Social media advertising trends change over time. In 2023, we’ll also observe many of these changes taking place as new trends replace the old ones.

Let’s find out what social media advertising trends businesses and content creators need to be aware of in 2023.

Facebook Is No Longer the Best Place for Advertising

Between 2012 to 2016, Facebook was arguably the biggest social media platform for advertisers. Even today, it’s seen as a big player in this arena, but Facebook is no longer seen as the best place for advertising as it once was. 

The Cambridge Analytica Scandal was one of the main reasons that forced many users to leave the platform for the sake of their own privacy. However, advertisers were leaving Facebook for a different reason, and it has a lot to do with the social media giant’s content. 

Facebook fails to ensure the standard and quality of its content. At the same time, it fails to monitor the content properly, which leads to ads often being misplaced or placed on videos that are otherwise poor content-wise and, at times, downright offensive. 

This is a problem that plagued YouTube in 2015 and 2016, something they have managed to overcome in recent years. Facebook, however, is now struggling to bring advertisers onto its platform. 

To mimic YouTube’s recent success with advertisements, Facebook, too, is pushing more video content to its users. This, sadly, isn’t working at the moment as advertisers are more comfortable with placing ads on YouTube than on Facebook.

YouTube Is Becoming Bigger Than Facebook in Terms of Ad Revenue Generation

YouTube, right now, is one of the most family-friendly social media platforms on the internet. If you’re a content creator making YouTube videos, you can’t put anything on your YouTube channel that’s considered offensive, violent, spreading hateful remarks, etc. 

Even if your videos include any of these elements for whatever reason, you at least need to have a disclaimer at the start of the video and restrict it for kids under a certain age. Otherwise, you can simply say goodbye to whatever ad revenue you could’ve gotten from those videos. 

This strict content moderation is what has helped YouTube become bigger than Facebook at the moment in terms of ad revenue generation. Content creators even avoid mentioning keywords like “war,” “shooting,” etc., on the platform that might demonetize their videos. 

The more family-friendly their content is, the more money they can make from the ad market on YouTube. This is why they, too, push for more family-friendly content these days, ditching the edgy content that YouTube was once known for. 

YouTube’s CPM is slightly higher than Facebook’s CPM, and for a good reason. Of course, Facebook still generates more impressions on its videos than YouTube. However, YouTube provides content creators more money compared to Facebook. That’s why creators are moving away from Facebook and posting more on YouTube. 

Advertisers are aware of this, which is why they, too, are becoming less and less eager to push ads on Facebook and are instead opting for YouTube since family-friendly content always allows advertisers to place different types of ads on such content. 

Instagram Will Continue Promoting Reels and Video Content

Instagram Reels are some of the most popular forms of video content on the internet right now. People can literally spend hours scrolling through these reels, and they’ll never get bored of them. The diversity offered by Instagram also deserves praise as the platform has been found to accurately promote Reels that the users will find interesting. 

Because they’re such a big hit, advertisers are also jumping in and posting ads in between these Reels. It’s one of the best ways to advertise on social media at the moment, and advertisers are taking full advantage of it. 

Bite-Sized Content Will Rule Social Media Platforms

Reels are bite-sized videos. If advertisers have learned anything from these Reels and how TikTok became so popular, it’s that bite-sized content is here to stay. This is why this type of content will rule social media platforms for years to come, and at the same time, advertisers will be interested in placing ads alongside this type of content.  

TikTok and Instagram are already leading the charge when it comes to bite-sized video content. Facebook, too, is doing its best to catch up. YouTube Shorts is also in the game. Thus, it’s easy to see how this type of content is revolutionizing social media at the moment.  

The trends discussed above are just a few of the many that will be seen throughout 2023. Over the next few months, there might be more new trends, or we might go back to some of the older ones. Only time will tell which direction these social media platforms will drift toward.