YouTube Vs Instagram: Which Platform Works Best for Your Influencer Marketing Campaign

Brand & Agencies

Author: Nicholas Agardy

July 12, 2019

91% of businesses are using social media platforms for marketing purposes. That’s up from 86.2% in 2013.

In terms of influencer marketing, it seems that the two giants to contend with are YouTube and Instagram. YouTube boasts 2.68 billion active monthly users. Instagram has over 2.35 billion users who spend at least 24 minutes each day on the site.

But not all social media platforms are alike. Each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. Keep reading as we compare YouTube to Instagram to find out which platform is best for your influencer marketing campaign.

Table of Contents:

Comparing YouTube to Instagram: What You Need to Know First

Before you choose between YouTube v Instagram, you need to consider a few things about your audience.

Reach

Do some research to find out how many of your target customers you’ll actually find on each platform. You can measure this by the follower counts of the influencers you want to work with.

Resonance

Resonance is the potential engagement an influencer can generate from their audience in a way that’s both valuable and relevant to your brand. You can measure this from the likes and comments left on the influencer’s post.

Relevance

This is how many of your target customers you’ll find on a particular platform. This is easily checked by analyzing which platforms influencers within your niche use most often.

Why Brands Love Instagram

Both content creators and influencer marketers love Instagram for a few distinct reasons. Brands can organically repost content easily. They can also white-label content for paid social, where applicable.

The content is extremely digestible. And when comparing best Instagram vs best YouTuber influencers, it’s more affordable.

Easy to Fix Mistakes and Grow Your Presence

Instagram also provides users with insights and report metrics that are easy to understand. That allows companies to quickly make necessary adjustments to continue boosting their campaigns.

Instagram allows brands to have their own presence. When a company works with influencers on this platform, you can grow your own follower count just by using tagging and brand mentions.

The Downside of Instagram

Brands should be aware that Instagram stories only last for 24 hours. Videos can only be 60 seconds long.

Who Should Work with Instagram Influencers

Instagram is best if you have visually appealing products. Niches such as lifestyle, fashion, fitness, and travel thrive on this platform.

Why Brands Love YouTube

For brands looking to provide detailed descriptions of the benefits and features of their products and services to their target market, YouTube is the best platform. YouTube is also cost-effective because advertisers only pay for an ad once the user has watched it for at least 30 seconds.

And YouTube content has a long life span. If you tag your content correctly, your videos can stay visible for years to come.

With the ability to provide direct links in the description box, you can even lead your customers to buy your products and services.

The Downside of YouTube

YouTube doesn’t currently support elements to help brands increase branding and engagement. You can’t customize your campaigns such as using a strong call to action that you can easily incorporate into a video.

And it’s difficult to track your success on YouTube. You can’t use third-party custom tags to track and measure your campaigns.

Who Should Work with YouTube Influencers

Tech-focused brands and products, gaming, and beauty brands are most popular on YouTube. Those who are targeting customers between the ages of 18 and 54 will also do well on this site.

Choose Wisely

When comparing YouTube to Instagram it’s important to take your campaign goals, products or services, and your target audience into consideration.

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