The Latest: Down Goes Snapchat?

Here is our take on the most notable stories in Digital and Social Media Marketing from last week.

Last Week, eMarketer and Nielsen broke down which devices various age groups are using to access social media networks. Additionally, Facebook announced that Stories, their potential “Snapchat Killer”, is coming to the main Facebook app.

It’s Not Just Millennials That Tap into Mobile for Social

eMarketer | January 23, 2017

According to Nielsen, the percentage of time spent on social media via smartphones and tablets is up for every age demographic. While 18-34 year olds spend 88% of their social media time browsing on such devices, surprisingly, the older demographics have a strong affinity to do so as well. 35-49 year olds spend 82% of their social media browsing on a mobile device, while those 50 years old and older use their mobile devices 75% of the time.

Our Take

For marketers advertising on Facebook, Pinterest, or any other social media network that offers both desktop and mobile ad placements, more media dollars should shift towards testing mobile ads in 2017. This data proves that audiences of every age now spend more time on mobile than on desktops. Combine this data with other studies that have shown that mobile ad engagement is in fact higher than desktop, mobile could potentially be windfall for marketers with an older target market.

Facebook’s Bringing a Snapchat-Like Stories Function into their Main App

Social Media Today | January 25, 2017

After launching its “Snapchat Killer” on Instagram, Facebook is bringing their newest Stories platform to their main app. Mimicking Snapchat in almost every respect, Stories gives users the ability to post images and videos that disappear after 24 hours. These Stories are separate from the images and videos that are posted to one’s main profile, so this gives users another channel within Facebook’s Walled Garden to express themselves.

Our Take

For social media marketers this presents an interesting opportunity to reach your audience as Stories Ads are currently in beta testing (read everything we know about them here).

As of this writing, Snapchat does not make sense for many advertisers as their user base is significantly younger, ads are pretty expensive, and the users’ ability to skip ads instantly could mean that you are spending ad dollars on an impression that lasts less than a second. With Facebook’s insanely large user base and scale, the first two points do not apply. The only potential downside is that users are able to skip Stories Ads instantly as well. Of course, this could change between now and when Stories Ads are launched.

Before spending significant marketing dollars on these new ad types, it might be wise to wait and see how they perform for the earliest adopters.

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