Did you know that the average person spends 145 minutes on social media daily? Or that 4.9 billion people use social media worldwide in 2023?
Numbers like these determine companies to go all-in with online marketing and for good reasons. According to Disruptive Advertising, 23% of all online shoppers claim they’re influenced by social media recommendations before buying anything.
And 84% of all online buyers use social media to find opinions about a product they’re interested in (same study as above.) Go read this article for the most important social media trends of 2023!
What I’m saying is that social media is inseparable from online marketing. It’s one of the key components of a brand’s identity and continued success.
For this reason, I’ve decided to create a guide on the best social media platforms to be used for marketing in 2023.
I’ll give you exact reasons why these platforms are a solid choice for building your brand identity. Read the main highlights below or go through each section for extra details!
Highlights
- Facebook remains the best social media platform for marketing in 2023. It has the highest ad reach, the most users, and great engagement for its content
- Most of Facebook’s users are ad-friendly and eligible, which means your ads will reach a lot of people who can buy your products
- YouTube is the second best social media platform for marketing, with its 2.2 billion global active users and 2.51 billion ad reach worldwide
- YouTube users watch over a billion hours of video per day
- WhatsApp offers incredible customer support capabilities for businesses, especially through the WhatsApp Business API
- WhatsApp’s monthly active users have increased by four times in 3 years, from 50 million in 2020 to 200 million in 2023
- Instagram has grown exponentially both in ad reach and total active users per month (2.35 billion worldwide and 1.32 billion ad reach)
- Instagram’s ad reach eligibility is over 50% in 16 countries and the worldwide average is 21.1%, with Turkey having the highest ad reach eligibility (71.1%)
- Instagram’s Reels have recently spiked in popularity and brands are crowding to use it for promotional content
- WeChat could put your brand on the map thanks to the platform’s versatility and influence over multiple industries?
- 78% of people in China use WeChat and the platform has over 1.15 billion users worldwide
- WeChat’s audience is expected to grow by 3.37% in 2024
- TikTok is the king of short video content and it has an ad reach of over 1 billion people
- 15% of all B2B marketer respondents to a Statista study claim that TikTok brings the highest ROI
- Telegram offers instant customer support capabilities, and its privacy policy is more transparent and safer than WhatsApp’s policy
- Telegram lets you harness the power of AI to provide automated customer service
- Snapchat gained over 78 million users in the last year and 59 million in the last quarter alone
- 69% of all US teens are using Snapchat
- Snapchat is the second best platform for vertical video formats, other than TikTok
- Pinterest gives you an ad reach of 250 million users, with 76.2% of them being female
- Pinterest users are 7 times more likely to buy products that they’ve pinned
- Pinterest is especially good for the fashion, beauty, DIY, garden, and home industries
- Twitter has an ad reach of 556 million worldwide and it gained 120 million users in the last year
- The worldwide eligible ad reach for Twitter is 8.9%, which is very little, possibly pointing at Twitter’s downfall among marketers around the world
- Reddit lets you build a community around the brand while interacting organically with people, getting feedback, and content ideas, and seeing uncensored ideas about brands
- LinkedIn helps you with “thought leadership” and to make yourself known among other brands and professionals. You build trust and recognition
- LinkedIn has an ad reach of 900.2 million and the ad reach eligibility is 16% worldwide (people ages 18+)
- 48% of marketers plan on increasing their use of LinkedIn for marketing purposes
- The eSports scene on Twitch has extraordinary marketing potential and great ROI thanks to the platform’s popularity in the gaming industry
- Twitch had a 73% market share among live streaming apps worldwide in Q1 2022
1. Facebook
Right, Facebook is first on our list due to its sheer industry dominance. As of 2023, Facebook has:
- 2.958 billion global active users
- Around 65-70% of all social media referrals as external traffic
- 36.9% monthly active users vs. the world’s total population
- 48 million new users in the last year
- 57.3% monthly active users vs. the world’s total internet users
- 47.2% monthly active users vs. the world’s 13+ population
- 67.1% daily active users vs. monthly active users
- 67% advertising reach vs. Facebook’s worldwide monthly active users
- 1.98 billion total potential reach of ads worldwide
- 69% of all US social media users use Facebook
There’s no overstating Facebook’s dominance in the social media sphere. With nearly 3 billion monthly active users, the platform is the largest social media platform in the world.
Around 200 million businesses are using Facebook tools and around 7 million advertisers are on Facebook promoting their businesses.
Facebook offers many content formats, from photos to videos, stories, statuses, and link posts. This makes for a highly flexible playground where you are in control of the marketing channels.
Moreover, the Facebook algorithm is notorious for promoting content that keeps people talking and leads to meaningful interactions.
If you want to create a loyal community on social media, Facebook is your best choice. Communal experiences and the sharing of opinions are highly valued on the platform.
Most importantly, Facebook is mostly used by adults over 18, so they’ll see your ads and will be able to interact with them.
Here’s a table that shows the worldwide advertising reach rate by age on Facebook:
| Age | Ad Reach Rate per Age vs. the Total Population of the Same Age |
| 13 | 2.5% |
| 14 | 8.7% |
| 15 | 15.1% |
| 16 | 20.6% |
| 17 | 25.9% |
| 18 | 32.9% |
| 19 | 39.4% |
| 20 | 44.4% |
| 21 | 48.1% |
| 22 | 76.6% |
| 23 | 55.9% |
| 24 | 53.3% |
| 25 | 52.7% |
| 26 | 56% |
| 27 | 64.6% |
| 28 | 56% |
| 29 | 50.1% |
| 30 | 46% |
| 31 | 42.8% |
| 32 | 51.5% |
| 33 | 39.6% |
| 34 | 40.4% |
| 35 | 48% |
| 36 | 35.8% |
| 37 | 37.8% |
| 38 | 34.3% |
| 39 | 32.8% |
| 40 | 32.3% |
| 41 | 31.9% |
| 42 | 38% |
| 43 | 29.6% |
| 44 | 29.3% |
| 45 | 28.5% |
| 46 | 27.2% |
| 47 | 27.9% |
| 48 | 24.9% |
| 49 | 22.9% |
| 50 | 24.1% |
| 51 | 23% |
| 52 | 25.4% |
| 53 | 21.2% |
| 54 | 21.5% |
| 55 | 20.3% |
| 56 | 20.4% |
| 57 | 20.2% |
| 58 | 18.7% |
| 59 | 18.3% |
| 60 | 18.7% |
| 61 | 19.5% |
| 62 | 22.3% |
| 63 | 17.7% |
| 64 | 17% |
| 65+ | 14% |
As you can see, the 22-29 age category has the highest ad reach among all other age groups (above 50% and reaching up to 76.6%).
This tells us that Facebook’s target audience will see your ads, for the most part. Young adults and middle-aged individuals make up most of the platform’s audience, and they’re also the biggest spenders.
Facebook is a must for any marketing campaign!
2. YouTube
YouTube’s importance as a marketing channel is undisputed. In many cases and for some industries, it’s vastly superior compared to even Facebook.
Here are the most important things to know about YouTube:
- 2.2 billion global active users
- 31.4% monthly active users vs. the world’s total population
- 48.7% monthly active users vs. the world’s total internet users
- 36.8% monthly active users vs. the world’s 18+ population
- 2.51 billion total potential reach of ads worldwide
- 45.6% of the total ad reach age 18+ is female
- 54.4% of the total ad reach age 18+ is male
- Around 3.38% of all social media referrals as external traffic
Advertising on YouTube is very easy. Just pay YouTube for the right to showcase your ads on their platform. Sponsorships and partnerships with content creators are another form of promotion.
In some cases, sponsorships are even more worthwhile than traditional ad promotion. That’s because YouTube is the biggest video-sharing platform in the world, and there’s no shortage of popular creators there.
YouTube users watch more than a billion hours of video daily on the platform. Imagine harnessing all that watch time for your ads.
Some industries present more lucrative advertising opportunities on YouTube compared to Facebook. Take gaming, for instance.
YouTube is a gaming paradise for the entire community. There are tons of popular gaming content creators with millions of followers.
And most of those creators are open to being sponsored and promoting your product/service. Gaming creators are also largely appreciated for their charisma and on-stage presence.
Regarding age and gender metrics, here’s a Statista table with the relevant information:
| Age Range | Male Users | Female Users |
| 18-24 | 8.8% | 6.2% |
| 25-34 | 11.9% | 8.8% |
| 35-44 | 9.1% | 7.6% |
| 45-54 | 6.3% | 5.6% |
| 55-64 | 4.4% | 4.4% |
| 65+ | 4.2% | 4.8% |
The 25-34 age category has the most users on YouTube, at around 20.7%, where 11.9% are male and 8.8% are female.
Interestingly enough, the 18-24 age category has fewer users than the 35-44 category, which shows that adults prefer YouTube.
If your target audience is in any of these age categories, then YouTube is one of the best marketing platforms you can use.
The video format is the most engaging form of content on the internet, which means your ads will get quite a bit of engagement on YouTube.
Moving on to the next platform on the list!
3. WhatsApp
WhatsApp has over 2 billion monthly active users on a global scale and it’s used in 180 countries around the globe. Its importance cannot be overstated, however, its advertising potential is close to zero.
The platform should instead be used to provide customer support services and offer updates about purchases. WhatsApp has a Business app dedicated to this.
Let me show you how WhatsApp is looking in 2023:
- 2 billion global active users
- 25% monthly active users vs. the world’s total population
- 31.9% monthly active users vs. the world’s 13+ population
- 46.5% of the user base is female
- 53.5% of the user base is male
- WhatsApp users spend around 17.3 hours per month on WhatsApp on mobile
While WhatsApp’s situation does look very good, it’s not meant for advertising because it wasn’t created with this in mind.
However, there are plenty of success stories praising WhatsApp businesses for enabling them to offer stellar customer support to their customers.
The WhatsApp Business API is the crux of all this praise, by the looks of it. It works without a hitch and providers real-time support for customers during the purchasing experience.
Even companies like Uber, Wish, Booking.com, and iFood are among the heavy users of WhatsApp Business, and they only have good things to say.
Based on a Statista study, we know that the number of monthly active users on WhatsApp business has increased by four times, from 50 million in 2020 to 200 million in 2023.
Another study shows the number of worldwide downloads from 2018 to 2022 of the WhatsApp Business app:
| Year | Number of Downloads |
| 2018 | 37.87 million |
| 2019 | 98.82 million |
| 2020 | 170.46 million |
| 2021 | 210.09 million |
| 2022 | 283.51 million |
The number of WhatsApp Business downloads has increased by approximately 7.5 times in the 2018-2022 period. This shows the growing popularity of the platform as a customer service tool for businesses.
If you’re not using WhatsApp for seamless customer service, then you really should. Its Business app offers many integrations for businesses.
4. Instagram
The world of online marketing wouldn’t be the same without Instagram. In 2023, the platform is growing in popularity and usage faster than ever before.
Its content-creator ecosystem is one of the healthiest and most robust I’ve seen on the internet. And marketers are crowding in to promote their services and products here.
A big reason for Instagram’s popularity with marketers is its wide range of content formats:
- Photos
- Videos
- Reels
- Stories
- Live Videos
- IGTV
Plus, the platform allows for the creation of an Instagram Business profile that gives you real-time analytics about your posts’ performance. Oh, and you can automatize posting using third-party tools accepted by Instagram.
Here’s a general overview of Instagram:
- 2.35 billion global active users
- Around 65-70% of all social media referrals as external traffic
- 16.5% monthly active users vs. the world’s total population
- 25.6% monthly active users vs. the world’s total internet users
- 21.1% monthly active users vs. the world’s 13+ population
- 1.32 billion total potential reach of ads worldwide
- 48.2% of the platform’s ad reach is female
- 51.8% of the platform’s ad reach is male
- It lost 160 million users in the last year and 68 million in the last quarter
Let me show you a more detailed picture of Instagram’s ad reach in the 2021-2023 period, per month. Here’s the table:
| Period | Ad Reach | % Change |
| January 2021 | 1.221 billion | |
| April 2021 | 1.287 billion | +7.7% from the last period |
| July 2021 | 1.386 billion | +0.5% from the last period |
| October 2021 | 1.393 billion | +6.1% from the last period |
| January 2022 | 1.478 billion | -1.8% from the last period |
| April 2022 | 1452 billion | -0.8% from the last period |
| July 2022 | 1.440 billion | -3.8% from the last period |
| October 2022 | 1.386 billion | -4.9% from the last period |
| January 2023 | 1.318 billion | -4.9% from last period |
As you can see, Instagram’s ad reach has increased from 2021 to 2023 but in the last couple of months (October 2022 – January 2023), there has been a serious decrease in ad reach.
The number is still higher than it was in January 2021, which is proof that the platform is on positive growth in the long term.
Its ad audience profile is also looking good, with the majority of users being in the 18-34 age category, most of which are men.
I’ll also give you a list of the eligibility ad reach around the world for Instagram. This shows how many Instagram users are over 13 per country.
Here’s the table:
| Country | Percentage of Users Above Age 13 |
| Worldwide | 21.1% |
| Turkey | 71.1% |
| Chile | 66.3% |
| Argentina | 63.9% |
| Brazil | 63.6% |
| Sweden | 63.5% |
| U.A.E. | 60.3% |
| Norway | 58.7% |
| Portugal | 58.1% |
| Israel | 56.9% |
| Ireland | 54.7% |
| Australia | 52.5% |
| Spain | 52% |
| Denmark | 51.1% |
| Malaysia | 50.7% |
| Singapore | 50.1% |
| Netherlands | 50.1% |
| U.K. | 50% |
| U.S.A. | 49.9% |
| Italy | 49.6% |
| Hong Kong | 49.2% |
| New Zealand | 49.2% |
| Canada | 47.5% |
| Taiwan | 47.4% |
| Switzerland | 45.9% |
| Belgium | 45.9% |
| Greece | 44.2% |
| Saudi Arabia | 43.8% |
| France | 43% |
| Colombia | 41.8% |
| Indonesia | 41.2% |
| South Korea | 41.1% |
| Japan | 41% |
| Germany | 37.5% |
| Austria | 37% |
| Czechia | 37% |
| Mexico | 36.2% |
| Morocco | 30% |
| Poland | 28.8% |
| Romania | 28.3% |
| Thailand | 27.8% |
| India | 20.6% |
| Philippines | 20.4% |
| Egypt | 19.3% |
| Vietnam | 13% |
| South Africa | 12.5% |
| Ghana | 7.4% |
| Kenya | 6% |
| Nigeria | 5.2% |
| China | 0.2% |
The worldwide average for ad reach eligibility is only 21.1%, which isn’t exactly encouraging. However, many countries have an eligibility rate above 50% (17 countries).
Even in the US, the eligibility rate is 49.9% as of January 2023. Make of that what you will, but around 50% of the US Instagram population will see your ads and will be able to act on them.
All in all, Instagram is one of the best social media platforms for marketing in 2023. There’s a lot of user-generated content, and the influencer ecosystem is at its peak.
5. WeChat
WeChat is one of the biggest tech companies in China and has completely transformed over the years. What was initially a messaging platform like WhatsApp became an “everything platform“.
You can do pretty much anything on it, including groceries, baking, money transfer, paying bills, shopping, messaging, calling, taxi booking, and more.
Naturally, this makes WeChat incredibly appealing to marketers and companies in all industries. And it’s clear to see why.
Here are a few general stats about WeChat:
- 1.309 billion monthly active users in 2023
- 46.5% of the platform’s ad reach is female
- 53.5% of the platform’s ad reach is male
- It’s the most popular social media app in China and other parts of Asia
- 1.15 billion users worldwide
- Around 78% of people in China are using WeChat
- WeChat users are sending around 45 billion messages daily
In a nutshell, WeChat is a colossal social media platform that’s reached the peak of popularity in China and across borders for some time.
It’s everything Musk wants X (ex-Twitter) to become, the “everything” app. You can do anything you could think of on WeChat.
That’s precisely why marketers from all over the world love the app. It provides endless opportunities to scale your business by offering products/services to customers. And there are customers for anything on WeChat.
You can run ads through the WeChat Moments or on your official WeChat account. You also have access to the numerous WeChat influencers that are just waiting for a brand deal.
Below, I’ll show you the expected growth in the number of WeChat users worldwide from 2018 to 2027:
| Year | Number of WeChat Users | % Change |
| 2018 | 793.28 million | |
| 2019 | 881.53 million | +11.12% from last year |
| 2020 | 986.61 million | +11.92% from last year |
| 2021 | 1.062 billion | +7.64% from last year |
| 2022 | 1.111 billion | +4.61% from last year |
| 2023 | 1.154 billion | +3.87% from last year |
| 2024 | 1.193 billion | +3.37% from last year |
| 2025 | 1.227 billion | +2.84% from last year |
| 2026 | 1.258 billion | +2.52% from last year |
| 2027 | 1.286 billion | +2.22% from last year |
As you can see, WeChat’s user base has been increasing constantly for the past couple of years, and it’s estimated that it will keep increasing in the future.
While it’s true that the percentage increase may become lower over time, that’s to be expected from a platform passing over the 1 billion-user threshold. That’s when the user plateau starts to hit the hardest.
However, I estimate that the platform is still far from reaching its true plateau. Facebook has almost 3 billion users worldwide, and I don’t see why WeChat wouldn’t reach those numbers sometime in the future
6. TikTok
TikTok is the most popular short-form video-sharing platform in the world, and nothing comes even close to it. It was the most visited site on the internet as of 2021. It even overtook Google at some point.
Here are a couple of general stats about it:
- The potential ad reach of TikTok is 1.05 billion
- 13.1% is the TikTok ad reach 18+ vs. the total population
- 20.4% is TikTok’s ad reach 18+ vs. the total internet users
- 18.7% is the ad reach 18+ vs. the 18+ population
- TikTok’s ad reach grew by 18.8% (166 million) in the last year and by 11.2% (106 million) in the last quarter leading up to 2023
- 54.1% is the female ad reach on TikTok
- 45.9% is the male ad reach on TikTok
- Most of TikTok’s audience is in the 18-24 age category (21.% female and 17.4% male)
The platform has been in continuous growth ever since it was founded, and it keeps getting more and more popular.
In the August 2022 – January 2023 period, for instance, the average number of views for personal accounts was around 30,100. Business accounts had around 17,500 views in the same period.
Another interesting statistic is the gender disparity between male and female content creators. Around 55.3% of them were women and 45% were men. This might be useful for marketers looking for male or female creators for specific audiences.
The most talked-about brand on Twitter in 2022 was Shein, the online fashion and sports retailer. It was mentioned by around 13,400 influencers during that year. The next on the list was Target, with 11,200 influencers.
And one more statistic – 15% of all B2B marketer respondents to a 2022 Statista study said that TikTok is the company with the highest ROI.
TikTokers also spend around 23.5 hours per month on the platform (Android app), which says a lot about the marketing potential of the app.
Last but not least, here’s a list of the most popular TikTok hashtags as of January 2023. These will tell you what’s trending on the platform and give you some ideas of the type of content to create:
| Hashtag | Post Views |
| #FYP | 34,989,700,000,000 |
| #For You | 21,110,700,000,000 |
| #ForYouPage | 13,307,800,000,000 |
| #Viral | 12,937,400,000,000 |
| #TikTok | 4,276,800,000,000 |
| #Trending | 3,059,800,000,000 |
| #Duet | 3,011,200,000,000 |
| #Funny | 2,613,300,000,000 |
| #Comedy | 1,893,300,000,000 |
| #Trend | 1,632,100,000,000 |
| #Humor | 1,527,600,000,000 |
| #Greenscreen | 1,242,200,000,000 |
| #Anime | 1,131,600,000,000 |
| #Love | 1,014,600,000,000 |
| #Stitch | 947,000,000,000 |
| #Meme | 756,000,000,000 |
| #POV | 710,000,000,000 |
| #Football | 709,600,000,000 |
| #Explore | 599,300,000,000 |
| #Like | 533,700,000,000 |
| #Dance | 519,800,000,000 |
| #BTS | 497,800,000,000 |
| #LearnOnTikTok | 476,400,000,000 |
| #Food | 439,100,000,000 |
| #Memes | 416,600,000,000 |
| #GreenscreenVideo | 405,200,000,000 |
| #Video | 394,000,000,000 |
| #Art | 378,300,000,000 |
| #Gaming | 371,700,000,000 |
| #Minecraft | 367,700,000,000 |
Yeah, you didn’t read the numbers wrong. The first hashtag on the list has over 34 trillion post views. Clearly, TikTok is getting a lot of traction for its hashtags.
Here’s a list of the most popular industries/niches based on the hashtags above:
- Viral/trending content
- Entertainment/funny content
- Anime content
- Football content
- Dancing and BTS-related content
- Food content
- Art content
- Gaming content
- Minecraft content
They’re in descending order, from the most popular (according to the hashtags) to the least popular. Remember that the “least popular” (Minecraft) still has 367 billion post views.
It seems that TikTok focuses a lot on the entertainment/artistic niches, and the number of views it pulls is insane. You shouldn’t pass on the opportunity to lay out some ads on the platform.
It’s also estimated that the number of Boomers (people born 1946-1964) using TikTok has grown by 164%, likely because of the many viral trends and apps.
You should remember one thing, though – TikTok thrives on short, bite-sized content. So, no matter your niche, make sure you compress your content into engaging short clips.
Ideally, you should be able to add music or some type of entertainment-type element to the videos. And make sure you follow the trends. They’re your guiding light to building a solid audience.
7. Telegram
Alright, listen.
Don’t discount Telegram just because it’s not a traditional social media platform. Just like WhatsApp, Telegram excels at offering customer support on a 24/7 basis.
In fact, companies are already incorporating Telegram in their customer support strategy. Plus, the platform had over 700 million active Telegram users back in November 2022, a 40% increase from April 2022.
Here’s why Telegram is great for customer support:
- You can reply to customers quickly
- It has a user-friendly interface
- It has a secure messaging system (end-to-end encryption)
- Wide range of customization options
- Option to automate customer service replies for FAQs
- File flexibility, which means that users can share photos, videos, files, and other formats for a faster solution to their problem
- Grouping options, which lets you maintain contact with your customers and offer accessible customer support to multiple individuals at once. The group limit is 200,000 people, which should be more than enough for a close-knit community
And unlike WhatsApp, Telegram’s privacy policy is still worth its salt. Any data and/or information on Telegram stays there, encrypted in the chats.
One of the best things about using Telegram for customer service is AI, though. You can automate customer service using AI chatbot technology. This will free up your customer support team to tackle more complex issues, while the chatbot replies to FAQs and basic questions.
Let’s see how automating customer services through Telegram can help your business:
- Saving Resources: With AI, you not only reply faster and ensure accuracy but you’re freeing up your human employees for more complicated tasks. This saves time and money by allowing you to focus less on customer support and more on other aspects of your business
- Personalized Support: With the emergence of ChatGPT and similar AI tools, it’s no longer a dream to offer personalized automated customer support. Imagine an AI customer support tool that learns from past conversations and offers usable solutions on the spot. The AI can even be trained from past customer interactions
- 24/7 Availability: Telegram lets you reply to customer requests instantly on a 24/7 basis. And today’s customers are used to receiving instant replies online. To build loyalty and trust with them, you should ensure that your customer service is available 24/7
- AI that Learns: With every customer conversation, the AI chatbot can learn and improve its responses, leading to better interactions in the future
There are plenty of reasons for any business to use Telegram for customer support. Especially if you employ AI automation.
8. Snapchat
We’re coming back to traditional social media platforms now. Snapchat has around 557,000,000 monthly active users? But take a look at the general stats for a better context:
- Total ad reach on Snapchat is 634.8 million
- 7.9% is the ad reach vs. the total population on the globe
- 12.3% is the ad reach vs. the total internet users on the globe
- 51% is the female ad reach on Snapchat
- 48% is the male ad reach on Snapchat
- Snapchat gained 78 million new users in the last year and 59 million alone in the last quarter (a 10.3% increase from last quarter)
- 10.1% is Snapchat’s ad reach vs. the total 13+ population
Snapchat emphasizes visual content, with both photos and short videos making up the core content of the platform. There are countless content creators and influencers on Snapchat too.
In fact, Snapchat popularized the vertical video format before even TikTok appeared. Even though TikTok is in another league at the moment, Snapchat is still more than worthy of a marketing campaign.
Around 69% of all US teens claim that they’re using Snapchat according to a 2021 Pew Research study. The platform is mostly used by teenagers, so if that’s your target audience, then it’s just right.
Let me show you the number of daily active users on Snapchat from Q2 2014 to Q2 2023, based on the region, so you can get an idea of the platform’s evolution over time.
Here’s the data:
| Period | North America Daily Active Users | Europe Daily Active Users | Rest of the World Daily Active Users |
| Q1 2014 | 26 million | 14 million | 6 million |
| Q2 2014 | 30 million | 18 million | 9 million |
| Q3 2014 | 32 million | 20 million | 11 million |
| Q4 2014 | 35 million | 23 million | 13 million |
| Q1 2015 | 48 million | 27 million | 16 million |
| Q2 2015 | 40 million | 29 million | 18 million |
| Q3 2015 | 44 million | 30 million | 20 million |
| Q4 2015 | 48 million | 34 million | 24 million |
| Q1 2016 | 54 million | 39 million | 29 million |
| Q2 2016 | 61 million | 46 million | 36 million |
| Q3 2016 | 65 million | 49 million | 39 million |
| Q4 2016 | 68 million | 52 million | 39 million |
| Q1 2017 | 71 million | 55 million | 40 million |
| Q2 2017 | 75 million | 57 million | 42 million |
| Q3 2017 | 77 million | 57 million | 44 million |
| Q4 2017 | 80 million | 60 million | 47 million |
| Q1 2018 | 81 million | 62 million | 48 million |
| Q2 2018 | 80 million | 61 million | 47 million |
| Q3 2018 | 79 million | 59 million | 47 million |
| Q4 2018 | 79 million | 60 million | 47 million |
| Q1 2019 | 80 million | 61 million | 49 million |
| Q2 2019 | 83 million | 64 million | 56 million |
| Q3 2019 | 84 million | 65 million | 61 million |
| Q4 2019 | 86 million | 67 million | 64 million |
| Q1 2020 | 88 million | 70 million | 71 million |
| Q2 2020 | 90 million | 71 million | 77 million |
| Q3 2020 | 90 million | 72 million | 87 million |
| Q4 2020 | 92 million | 74 million | 99 million |
| Q1 2021 | 93 million | 77 million | 111 million |
| Q2 2021 | 95 million | 78 million | 120 million |
| Q3 2021 | 96 million | 80 million | 130 million |
| Q4 2021 | 97 million | 82 million | 140 million |
| Q1 2022 | 98 million | 84 million | 150 million |
| Q2 2022 | 99 million | 86 million | 162 million |
| Q3 2022 | 100 million | 88 million | 175 million |
| Q4 2022 | 100 million | 92 million | 183 million |
| Q1 2023 | 100 million | 93 million | 190 million |
| Q2 2023 | 101 million | 94 million | 202 million |
You can see how, in Q1 2019, Snapchat’s audience in the rest of the world started to increase exponentially, outranking North America’s daily active users in one year.
Now, there are exactly twice as many daily active users in the rest of the world as in North America, and around 2.2 times more than in Europe.
Either way, the numbers have kept increasing year after year, and Snapchat appears to only become more popular over time.
The platform’s advertising reach has also increased constantly over the years. Take a look at the table below, showing the increase in ad reach from Q1 2021 to Q1 2023:
| Period | Ad Reach | % Change |
| January 2021 | 498.2 million | |
| April 2021 | 528.2 million | +6% from last period |
| July 2021 | 513.9 million | -2.7% from last period |
| October 2021 | 538.1 million | +4.7% from last period |
| January 2022 | 557.1 million | +3.5% from last period |
| April 2022 | 589.4 million | +5.8% from last period |
| July 2022 | 616.9 million | +4.7% from last period |
| October 2022 | 575.7 million | -6.7% from last period |
| January 2023 | 634.8 million | +10.3% from last period |
Except for two periods when the ad reach dropped a bit, Snapchat’s ad reach kept increasing over the year, reaching 634.8 million in January 2023. There was an increase of 27.4% between January 2021 to January 2023, which is quite a big improvement.
9. Pinterest
Pinterest is another user favorite among socialites these days. The platform has somewhat increased its user base in the past months too.
Here’s an overview of Pinterest as of January 2023:
- 249.7 million total ad reach worldwide
- 3.1% total ad reach vs. worldwide population
- 4.8% total ad reach vs. worldwide internet users
- 4% total ad reach vs. worldwide 13+ population
- 24 million ad reach increase in the last year (+10.6% increase)
- 21 million ad reach decrease in the last quarter prior to January 2023 (-7.8% decrease)
- 76.2% female ad reach vs. total ad reach
- 17.2% male ad reach vs. total ad reach
So, not only is the audience mainly female (in the 25-34 age category) but also most of them are on the platform to find shopping ideas and/or market their products. Pinterest users are also 7 times more likely to buy products that they’ve pinned.
In other words, Pinterest is a platform best suited to market products that are in the following niches:
- Fashion
- Beauty
- Home
- Garden
- DIY
The platform is full of DIY projects across a multitude of niches, and users mainly go there for inspiration on what to buy or for interior design ideas.
The “pinning” functionality allows users to effectively favorite their favorite Pins (Pinterest posts) and share them with their friends. And based on the previous statistic, we now know that pinned products are more likely to be purchased.
Consistency, immediate visual impact, and strong presence are the name of the game here. If your marketing campaign is persuasive and impactful enough, Pinterest can create a lot of engagement and buzz around your brand.
Let me show you Pinterest’s ad reach ranking per country in 2023:
| Country | Total Ad Reach | Ad Reach vs. 13+ Population |
| U.S. | 84,595,000 | 29.4% |
| Brazil | 28,050,000 | 15.7% |
| Mexico | 19,445,000 | 19.2% |
| Germany | 15,875,000 | 21.7% |
| France | 10,650,000 | 19.3% |
| Canada | 8,440,000 | 25.2% |
| Italy | 8,075,000 | 15.3% |
| United Kingdom | 7,610,000 | 13.2% |
| Argentina | 7,090,000 | 19.4% |
| Spain | 7,010,000 | 16.7% |
| Japan | 6,925,000 | 6.2% |
| Colombia | 5,970,000 | 14.1% |
| Poland | 5,420,000 | 15% |
| Netherlands | 4,430,000 | 29% |
| Chile | 3,570,000 | 21.6% |
| Australia | 3,445,000 | 15.5% |
| Belgium | 2,687,000 | 26.8% |
| Portugal | 2,060,000 | 22.6% |
| Romania | 2,005,000 | 11.6% |
| Greece | 1,835,000 | 20% |
The top three countries in the world with the biggest Pinterest ad reach are the US, Brazil, and Mexico. It also seems that the US accounts for the vast majority of Pinterest users in the world.
In terms of eligibility (13+ ad reach), the US comes on top, followed by the Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada. In effect, you’ll have a better performance in countries where the eligibility is higher.
Though, you also need to consider the difference in total ad reach. For instance:
- The Netherlands has 4,430,000 total ad reach for Pinterest, and the 13+ user base accounts for 29%. This means that around 1,284,700 users are above 13 in the Netherlands
- France has 10,650,000 total ad reach for Pinterest, and its 13+ users are around 19.3%. This means that around 2,055,450 users are above 13 in France
This isn’t anything too revolutionary, just a friendly reminder to consider every piece of data before building your marketing strategy.
In any case, Pinterest keeps increasing its user base over time, just like Snapchat. These aren’t massive increases but they add up and most importantly, they’re pretty stable. Just like how companies like them.
I have one last statistic for you – the total number of global visits to Pinterest from November 2022 to April 2023:
| Period | Total Number of Visits to Pinterest |
| November 2022 | 1 billion users |
| December 2022 | 1.04 billion users |
| January 2023 | 1.06 billion users |
| February 2023 | 966.5 million users |
| March 2023 | 1.06 billion users |
| April 2023 | 985.5 million users |
Admittedly, Pinterest’s global visits are a bit erratic but overall, they stay around the 1 billion mark per month. Putting your brand in front of potentially a billion people doesn’t sound shabby, right?
10. Twitter
The reason Twitter is so low on this list is the recent rebranding to X, the multitude of Musk-esque fiascos, and the fact that many advertisers are avoiding it like the plague.
Twitter isn’t what it used to be, especially now that it wants to transform itself from the ground up and become the “everything” app.
However, the future could look bright for X if Musk’s vision for the platform comes true. Imagine that users could do their banking, shop, book cabs, buy their groceries, and more on the platform.
Here’s a technical overview of the platform as of January 2023:
- 556 million total ad reach on Twitter worldwide
- 6.9% total ad reach vs. the worldwide population
- 10.8% total ad reach vs. the worldwide internet users
- 8.9% total ad reach vs. worldwide 13+ population
- 37% female ad reach vs. total ad reach
- 63% male ad reach vs. total ad reach
- 120 million new users in the last year (+27.4% new users)
- 12 million new users in the last quarter leading up to January 2023 (+2.1% new users)
Twitter has a ton of users worldwide. That much is clear. Not only that but the 2022-2023 period was a very successful one, with Twitter having gained 120 million new users.
Now, let me show you the foreseeable change in spending on social media of marketers worldwide in 2023. This Statista study is based on the reports from 1,700 respondents:
| Platform | % Increase | % Stay the Same | % Decrease |
| TikTok | 76% | 20% | 4% |
| YouTube | 57% | 37% | 6% |
| 53% | 43% | 4% | |
| Twitch | 50% | 40% | 11% |
| 46% | 45% | 9% | |
| 46% | 43% | 11% | |
| Amazon | 44% | 47% | 9% |
| 37% | 50% | 12% | |
| Spotify | 37% | 52% | 11% |
| 23% | 47% | 30% | |
| 19% | 53% | 28% |
This study was performed in 2023, and it seems that the majority of marketers (53%) won’t increase or decrease their ad spending yet.
28% said that they would decrease their ad spending, and 19% said they would increase it. Mind you, Twitter has the second-highest number of respondents claiming they would decrease spending, after Facebook.
And remember that this study took place in January 2023, when Musk had barely begun wreaking chaos on the platform.
Now that Twitter officially changed its name to X and reported a change in direction for the platform, I’d warrant many more marketers will limit their ad spending in the near future. To be perfectly honest, X’s situation doesn’t look stellar.
There’s also the problem of ad reach eligibility among Twitter’s users. The vast majority of them are ineligible to see the ads, meaning that ads on Twitter will reach only a share of the population aged 13+
I have a Data Reportal study here that shows how this pans out per country:
| Country | Ad Reach Rate Vs. Population Aged 13+ |
| Worldwide | 8.9% |
| Singapore | 103% |
| Hong Kong | 62.6% |
| Japan | 60.% |
| Saudi Arabia | 54.% |
| Netherlands | 49.4% |
| Ireland | 40.4% |
| U.K. | 40.2% |
| U.A.E. | 37.1% |
| U.S.A. | 33.2% |
| Canada | 31.1% |
| Turkey | 27.1% |
| Spain | 25.8% |
| France | 24.8% |
| Australia | 23.7% |
| Thailand | 23.4% |
| Sweden | 23.4% |
| Norway | 22.4% |
| Chile | 22.1% |
| South Korea | 20.9% |
| Portugal | 20.8% |
| Argentina | 20.6% |
| Malaysia | 20% |
| Germany | 19.3% |
| Belgium | 18.9% |
| Denmark | 18.5% |
| Switzerland | 18.4% |
| New Zealand | 18.1% |
| Taiwan | 17.4% |
| Mexico | 17% |
| Czechia | 15.4% |
| Israel | 15.3% |
| Austria | 14.7% |
| Philippines | 13.7% |
| Brazil | 13.6% |
| Colombia | 13.2% |
| Indonesia | 11.1% |
| Poland | 11.1% |
| Italy | 10.3% |
| Greece | 10.2% |
| South Africa | 8.1% |
| Egypt | 7.3% |
| Vietnam | 5.2% |
| Kenya | 5.2% |
| Ghana | 5% |
| Morocco | 3.6% |
| Nigeria | 3.6% |
| India | 2.4% |
| Russia | 0,6% |
| China | 0.6% |
Only four countries in the world have an ad reach eligibility of over 50% for Twitter – Saudi Arabia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
28 countries have their ad reach eligibility under 20% and 11 of them are under 10%. It’s clear to see that Twitter isn’t particularly good at putting ads in front of users because many of its users are under 13.
11. Reddit
As a disclaimer, Reddit doesn’t accept self-promotion for the most part. Most subreddits enforce this rule, which means that you won’t be able to outright promote your products there.
However, you can still have someone to join a subreddit to answer questions, share tips, offer resources, and participate in discussions to build an audience.
For instance, they could promote your website’s blog section, if you have one. Naturally, that’s not self-promotion but rather sharing helpful resources.
“Coincidentally“, those who end up on your blog section might take a look at the rest of the site and take a gander through your product selection.
Reddit is also great to feel the pulse of the market and find content ideas for the blog section. People are pretty uncensored on Reddit and will give honest opinions.
Reddit brings a lot of eyeballs every month too. Just take a look at this survey from Statista:
| Period | Worldwide Monthly Visits |
| December 2021 | 1.7 billion |
| January 2022 | 1.8 billion |
| February 2022 | 1.8 billion |
| March 2022 | 1.6 billion |
| April 2022 | 1.7 billion |
| May 2022 | 1.7 billion |
Reddit pulls almost 2 billion monthly visits as of May 2022, apparently. It didn’t really increase over the years but it didn’t decrease either.
Plus, the platform is really popular for sharing opinions, finding reviews, and creating discussions around any topic imaginable. And there’s a thread for anything, including your industry.
Most of the traffic on Reddit comes from the US (about 47.89%) and four other European countries:
- United Kingdom – 7.13%
- Canada – 6.98%
- Australia – 4.14%
- Germany – 3.19%
It’s also good to know that many subreddits accept self-promotion as long as it comes naturally in a discussion. Don’t be pushy with your content but actually participate in conversations and be a discussion starter.
Read more about Reddit’s self-promotion policies here. They famously say that “It’s perfectly fine to be a redditor with a website, it’s not okay to be a website with a Reddit account.“
Practice common sense and you’ll be fine. Don’t ask for upvotes on your content, don’t simply post links and leave, and don’t act artificially. You’re a human first and then a promoter.
Reddit is great for initiating conversations about brands and while it’s not a good idea to bring promotional content into these discussions, it’s still good to see what people think. If your brand is popular enough to end up in these conversations, take a look around and see the feedback.
You’ll also hear feedback about your competitors, and whether it’s good or bad, you’ll learn how people interact with your product. After all, the customer is always right.
12. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a bit special as far as social media goes. It’s built with businesses in mind and that is the main target audience.
It’s not so much for traditional marketing but for building trust and stabilizing a reputation in the industry. Professional connections are also not bad.
The right term is “thought leadership“, and it means you’re making your brand known through the values it upholds. At an industry level, reputation matters a lot, both among employees and other businesses.
Here’s a general overview of LinkedIn in 2023:
- 900.2 million ad reach worldwide
- 11.2% ad reach vs. total worldwide population
- 17.5% ad reach vs. total worldwide internet users
- 16% ad reach vs. worldwide population aged 18+
- 92 million new users gained in the last year (+11.4%)
- 43 million new users gained in the last quarter leading up to January 2023 (+5%)
- 43.7% of all LinkedIn users are female and 56.3% are male
The platform looks ripe for the picking of all brands looking to increase their professional exposure. Moreover, LinkedIn keeps getting more popular as the years go by.
Take a look at this chart from Data Reportal showing LinkedIn’s increase in ad reach from 2021 to 2023:
| Period | Ad Reach | % Change |
| January 2021 | 727.7 million | |
| April 2021 | 745.6 million | +2.5% from last period |
| July 2021 | 768.2 million | +3% from last period |
| October 2021 | 790.4 million | +2.9% from last period |
| January 2022 | 808.4 million | +2.3% from last period |
| April 2022 | 828.1 million | +2.4% from last period |
| July 2022 | 849.6 million | +2.6% from last period |
| October 2022 | 857.1 million | +0.9% from last period |
| January 2023 | 900.2 million | +5% from last period |
LinkedIn’s ad reach increased by 23.7% in two years (2021-2023), from 727.7 million to 900.2 million. This could show that:
- Brands and businesses are recognizing en masse the influence that LinkedIn has over their professional and marketing prospects
- LinkedIn is improving its marketing capabilities for brands and businesses
- Users are realizing that LinkedIn is the place to be to build professional connections and advance in their industry
According to Statista, around 48.8% of all US marketers were using LinkedIn for marketing purposes in 2019. And that percentage was expected to grow past 50% by 2021.
Another survey from January 2023 shows that 48% of marketers plan on increasing their use of LinkedIn for marketing purposes, 28% will stay the same, and 22% have no plans on using it.
Given that this study is recent, these changes have already taken place and will bring even more attention to LinkedIn in the near future.
Did you also know that LinkedIn lets you send personalized ads directly to users’ inboxes? You can invest in sponsored content, messaging, dynamic ads, text ads, and a lot more on LinkedIn. Take a look at their page for more information!
16 countries have an ad reach eligibility of over 50% on LinkedIn, and the world average is 16%. By eligibility, I mean users over 18+ who can see your ads. Even Twitter had a world average eligibility of 8.9%, so LinkedIn is in quite a good position.
13. Twitch
Twitch is an odd one on this list because it’s not so much a social media platform as much as a live-streaming platform for gamers. However, the marketing potential on Twitch is insane.
That’s because Twitch has captured the attention of eSports communities and gaming communities from all around the world. Official matches can gather hundreds of millions of eyeballs on their content.
Twitch is the playground for official tournaments to broadcast matches, and every team is sponsored by a certain brand. Subscriptions, sponsorships, donations, everything goes on Twitch.
Even if you don’t involve yourself in official tournament sponsorships, there are countless popular content creators on Twitch that can promote your brand. And they’re quite influential among their followers and viewers.
Here’s an overview of Twitch:
- 140 million monthly active users
- 7.58 million total active streamers
- 1.7 million viewers active now (13 August 2023)
- 33.2 million users in the US
- 5.71 billion hours watched worldwide in Q3 2022 on Twitch
- 73% market share of the live streaming apps worldwide in Q1 2022 based on daily active users
- 41% of Twitch users are ages 16-24 and 32% are ages 25-34
Think of Twitch as another YouTube focused entirely on gaming. And we all know just how popular and successful the gaming industry is.
Let me paint a clearer picture for you, just to understand how big the eSports gaming industry is. So far, ever since eSports was launched, they awarded 1,618,045,508.52 USD. That’s 1.6 billion dollars awarded as prizes.
Where do you think that prize money comes from? That’s right, sponsors. Brands and businesses who provide the prize money in exchange for promoting themselves throughout the matches. This isn’t anything new. It’s being done at every level of the sports industry.
It’d be a good idea to jump in on the action if your brand is compatible with the gaming community and if you have enough to invest. The ROI should be attractive enough.
To Conclude…
These are the most important social media platforms for marketing in 2023 and there are good reasons to use some or all of them for marketing purposes.
Some are more specialized (Twitch, LinkedIn, Pinterest), while others offer more general marketing opportunities (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.)
I hope you’ll find the information presented here helpful and leave a comment below if you have any questions or feedback!
Sources
- Disruptive Advertising – Be In the Know: Ecommerce Statistics You Should Know
- Whizcase – Social Media Analysis: Most Important Trends of 2023
- Data Reportal – Digital 2023: Global Overview Report
- Facebook Q4 2020 Conference Call Transcript
- Facebook – Insights to Go
- TubeFilter – YouTube Viewers Now Watch More Than 1 Billion Hours of Content Each Day
- Statista – Distribution of YouTube Users Worldwide as of January 2023, by Age Group and Gender
- WhatsApp – Customer Stories
- Statista – Number of WhatsApp Business Monthly Active Users (MAU) Worldwide in 2020 and 2023
- Statista – Number of WhatsApp Business Downloads Worldwide from 2018 to 2022
- 99Firms – WeChat Statistics
- Statista – Number of WeChat Users Worldwide from 2018 to 2027
- CBSNews – TikTok Tops Google as the Most Visited Website on the Internet
- Statista – Average Number of Views Per Video Posted on Social Video App TikTok from August 2022 to January 2023, by Account Type
- Statista – Distribution of TikTok Creators Worldwide as of September 2022, by Gender
- Statista – Leading Brands on TikTok Worldwide in 2022, by Number of Influencers Mentioning Them
- Statista – Social Media Platforms with the Largest Return on Investment (ROI) According to B2B Marketers Worldwide as of October 2022
- Hubspot – The Fastest Growing Social Media Platforms of 2023 [New Data]
- Statista – Number of Monthly Active Telegram users Worldwide from March 2014 to November 2022
- Wired – WhatsApp’s New Privacy Policy Just Kicked In. Here’s What You Need to Know
- Aivo – Telegram for Customer Service: Best Practices and Use Cases
- Pew Research – 10 Facts About Americans and Facebook
- Newsroom – Pinterest Takes the Best of Offline Shopping and Brings It Online
- Statista – Worldwide Visits to Pinterest.com from November 2022 to April 2023
- Statista – Planned Changes in Spending on Digital Platforms According to Marketers Worldwide in 2023
- Statista – Worldwide Visits to Reddit.com from November 2022 to April 2023
- Statista – Regional Distribution of Desktop Traffic to Reddit.com as of April 2023 by Country
- Reddit – Self Promotion
- Buffer – How to Become a Thought Leader on LinkedIn
- Statista – Share of Marketers Using LinkedIn for Marketing Purposes in the United States from 2017 to 2021
- Statista – Planned Changes in Use of Selected Social Media for Marketing Purposes Worldwide as of January 2023
- Business LinkedIn – Marketing Solutions
- Statista – Market Share of Leading Live Streaming Apps Worldwide from 1st Quarter 2020 to 1st Quarter 2022, by Daily Active Users
- Business of Apps – Twitch Revenue and Usage Statistics (2023)
- eSports Earning
