From the marketing executives at the boardroom table to the kids at the dining room table, it seems that almost everyone has an opinion on what social media site is hot and what is irrelevant. It’s easy to start to see a few repeated opinions as the truth and let that perception drive your ad strategy and media buys - especially if you are looking to elevate your brand as a relevant, hot commodity. But opinions aren’t the same thing as the truth – especially when you start to dig deeper into the data of user engagement.

What You May Have Heard: “No one cares about Facebook anymore! It’s not worth the money!”

The Truth: Facebook still boasts 2.91 billion monthly active users – and 79% of those monthly users are active daily. In 2021, Facebook generated nearly 115 billion U.S. dollars in advertising revenue. Essentially, it is the standard for consumer-focused marketing funnels- and for good reason.

Despite the new limits for re-targeting due to Apple iOS 14.5 policies, defining a customer audience is still more straight-forward than other platforms, and with data pooled from Messenger, Instagram, and other sites where people utilize their Facebook account to log-in, there is still a wealth of information to employ. Facebook still offers highly robust and accurate targeting for advertisers – and offers plenty of users to target.

Users do skew older and male, as the majority of users are males between 25 and 34 years old. Facebook is also the favorite social platform of the 35-44 demographic. But considering its 2.91 billion users and targeting options, you can still effectively reach a significant number of users within your business targets, even if they fall outside of the age of the average Facebook user. Additionally, considering the expansive placement options for Facebook campaigns – such as feeds, stories, sidebars and within Messenger – there is potential for heightened visibility through increased frequency that may not exist on platforms that offer fewer opportunities to serve ads.

Still, don’t fall into the trap that popularity means an effective campaign, either. While Facebook is far from a dead platform, it is still not the right opportunity for all campaigns. B2B marketers may not find Facebook as effective for their goals, considering the reliability of self-reported job titles and companies. Outdated or humorous jobs titles such as “CEO of Hard-Knocks” could mean you are wasting valuable dollars on irrelevant targeting. Additionally, emails used to log-into Facebook are often personal, not business-related – so using a list of professional emails may yield minimum results.

Small business owners, however, may still see strong campaign results (as compared to larger B2B efforts) since Facebook offers a great way to tap into a surrounding community with localized targeting. For a trucking company that was a client of iCrossing, Facebook allowed us to serve job advertisements in very niche geographical regions. Since advertisements on Google require people to be actively searching for keywords, Facebook was a great way to advertise the advantages of switching trucking employers in areas that needed new hires and expanded our reach beyond people who were actively looking for a new job.

What You May Have Heard: “Instagram clicks are so expensive, we can’t fit it into our budget!”

The Truth: The first part is true – compared to other social platforms, Instagram clicks have a high average cost-per-click (CPC) of $3.56. By contrast, Facebook's CPC average is $0.97 and Twitter averages $.0.38. (LinkedIn has the highest CPC of all – with an average of $5.26.)

Whether or not these more expensive clicks can fit into your budget depends on what is your ultimate advertising goal. Is it clicks? Doubtful. Your ultimate goal is to earn new business. And if an expensive click can earn you a new, paying customer, then truthfully you may not be able to afford to not run ads on Instagram. Consider this statistic: The average ROAS for Instagram is 8.83 – 10% higher than the ROAS for Amazon.

More than one billion users log into Instagram monthly and 500 million people use Instagram Stories daily. Over 60% of Instagram users are 18-34 years old, skewing the platform slightly younger than Facebook. The platform is relatively evenly split between male and female.

Instagram ads, like Facebook, are set up in the Meta Ads platform, which gives you the same robust targeting options as Facebook. mentioned above when creating Instagram ads. Like Facebook, there are also different placement options, as ads can show seamlessly in Stories, Videos, IGTV, and Shopping.

Another similarity with Facebook? Instagram ads are not so great for B2B marketing. And don’t expect to reach ranchers or mountain cabin dwellers on Instagram; the reach for U.S. rural areas is only 25%. Plus, unlike Facebook where text can be prominent and ads configure easily to different placement formats, to find success on Instagram your business absolutely needs high-quality and compelling visuals. So – if your campaign is B2B, rural-focused, or doesn’t feature a visually-driven story, Instagram may not be worth the cost.

What You May Have Heard: “Everyone is talking about TikTok these days, we need ads there!”

The Truth: Yes, TikTok is popular with younger people – 66% of its users are under the age of 30. In fact, less than 25% of TikTok users are over the age of 35. And while younger people often drive trends, they also spend the least amount of money. Serving ads is irrelevant if you aren’t going to obtain a good ROAS because the people who see your ads aren’t buying.

And if you believe the sheer user volume of TikTok (over 2 billion) can still be effectively utilized for reaching all audiences despite a heavy younger demographic, be forewarned you must commit to at least $50 per day and $20 per ad group to run ads on TikTok, a higher commitment than other platforms with no guaranteed returns. Above all, the youth aspect of TikTok is also its weakness. Unlike more mature social ad platforms, there are no established tight industry benchmarks for TikTok ads and performance can vary widely. Thus, setting appropriate KPIs for your investment could prove difficult without long-term performance to help contextualize goals.

Finally, TikTok is like Instagram in that it is a visual medium. Eye-catching, informative content is key. TikTok is all about swiping – including swiping away unengaging ads. So unless you have a visually-driven ad campaign that heavily targets younger demographics, TikTok’s popularity may not be the right fit for your ad funnel

What You May Have Heard: “I am on LinkedIn a lot, so other people must be too! Ads will get our shops lots of visibility!”

The Truth: Yes, you may be on LinkedIn frequently – for work purposes. And so are many others. But remember that visibility does not always equal sales. Unlike organic digital marketing, paid marketing should emphasize gaining new customers, as each new user costs you on (typically) a per-click basis. And LinkedIn does have the highest average CPCs in paid social media.

Think about intent here: Remember how other platforms are mostly recreation and not as good for business? LinkedIn is the standout on social media in that people are on LinkedIn almost exclusively for business. It is a top paid option for B2B for its healthy business targeting options: Employer, job title, company size, company growth rate, industry, annual revenue, company employees, education level, job experience, job seniority, and years of professional experience. And unlike Facebook job titles, LinkedIn is much more accurate at reaching people in the intended industry. It’s why for an iCrossing client who specialized in waste management we created ads that targeted other businesses that needed industrial waste management services through LinkedIn – and achieved a $2.56 annual CPC, 70% lower than the average LinkedIn CPC of $5.26. With the right targeting and with a focus on B2B, LinkedIn can be very effective.

In theory, you can still run ads that are not B2B. LinkedIn has a good split between gender usage 57% male and 59.1% age 25-34, and 171 million of its members are in the U.S. 72% of users are not in the United States, which also opens opportunities for international campaigns. Less career-heavy targeting is also available, with age, member interests, traits, and groups among the options. Signals such as years of experience, company, and location can also be used to infer lifestyles for more advanced B2C marketers who want to test the LinkedIn waters. Still, tread lightly as even items like interests are probably related to work-interests and not general interests. High CPC means a low ROAS if the desired audience is not properly targeted.

It’s easy to get swept up in the hype of what’s hot and what’s not when it comes to social media, but hype should not be what guides choices for digital campaigns. Hype does not translate to a return on ad spend. Considering marketers have self-reported that 25% of ad spend is wasted on ineffective channels, it is pertinent to fully weigh the true advantage and actual performance of each social media platform when mapping out your ad campaign to avoid wasting valuable investment dollars.

Contact us to speak with one of our Media experts about how to optimize your digital strategy through a data-driven understanding of the relationship between customers, behaviors, and platform performance.