A study of major social media companies and the advertising that runs on them found that Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn run the most ads when considering the percentage of posts on users’ feeds, and that each of these platforms show users more ads than Twitter and TikTok combined.
The survey, which was conducted by wireless plan search engine WhistleOut, analyzed more than 8,750 social media posts on 175 different personal and professional feeds. In its survey, the company asked social media users about their habits, including how they interact with paid posts and how much time they spend on each social media platform.
The study found that Facebook and its subsidiary show more ads on average to users than the other major social media platforms. Facebook newsfeeds consist of 21.2 percent ads, followed by Instagram feeds which are 20.6 percent ads. In third place is LinkedIn, with 19.6 percent ads. Twitter follows at 14.2 percent ads while on TikTok, users’ feeds were just 2.4 percent ads. The study also looked at peak ad saturation—the maximum percentage of ads the analysis measured platforms showing users—and found that Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn all tied at 42 percent, or approximately four ads in 10 posts.
WhistleOut’s analysis found that interacting with ads does not affect the rate at which they are shown on users’ feeds. However, reporting ads may, as survey respondents who report ads see roughly five percent more ads than those who do not. On Instagram, at least, the rate of ads tends to go up for users who spend more time on the platform. WhistleOut proposes that the platform could be banking on the fact that these users love it enough to tolerate a few more ads in their feeds. Incidentally Instagram users spend the most time on the platform among the others studied (52 minutes).
Click here for more information on the study and its findings.
