joining any at all.