Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Each week we bring you a wrap-up of curated content containing engaging news, tips and trends from digital marketing and social media. This week learn the difference between reach and impressions in social media and what’s important to you, how to get more out of your Instagram stories with tips on how to create effective ads, the latest Twitter tool, how you can and should incorporate Snapchat, plus TikTok has surpassed 1.6 billion downloads and what that means for your social media strategy.
Read this weeks articles to stay on top of the latest trends in all things content marketing and social media.
Social Media Impressions vs. Reach: What’s More Important?
By Kayla Carmicheal
Let’s talk about social media metrics.
When counting engagement, there are two terms you should know: reach and impressions.
Do you know which inbound marketing metrics you should be tracking? Click here for a free guide.
Reach is used to define who sees content. It’s the total number of people who see a tweet you make, an Instagram story you post, or a Facebook event page.
Let’s say you have an ad that was displayed 500 times on social media pages. If 200 people clicked on your ad, your reach would be 200.
Impressions are the total number of times social media browsers have been showed your content. Impressions are different than reach because it doesn’t count people who click or engage with your content, just those who are exposed to it.
If your ad was displayed 500 times on social media, your impressions would be 500.
Impressions vs. reach
Impressions are defined by the total number of people your content is visible to. Reach, on the other hand, refers to the number of people who choose to see your content and engage with it through likes, comments, or shares.
While both metrics are pretty similar, there are a few key patterns to note. In most cases, impressions will be higher than reach. This is because impressions count exposure, and reach counts interaction. Impressions, then, can oftentimes be close to the number of followers your accounts have.
Easy enough to understand, right? Impressions count exposure, reach counts clicks. Even though these two terms are pretty cut and dry, different social media sites have their own rules for how they count impressions and reach, and if you want to measure one over the other, it’s important to know what you’re looking at.
6 Tips for Creating Highly Effective Instagram Stories Ads
By: Steph Wong Ken
Instagram Stories Ads are a powerful marketing tool, providing access to over 500 million users daily. One third of the most viewed Stories come from businesses and 60% of users discover new products through the platform.
With numbers like that, it might be tempting to throw up a random Stories Ad and wait for the clicks to come flying in. But, converting ad views into sales can be a challenge for brands, especially given all the ad content already on the app.
Never fear. We’ve compiled a guide on how to create engaging Instagram Stories Ads so your brand stands out from the crowd.
What are Instagram Stories ads?
Instagram Stories Ads live within Instagram Stories, and appear like a commercial break between your friends’ and family’s video content. The only difference is that a brand has paid to place them there.
Stories ads are full-screen and vertical, just like Instagram Stories, and sit on top of your Instagram News Feed. Like Instagram Stories, they can be still images or 15 second videos.
Instagram has seven objectives for Instagram Stories Ads, which you can select when you build your ad:
Reach: Show your ad to as many people as possible
Video Views: Encourage as many people to view your video as possible
Traffic: Send the most amount of traffic to your website or page
Conversions: Drive conversion metrics like email signups or sales
Mobile App Installs: Get users to download and install your app
Lead generation: Open up a lead gen form that automatically fills out the users’ information
Twitter Adds New ‘Conversation Insights’ to Media Studio
By Andrew Hutchinson
Twitter has added a new ‘Conversation Insights’ element to its Media Studio tool, which provides more specific data on your tweet mentions, who’s mentioning you, and filters to provide additional information on the types of accounts engaging with your profile.
The main chart shows the amount of tweet mentions you’re seeing, which you can view over a chosen time period. This can help you better manage and maintain your tweet strategy – though, as we know, it’s not just the mentions themselves that are relevant, but the specific people who are engaging with your profile and amplifying your messaging.
Click on any day and you can see a more specific breakdown of your top tweets, and who was engaging with them.
You can filter the tweet timelines by follower and engagement thresholds, language, Tweet format, and verification status, helping you locate more influential and region-specific mentions.
Worldwide Snapchat Usage to Grow More than 14% This Year
By eMarketer
Following a redesign in late 2017 that prompted some US users to leave the platform and stifled growth elsewhere, Snapchat is making a comeback. New features and a rebuilt Android platform are giving the social network new momentum. In its latest forecast on worldwide social network users, eMarketer has upgraded its estimates for Snapchat users for 2019 through 2023.
By the end of the year, Snapchat will have 293.01 million users worldwide, up 14.2% over last year. That’s an upward adjustment from 281.27 million in our Q2 forecast. With higher growth rates built into our new forecast, we expect Snapchat to add more than 63 million users by the end of 2023, vs. our previously estimated 52 million.
“Snapchat has reported gains in users every quarter so far in 2019, and we believe that the relaunched Android app has reinvigorated growth,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “In addition, features such as the successful baby face and gender swap filters earlier this year have driven increases in user engagement with the app.”
The US is Snapchat’s largest market, representing 27.4% of its 2019 users. The market was particularly hard-hit by the unpopular redesign that rolled out to most users by early last year, with its user base declining 1.4% in 2018. Growth will return to positive territory by the end of this year, increasing 5.9%, and pushing its US user base past 80 million for the first time. The biggest turnaround will come from users ages 12 to 17, 1.1 million of whom left the platform last year. This year, the social network will add more than that number back.
TikTok craze continues as app surpasses 1.5B global downloads
By Peter Adams
Brief:
- TikTok, the social video app owned by Chinese startup ByteDance, surpassed 1.5 billion downloads globally across Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store, according to new estimates from Sensor Tower. Lifetime user spending reached $175 million globally, with the U.S. being the second largest market for revenue at $62.4 million — 35.7% of the global total.
- TikTok has this year generated $115.3 million in user spending, a metric that’s grown every month since February and peaked at $18.2 million in October, per Sensor Tower. TikTok has added 500 million users worldwide since February, when it first passed 1 billion downloads. In 2019, TikTok saw 614 million downloads overall, marking 6% growth over the same period last year.
- India is the largest driver of user growth, with 31% of unique installs. China lands in second place and the U.S. is No. 3, accounting for 123.8 million downloads or 8.2% of the market. TikTok now stands as the third most-downloaded non-gaming app this year, behind Facebook’s WhatsApp (707.4 million installs) and Messenger (636.2 million). Downloads are ahead of both the core Facebook app (587 million) and Instagram (376.2 million).
Insight:
TikTok’s meteoric growth trajectory does not appear to be cooling despite sharper U.S. scrutiny into its ties to China and the presence of some extremist content on the platform. The spike in user growth since February has accompanied surging in-app spending, an indication that the service’s bids at courting more advertisers and building out e-commerce capabilities are paying off.
Though TikTok’s U.S. user base is smaller than that of both China and India, the market commanding the No. 2 spot for revenue generated shows how strongly the app resonates with Western consumers, and particularly valuable audiences like young teens and Gen Z. The proliferation of brand campaigns on the platform this year, including from Chipotle, American Eagle and the NFL, follows TikTok’s opening up to outside parties and content creators.
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