The impact of COVID-19 on social media users and brands.

Key findings include a decrease in cost-per-click (CPC) in the regions affected by COVID-19 and a significant increase in the amount of time people spend online during the global pandemic. The report also shows an increasing user engagement rate with influencers who create authentic content that users can identify with - as opposed to influencers who put on a perfect show. The developments described in the report offer brands the opportunity to achieve greater reach with potentially lower advertising spend and to reach an audience that spends more time online.

Users spend more time online

Data from Socialbakers shows that people are spending more time online during the global pandemic due to social distancing. In March, for example, fans of Facebook brand pages in Europe were online longer every day than in previous months. Online activity was highest at 20:00. The biggest difference compared to previous months was recorded at weekends in the evening, as many people would normally have been out with friends at this time. A comparison of the months of February and March shows that online usage time increased by 13.2% on Friday evenings and 14.8% on Saturday evenings.

Lower costs for more range

Five of the six regions analyzed by Socialbakers saw a decrease in CPC in March due to the COVID-19 crisis. The decrease in ad cost per click ranged from 22.1% in South East Asia to 42.4% in Southern Europe. While the overall reach for brand pages on Facebook decreased from mid-March, brands that took advantage of the decrease in advertising costs to promote posts saw an increase in reach of 28.6% (March 13 to April 13).

Recovery in advertising expenditure and CPC

When looking at the various regions around the world, the expected decline in advertising expenditure around public holidays is evident everywhere. After advertising expenditure rose again in some regions at the beginning of the year, it fell back to the level of the public holidays or even below in the first quarter due to the pandemic. East Asia is an exception: Stores reopened and advertising spend has increased by 12.7% since the beginning of March. The CPC also recorded an increase of 30.7% in East Asia last month, returning to fall 2019 levels. Since April, advertising investment and CPC have also been recovering in Western Europe and other regions (see charts below).

"During the pandemic, we have learned how important social media is as a go-to place for consumers to discover content. People have been spending more time on social media to consume content, and at the same time brands have been forced to hold back their budgets in response to economic uncertainty," explains Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO of Socialbakers. "This has created an opportunity for companies to increase reach and engagement at a lower cost and stay in close contact with their target audience."

Change in influencer marketing: authentic content performs better

A development that is most likely also linked to the global pandemic: In the first quarter of 2020, the number of influencers who published promotional posts with the tag #ad or other sponsored hashtags dropped significantly. In March, 11,341 Instagram influencers associated with brands used the hashtag #ad - the lowest number since August 2019.

Another change is the absence of celebrities from the list of top influencers. In the first quarter of 2020, the top influencers were authentic, natural characters who published relatable content and focused on real-life situations. Socialbakers' data suggests that users currently prefer to engage with more authentic content that they can better identify with - perhaps because it conveys the feeling that we are all in the same boat.

Instagram beats Facebook in terms of reach and engagement

One trend that is continuing despite the pandemic is the ongoing success of Instagram. Instagram's total reach is now 28% greater than Facebook's as measured by the top 50 brand profiles on both networks. Engagement is also stronger on Instagram: total interactions are more than 16x higher than on Facebook. Nevertheless, brands still post more content on Facebook. When comparing both platforms, almost 60% of all brand posts from the top 50 profiles were published on Facebook.

You can view the complete report (PDF) with supporting graphics here.