Wondering whether to choose Snapchat or Instagram? Here is a comparison of the five main categories in both apps to help you decide which one is best suited for promoting a business.

Instagram and Snapchat together attract 687 million active users per day. Their large audiences make both apps great platforms for promoting your brand — but if you work at a small company and cannot afford to use both, which one do you choose?

Because both platforms increasingly overlap in features, capabilities and advertising elements, it is hard to tell apart the unique elements that make one better for your business. We can help you with that!

 

1. Active users

Winner: Instagram

Instagram wins on a large scale when it comes to the numbers alone. With 500 million active users per day, Instagram has nearly three times more viewers than Snapchat (which has 187 million active users per day).

But quantity is not everything: 45% of Snapchat users are aged 18-24, and this group spends an average of 40 minutes a day on Snapchat — more time than on Instagram. Nearly half of Snapchat users are not even on Instagram. If you want to target ads to a young demographic, Snapchat may be better for your business.

On the other hand, Instagram essentially caters to an older demographic: 59% of all internet users aged 18-29 use Instagram, including 33% of internet users aged 30 to 49. If your ideal audience is older, or if you have not yet fully established your brand and want to reach as many people as possible, Instagram may be the better solution in the long term.

 

2. Filters

Winner: Snapchat

Although Instagram has tried to create filters almost identical to Snapchat's, the white ghost is still unbeatable. Snapchat is particularly unique when it comes to filter animations: if you use the dog filter on Snapchat, you do not just look like a dog, you also move and react like the animal.

Mic.com confirms that Snapchat's filters are better: "Snapchat has far more filtering options, but Instagram offers a few of the same. For example, the photo-sharing app has its own version of the 'flower crown' filter, but it pales in comparison to Snapchat's."

Snapchat also offers augmented reality effects, something that currently has no equal. For example, you can place dancing hot dogs in your photos and videos from the real world.

 

3. Published Stories

Winner: Instagram

When it comes to design, there are not too many major factors that separate InstaStories from Snapchat Stories. But one important thing is worth noting: when you start viewing one person's Instagram story, you seamlessly move on to the next person's story. This creates a more addictive experience and lets you use the Stories feature for longer.

Most of your Instagram followers will see your story simply because they were already browsing daily stories, which makes it more ideal from a business perspective.

With Snapchat, viewers are asked whether they want to watch the next person's story. Your followers can skip it, and no company wants that.

InstaStories are designed to check whether you watch all of your followers' stories, which is probably why TheAmplify recorded 28% higher viewership on Instagram Stories than on Snapchat Stories.

 

4. Ads

Winner: Instagram

The number of ads on Instagram is undeniably growing: according to Klear, the volume of ads on this platform rose by 28% over six months in 2017.

Instagram ads have also proven to be a valuable investment: at least 30% of Instagram users bought a product they first saw on Insta.

But the main reason Instagram wins is that it offers much cheaper forms of advertising than Snapchat, with an average cost per click of USD 0.70 to USD 1.00. There are more free analytics tools available to measure your success on Instagram. You can also run ads and measure results in Facebook Ads Manager, which is especially convenient if your company uses Facebook as an advertising platform.

By comparison, Snapchat offers no analytics tools other than ads, and those tools are not free: Snaplytics, one Snapchat analytics tool, costs USD 19 per month. Currently, most marketers see Snapchat as an "experimental" advertising opportunity and risk only a small portion of their total marketing budget (most of which goes to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp).

Although marketers have been disappointed with Snapchat as an advertising platform, it is certainly trying to improve its market position. It currently partners with major media companies such as NBCUniversal and allows those producers to sell sponsorships and ad slots in their programs. Snap is also developing commerce capabilities that allow advertisers to sell directly from the platform. So although Snapchat is losing for now, it is certainly putting up a fair fight to regain the advantage in the future.

 

5. Content access

Winner: Instagram

If a customer is considering following a company on social media, they need a preview of its content. If the business is good and offers high-quality material in its images and stories, they probably will not be able to resist.

Instagram is a better discovery tool because it gives your business the option of a public profile, so potential followers can check out your content regardless of whether they have agreed to follow you.

Your Snapchat profile can only be viewed by people who have added you. This barrier can prevent users from adding you on Snapchat, because they cannot preview its content beforehand and essentially do not know what they are signing up for.

In addition, there is not much information on your Snapchat profile. All the snaps and stories you create disappear within 24 hours. On Instagram, followers can find your public profile and see all your posts whenever they want. They can also find important information about your business, including a link to your website or blog and brand details such as opening hours or address. Your Instagram profile can essentially offer much of the information your potential customers expect, which makes the whole process easier when your followers want to make a purchase.

Summary

Instagram wins in four of the five categories compared, leaving Snapchat with the top spot only in the quality and creativity of its filters. Instagram's key advantage lies in its gigantic scale (500 million users per day), public profiles that make brand discovery easier, and cheaper ads (an average of USD 0.70–1.00 per click) with better analytics tools.

However, Snapchat remains a field of opportunity for companies targeting younger audiences (18–24) who spend more time there. Interestingly, Snapchat is not giving up and is experimenting with commerce and media partnerships, including NBCUniversal, as it tries to regain the advantage in the future.