The Latest: Twitter Falls Behind in Terms of Mobile Engagement

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

Last week the most attention-grabbing headlines had to do with mobile. A recent study predicted that native advertising will surge through 2020 on mobile devices, Statista released updated mobile engagement numbers for the major social media platforms, and Instagram backed off their recently announced algorithm update after receiving tons of user backlash.

Mobile Native Advertising To Drive $53B In Ad Spend

Media Post | April 6, 2016

An IHS study predicted that native advertising will account for 63.2% of all mobile display advertising by 2020, reaching $53.4 billion. What is the driving force behind this growth? Their success. Due to the fact that native ads are meant to camouflage with the content and form of their surroundings, consumers are 20-60% more likely to interact with native ads than with standard banner ads.

Our Take

It’s no secret that marketers are going to shift their strategies to what works. So, if native ads continue to perform significantly higher than banner ads, this projection is well within reach. Additionally, Facebook, Google, and the other emerging digital ad giants are built heavily on a foundation of native advertising, so as they continue to grow so should native advertising as a whole.

The only thing that may slow native down is government interjection.

Twitter Falls Behind in Terms of Mobile Engagement

Statista | April 7, 2016

The latest mobile engagement numbers are in for the major social media platform. The chart below, compiled and created by Statista, shows how much time each platform’s regular users are spending with them per day.

Our Take

When it comes to these social media platforms, ad dollars are flowing towards the platforms that have the highest user engagement numbers.

For Twitter, this marks the seventh quarter in a row where their engagement numbers have declined. Conversely, the rise of Snapchat and Pinterest will present some very interesting opportunities for marketers in the coming months and years as their users become ever more engaged.

Finally, we do have to make note of how dominate Facebook is in terms of keeping their users engaged. With the wide release of Instant Articles coming this week, the 30 minutes a day users spend on Facebook’s app will only go up.

Instagram Asks Everyone to Calm Down After Algorithm Uproar

Fortune | March 29, 2016

A couple of weeks ago Instagram announced that they were going to change the order in which posts appear on users’ news feeds. Since its inception, Instagram’s only news feed option was to sort posts in reverse chronological order. With this new algorithm, Instagram was going to show posts in an order based on their perception of which posts an individual will like the most. This was met with a lot of pushback, and the uproar within the Instagram community has caused Instagram to release an official statement reassuring their users that nothing is changing, yet.

Our Take

While Instagram has pleased their users for now, it might not be as good for their business overall. Instagram cited that the main reason that this algorithm was going to be put in place was because users are missing 70% of the posts in their news feeds. From a business standpoint, this means that users are most likely missing ads, so Instagram is losing out on advertising revenue. Going forward, it will be interesting to see how Instagram balances the health of their business and the relationship with their users.

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