Digital 2022: Instagram’s Surge Continues
It’s been another big year for Instagram.
Even after we factor the recent big changes in Meta’s audience reporting, the company’s latest data show that growth in Instagram’s ad reach has continued to accelerate over the past year.
Headline figures
Worldwide ad reach is up by 21 percent since this time last year, with the platform adding more than a quarter of a billion users to its ad audience over the past 12 months.
Indeed, Instagram has been growing at an impressive rate for some time now, and our analysis of the company’s ad reach numbers indicates growth of almost 60 percent over the past 2 years.
Time spent on Instagram
Data from App Annie reveals that the typical Instagram user on an Android phone spends an average of 11.2 hours per month using Instagram’s mobile app.
Users spent an average of 10 percent more time using Instagram’s Android app in 2021 than they did in 2020, equating to almost 1 extra hour per month.
However, it’s worth noting that the average for Instagram is quite a bit lower than the figures for Facebook and TikTok, both of which see Android users spend an average of 19.6 hours per month using their respective platform’s app.
The evolution of Instagram’s audience
Instagram’s recent growth has been impressive across most of the world, but it’s worth noting that India has played a significant role in fuelling the platform’s growth.
Our analysis indicates that Instagram made significant gains following the Indian government’s decision to ban TikTok in mid-2020, and the platform’s local audience has increased by a factor of 2.3 since the ban came into effect, reaching a total of 230 million at the start of 2022.
But even 18 months after the TikTok ban, Instagram’s Indian audience continues to grow rapidly.
Our analysis suggests that the platform has added more than 90 million new users since this time last year, resulting in year-on-year growth of almost 65 percent.
There’s still plenty of room for the platform to grow in the country too, with the latest figures revealing that barely 1 in 5 people in the ‘eligible’ population use Instagram today.
However, one interesting consequence of Instagram’s rapid rise in India has been a change in the platform’s overall demographics.
For context, data show that roughly 3 in 4 internet users in India today are male, and while Instagram tends to be more popular with women elsewhere in the world, this gender imbalance means that men have accounted for the majority of India’s new Instagram users
And with the sheer number of new users joining the platform from India, that impact is now visible in Instagram’s global audience profile too.
In our Digital 2020 July Global Statshot Report, we reported that more than half of Instagram’s ad audience was female.
However, the balance has now tipped in the other direction, with men accounting for 50.7 percent of Instagram’s global ad audience in our latest data.
Profile of Instagram's Global Advertising Audience by Age and Gender January 2022 DataReportal
Digging deeper into Instagram use
In our private briefings with clients over the past year, one question that has come up again and again is how to compare TikTok and Instagram.
Our view is that both platforms offer excellent opportunities, and the “best” approach will depend on various brand-specific factors, as well as creative considerations.
However, comparing the ad reach of both platforms can provide some useful perspective.
Before we take a closer look at some of the more specific Instagram ‘environments’, it’s worth highlighting that ads in Instagram’s ‘home’ tab reach 96.6 percent of the platform’s total ad audience each month, so Instagram Feed ads remain the surest way to reach the largest Instagram audience.
However, the platform’s other ad placement options also offer distinct and compelling opportunities of their own, so let’s explore each one in more detail.
Instagram Reels
When it first launched, Instagram Reels made a lot of headlines, not least because of its similarity to TikTok.
For context, TikTok now reports global ad reach of roughly 885 million, although it’s worth stressing that the company only reports ad reach for audiences aged 18 and above.
For comparison, Meta’s tools reveal that ads in Instagram Reels currently reach a total audience of 675 million, although that figure drops to 612 million if we focus on audiences aged 18 and above.
Interestingly though, Reels appear to be particularly popular with Instagram’s male users, with the gender balance for Reels – 54 percent male vs. 46 percent female – tipping more towards men than for the platform as a whole.
But Reels are just one part of the overall Instagram experience.
Instagram Stories
Meanwhile, Meta’s data reveal that ads in Instagram Stories now reach more than 1 billion users each month, equating to 72.6 percent of Instagram’s total ad audience.
Instagram Stories Overview January 2022 DataReportal
In contrast to our findings for Reels though, Instagram’s Stories audience is more female-skewed, with the platform’s ad data pointing to a 51:49 split in favour of women.
Profile of Instagram Stories's Global Advertising Audience by Age and Gender January 2022 DataReportal
Instagram’s Explore Tab
Instagram’s Explore tab also attracts a sizeable audience each month, with the latest data indicating that advertisers can now reach almost 800 million users within this specific environment, equating to just over half (53.6 percent) of Instagram’s total ad audience.
This finding may have particular relevance for marketers launching new brands and products, because people browsing the Explore tab are more likely to be looking for new content, ideas, and inspiration.
Once again, the Explore tab is slightly more popular with women than it is with men, but the 51:49 split is actually very well balanced.
Instagram Shop
Instagram’s social commerce offering has also started to gain momentum, with Meta’s tools reporting that advertisers can now reach more than 187 million users with ads in Instagram’s Shop tab each month.
However, in contrast to our findings for Facebook Marketplace, the data indicate that women account for a much greater share of Instagram Shop’s global ad audience.
This data doesn’t reveal how many of these users are actually making purchases in Instagram Shop, but with social commerce set to be one of 2022’s more important digital trends, it’s definitely worth marketers keeping an eye on this exciting Instagram opportunity.
Want to learn more about how Instagram compares with other social media platforms? Check out our full Digital 2022 Global Overview Report by clicking here.
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