The 20th century gave people access to more information through television and radio, but it is the 21st century that has been truly revolutionary by giving us the internet. This completely changed how the first world operates in every way possible, and opened doors to unlimited marketing potential.
Social Media has been an epidemic throughout the last decade and is showing no signs of stopping! Overtime brands and empires all over the planet have discovered that social networking is a massively significant breakthrough for marketing, almost completely wiping out the likes of “old school” newspaper and leaflet advertisements.
According to maximisesocialbusiness.com, “People react better to images and videos than texts and slogans,” and this is proved through the hugely accessible paid advertisements now featured amongst two of the top social media platforms; Instagram and Pinterest.
Instagram is the hugely popular, photo sharing internet based application that accumulates over 400 million daily active users and on average around 4.2 billion daily likes. A 2015 study showed users spend an average of 3.2 minutes at a time on Instagram. That's 45% longer than Facebook users!
As of February 2016, Instagram was found to have the highest audience engagement compared to all other social networking platforms, meaning it is arguably the best place to market your product or service in order to gain potential customer's attention. Ultimately, with the aim of getting them to visit your website.
The beauty of Instagram ads is that they are considered to be very non-intrusive, and are therefore less likely to annoy or aggravate your target audience. The time efficient and cost effective advertisements originally were made available in photograph or video form. These options are still present, however Instagram have recently innovatively progressed by adding story advertisements to their relatively new story feature. These ads are live for 24hrs and can be clicked on or clicked off at any point within that time, and by anyone.
Instagram is ideal for reaching a younger audience with 55% of internet users between the ages of 18-29. As a whole, I would say Instagram only has one downfall, that's that only 11% of users are between the ages of 50 and 64. As a result of this, it is a lot harder to reach an older audience, so it most likely will not appeal to brands suited to this age group for marketing purposes.
Pinterest is also another hugely popular photo sharing social platform with a fantastic paid advertisement feature; promoted pins. It's very simple yet very effective. All you do is pay a fee in exchange for your pins being seen by more people.
Pinterest has 150 million active monthly users, and 70 million of them are from the US. However, in 2014, international users grew by 135%, showing Pinterest to be a very successful and actively evolving company.
In regards to marketing your product or service, if you target a younger audience, Pinterest is definitely the place for you as the majority of active pinners are below the age of 40!
Pinterest is proven to be a brilliantly effective platform to market products in particular, as two-thirds of pins represent brands. This could be seen as strong competition, or it could also be seen as proof that it works! According to omnicoreagency.com, 93% of pinners say they use Pinterest to plan for purchases, and 87% of those people have gone on to actually make the purchase! That is a lot of keen shoppers using Pinterest!
The Verdict
Both Instagram and Pinterest paid ads would offer fantastic benefits to many businesses, for many reasons, and in many ways. Some the same reasons, and some very different.
However, I think Pinterest is a slightly better platform for paid advertisements, for the simple fact that 87% of pinners have made purchases! This is either through inspiration, or from a paid AD linking to a website.
For further help and support with any aspect of your business' marketing please comment below or call us on 01332 343281 for an informal chat.
