Instagram or Snapchat? What is Better for Your Business?

What are the best ways of expanding the digital presence of your brand? The question is far too familiar for marketers and business owners who are always seeking ways of attracting new customers and retaining the existing ones. In 2019, the best way to stay connected with your audience is through social media.

We are living in the era of mobile shopping with Instagram and Snapchat being the most popular image and video sharing applications. The first one is so trendy that many want to make an app like Instagram. However, you don’t need to take on such a huge challenge as you can already use either Instagram or Snapchat. However, the question is how to choose the right social media that will align with your purposes. Let’s find out.

Defining Your Audience

Before jumping into ads creation, you first need to answer a few questions:

• Who is your target audience and what are the demographics?
• What is your target audience preferring: Instagram or Snapchat?
• If the audience spends time on Instagram, decide what marketing content is best for you. You need to consider photos, videos, and stories.
• Do you want your profile to be public and accessible to anyone or do you want to interact with a closed community of the most loyal customers?

A Few Arguments for Using Instagram

The user base of Instagram is huge. Currently, the number of monthly Instagram users is a billion and 60% of them log in daily. The number of brand accounts surpassed 25 million and 80% of all users are following at least one of them. The platform creates a unique opportunity for marketers to reach a huge audience and multiply the customer base.

Instagram offers the following advantages for business:

• Instagram is more mature as compared to Snapchat and the user base is broader
• If you have a profile on Instagram, you can easily make it a business profile
• You can access your marketing statistics
• Instagram ads can be targeted with regards to your desired audience and budget
• The latest addition to the Instagram business toolset is shoppable Such posts include product price, description, and the “shop now” option that redirects the user to your online store
• It offers infinite possibilities for creativity

When using Instagram, you should also consider the following disadvantages for business:

• Instagram has strict ToS, and it is against the rules for some companies to market their brands on the platform
• The algorithms of Instagram are constantly changing. It is quite challenging staying up-to-date regarding all of them
• The average age of Instagram users is 35. If your product is targeted at older people, the platform might not be the best choice for marketing activities

Main Reasons for Choosing Snapchat

Snapchat is like no other platform. The number of active users accounts for 300 million and 50% of them follow at least one or more brands. On average, a user watches 60% of ads with the sound on.

Here are the main benefits Snapchat offers for business:

• You don’t feel the stress of creating great content and combining it into a beautiful feed. There is no feed!
• If your audience is generation Z, go for Snapchat. The vast majority of its users are college students, teens, and adults under the age of 25
• You can not only showcase the products but also show the life inside your company
• Great for limited and special offers. They also help to increase the Snapchat audience

Weaknesses of Snapchat are as follows:

• Because of its ephemeral nature, you need to create new content consistently
• The user base is smaller as compared to the one of Instagram
• Snapchat is mostly used by young people, so if they are not your target audience, your efforts will be fruitless

Nowadays, the opportunities for marketing are immense. Various social media platforms allow expanding digital presence and reaching a wider audience.

Choose either Instagram or Snapchat based on your audience, business model, resources, budget, and product. You can test each of them and figure out what marketing channel is worth investing in.