Facebook (NASDAQ:META) remains the leading platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) purchasing advertisements, with 75% of surveyed businesses engaging in advertising across Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook Reels, Morgan Stanley analysts highlighted in a Thursday note.
YouTube ranks second with a 50% adoption rate among SMBs, followed closely by Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Search at 47%.
It's noteworthy that the adoption of Google Search has witnessed a significant decline, approximately 12 percentage points year-over-year, marking its lowest point since these analysts began tracking this metric in 2018.
“We attribute this decline to higher CPCs, lower perceived search ROI, and the improving performance/reach of META,” said analysts.
“Indeed, the percent of advertisers saying search has the highest ROI fell by ~950bps Y/Y this year (even after falling ~1,000bps in '22),” they wrote.
Regarding smaller platforms, TikTok has seen the most significant year-over-year growth in adoption, with an increase of approximately 16.5 percentage points, bringing its adoption rate to 40%.
Meanwhile, the adoption rate for Snapchat (SNAP) has decreased by about 9.5 percentage points year-over-year, dropping to just 8%.