For visually inventive companies with original video content, YouTube and Instagram are two of the best social media marketing tools available.
Instagram TV (IGTV) gives the company a leg up on YouTube, which has been considered the dominant video-sharing site for the previous decade, thanks to the popularity of vertical video.
How do you pick the ideal social media network to implement your plan on?
We’ve compared YouTube and Instagram so you can make an informed decision.
Customers want video content from brands regardless of the platform you choose to deliver it.
Familiarising with YouTube and Instagram
A Primer Using YouTube
Brands, marketers, and content producers may all benefit from using YouTube’s free video sharing platform.
YouTube entered the social media scene in February 2005 and was acquired by Google less than two years later. YouTube became a wholly owned subsidiary of Google in November 2006, after being purchased by the search giant for a cool $1.65 billion.
YouTube has gone a long way from its early days as a site for sharing home movies online.
It has been estimated that more than two billion people across the world use YouTube on a monthly basis, and that they watch more than one billion hours of material every single day.
The way YouTube generates revenue
YouTube, like many other free platforms such as Instagram, relies heavily on advertising income. The YouTube business model allows anybody to host and share videos online at no cost. YouTube profits off of selling advertising space to companies. Advertisements tailored to a user’s interests can be included into the videos they’re currently watching.
To sum up, YouTube relies on its audience to generate revenue.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) reported that YouTube brought in $15.1 billion in advertising income. This accounted for roughly 10% of Google’s total revenues.
Lessons Learned
YouTube’s business model relies on earnings from online advertisements.
Monetized creator channels on YouTube may include YouTube adverts straight into their videos.
YouTube made $15.1 billion from advertising in 2019.
How Instagram Works, Part 1
Instagram was created in 2010 as a place for people to share photographs online. Two years later, Facebook bought it for a billion dollars. Since the purchase, Instagram has added features like Stories, IGTV, and Reels to better accommodate video content inside the feed.
Instagram, in contrast to YouTube, supports the upload of both still images and moving videos.
Does Instagram have a business model?
Instagram, like YouTube, relies on advertising to make money. Instagram’s economic model relies on users and brands paying for promoted content in exchange for the service’s free availability.
Advertisements in these campaigns might take the shape of Stories or Collection advertising, both of which appear on Instagram users’ feeds.
Ad income for Instagram is expected to reach about $20 billion in 2019, according to Bloomberg. The data comes from unnamed Facebook employees since Facebook does not disclose how much money it makes from Instagram ads.
Important TakeawaysInstagram’s business model relies on earnings from advertising.
Ads on Instagram might appear in users’ main feeds or in their Stories.
Instagram’s ad income for 2019 is expected to exceed $20 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Putting together a social media marketing plan and deciding between Youtube and Instagram
There are a few things to bear in mind when we compare YouTube and Instagram for your social media marketing strategy:
- What you plan to post about
- The standard of your writing
- The marketing spending plan Now, for the meaty details.
Comparing YouTube and Instagram Audiences
If you want to reach your target audience on a certain social media network, you need first find out who uses that platform.
YouTube attracts a far wider demographic than Instagram, although Instagram is more popular among young people.
According to data collected by Statista in 2019, the majority (81%) of U.S. YouTube viewers are in the teenage to early twenties. There is a minor decline in YouTube usage with increasing age: 71% of YouTube users are between the ages of 26 and 35, and 67% are between the ages of 36 and 45.
Video Functions on YouTube and Instagram
Instagram’s video capabilities are more suited to short, snackable clips, while YouTube’s are better suited to lengthier, more in-depth films.
Brands without verification on YouTube are limited to uploading 15-minute videos, whereas certified brands have a 12-hour upload limit.
Instagram’s placement options allow for a variety of video lengths:
- Video feeds must be between three and sixty seconds in length.
- When uploaded from a mobile device, videos on IGTV are limited to 15 minutes in length; those uploaded from a computer have a 60-minute limit.
- Instagram has introduced Reels as a way to compete with TikTok. Uploads are limited to 15-second segments.
- YouTube videos may be found in Google’s search engine because the firm is owned by Google. The opposite is true with Instagram videos.
In contrast, Instagram’s IGTV and Reels are designed specifically for vertical viewing on mobile devices.
Comparison of Business Advertising on YouTube and Instagram
Both YouTube and Instagram rely on advertising revenue to function, but what advertising choices do the two platforms offer?
Google Ads is used to generate all YouTube adverts. TrueView, YouTube’s advertising subscription service, features in-stream and video discovery advertisements (both of which require users to opt in).
Commercials played during content can be skipped or not.
Ads that users can skip are only charged for if they are watched for at least 30 seconds or if the user interacts with the ad in some way. Ads that can’t be skipped cost more each view.
Last Words
It might be difficult to know which social media platforms to include in your social media marketing plan. YouTube and Instagram are both well-established social media channels that provide special advantages for visually-oriented companies.
Do your research and think about the kinds of material you want to produce before deciding on a platform.