Ukrainian audience on Facebook and Instagram. How it changes, grows, and reacts to ads

PlusOne agency has released a study of the Ukrainian audience on Facebook and Instagram social networks. Analysts examined how it changed, reacted to advertising, and formed a user profile. AIN.UA picked the most interesting points.

Size of the Ukrainian audience

In 2019, there were two significant changes in the size of the audience of Facebook and Instagram in the Ukrainian segment. After the number of users of both platforms peaked in February 2019, Facebook administration has massively deleted fake accounts. Then the number of users of Ukrainian Facebook decreased from 13 to 12 million, and Instagram – from 11 to 10.

However, as of September, the size of the audience had recovered.

• According to the agency, as of September 2019, the Ukrainian Facebook audience was 0.7% of the global audience. By the number of users, Ukraine was ranked 33^rd globally and 8^th in Europe.
• The Ukrainian audience is larger than the Russian audience (0.4% of the global audience), ranking only 42^nd in the world.
• Facebook penetration in Ukraine is 31%, which is lower than in EU countries (for comparison in the Czech Republic – 47%, France – 46%).
• As for Instagram – Ukraine is in the lead (26%), but is second to Russia (28%) and Turkey (48%).
• The key factor that determines the popularity of Facebook in Ukraine is the ban on Russian social networks. Without this step, the picture could be similar to the indicators of neighboring Belarus, which almost repeat the proportions of Russia (Facebook is used only by 6-7% of the population, Instagram – 26-28%).

Activity of Ukrainian users

Ukrainians became significantly more active users of Facebook during the first half of 2019. So, as of September 2019, on average, during one month, one user shared 2 posts, left 3 comments, and gave 17 likes. These indicators are higher than the world average.

Particular attention draws the high level of interaction of Ukrainians with advertising posts. In the span of half a year, they began clicking on them one and a half times more (18 in September against 13 at the beginning of the year). Here, the Ukrainian audience is also well ahead of the world (an average of 12 clicks).

Instagram for youth, Facebook for adults

Instagram is incredibly popular with young people – 99% of Ukrainians aged 18-24 have their profiles here. Every second (56%) citizen aged 25-35 are registered on Instagram and only a quarter (27%) of those aged 36-45.

The Ukrainian segment of Facebook is dominated by the female audience with over 61% or 7.6 million users. There are 4.9 million registered males, which is approximately 39%. The age of the majority of men and women registered is between 29 and 35.

Migration into mobile

Over the course of 2019, there has been an increasing trend among Facebook users to switch to mobile devices. More than 12.3 million users are already using this social network on their smartphones or tablet.