YouTube is probably the first platform that comes to mind as a marketer when thinking about your video strategies, but when it comes to video-focused social media, TikTok undeniably has a strong position – in fact, it overtook YouTube in usage among brands and retailers this year.
This is according to Digiday+ Research’s surveys of brand and retail professionals, which have asked about social media platforms every summer since 2022.
When it comes to the social media platforms that focus specifically on video content — YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat in Digiday’s survey — TikTok ranks highest in usage by brands and retailers since this summer. More than two-thirds of brand and retail professionals (67%) said their companies posted content on the platform in the past month, followed by YouTube at 60% and Snapchat, which came in a distant third, where only 13% of brands and retailers said they posted content there.
This ranking marks a big change for YouTube from last year (more on the exact numbers later). In the summer of 2023, YouTube ranked top among the three video-focused social media platforms in the eyes of brands and retailers. But a significant decline in usage – while TikTok usage increased at the same time – pushed YouTube into second place this year.
Digiday’s survey found that TikTok usage by brands and retailers has increased in recent years – and with it their advertising spend on the platform.
In the summer of 2022, 42% of brand and retail professionals said their companies published content on TikTok. In the summer of 2023, that percentage rose significantly to 63% before reaching 67% this summer, making TikTok the top platform for brands and retailers in terms of usage.
At the same time, advertising spend by brands and retailers on the platform has also steadily increased. In the summer of 2022, less than a quarter of brand and retail professionals (24%) said their companies bought advertising on the platform. In the summer of 2023, more than a third (35%) bought TikTok ads. This summer, 40% of brands and retailers said they bought ads on the platform.
It’s worth noting, however, that increases in brands’ usage and ad spend on TikTok from 2022 to 2023 were significant, while increases from 2023 to 2024 were much smaller. It’s likely that this potential plateau is due to the “divest or ban” law that went into effect in April of this year. At this point, users are still remaining loyal to the platform, so brands and retailers seem to be doing so too. And while marketers aren’t panicking about the platform’s potential ban just yet, they’re also not exactly ready to increase the resources and money they’re investing in it.
While TikTok’s stats continue to rise, Digiday’s survey found that YouTube usage among brands and retailers has dropped significantly over the past year, causing the platform to fall behind TikTok in our ranking of video-focused social platforms. About two-thirds of brand and retail professionals (67%) said this year that their companies posted content on YouTube in the past month, compared to about three-quarters (74%) last year. In 2022, 60% of brands and retailers used the platform.
Interestingly, ad spend on YouTube among brands and retailers has increased this year compared to last year. However, they still fall short of their ad spend on the platform in 2022.
Forty percent of brand and retail professionals told Digiday this year that their companies bought ads on YouTube, up from 35 percent last summer. However, in summer 2022, 55 percent of brands and retailers bought ads on the platform.
Compared to its video-focused social counterparts, Snapchat has historically struggled to gain traction with brands and retailers. Digiday’s survey found that this summer, just 13 percent of brand and retail professionals said their companies had posted content on the platform in the past month, down slightly from the 19 percent who said the same last year.
That’s a little disheartening for the platform considering it launched a high-profile brand marketing campaign earlier this year to establish itself as a unique player in the social media space. It’s especially disheartening considering that ad spend on the platform remains low among brands and retailers. As for usage among brands, 13% of brand and retail professionals said this year that their companies have purchased advertising on Snapchat. That’s only a slight increase from the 12% who purchased advertising on the platform last year and the year before.
https://digiday.com/?p=552811
