The Top Facebook Advertising Stats That You Need To Know For 2017

Wilson
GrowthOK Blog
Published in
8 min readJul 13, 2017

Facebook advertising is one of the most powerful channels for paid acquisition. The truth is that a lot of people still don’t know about the power of Facebook ads. In this post, I’m going to share some Facebook advertising stats in 2017 that everyone should be aware of.

Facebook is the most used social media platform

Facebook has remained the most widely used social media platform among all age groups with 64% of them using Facebook, according to Edison Research reports.

The next one up is Snapchat and Instagram, but Instagram is owned by Facebook.

Snapchat is the most used by the younger generation, while Facebook has more of a user usage across all age groups.

Facebook is the sixth-most-valuable public company in the world

According to a list of the world’s TOP 2,000 companies by Forbes compiled in May 2017, Facebook is the world’s sixth most valuable publicly traded company.

Facebook’s current market value is around $407 billion. Pretty amazing.

Facebook accounts for more than 80% of mobile social logins

This report by AdvertisingAge told that the lead of Facebook is even more visible when it comes to mobile logins. Gigya processed 58 million social logins across 700 brands and publishers’ sites in Q4 2015.

80% of mobile social logins were attributed to Facebook.

There are 2.5 trillion posts on Facebook

As reported by TechCrunch, Facebook’s been around since 2004, and its users have made over 2.5 trillion posts to date.

That’s a lot of noise that you need to break through. Luckily, there’s the Facebook search that helps people to find you.

Moreover, you can use Facebook’s Promoted Posts to make your messages more visible.

79% of American Internet users are on Facebook

According to Pew Research Centre, as of 2016, nearly eight-in-ten online Americans (79%) use Facebook. If you also count the people who do not use the Internet, 68% of all U.S. adults are Facebook users.

Facebook users generate 4 million likes every minute

You’d be surprised to learn how much content and reactions are created on Facebook every minute. According to an infographic by SumoCoupon (now Dealhack), Facebook users generate 4 million likes every minute.

In addition, every 60 seconds…

– 500 new users join Facebook

– 100,000 friend requests are sent

– 243,000 photos are uploaded on Facebook

– 50,000 links are shared on Facebook

– 3,3 million items are shared on Facebook

42% of millennials can’t last 5 hours without checking Facebook feed

According to an eMarketer 2017 study, 42% of millennial respondents said they hadn’t lasted five hours without checking their feeds.

There are 1.15 billion mobile daily active users (Mobile DAU) for December 2016, an increase of 23 percent year-over-year

(Source: Facebook as of 2/01/17) This is hugely significant and shows the dramatic growth of mobile traffic on Facebook.

Facebook users are 76% female (out of 100% of all females) and 66% male (out of 100% of all males).

This is stat is one that you really have to think about because it’s comparing the percentage of all females against the percentage of all males who are on Facebook. Sorry for the confusion. To dig a little deeper take a look at this study which does a much better job at explaining the nuances — Source: Brandwatch — https://www.brandwatch.com/2015/01/men-vs-women-active-social-media/) The Takeaway: Since this isn’t a large statistical difference, you should be able to effectively reach both genders on Facebook.

On Thursdays and Fridays, engagement is 18% higher.

(Source: Bit.ly blog) The Implication: Again, use this information to determine when to post in order to optimize your social media marketing efforts.

16 Million local business pages have been created as of May 2013 which is a 100 percent increase from 8 million in June 2012.

(Source: Facebook). Facebook marketing has transformed how business is conducted, and its use by local businesses to extend their markets continues to explode.

Facebook is the preferred social network for 62% of marketers

The Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2017 revealed that when asked to select their most important platform, 62% of marketers chose Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 16%. Compared to 2016 results, the preference for Facebook increased from 55% to 62% in 2017.

Facebook is the top ad channel for both B2C and B2B marketers

The same report uncovered that Facebook is the number one choice for 72% of B2C marketers when it comes to social advertising channels.

However, for the first time in the history of the study, Facebook also passed LinkedIn as the most important platform for B2B marketers, with 43% of marketers naming it as their top choice.

94% of social marketers use Facebook’s platform

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram were the top four platforms used by social media marketers, with Facebook leading the pack — 94% of marketers use Facebook, according to Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2017.

49% of users like a Facebook page to support their favorite brands

According to a study by Syncapse, 42% of the 2,000 respondents cited “to get a coupon or discount” as one reason they fan a brand on Facebook. The top reason (mentioned in 49% of answers) was “to support the brand I like.”

If you want to get more likes to your Facebook page, you could try targeting the friends of your page fans. People are more likely to support brands and causes also liked by their friends.

Branded Facebook page posts organically reach only 2% of your fans

As reported by AdWeek, in March 2015, the average Facebook page post reached around 2.6% of the page’s fans. This means that 97% of your Facebook page’s fans may not see your posts.

However, the situation is slightly better for smaller brands. For pages having under 1,000 likes, the avg. organic post reach was between 14%-23%.

Over 5 million business use Facebook for advertising

As of March 2016, three million companies from all over the world used Facebook’s paid ads to reach their target audience, with more than 70% from outside of the US.

In April 2017, the number had grown to 5 million advertisers!

The majority of Facebook’s advertisers are small and medium sized businesses.

93% of social marketers regularly use Facebook ads

According to a recent report by Social Media Examiner, a surprising 93% of social marketers regularly use Facebook ads and 64% plan on increasing their Facebook ads activities.

100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook every day

In May 2016, Facebook reported that its users watch more than 100 million hours of video daily.

Videos as a medium are becoming increasingly popular. That’s why it may be a good idea to test Facebook video ads and A/B test them against static image ads. Youtube status!

Facebook’s advertising revenue keeps growing

According to CNBC, in Q1 2017, Facebook earned $7.86 billion in advertising revenue, up 51 percent from a year ago.

The main factors that have helped Facebook to grow its ad revenue:

  • Increasing ad load — the number of ads on the website
  • Steady user growth
  • Increase in the time spent on Facebook’s platform

Facebook’s Call-To-Action Buttons Will Increase Click-Through Rate 2.85x

Call-to-action phrases are known to be effective in digital marketing tactics, however, integrating Facebook’s CTA button will lead to a nearly tripled click-through rate (CTR). Of Facebook’s CTA buttons, 74% are “Shop Now” buttons. The second most preferred by advertisers is the “Learn More” button, with a 10% prevalence. However, Facebook found that the top CTR performer was the “Learn More” button. Advertisers should be sure to take this into account in their next Facebook ad campaign, especially since all buttons are priced the same.

Carousel Ads Are 10x Better At Getting Clicks Than Static Posts On Facebook

Facebook’s Carousel ads are doing 10 times better in CTR than static advertisements. Carousel ads, or ads that permit brands to display multiple pieces of media in a rotating carousel, have been driving 10x more traffic to advertisers’ websites. Even more, Facebook reports that the Carousels yield a 30–50% lower cost-per-conversion and 20–30% lower cost-per-click than single-image link ads. In particular, the interactive and attention-grabbing feature has been helpful for direct response and brand awareness marketing.

Audience Network Allows Businesses To Connect With Over 1 Billion People

Audience Network on Facebook allows advertisers to extend their campaigns beyond Facebook’s platform and into other mobile apps. Audience Network is particularly effective for advertisers that are looking to drive app install and app engagement. Since 2014, Audience Network has grown so that over 1 billion people will see and ad through the feature. Advertisers extending their campaigns to Audience Network will see a 12% increase in conversion on website campaigns and 17% increase in installs for mobile app campaigns. Furthermore, Audience Network is yielding high view-through rates for advertisers, with over 2/3 of video impressions resulting video views that last 10 seconds or more.

Influencer Advertising And Marketing Will Total $1+ Billion On Instagram In 2017

Native advertising on Facebook and Instagram are well reported, however, a newer form of social media marketing emerging as influencer marketing, is taking up a lot of space on Instagram in particular. Brands are partnering with content creators on Instagram through sponsored posts, and this marketed is to be $1 billion total or more in 2017. In two years, that number is expected to more than double to nearly $2.4 billion.

Over 50 percent of B2B marketers rank social media as a ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ low cost ad option

A survey asked 200 B2B marketers to rate the cost of demand generation channels based on the cost per lead. Just over 50 percent of the respondents ranked social media as “very low cost” or “somewhat low cost.”

This compares to 42.5 percent for search ads, and 41.7 percent for display ads. The truth is, social media ads are generally quite affordable. Many networks offer you the opportunity to test your content organically before promoting it, so you know you’re giving yourself the best opportunity to connect with your target audience. Plus, there are countless other ways to keep the cost of your social advertising low.

The Average American Spends 40 Minutes Per Day on Facebook.

When you consider how much time Americans spend engaging with digital media–nine hours a day — 40 minutes on Facebook might not seem like a lot of time. But let’s compare that to the amount of time spent on other social platforms.

  • Tumblr — 34 minutes
  • Instagram — 21 minutes
  • Pinterest — 20.8 minutes
  • Twitter — 17 minutes
  • Snapchat — 17 minutes
  • Ello — 13 minutes
  • LinkedIn — 9.8 minutes

24% of Non-Adopters Use Someone Else’s Facebook Account

Something else to consider: you’re not always reaching the person you think you are. Slightly more than half of people without Facebook live with someone who has an account. This is important because 24% of those non-adopters look at photos or updates on that person’s account.

With the unpredictability of the News Feed, it’s hard to say whether the creator of that account will see your post once the non-adopter scrolls past without engaging. For this reason, and many others, use Facebook’s feature set to your advantage instead of relying on a single status to get your message across.

Click-through Rates Are Higher for Custom Audiences Than Facebook Exchange

According to research from Kinetic Social, click-through rates for Website Custom Audiences (WCA) were outperforming those on Facebook Exchange (FBX). In December 2014, the average CTR for U.S. retargeted display ads run on WCA was 1.25% compared to 0.12% on FBX.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t exactly a fair comparison; FBX ads are desktop-only while WCA placements support desktop and mobile. That said, eMarketer expects mobile to account for 61.5% of time spent on Facebook per day by U.S. adults this year, so choosing an option that supports mobile is in your best interest.

Conclusion

Well that sums it up for this Facebook stats post. This shows how powerful social media especially Facebook advertising can be. These stats are only going to go up and the value of advertising on Facebook and Instagram will only increase.

If you’re looking for the best all in one Facebook advertising solution to increase your engagement, sales leads, and conversions then reach out to us at GrowthOK

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Wilson
GrowthOK Blog

3x Startup Founder | Crypto enthusiast | Love and breathe entrepreneurship @cryptomenownews @Growth_OK