In the battle between Twitter and Facebook in terms of ad performance, Facebook is only just leading the way, research from Wordstream has found.
Wordstream compared the two social giants across four platforms ahead of the Twitter IPO: network reach, ad performance, mobile ad performance and ad formats.
Network reach
Facebook was found to top both in terms of the number of active users and the number of daily shares.
Ad performance
In terms of revenue per visit (RPV), Facebook stands at $0.93 compared to $0.44 for Twitter. However,
recent research from Adobe found that Twitter’s RPV is up 300 per cent year on year, while Facebook’s RPV has only improved by 39 per cent. It was discovered that the average click through rate (CTR) has higher on Twitter, but the share of socially referred visits was much higher on Facebook.
Mobile ad performance
In terms of the mobile market, Facebook owns 15.8 per cent of the market share, compared to the 1.58 per cent owned by Twitter. However more of Twitter’s ad revenue comes from mobile (50 per cent) than for Facebook, which Wordstream puts down to the fact that Twitter ads show up in the timeline rather than down the side, for those using the mobile site on their phone.
Ad formats
Facebook recently looked to simplify its advertising formats, cutting the options available and
standardising the format. However, the options provided by Facebook are still a lot bigger than those provided by Twitter; which include promoted tweets and trends.Both, Wordstream says, are ‘lacking when it comes to tracking, measurement, and analytics’. The report suggested that both Facebook and Twitter are good for big advertising and engaging with fans, but both have a way to go when it comes to lead generation marketing.