[Case Study]- Facebook vs. Twitter Advertisement

Which one do you prefer: Facebook or Twitter advertisement?

It’s a tough question, because, these are completely different, right?

Social media sites are adding and improving paid as platforms, advertisers get to choose where they want to advertise online.

This leads to the now-popular debate on Facebook Ads vs. Twitter Ads.

This case study will help you to decide between Facebook vs.  Twitter, and which one you want to use?

First, let’s look at the stats:

Facebook Advertising Statistics:

• 6% of the online population and 22.9% of the total population uses Facebook
• 56M+ businesses have a Facebook Business Page
• 93% of social marketers regularly use Facebook ads
• Users spend 50 minutes/day on Facebook’s platforms
• Facebook users generate 4 million likes every minute
• Facebook is the preferred social network for 62% of marketers

Twitter Advertising Statistics:

• There are 330 million monthly active users
• There are 500 million Tweets sent each day. That’s 6,000 Tweets every second
• 8% of US companies with 100+ employees use Twitter for marketing
• $70 million was spent on ads in 2017
• 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet has been replied to
• 58% of top brands have over 100, 00 followers on Twitter

Facebook Advertising

Facebook advertising offers multiple benefits for you and your business. It is the most used marketing platform.

With 2.23 billion monthly active users worldwide, it has the potential for the most diverse audience.

This allows you to use targeting and re-targeting options, that’s mean your ads will be shown to defined and specific audience.

Facebook ads can be sets such as geographical locations, age range or interests, confirming your budget are well spent on the relevant following.

Facebook targeting options

Facebook campaign objectives

The Pros

• Greater Reach
• Targeted Reach
• Low minimum costs
• Flexibility

The Cons

• Lack of Organic views
• Lots of commitment and time consuming

Twitter Advertising

Twitter is one of the world’s most popular social media platforms with over 336 million monthly active users. Many businesses use Twitter to reach and connect with their customers.

Paid Ads on Twitter are called Sponsored Tweets and Promoted Products, which run on a cost per engagement base. Anything from a favorite/like, to a reply, to a retweet, or even just a click can be engagement.

Twitter targeting options

Twitter’s new campaign objectives

The Pros

• Reach a wide audience
• Targeted Reach
• More Ad space
• Brand identity

The Cons

• Not so user-friendly
• Spam, spam, everywhere
• Longer, Boring Tweets
• Restricted to 140 character limit

Facebook Ads vs. Twitter Ads

#Number of Active Users

Twitter has an impressive 336 million monthly active users and Facebook has 2.23 billion monthly active users worldwide.

Facebook has a larger audience when it comes to no. of users.

Winner: Facebook

#Reach

Facebook’s potential reach is incomparable, and you can also say for the actual reach for their ads.

Facebook ads have a much larger reach with much better cost than Twitter ads.

Winner: Facebook

#Bidding Prices and Cost

Facebook’ bids and overall costs tend to be lower. Clicks on Facebook are less expensive as compared to Twitter, with few exceptions.

Impressions are always more cost-effective on Facebook because you can target them.

When it comes to real cost and bidding price, Facebook knocks out Twitter.

Winner:  Facebook

Facebook Bidding Prices and Cost

Twitter Bidding Prices and Cost 

#Average Click-Through Rates (CTR)

According to the studies, advertisers spent more on Facebook Ad campaigns overall, Twitter Ads constantly deliver higher click-through rates.

The first reason for Twitter high CTR is that Twitter tends to have a lesser ad as compared to Facebook, making users click on the ones they do see. The second is how easily they’re united into popular topics and conversations streams on Twitter.

Winner: Twitter

#Average Engagement

According to reports, every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter, which corresponds to over 350,000 tweets sent per minute, while Facebook has an average of 382,000 likes alone per minute.

Likes can be just as important and help increase your engagement and reach on Facebook, as well as connecting you with new audiences.

One of the most obvious benefits Facebook has over Twitter is that companies have more time to make an influence on their audience.

Winner: Facebook

#Overall Traffic Referrals

Overall traffic referrals refer to direct traffic, social referrals and paid and organic search traffic (ads).

Facebook has shown an average of 23.4% of a site’s traffic to it than Twitter’s 1.0%.  Facebook drives more than 20% of traffic compared to Twitter.

When it comes to off-site traffic referrals, Facebook has a strong lead.

Winner: Facebook

#Mobile Optimized

Facebook has increased their mobile ads and making their site 100% mobile friendly.

Facebook holds 15.8% of mobile ad market share in contrast to Twitter holding 1.85%.

Facebook earns 41% of total ad revenue from a mobile ad in contrast to Twitter who earns 50% of ad revenue.

Winner: Facebook

#Overall Ad Performance

Result

Facebook is definitely the most popular social media advertising channel. According to Report, 93% of social media advertisers use Facebook Ads. The next network is Instagram with 24%, and Twitter is 15%.

Exclusive Features of Facebook for Marketing

Aside from unbelievable targeting features, Facebook marketers can also have other options:

• Pages to keep track of competitor pages
• Apps analytics helps brands to know how people are consuming their Facebook app
• Facebook Messenger for Business
• Detailed analytics of your posts, audience, engagement levels and so on

Exclusive Features of Twitter for Marketing

Some of the unique features available include:

• “Go Live” buttons for Periscope
• Twitter Cards
• Anti-harassment features

Conclusion

Facebook wins the clash on many faces to attract advertisers’ money with Twitter not far behind.

Facebook and Twitter offer their own ways to flourish marketing campaigns and one can never win the battle altogether.

Finally, it will be up to you to decide whether Facebook or Twitter is right for you, and your marketing campaigns.