Top 10 Social Media Marketing Statistics to Know for 2022
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Over the past decades, social media has gained popularity at an exponential rate, reaching 4.74 billion global users in 2022. Nearly 59.3% of the world’s population uses social media, making it one of the most opportune channels for marketing.
This has led to a lot of businesses opting for a social media-first marketing strategy. It’s a welcome change from traditional media that tends to cost more and require greater effort.
Opening the door to more customers at a fraction of the cost, social media marketing is bound to grow further as companies devise new strategies to reach audiences.
We gathered the most important social media marketing statistics to show how its scope changed in 2022, and give you an idea of the trends to watch for 2023.
Let’s dive right in.
1. 92.1% of U.S. companies with over 100 employees utilized social media marketing in their marketing strategies in 2022 (Source)
This includes the use of any public-facing social media tool, including social sites, blogs, photo or video-sharing tools, podcasts, and more.
While entertainment is one of the main reasons people use social media, companies have learned that it’s a powerful tool for connecting people. Social media has become one of the easiest ways for marketers to connect with current and potential customers.
Since use of social media marketing has increased each year since 2013, this trend is on track to continue in 2023.
According to Statista, almost 63% of global marketers strongly agree that social media is important to their business.
What most marketers struggle with in social media marketing is assessing its overall effect on the cumulative marketing strategy.
However, there are plenty of attribution tools that allow marketers to measure success, such as HubSpot, Active Campaign, and C3 Metrics.
These attribution software allow social media consultants and marketers to provide accurate ROI information to upper management, while also figuring out how to maximize returns in the future.
2. 85% of marketers believe their social media marketing efforts have led to increased exposure across online mediums (Source)
Meanwhile, 75% of marketers believed their social media efforts have led to increased traffic. In addition to that:
- 66% of marketers believe their social media efforts generated leads
- 58% of marketers believe social media helped develop loyal fans
- 57% of marketers believe it led to improved sales
Increased exposure and traffic have been the primary results of social media efforts for the last 8 years.
At the very least, social media tends to help improve engagement. It’s also a great way to build connections with customers and prospects.
At the same time, social media proves to be a great place for audience research, determining what users want, and allowing brands to create more personalized experiences.
3. Worldwide social media ad spending is estimated to be $226 billion in 2022 with a CAGR of 11.24% (Source)
Based on the current annual growth rate, social media ad spending is set to increase in 2023 and reach a market volume of $385 billion by 2027.
In 2022 alone, the average ad spending growth was 23.2%.
Ad spending in the U.S. is expected to make up a major chunk of the global social media ad spend. As of November 2022, the U.S. alone was projected to have a total of $80.67 billion in ad spending by the end of that year.
That means 35.7% of the world’s social media ad spend was done in the United States.
By 2027, the total number of social media users is expected to reach 5.85 billion people. Based on that, social media ad spending is expected to grow and reach more audiences.
Social media advertising on mobile is growing at a much higher rate than ad spending on desktop. By 2027, mobile social media ads are expected to be 6 times more prevalent than social media ads on desktop.
4. Facebook is used by 90% of marketers as a social media marketing platform, followed by Instagram which is used by 79% of marketers (Source)
Among B2B marketers, 95% have used social media content in the last 12 months.
Facebook and Instagram remained the most used social media platforms by marketers in 2022, and they are expected to hold that title into 2023 and potentially beyond. Here’s how other famous social media platforms fare:
- LinkedIn is used by 61% of marketers
- YouTube is used by 52% of marketers
- Twitter is used by 43% of marketers
- TikTok is used by 18% of marketers
- Snapchat is used by 4% of marketers
Furthermore, here are a few notable changes in 2022 compared to 2021:
- TikTok grew from 9% in 2021 to 18% in 2022
- Twitter decreased from 48% in 2021 to 43% in 2022
The report also found that most marketers believe that Facebook is the best social media platform for developing loyal fans.
5. In 2022, 47% of marketers used Facebook as part of their social media marketing strategy, followed by Instagram which was used by 24% (Source)
Despite Facebook being the most used social media platform in 2022, it has seen a steady decline in the last few years, and that decline is expected to continue in 2023.
Keep in mind that a social media presence does not equate to actively marketing on social media. Therefore, while 90% of marketers use Facebook as mentioned in the previous stat, only 47% used it in their social media marketing strategy in 2022.
In any case, while Facebook is being used less, Instagram and LinkedIn are experiencing steady growth.
TikTok is expected to catch up to other social media platforms as companies push to market to younger generations, as 63% of TikTok users are below the age of 29.
Looking into 2023, the report found that 13% of marketers surveyed said they’ll be reducing organic marketing activities on Facebook. Meanwhile, 41% plan to remain at the same level and 41% plan to increase organic activities. The other 5% didn’t plan to use the platform.
6. In Q3 of 2022, social media advertising had a click-through rate (CTR) of only 1.21% worldwide (Source)
Compared to Q3 2021’s 1.3%, the average click-through rate decreased in 2022.
The average Facebook CTR is 1.11%. Here’s how it fares in some common industries:
- Auto: 5%
- E-commerce: 16.8%
- Finance: 5.8%
- Technology/Electronics: 6.8%
- Consumer Services: 9%
The average Instagram ad CTR is 0.22% while the CTR for Instagram Stories is 0.33%.
- Auto: 10.3%
- E-commerce: 19.9%
- Finance: Less than 3%
- Technology/Electronics: 5.1%
- Consumer Services: 3.6%
CTR for other social media platforms:
- LinkedIn Ad CTR: 0.22%
- Twitter Ad CTR: 0.86%
Almost every social media platform experienced a decline in CTR in 2022.
Compared to social media CTR, the average CTR for a display ad was 0.35%, and 1.91% for a search ad. For comparison, here’s a breakdown of CTR for search and display ads in some major industries:
- Auto: 0.41% in display and 2.14% in search
- E-commerce: 0.45% in display and 1.66% in search
- Finance: 0.33% in display and 2.65% in search
- Technology/Electronics: 0.84% in display and 2.38% in search
- Consumer Services: 0.2% in display and 2.4% in search
Every business’s clickthrough rate is dictated by the relevance of their ad to the audience they’re advertising to. Good content marketing is a great way to target the right keyword, complementing your SEO strategy.
7. LinkedIn had the highest social media advertising cost per click (CPC) worldwide at $5.26 at the end of 2022, followed by Instagram’s $3.56 and YouTube’s $3.51 (Source)
The three social media platforms with the next highest CPC included Pinterest at $1.50, Facebook at $0.97, and Twitter at $0.38.
Compared to social media CPC, here’s how some other platforms fared:
- Google Ads (Display) CPC rate: $2.32
- Google Ads (Search) CPC rate: $0.67
- Amazon Ads CPC rate: $0.89
Here’s how Facebook CPC differed compared to some common industries:
- Auto: $2.24
- Apparel: $0.45
- Finance: $3.77
- Technology/Electronics: $1.27
- Consumer Services: $3.08
While Facebook CPC was low, its cost per action (CPA) was much higher at an average of $18.68. Here’s how it differed based on some common industries:
- Auto: $43.84
- Apparel: $10.98
- Finance: $41.43
- Technology/Electronics: $55.21
- Consumer Services: $31.11
Here are some additional details on LinkedIn’s CPC:
- Sponsored Content: On average, the CPC was between $8 to $11. However, targeting small or high-demand audiences increased the average CPC to $15-$20.
- Text and Dynamic Ads: The average CPC was between $3 to $6 for text ads. For dynamic ads, the average CPC was between $6 and $8.
- Sponsored Messaging: The typical CPC was between $25 and $60 with an average of $0.50-$1 per sent message.
When it comes to Instagram, there are two kinds of ads:
- Instagram Feed Ads: The average CPC is $3.35.
- Instagram Stories Ads: The average CPC is $1.83.
Keep in mind that the CPC can change drastically based on your industry and audience. High demand and relatively small audiences tend to have much higher CPCs.
This means the more niche your requirements are, the higher your CPC will be in 2023.
8. 27% of social media marketers considered funny content to have the highest return on investment, followed by interactive content at 17% (Source)
This comes from a Hubspot survey where 310 social media marketers were surveyed about their 2022 strategy. The survey also found that other types of content considered to have the highest return on investment (ROI) include content that reflects brand values at 15%, relatable content at 11%, and informational content at 10%.
While funny content had the highest ROI in 2022, content that reflected the brand’s values was the most popular among marketers. In fact, 95% of marketers who utilized this type of content intended to maintain or increase it moving forward.
Furthermore, 33% of all social media marketers plan to invest more in funny content, while 95% of marketers who utilize it plan to increase or maintain their investment.
As for interactive content, 97% of marketers plan to increase or maintain their investments, and 49% of marketers who haven’t leveraged it before plan to do so for the first time.
Lastly, 39% of social media marketers currently leverage relatable content. Of them, 93% plan to either increase or maintain their current investment in relatable content.
9. Among B2B and B2C marketers in 2022, 77% utilized retargeting ads in their Instagram and Facebook advertising strategies (Source)
In addition to that, 69% of marketers used retargeting in Google ads, followed by:
- Email: 55%
- Twitter Ads: 44%
- LinkedIn Ads: 35%
- Lead Generation: 31%
- Other Paid Ads Channels: 28%
- SEO: 24%
- ABM: 9%
Retargeting was an important part of advertising, as it tends to target bottom-of-the-funnel customers. It not only helps bring back bounced customers, but it also pulls in recurring customers.
Retargeting on social media is equally important because, at times, people need multiple impressions to pull them away from other aspects of social media.
10. The average cost per mille (CPM) for social media ad impressions in Q3 2022 was $8.14, after peaking at $10.52 in Q4 2021 (Source)
The average cost for 1,000 social media impressions stayed relatively consistent throughout 2022. It started at $8.33 in Q1, then rose to $8.82 in Q2, and then settled down to $8.15 in Q3, according to the most recent data from Statista.
However, in Q3 2021 the CPM was more than a dollar higher at $9.53 before rising to a peak of $10.52 for Q4 2021.
It’s typical for the average CPM to increase at the end of the year around major events like Christmas. A massive increase in the demand for ads leads to higher costs per ad.
That means the same number of social media impressions ends up costing more.
However, while the average CPM increases, the clickthrough rate also improves, as seen in stat #6.
Digital Growth Through Social Media Marketing
Effective digital growth of a business and brand in 2023 will require continuous digital growth across various online channels. A collective effort in social media marketing, SEO, content marketing, PPC, and email marketing is essential for scaling businesses.
To do that, it’s best to invest in an agency or consultant like EBS that can offer all the necessary services under one roof.
Since social media marketing needs to be in sync with other marketing efforts, it’s always a better idea to invest in a single agency.