The short video is the content format of choice right now. The most popular form of social content is not only entertaining, it’s also a great way to get information across quickly and communicate brand messages. Almost all social networks now offer the option to share short videos. But is it worth it for brands to post social video on all platforms?

We analyzed the three most important social media networks – Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook – to find out where you can generate the greatest impact with your short videos. With our short video study, we answer the most important questions you have when choosing the best content format:

• Where can your videos achieve the greatest reach?
• Where can you generate the highest user interaction? 
• How long should your short videos ideally be?
• Which channel is the one with the highest posting frequency?

Instagram Reels Achieve the Greatest Reach

First, we looked at which platform allowed the profiles in our sample that posted short videos to reach the most users. To make the results comparable across platforms and between individual accounts, we evaluated the average reach per post and follower. In other words, what percentage of their followers were the brands and content creators in our sample able to reach with a short video on average?

The difference in reach between the individual platforms couldn’t be clearer. Instagram Reels emerge as the clear winner from the comparison: although the reach of the short videos is continuously decreasing and a slight drop was recorded in the summer months of 2024 in particular, the accounts examined were able to reach almost 15% of their followers on average with a Reel.

The average reach of videos posted on TikTok was just under 9% of followers, which is more than two-thirds lower than that of the Instagram Reels we analyzed. This was also evident on TikTok where the accounts in our sample suffered reach losses in the first months of 2024, although the numbers seemed to recover in recent months and the average visibility of videos rose again. By far, the smallest share of followers (ø 3.87%) was reached by the profiles analyzed with Facebook Reels.

TikToks Drive the Highest Engagement

Reaching a wide audience is not the only important factor when it comes to how well short videos perform. High engagement and user interaction are also important factors in a video’s success.

Among social media managers and content creators, TikTok is currently considered to be the network with the highest level of interaction. Content posted there often has a particularly high engagement rate compared to other social media platforms and, in our short-video comparison, TikTok is the clear winner in terms of user interaction.

On TikTok, the videos analyzed generated the most likes, comments, and shares. Although the interaction rate on TikTok fell continuously over the course of the study period, from ø 1.11% to ø 0.70%, it was just under 1% on average for the year. This means that engagement on TikTok is the highest of all the short-video platforms analyzed.

Compared to TikTok, the Instagram Reels we analyzed received almost 45% fewer interactions (likes, comments, shares, saves). With an annual average interaction rate of 0.67%, they come in second. On Instagram, too, user engagement will drop from ø 0.84% to ø 0.46% between August 2023 and July 2024. The number of user interactions per post and follower has thus almost halved during the observation period. 

Facebook Reels is far behind in third place with an average interaction rate of 0.06%. In contrast to the other two social media platforms, our sample shows no decline in likes, comments, and shares over the course of the study period. However, the engagement of the users reached is below average, as is common for other post formats on Facebook.

Watch Time on TikTok Is Growing

In contrast to the decline in reach and engagement rate across platforms, the average watch time for short videos shows a different picture. One social network stands out here in particular – TikTok.

TikTok videos saw an increase in playback duration over the entire study period. It rose steadily from 8.77 to 17.56 seconds between August 2023 and July 2024 (annual average ø 12.9 seconds). Even though users interacted less often with the videos, the posted content apparently sparked their interest.

On the two Meta-owned networks, Facebook and Instagram, the average viewing time remained relatively stable over the entire study period. Facebook Reels are ahead of Instagram Reels with an average viewing time of 10.9 seconds compared to 8.9 seconds.

TikTok Has the Highest Posting Frequency

The posting frequency – i.e. how many times a day an account published new videos on average – remained relatively stable on all three platforms throughout the entire study period and showed no major changes. Consequently, none of the three networks has gained or lost any significant relevance in the last year.

However, the sample shows that TikTok has the highest posting frequency, with an average of 2.18 videos per day. Consequently, TikTok not only has the highest user interaction, but the accounts in our sample also post the most videos per day there.

The Instagram accounts in our sample posted significantly less frequently (ø 1.05 reels per day). Reels were posted least frequently on Facebook (ø 0.65 reels per day). Consequently, the profiles in our sample published almost twice as many videos per day on TikTok as on Instagram and three times as many as on Facebook.

Conclusion: Where Do Short Videos Perform Best?

As one of the most important social networks at the moment, Instagram promises the greatest reach for your reels. Even though short video reach is continuously decreasing, you can still reach the largest number of users on the Meta-owned platform.

If your goal is to generate a particularly high number of user interactions, you should rely on the engagement winner TikTok, though. Even though the engagement rate on the platform has been steadily declining during the period of this study, the average video watch time on TikTok continues to increase. 

TikTok’s user base continues to grow and spends more time on the platform every year. More and more brands and content creators are taking advantage of all these benefits, as evidenced by the number of published TikToks and high posting frequency. No other platform posts more videos per day.

Compared to Instagram and TikTok, Facebook Reels are hardly relevant. Although Facebook is still the social network with the largest number of active monthly users, you can reach by far the smallest number of users with Facebook Reels, and it is relatively difficult to motivate them to interact with your videos.

Which Platform You Should Publish Your Video Content on in 2024

Short videos should be an integral part of a balanced social media strategy in 2024. Social video is increasingly indispensable for brands and companies. The social media giants Instagram and TikTok each offer their own advantages and disadvantages. The only remaining question is: Which one is best suited to your content strategy?

The answer is not as clear-cut as you might initially think. To be truly successful with your short videos, you should publish them where your target audience is most active. To find out which social network is the most relevant for you and your content, it is essential to do your own research.  

This is where a comprehensive social media analytics tool comes in handy. With the help of a benchmarking analysis, you can analyze your performance as well as that of your competitors and other content creators in your industry, and thus learn more about your social media target group. Every industry and every content niche has its own characteristics, and every target audience has its own preferences. 

If you want to analyze your own content and that of your competitors and learn more about your industry and target audience, you can take advantage of Fanpage Karma’s free 14-day trial. Fanpage Karma also offers a free weekly webinar showing you how to improve the overall quality of your social media results.