Ad spend on Instagram Stories has grown almost 70 per cent YoY and accounted for 10 per cent of total Facebook ad spend in Q3 2019, according to a new report released by marketing platform Socialbakers. The report, titled Instagram and Facebook Trends, also revealed that ad spend for Facebook Stories only grew by a mere 0.3 per cent.

“The latest data shows that marketers continue to shift their resources to social media channels and formats that can better attract and engage users, but it’s a gradual evolution with a lot of moving parts,” said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO, Socialbakers. “The rise of social commerce, the changing roles of Instagram and Facebook, influencer marketing, and the exploding popularity of video are just a few of the developments that online marketers will need to analyse and incorporate into their strategies in the coming year.”

“Although brands still put the majority of their Facebook ad spend into Facebook feed (more than 60 per cent), over the long term the data shows that the volume of ad spend on Facebook has been decreasing,” said Ben-Itzhak. “With a 10x jump in ad spend on Instagram Stories from January 2018 to the end of Q3 2019, it’s clear that marketing budgets are increasingly shifting their investments towards Instagram. The reason is obvious - Instagram has a much superior engagement rate compared to Facebook today.

When it came to the engagement rates of different areas of interest on social media, eCommerce become more popular in 2019, ranking first on Facebook and second on Instagram in total interactions. Ranking first on Instagram was fashion, which jumped in engagement from 27.8 per cent in Q2 to 31.9 per cent in Q3 2019. Socialbakers says this jump in social commerce stems from the rising popularity of purchasing products straight from social media platforms.

“With its leading position for total interactions on both Facebook and Instagram, the eCommerce category is hot,” said Ben-Itzhak. “And one of the biggest trends within Ecommerce is the expansion of social commerce. More and more, users are able to make purchases directly from social media platforms after they discover a product, instead of having to visit a shopping site’s app or an online store. There’s plenty of reason to believe that the growing social commerce trend will only continue.”

The report mentioned that sporting goods, beauty, and eCommerce all had the lowest exit rates on Instagram Stories, while food, beverage, and finance brands had the highest. Use of the hashtag #ad by Instagram influencers grew by 60 per cent in Q3, and Walmart ranked as the number one brand associated with Instagram influencers.

Additionally, video engagement grew immensely, with the help of new features including Facebook Live, IGTV, and interactive add-ons for Instagram Stories. Socialbakers also found that paid ads are now seen on mobile devices 95.8 per cent of the time, compared to 4.2 per cent of the time on desktop computers.

“Of all the trends we uncovered this quarter, the rapid expansion of social commerce is one that we expect to have a tremendous impact in the year to come. Very soon it will be possible to run the entire marketing funnel from discovery to post-purchase customer care via social media,” Ben-Itzhak said. “We don't need a crystal ball to predict that social commerce will eventually overtake Ecommerce as we know it today. Moving into 2020, we will see more and more Ecommerce features being added to the social media platforms.”

“Of all the trends we uncovered this quarter, the rapid expansion of social commerce is one that we expect to have a tremendous impact in the year to come. Very soon it will be possible to run the entire marketing funnel from discovery to post-purchase customer care via social media,” Ben-Itzhak said. “We don't need a crystal ball to predict that social commerce will eventually overtake Ecommerce as we know it today. Moving into 2020, we will see more and more Ecommerce features being added to the social media platforms.”