The Rise of Reels: Is Instagram Better than TikTok?

Welcome to 2024, where social media rules the world (along with some generative AI, of course). But with Facebook mostly in the rearview mirror, Twitter’s rocky transition to X, and the “tic-tac-toe” attack on TikTok, Instagram just might be the new go-to for social media marketing.

While “Threads,” Meta’s newest imitation integration (a near-exact copy of Twitter/X) has teetered on irrelevance, Instagram’s Reels are in place to overtake TikTok.

In a new report from Zoomd, 79% of marketers choose Instagram over TikTok, putting 75% of their budgets on Instagram. While TikTok remains a social force to be reckoned with, it appears the marketing world is honing in on IG.

A Brief History: Instagram & TikTok

Back when Instagram joined the social media scene in 2010, it was the first platform to successfully focus solely on photo content. This novelty earned Instagram over a million users in its first two months, fast growing to today’s two billion monthly users.

We’ve come a long with since the sepia-filtered, square-cropped app of yesteryear. With Meta’s 2012 $1 billion acquisition of Instagram came changes–largely, changes made by Meta to keep up with competing social platforms.

Enter 2020: the Reel. Instagram’s answer to TikTok, Reels started as a nearly exact copy of TikTok’s interface. 

All the while, TikTok was enjoying a meteoric rise on the social media landscape. That flame, however, has wavered in the face of US legislation to potentially ban the popular platform.

What’s Next: TikTok vs. Instagram Marketing

We can’t blame TikTok’s recent tumult for marketing’s focus on Reels, as Zoomd’s study was published in early 2024, pre-legislative issues. So the real question is why Instagram is superior to marketers–and how that affects your social media marketing strategy.

Zoomd CMO Omri Argaman told Marketing Dive, “I believe the preference for Instagram is a reflection of the user acquisition KPIs achieved via Instagram and the combined impact of Meta’s ad solutions for mobile marketers.” TLDR; Meta has better ads and people seem to like it more (despite any recent skepticism on such matters).

So, sure–Meta has the data to target our consumer brains and, yes, it’s working. But TikTok has evolved into a new beast, particularly amid Gen Zers. Some data suggests around half of the generation is more apt to use TikTok as a search engine. That may be more of a blow to Google than to the future of Instagram but, still.

Gen Z is infamous for rooting out the latest trends, so perhaps they’re the group we should be watching most closely across social media. And perhaps more of our marketing dollars should go into TikTok. 

Or, perhaps TikTok will be banned anyway. Stay tuned.