As a marketer, a detailed understanding of the current demographic landscape on key social media platforms is a crucial part of your role as it helps to inform your social media campaigns and longer-term strategies.
Ultimately, you need to know the answers to the following questions. What does your ideal demographic look like? What platforms do they use? And what types of content are likely to resonate with them?
The answers to these questions will enable you to focus your time and budget on the social environments that your target audience uses and engage with regularly. Finding the answers to these questions isn’t always easy as the demographic landscape across all social media platforms is constantly evolving month-on-month, year-on-year.
This problem is why we thought it would be valuable and insightful for our clients, interested website readers and potential future partners to look at the current state of play across Tik-Tok, Facebook and Instagram. Arguably the most used and popular platforms for most demographics – but what do we know, eh? Let’s find out.
TikTok
The short video-based app has grown exponentially since its international launch in 2017 – especially during the global pandemic. The platform’s rapid usage growth is clear, with 1 billion active individuals using the app every month, according to Statista’s TikTok MAU 2021 report.[1]
The video app also proves to be particularly popular with the younger demographic. 25% of the platform users are reportedly between the ages of 10 and 19 (the largest age group)[2], whereas the gender split for US audiences is made up of 39% males and 69% females.[3]
Users are typically spending just under an hour and a half on average hooked on watching short, entertaining video clips.[4]
What does it mean for marketers?
The user base and user activity are every marketer’s dreams as they indicate that the app is used by an ever-growing, captive audience willing to engage with streams of short-form content for long periods.
If you are targeting an older male demographic for your next campaign, then TikTok might not be the place for you. However, if you want to target video-specific campaigns at a younger female demographic soon, this platform will be very relevant to you.
Remember, if you plan and create videos for TikTok, your content and ads still need to intrigue and capture your target audience’s attention. You can’t just post your videos to a large social audience without remembering who your ideal audience or buyer persona is.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook remains the most popular and widely-used platform for consumers and marketers, with 2.93 billion monthly active users[5], despite the emergence of new, potential competition for users’ attention and engagement.
According to Statista, 57% of the total Facebook users in Q1 2022 were male, and the largest age demographic that uses the platform are reportedly 25 – 34.[6]
The amount of time spent on the Meta platform continues to decrease, with users only averaging 33 minutes per day, surprising as the social media giant continues to grow in popularity and usage.[7]
What does it mean for marketers?
With a consistently growing user base, Facebook could be your platform – especially if you are looking for large scale reach in your next campaign. Alternatively, if you want to target a niche audience, such as 25 – 34 males, then Facebook could also be the place for you.
However, as users spend less time on the platform you need to ensure you are creating scroll-stopping content for every campaign. You need to maximise the engagement with your target audience in the short window you have.
The photo and video sharing service remains a big hitter in the 2022 social media landscape. The platform offers users endless creative freedom as they can produce film-like reels, design videos and create short or long-form story content.
Based on this USP alone, It is unsurprising that the number of monthly active users has grown by 300% in the past five years (2016 – 2021), with over two million people now using the Instagram platform.[8] Instagram also remains a popular social network with Gen Z and Millennial users – especially the 25-34 and 18-24 age groups. According to Statista the gender distribution betweb males and females is fairly even between female (49.1%) and male (51.8%).[9]
The average time spent on Instagram is just under half an hour[10] which might not seem long to target and engage your ideal audience but believe us, it is more than enough. We are digital specialists, after all.
What does it mean for marketers?
The creative flexibility of Instagram and the fact it has the second largest user base out of all the social media platforms allows marketers to produce versatile content for a sizable, engaged audience.
If you are targeting Gen Z or Millennial audiences with your next campaign, then Instagram should be your primary platform of choice. Whereas if you are running gender-specific campaigns in the future, you should have no trouble targeting either the male or female demographics on Instagram.
Demographic research is a key part of your success
Demographic research should be a regular task for all marketers, whether you are running a campaign or not. You must always have a clear picture of your ideal buyer persona and target audience for each platform to ensure you and your team are always maximising your ROI, marketing spends and, most importantly your time.
If you use one of the above platforms or all three for your campaigns, it is worth looking into your demographic reports to see if your data matches or contrasts with the research above. Hopefully, it matches your information, but if it doesn’t, you have the research to better understand the current audience landscape across Tik-Tok, Instagram and Facebook.
At Digital Playmakers, we can help with demographic and campaign research or apply our creative genius to show you what works for your audiences on the key social media platforms.
And remember, demographic research is crucial to creating a successful campaign!
Sources and References
1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1267892/tiktok-global-mau/
2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age/
3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095201/tiktok-users-gender-usa/
5] https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
6] https://www.statista.com/statistics/376128/facebook-global-user-age-distribution/
7] https://www.statista.com/statistics/324267/us-adults-daily-facebook-minutes/
8] https://www.axios.com/2021/12/15/instagram-2-billion-users
9] https://www.statista.com/statistics/802776/distribution-of-users-on-instagram-worldwide-gender/
10] https://www.statista.com/statistics/324267/us-adults-daily-facebook-minutes/
