According to a new study conducted by ViSenze, Facebook is the social media platform that most inspires its users to make a purchase.
The study, entitled ‘2017 Visual Commerce Report: Retail’ saw ViSenze survey more than 1,000 Americans over the age of 18. A total of 37% of the sample was aged over 50, as this demographic holds the highest spending power in today’s market.
The results of the study showed the social networking giant Facebook was the market leader in influencing consumers to make a purchase. Pinterest and Instagram took second and third places respectively.
Data showed that the majority of consumers now prefer to do their shopping online as opposed to in-store, with 75% of respondents stating that they are inspired to purchase a product because of videos and images they have seen on social media.
Around 44% of participants stated they used social media platforms five times per day, or more, and this is translating into purchases with the study showing that as much as a third of all purchases each month start on social media.
ViSenze expects that Facebook came out on top in the study because of user demographics and the size of the network. Facebook is, without doubt, the largest social media platform in the world, boasting the largest user base, with more than 2.05 billion active users. Furthermore, the site engages with a diverse user base covering a broader age range in comparison to other networks.
However, despite its dominance over its rivals in terms of size, the California-based social networking site has been introducing new ways for brands and businesses to interact with users for a long time. This includes features that help brands to create engaging ads, like its ‘collection’ ad format. The efforts made by Facebook have seen results. For example, 26% of users who clicked a Facebook ad in March 2017 have gone on to make a purchase.
Other social media platforms have also been playing a significant role in brand marketing too. More networks are improving in terms of reaching the whole of the marketing funnel, according to Greg Myers, the head of influence at HYFN, a digital agency.
Platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat are allowing businesses to advertise in new ways, such as creating short videos to play in between the platforms’ ‘Story’ features, which are popular amongst users of both sites. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter can present users with sponsored ads that are based on the interests of individual users.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can use Facebook to reach a targeted audience, get in touch with Engage Web today.
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