Facebook vs Snapchat: How do Their Advertisers Compare?
Snapchat is increasingly popular among Gen Z users due to its innovative, interactive ad formats and growing daily active users, attracting new advertisers and driving a 24% year-over-year increase in ad spend, while Facebook, despite its overall revenue growth, struggles to engage younger audiences and sees many Snapchat advertisers as new entrants rather than overlapping with its own user base.
Facebook is the leading social media platform by many counts, but when it comes to popularity among Gen Z users, Snapchat is overtaking the giant.
Gen Z is getting older and about to become a huge buying power. How are advertisers using the two platforms? And which brands spending big on Snapchat represent opportunities for other publishers?
Snapchat Appeals to Younger Consumers
Facebook performed exceptionally this past year and its revenue keeps climbing, but even the strongest of businesses can’t capture every consumer.
Facebook has had issues appealing to teenagers for years, and now Instagram is also struggling with their aging user base.
A recent study from financial firm Piper Sandler found that Snapchat and TikTok are now the two top platforms for teens and those in their early 20’s.
Snapchat’s number of daily active users keeps growing, which is attributed to their fun features like Lens Studio 2.0, Camera Kit, Snap Minis, and Bitmoji for Games. Snap’s investment in original content is also a driver of growing ARPU (average revenue per user).
While Snap builds out innovative features for consumers, they’re also creating new spaces for advertisers. Snap ads are full-screen, interactive, and offer a wide variety of CTAs. It’s a much more visual experience for consumers, and brands are limited to one line of text.
Q1 2021 was an exceptionally strong quarter for Snap. The company outdid forecasts and generated positive free cash flow for the first time as a public company. Which type of advertisers are they attracting?
MediaRadar Insights
Before jumping into the Snapchat data, some context: Facebook is a powerful tool for brands large and small, but a significant portion of their revenue comes from really niche brands using their platform for its hyper-targeting features.
When looking at April Snap data, ad spend on Snapchat increased 24% year-over-year. Many of those advertisers weren’t on Facebook.
Typically, the overlap between the two platforms is fairly low—only 22%.
Facebook attracts a very wide selection of advertisers (21% of their advertisers were categorized as ‘Other’ because they didn’t make up more than 1% of a single category).
But Snap’s advertisers tend to fall into more distinguishable categories (only 6% are ‘Other’).
Entertainment makes up the biggest category of Snap’s advertising revenue. Streaming companies buy ads on both social platforms. Streaming services made up 7% of all spend on Facebook last year.
In April, streaming spend accounted for 6% of all ad spend on Snap. Advertising from HBOMax, Paramount+, BET+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime totaled over $2.8 million.
Even though streaming accounted for significant advertising spend, Action/Thriller films spent even more on Snapchat.
The top spending Action/Thriller films include:
- Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse
- Mortal Kombat
- Fast & Furious 9
Together, they spent over $5 million.
Note: Fast & Furious 9 is one of the newest films to not feature both a theatrical and streaming release. Instead, Universal pushed out its release date to coincide with lifted pandemic restrictions.
Other top spending categories on Snapchat are:
- Fashion
- Pharmaceutical
- Retail
Each of these categories make up roughly 10% of spend on Snapchat in the month of April.
For publishers looking for opportunities, top spending brands on Snapchat worth paying attention to are:
- Zyrtec Allergy
- Nike
- Levi’s
- Columbia
- Lids
- ShopDisney
These brands are contributing to Snap’s increasing revenue.
Interested in more details on Facebook advertisers? MediaRadar recently released a Facebook Advertising Trend Report. To learn about what’s driving their success, check it out.
For more updates like this, stay tuned. Subscribe to the blog for more updates on coronavirus and its mark on the economy.
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