For many brands, Instagram marketing is an essential ingredient of their promotional strategy. The network’s popularity continues to grow year after year. According to the latest statistics, Instagram has more than 800 million active users per month, and many experts believe this could reach 1 billion in 2018. To give you an idea, this figure is more than double the active users twitter has and three times more than WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Therefore, if in your social media marketing strategy, there are no excuses to not include Instagram in your marketing plans. The best marketing plans are data driven. Your decisions deserve the best data, so let’s look at some of the most striking data on Instagram marketing and implications for agencies and advertisers.
Today, hashtags are an essential part of how we understand social networks. They not only help users organize and categorize the content but they are the spark that drives many marketing campaigns on social networks.
Instagram, hashtags are very important to organize and promote content; In fact, the publications containing at least one hashtag have 12.6% more engagement. Although it is possible to include up to 30 hashtags per post, studies suggest that the optimum number is 11.
And among the hashtag frenzy, 7 of 10 are branded, that is, have been released by a company and include the name the company or products or a slogan.
Instagram adoption is rising serving as the sticky web between users and companies. So much so, that the number of US companies that use Instagram has doubled in two years, from 32.3% in 2015 to 70.7% in 2017.
This growth is closely related to the appearance of company Instagram pages and new options for its advertising platform.Brands are enabled to put their contact information in a very visible place, create ads with different formats and objectives and understand what is happening at all times thanks to analytical tools. In short, for brands it’s easier than ever to integrate Instagram marketing into their social marketing strategy.
Instagram is a strategic partner when it comes to directing users into your funnel, and data proves this:
According to Statista, Instagram ads for mobile represent a total of 6.84 billion dollars in 2018, nearly 5 billion more than two years ago million.
In 2017, Instagram launched several new advertising features such as ads and Instagram Instagram Stories Shopping, which has undoubtedly contributed to this growth.
While ads with pictures remain the most common in Instagram, video has gained in popularity and managed to get one of every four ads on the network.
Video ads can last up to 60 seconds, but according to data from Wistia, the engagement is rapidly reduced as the video is lengthened. If you can seduce the audience during the first 30 seconds,you have agood chance that your ad succeed.
There’s a lot of information about the best time to publish on various channels, and often the data do not match or even contradict each other. Social Sprout has compiled existing studies and reached the following conclusions:
Influencers have much to say about Instagram marketing, and this is by far their favorite social network. So much so, that 78% declares that they prefer collaborating with brands on Instagram. The second place is occupied by blogs with 16% and the third YouTube with 4%.
If you want to collaborate with influencers, it is very clear: Instagram is where you need to be.
Although self aggrandizing may not seem like the best idea initially, data shows that Instagram users have love seeing products.
According to a study, 65% of publications top brands include products, beating lifestyle images (43%) and influencers and celebrities images (29%).
If your products are aimed at young people between 18 and 29: Instagram is your network. But if this is not the case don’t be too quick to dismiss, because Instagram’s user base is spreading to users of all ages.
Finally, good news for UK brands: unlike other more local networks, Instagram is truly international. In fact, 80% of network users living outside their country of origin, United States.
Don’t get caught believing the only place where things are happening is the country of cowboys and Silicon Valley. This is a social network that has triumphed internationally and has many followers globally.