100+ Social Media Marketing Statistics Every Marketer Must Know

In today's digital landscape, operating without data is like marching into battle blindfolded. Every click, like and share offers valuable intel about your prospects and customers, if you know how to look for it.  

But it's not enough to “have an idea of your audience.” Today, market leadership hinges on hard facts that help you understand your audience's deepest social desires, their online personas and the emotions that keep them scrolling. This is where social media marketing statistics help.  

You can study social media marketing statistics and use them to draw insights on industry trends and create successful marketing campaigns for your business. As such, today, we’ll be highlighting 100+ social media marketing statistics that every marketer must be informed about. 

Why are social media marketing statistics important? 

Social media marketing statistics inform your social media strategy better. Here's how they help: 

• Make well-informed decisions: They help you choose the right platform for your particular goals, personalize your content for better engagement and optimize your campaigns’ impact.  
• Benchmark your progress: They help track your performance against industry standards and identify areas that need improvement. 
• Anticipate trends: They give you a download of relevant trends so you can predict changes in user behavior and platform usage.  
• Allocate budgets wisely: You can use statistics around industry metrics to make a business case to stakeholders for specific social media investments. 

Social media user statistics 

• The global social media penetration rate currently is 62.3%.  
• With a social media penetration rate of 81.7%, Nothern Europe leads the world in social media usage.  
• As of January 2024, 5.35 billion people worldwide used the internet. 
• Out of the 5.35 billion people, 5.04 billion individuals, or 62.3% of the world's population, use social media today. 
• 5.85 billion users will be active on social media by 2027.   
• 75% of those aged 13+ use social media in some shape or form.  
• 69% of online shoppers in North America, who frequently browse Meta platforms, ended up buying products after viewing customized content on Facebook or Instagram. 
• The global monthly user base of X (formerly Twitter) is expected to shrink by 5.1% in 2024. 
• 54% of teens confessed that quitting social media would be difficult, according to a survey by Pew Research Centre. 
• 85% of US online shoppers said they are open to discovering new products online. 
• 60% of marketing professionals admitted that they found it hard to quantify the ROI from social media marketing.  
• 61% of US online shoppers said they are more likely to try new brands or products because social media suggested it.  

Social media platform statistics  

• Facebook reigns supreme among social media platforms with 3.065 billion monthly active users.  
• YouTube comes in second place with 2.5 billion monthly active users.  
• Both Instagram and WhatsApp have at least 2 billion monthly active users each. 
• Facebook boasts 2.037 billion daily active users. 
• The Power User Curve indicates that 29% of TikTok's active installs saw daily opens, which is the second-highest engagement rate behind 39% for Instagram. 
• 56.8% of Facebook users globally are male, while 43.2% are female. 
• Young men (25-34) make up 20% of Facebook's global users. Teen girls (13-17) are the least represented Facebook user demographic.  
• On average, users dedicated 19.7 hours per month to using the Facebook app in 2022. 
• India has the biggest Facebook user base, with nearly 378.05 million users, while the US, Indonesia and Brazil have 193.8 million, 119.05 million, and 112.55 million users, respectively. 
• The typical fan engagement rate for a post on a Facebook page is 0.06%, as of 2023. 
• 1 billion stories are shared on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp daily. 
• 68% of people use the stories feature on three or more apps at least once a week.  

Generational statistics: Millennials and Gen Z-ers 

• 54% of Gen Z-ers use social media for more than four hours per day, according to Morning Consult. 
• 69% of Millennials prefer to use Facebook, while only 37% of Gen Z use the platform. Turns out, Gen Z-ers are big fans of TikTok and Instagram. 
• X (formerly Twitter) is preferred by millennials more than Gen Z-ers. 
• Around 50.6% of LinkedIn users fall in the 25-34 age range, with only 3.8% of users being 55 or older. 
• Instagram, YouTube and Facebook are popular channels preferred by Gen Z-ers and Millennials for brand marketing content, according to YPulse data. 
• YPulse's Social and Mobile Marketing Preferences research also indicates that young consumers are 63% more receptive to viewing advertisements on YouTube, with Instagram and Facebook following closely behind. 
• According to a 2022 Statista research study, nearly 70% of Gen Z-ers and 90% of Millennials in the US bought a product that they had seen before on social media. 
• 59% of Gen Z-ers claim they utilize short-form video applications to find content that they eventually watch the longer versions of. 

Time spent on social media  

• An average user spends 2 hours and 23 minutes a day on social media, as highlighted in a recent DataReportal article. 
• More than 1/3rd of our total mobile time is spent on social media apps. 
• The average TikTok session time has increased, with each user spending 3 hours and 46 minutes more than before, per month.  
• Average Instagram time has grown by 4 hours per person, per month.  
• The time users spend watching Snapchat's Spotlight content surged by 55% in 2022, as compared to the previous year. 
• As of 2023, DataReportal suggests that TikTok has the longest average user-session duration of any social media platform, globally.  
• Viewers spend more than an hour a day on TikTok, whereas they spend about 54 minutes on YouTube’s Android app.  

User-generated content (UGC) statistics 

• 35% of Millennials find user-generated content (UGC) more memorable than sponsored content.  
• 79% of consumers believe that UGC affects their buying decisions immensely. 
• Consumers find UGC 9.8 times more impactful than influencer content when making a purchasing decision.  
• Brands save 50% on cost-per-click (CPC) when they use user-generated content in social media ads.  
• YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Instagram Reels created by influencers rake in billions of views.  
• 50% of TikTok content creators had 1000-5000 followers in 2021. Less than 1% claimed to have over one million followers.  
• 86% of businesses use user-generated content (UGC) in their marketing strategies to interact with potential consumers.  
• Brands that leverage UGC in their marketing plan witness 29% higher conversions than those who don’t, which demonstrates its persuasive power.  
• Millennials say they are influenced by UGC 6.6 times more than brand-generated content.  

Instagram Stories statistics 

• Roughly 60% of millennials publish or watch Instagram Stories.
• In the US, marketers typically allocate about 31% of their Instagram marketing budgets to Stories.  
• 67% of users have reportedly clicks on links in branded Stories. 
• Instagram Stories are used by 36% of businesses in their marketing strategies to promote products.  
• Instagram Stories now has a language translation feature that supports over 90 different languages. 
• 58% of Instagram users claim to have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories. 
• 50% of businesses on Instagram worldwide created at least one story during a typical month.   
• Roughly 60% of millennials publish or watch Instagram Stories. 
• Instagram Stories’ ad revenue rose to $20.03 billion in 2023. 

Mobile-centric social media statistics 

• 91% of social media users use mobile devices to access social media platforms. 
• Over 98% of Facebook users accessed the platform via mobile in 2021, highlighting the importance of mobile-optimized content. 
• 82% of purchases made through social media happened on mobile devices in 2022, according to Business of Apps. 
• The global spending on social media ads on mobile devices hit $186 billion in 2022; by 2026, this number is expected to rise to $300 billion. 
• 94.8% of Gen Z internet users use their mobile devices to access social media.  
• In 2022, TikTok had the highest number of downloads globally, totaling 672 million, with Instagram and WhatsApp getting 548 and 424 million downloads. 
• Mobile users browse YouTube twice as many times as desktop users. 

The power of connection via social media 

• About 75% of internet users access social media to research product offerings by brands. 
• 91.9% of US marketers in companies with over 100 employees were expected to use social media for marketing purposes in 2021. 
• According to a joint study by PYMNTS-AWS, of the 77 million customers who use Facebook to explore products and read reviews, 24% go on to buy something as a result of their research.  
• Similarly, 21% of the 57 million consumers who use Instagram to browse products and read reviews also buy something as a result of their research.  
• Third place goes to TikTok, where 39 million users browse products and reviews, and 17% go on to make a purchase. 
• 77% of people on X (formerly Twitter) say they have a better opinion of a brand when the brand's X account responds to their post. 

Social media customer experience statistics 

• 71% of consumers are likely to recommend a brand if they had a positive social media experience with it. 
• 62% of millennials are more likely to become loyal customers of brands that engage them on social networking platforms. 
• Customers spend 20–40% more on brands that respond to customer service requests on social media. 
• 40% of consumers want a response from brands within an hour while 79% expect a response within 24 hours.  
• A Pew Research Centre survey found that most teenagers say they feel more connected to their friends (80%), can express themselves creatively (71%), receive support during difficult times (67%) and feel accepted (58%) because of social media. 
• In a 2022 survey, 73% of US participants indicated positive brand perception linked to social media promotions. 26% noted that memes and jokes shared by brands also contributed to this result. 

Learn More: Your ultimate guide to building customer loyalty in 10 easy ways 

Final thoughts 

Social media marketing increases your reach and brand awareness, fosters customer engagement and loyalty, boosts conversions and sales and provides valuable insights with social listening. In fact, social media listening can improve customer satisfaction and reduce customer churn rate significantly.  

To make sure you're equipped to make the most of trends in social media, try Sprinklr Social. Trusted by some of the world's best companies, Sprinklr offers highly sophisticated listening, exceptional channel coverage, enterprise-grade configurability and industry-leading AI. Want to know more about how it can make your brand excel at social media marketing?