In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and everybody was pressured to spend time indoors. This is when many of find TikTok; a video sharing application that now has over a billion active users around the world. Since then, TikTok has become a crucial force in marketing. Brands pay best influeners millions to access their audiences. A single promotion got Taco Belchipotle over 7.7 million views on platform. but as huge as TikTok is, how does it measure against Instagram with 1.3 billion current users worldwide.
Blog Contents
Audiences
TikTok's audience
There are number of similarities between Instagram and TikTok in terms of user base:
Both social media platform's ready-to-buy people are easy to market to, both platforms are majorly focus on youth people (under 35), these platforms have a strong presence worldwide. There are some important differences. In TikTok almost everyone is 35 years or younger. The wide range of audience is Gen Z, followed by Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers.
TikTok has the most number of female users(57% of female users and 43% male).TikTok is more popular worldwide with 135 million active users in the United States; 99.07 million users in Indonesia; In Brazil, it's 73.58 million users. The audience of TikTok tends to be more responsive to advertising and also they are eager to buy and download products targeted at younger people, like Video game, home decor, makeup, inexpensive jewelry, novelty products, Budget cosmetics and perfumes, and e-commerce products. Users of TikTok easily respond good to branded content and influencer partnerships and they respond less to apparent advertising. If you do use advertising, make it natural(i.e. unique content)
Instagram’s audience
Instagram is more preferred by Millenials, but also by Gen Zers. The followers can be broken down as follow: The genders are more equaly split on instagram; 48.4% of female and 51.6% identify as male . India has the most number of users of Instagram with 230.25 million, followed by US (159.75 million) and Brazil (119.45 million). The users of instagram are still active to advertising, but slightly less than TikTokers. They are more engaged in products targeted at both genders of slightly older millennials,
Examples: More expensive jewelry, info products for professionals and business owners, furniture and clothing, Mid-range artwork, house decor, ecommerce products, premium ecommerce products , example. health products and makeup
Tie up with influencer and make partnership with them for ads would be great way to connect with Instagram audiences. Your own unique content is less likely to be visible on the platform, even though it can still be a good asset.
Content Formats
Instagram allow you to create various formats of contents, including:
- Photos
- Instagram reels (alike to TikTok)
- Short feed videos
- Instagram stories
- Live streaming
- Long video format content on IGTV
Instagram's feed look like other social media platforms, with non-stop scrolling.it's simple to go from one post to the next without on any them. The content type that work best for ads Reels-Instagram's answer to TikTok - ads Stories. TikTok lets audience and upload vertical videos that are up to 10 minutes long. Instead of scrolling, you swipe up to move to the next video. Because of this, audience are more likely seems to pay attention to watch the whole thing. Instagram gives you more unique content formats to work with. This is good return on ad spend (ROAS).
TikTok has a very attractive ROAS... And with one content format, it's a lot easy to find out. Best time to post, content themes,etc., are all makes TikTok marketers easier to optimize.
Content Types:
In Instagram the content shared are tends to be highly edited, with various available filters and effects applied in order to enhance their apperance. Many user maintain their accounts in such a way that all their phots have the same aesthetic and feel. You can easily get the idea of their style and who they are by visiting their profile page. The content posted on TikTok tend to be more raw , unedited. There are some filters that can be used, but most of the time people will go with quick videos and upload it insantly.It's harder to get a sense of their overall aesthetic
The post on instagram and tikTok can differ as well. With instagram, the content focus on much about the look and feel of content a it is all about the subject matter itself, With TikTok, the focus is more on the subject matter of the videos. Creators make content themselves doing dances, lip syncing, performing challenges, and more. The look of video matters the most, but not nearly as far as what's happening. Comparing with Instagram , TikTok is better choice for influencer tie-ups, native-looking ads, and your own unique content.
Advertising
TikTk and Instagram allow brands to run ads on their platforms. Instagram allows brand to place both image and video ads that can be visible by the target audience in the newsfeed, stories, IGTV,and more. In TikTok the brands can place video ads up to 60 seconds long, it can be seen by the target audience in between other videos, and look almost to organic TikTok posts, Interesting fact is when TikTok ads were compared against Instagram Reels ads, quietly Reels overcome TikTok. This type Ads has a good reach, CPC was lower, and CPM was lower. Overall both platforms works well- even though Story and Reels ads works best on Instagram.
Organic Content:
In organic content creation, TikTok is slight better for attracting young audiences .Most of the users are under the age of 24, and they love organic content. The algorithm of TikTok also benefits users who produce a considerable amount of content. If you trying hard with creating content, service like TrendFM can assist you make more of it for the platform.
Algorithm of Instagram benefits users who make less content but make it especially high-quality. The more engagement a piece of content recieves, the more exposure it recieve on Instagram. If you want to focus more on quality , Instagram perhaps the way to go for you. This is good for B2B brands, busy marketers, etc.
Influencer Partnership
If you want to make partnership with influencers, you must know the difference between Instagram Influencer Marketing and TikTok Influencer Marketing. As we know earlier, Instagram content tends to be more glossy aesthetic, Instagram may be the best choice for you. if you need sponsored content that is more raw and potentially genuine,consider TikTok. Especially TikTok also good for creating brand challenges. If you can develop a unique content, engaging challenge for audience for users around your brand, you can reach with wide range of audience.
Conclusion:
In this article you will get to know that both Instagram and TikTok shows unique marketing oppurtunity for business. It is necessary to understand the difference between both platforms so that you can make an informed decision about which one is good for you.
- Instagram is better for glossy content, while TikTok is better for raw, authentic content.
- Consider TikTok, to each younger audience
- If you are looking for influencer partnership, both platforms can be powerful but Instagram may give you more glossy content.
At the end you have research yourself to find the better platform by yourself to see which one works good for your business or services. There is no accurate answer for which platfrom is better because each platform works in a unique way for different business or services.
