Seven Reasons To Ditch Snapchat In Favor Of Stories From Instagram: It might sound little nuts, but after Instagram took a turn at Snapchat adding Stories, it has only been a little over a year. I say “crazy” because stories have become such an integral part of the entire Instagram experience that the website can no longer be imagined without them.
In fact, nearly 30 percent of Instagram users are also frequent users of Stories, and as we speak, that percentage is rising. And yet, Snapchat still exists and continues to expand (albeit slowly). Kylie Jenner and Ariana Grande are both devoted fans of the Snap generation. And we are advised as marketers that we have to be where our customer is and track them wherever they go.
That doesn’t make much sense sometimes. I will crack this marketing credo in this article and bring Instagram stories v Snapchat to the test, giving you seven reasons why your small business should dump the latter in favor of the former.
Reason #1: Instagram Has a Bigger Audience
Instagram made a huge splash last month, reporting that the site had now crossed 800 million active users. This means that in the previous six months, Instagram has risen by 100 million users. Yeah, you heard that right: 100 million, just over six months from now.
In the meantime, Snapchat already has its first 166 million users, a significant achievement for the app, whose development has allegedly slipped year-over-year.
In other words, this means that just 30 percent of Instagram, aka the consumers of Stories, are already 1.5 times more individuals than the entire population of Snapchat. Instagram is a larger country, and it seems like Snapchat is getting harder and harder to find on the map with the borders continually expanding.
Reason #2: Instagram Has a Wider Audience
Snapchat is often defined, and rightly so, as a forum of choice among adolescents. Just 14 percent of Snap’s users are over 35 years old, according to Statista, which means that millennials and post-millennials make up the core demographic on the app. If this is your target group, then it might be the best place to be for Snapchat.
It also happens, though, that 54% of Snapchat peeps are also active Instagram users, which means that on Instagram, you can again quickly hit half of the audience you are trying to reach on Snapchat. Besides, the demographic markup of Instagram is broader and more or less evenly divided; 54% of users are over 35 years of age, while the majority, 46%, are between 18 and 34 years of age.
Now, here’s why taking note of this is essential
According to Snap itself, focusing all their forces on such a small, unique demographic does more harm than good in their first S-1 form released just before they went public, as such an audience is perceived to be less brand loyal and more likely to turn to other platforms:
The bulk of our users are between the ages of 18-34. This group could be less brand loyal and more likely than other groups to follow trends. These variables can lead users to move to another product, which would have a negative impact on our retention, development, and engagement of users.
Snap goes even further to acknowledge that it still “may not be able to penetrate other demographics meaningfully.” Snapchat, in other words, is caught in a rut, and he doesn’t know how to move again. This takes us to Explanation Number 3.
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As we all know, being discoverable and searchable is a critical component of success in the digital world. While the Discover page of Snapchat is a great place for users to find who’s hot on the platform, there is not much room for organic discovery via the app itself. In reality, if you are not already a star, it’s pretty flipping hard to get people to notice you on Snapchat. Unlike Instagram, there are no hashtags, no geolocation, no suggestions inside the app, so practically, promoting your channel on external sites is the only way to expand on Snapchat. Much like Instagram. Which is a little counterintuitive.
On Snapchat, searchability is also a central pain point. You are expected to know their exact handle name and manually type it to check for someone there. On Instagram, on the other hand, it’s easy to find someone either by name or handle, and the only thing you need to do is start typing a keyword and see profiles suggested by Instagram right away.
Reason #5: Instagram Has Been Easier to Drive Traffic From
There is a straightforward reason for many advertisers and small companies to be social – to raise awareness about their actual www brand to drive real sales. You need to push social media traffic; otherwise, what’s the point? Until last July, Instagram beat Snapchat in this way.
The only thing you could do on Snapchat was writing your link ON the image; then, the user would have to remember the link, open a new browser tab, and type the link in manually. It’s a multiple-click catastrophe; there’s so much space for mistakes, so much time wasted, and so much chance lost, as no one in their right mind will go through this long, complicated, obsolete phase.
All you have to do on Instagram is add a URL to your post, and all your followers have to do is swipe it up. And people ARE swiping – Stories get 15-25 percent swipe-through rates for brands and publishers, according to MarketingLand.
About why? Because it makes it simple. This summer, though, Snap launched Paperclip, which allows businesses to connect to external websites, but we can’t say how popular this feature has been set.
Reason #6: Snapchat Has Less Marketing Opportunity Than Instagram
Recently, 5,700 advertisers were surveyed by the Social Media Examiner, and they found two interesting things:
It turned out, first of all, that advertisers aren’t on Snapchat. As compared to 54 percent of those on Instagram, only 7 percent are on the site.
But secondly, even those advertisers on Snapchat were not very excited about their marketing opportunities: just 1 percent use Snap Ads daily, compared to 24 percent. And that doesn’t sound too encouraging since we know almost 70% of Snapchat users are currently skipping ads anyway. Advertisers, in other words, have zero interest in Snapchat.
About why?
Let’s come back to Point 4: Discoverability. Content on Snapchat is difficult to find, which may make ads ineffective. To find out what you don’t follow, Instagram is BUILT, and Snapchat isn’t. So why make an effort to produce material that individuals can’t find?
The fact that Snapchat only has ephemeral material also makes a long-term ad challenging to run. So why put effort into something as soon as you see it that will disappear?
Another explanation may be the fact that something on Snapchat is difficult to calculate. Unlike Instagram, where you can easily see your count rise or decrease, you can’t see how many followers you have (or use third-party apps that would monitor that for you). Why, then, hit the audience that you can’t see?
Finally, on the Snapchat portion, a major faux pas provides no data of its own. Unlike Google or Facebook (which owns Instagram), which gathers information about its users, Snapchat relies entirely on third parties in the age of Big Data to deliver ad targeting. Data is your only currency in the tech world, and if you don’t have any, well.. all of us know what that means.
Reason #7: Instagram Gives You 2 for 1
One definitive explanation for leaving Snapchat in favor of Instagram, last but not least, is that it cuts the workload by half.
Let’s be frank; stories were copied from Snapchat shamelessly, we all know that. And still, Instagram somehow managed to beat Snapchat in a game of its own. Because the fact is that Instagram not only stole the concept of Snapchat, it also created the heck out of it. Something was constructed on top. And as a result, there are more users in Insta Stories, broader demographics, better features, more space for us marketers to enjoy, and they’re just as enjoyable for users.
Instagram gives you both the feeds and the posts, and if you can get it all in one spot, doesn’t it just make your life that much easier?
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