Instagram is proving more attractive to advertising agencies than Twitter, according to a new survey from Strata, a unit of Comcast.

A survey of 83 advertising agencies by Strata to discover which social platform their clients preferred for social media campaigns found that Instagram was the most popular. Facebook was the outright favorite, cited by 96%, which was to be expected, followed by YouTube (68%).

But, in terms of the next most popular, Instagram ousted Twitter for the first time. Nearly two-thirds (63%) cited Instagram as their social platform of choice compared to 56% who said they would use Twitter.

“We’re seeing almost all of our clients shifting if not all of their budgets, then most of their budgets from Twitter to Instagram,” Chris Gilbert, senior social strategist at digital agency Kettle, told Reuters. “Marketers typically want to be where the audience is.”

The reason for the shift is due, in part, to Instagram’s larger user-base and thanks to its use of Facebook ad technology which enables advertisers to target highly specific audiences.

According to Reuters, Twitter has rejected the findings of Strata’s survey saying that they “have close relationships with our agency clients and continue to hear that Twitter offers the most powerful creative canvas”.

Social spend is on the rise overall with 17% of agencies saying they will allocate up to a quarter of their budgets on social, up 76% on the last quarter. Social media also moved into the top spot for digital spend at 77% of agencies, a 28% increase over last quarter to overtake display (73%).

Article Written By:  Helen Leggatt of BizReport