Dive Brief:
- Instagram's video engagement numbers rose 53% in May from a year earlier, according to data from NewsWhip cited by eMarketer. This surpasses the 46% growth rate for photos on the platform.
- Despite the growth, photos still generate higher engagement levels — more "likes" and comments — than videos on Instagram, per NewsWhip.
- Along with posting more video content, according to eMarketer, many publishers are turning to video ads on the visually based platform to reach its audience of 700 million active monthly users. Dentsu Aegis Network estimates that global video ad spending will jump 25.4% in 2018.
Dive Insight:
With mobile users a significant driving force behind the adoption of video content, marketers are beginning to invest more of their budgets in video ads on social media, per a June 2017 survey by Animoto. A Sensor Tower study found that as of August 2016, just 25% of Instagram's ads were video.
The NewsWhip report also found that Instagram engagement for major publishers like Turner Broadcasting System's Bleacher Report and CNN rose in the past year with increases as high as 687% for BuzzFeed News and 422% for Fox News. Along with that, many publishers began posting more video content than in previous years. Sports Illustrated, for instance, posted eight Instagram videos in May 2016 and 325 in May 2017. This figure demonstrates a significant shift as publishers take note of video's appeal to Instagram users.
The social media platform has also made changes to make video advertising more attractive to publishers, including extending their maximum length from 30 seconds to 60 seconds in February 2016 to allow for more flexibility and creativity. In January, it debuted its popular Stories feature to full-screen autoplay video ads.
