No business can afford to ignore social media as part of its marketing mix. But, unless you are a global multinational, it is also impossible to effectively manage all of the social media networks that are on offer.

To be most effective, companies and their marketing agencies, and customer experience consultants should be active in two or, at most, three networks and communicate with customers in a focused way. This allows you to become proficient in the nuances of the those platforms and maximise results.

The difficulty for Australian organisations is understanding the nuances of which social media channels are most effective and active locally. Typically the published social media statistics focus on a United States or global centric view of the data.

This post compiles Australian social media statistics from across a wide variety of sources. We have then analysed those statistics to provide recommendations for businesses on which platform are most effective in different use cases.

Overall Australian Social Media Statistics

Australians are reasonably avid consumers of social media. At least as avid as the US market, but not as active as some Asian countries.

High Level Australian Social Media Statistics

• Australians are slowly turning away from social media. In October 2023, 78.5% of the Australian population had active social media accounts. This is down from 80.4% in February 2023 and 82.7% in February 2021. (Source, Source, Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• 54.2% of Australian Social Media Users are Women and 45.8% are Male. (Source)
• YouTube (78.2%) and Facebook (77.7%) are tied for the most popular social media platform in Australia. (Source)
• 98% of Australian users access social media via a mobile device. (Source)
• In October 2023 Australians ( between 16 and 64) spent an average of 1 hour 53 minutes per day on social media. This is down from 2 hours 0 minutes in Q1 2023, which was flat over the prior 36 months of Q1 2020->Q1 2023. (Source, Source, Analysis Genroe)
• Australians have about the global average (6.7) number of social media accounts per person with an average of 6.3 per person. This should be compared to Japan (lowest – 3.5) and India (highest – 8.1) (Source)

How Australians Use Social Media

• Australians increasingly use social media to follow influencers or other experts on-line. In October 2023, 24.6% said it is a main reason for using social media, up from 19.1% just 12 months earlier (Source, Source)
• Work related use of social media has more than doubled in the 12 months to October 2023 with 30.7% of Australian internet users (16-64) say a main reason for using social media is for work related activities, up from 13.0% in October 2022. (Source, Source)
• 52% of Australian’s use Social Media as a source of news. This is just below the worldwide average of 55% (Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• While 25.1% of Australian’s say a main reason for using Social Media is as a source of news, up from 13% in October 2022, this is far below worldwide average of 34.6% (Source, Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• Australians increasingly turn to social media to learn about brands. In October 2023, 43.6% Australians state they used Social Media when looking for information about a brand. This is up from 38.3% in February 2023 and 30.3% in February 2022 . (Source, Source, Source, Source Analysis: Genroe)
• About a third (36.1%) of Australians use their social networks to find information about brands and products. (Source)
• Social Media News
  • 30% more Australians trust their social media news sources than those in the USA but only 73% as many Australians trust their social media news sources than those in The Netherlands. (Source, Analysis: Genroe)
  • Australians are concerned about real or fake online news at about the same rate as those in the United States. (Source, Analysis: Genroe)

Australian Social Media Average Time on Site and Traffic Ranks

It’s not surprising that social media sites are some of the most commonly accessed in Australia. Below is an analysis of traffic rank Vs the average daily site visit time.

The Top Australian Social Media Sites By Web Traffic:

Social Media Rank	All Sites Rank	Social Media Network
1	2	Youtube
2	3	Facebook
3	4	Reddit
4 (👆)	5 (👆)	Instagram
5	8 (👆)	X (Twitter)
6	25 (👆)	LinkedIn

Australians’ Favourite Social Media Platforms In Rank Order

Rank	Network	% Saying it’s their “Favourite” and Change
1	YouTube	Excluded
2	Facebook	25.6% 👇
3	Instagram	14.3%👇
4	TikTok	12.5%👆👆
5	Messenger	8.9%👆
6	WhatsApp	5.3% 👇👇
7	Snapchat	4.2%👉
8	X (Twitter)	3.3%👆

How Much Time Australians Spend on Social Media

In Australia in January 2023 the monthly average time using the Android App for the top 4 social media networks was:

Social Media Network	Monthly Time On Site
TikTok	29 hours 48 minutes 👆👆👆
Facebook	17 hours 48 minutes 👉
YouTube	17 hours 6 minutes 👉
Instagram	9 hours 36 minutes 👇
WhatsApp	5 hours 36 minutes 👇

There are several items of particular note in this analysis:

• YouTube has a long dwell time (19:33mins) and offers good opportunities for B2B marketers (Source).
• In January 2023, Reddit, had risen from 12th most trafficked site in Australia to 4th most trafficked site. Dwell time had also fallen to just 5:46 minutes. If may no longer present good opportunities for marketers.(Source, Source, Source)
• LinkedIn, while not being the highest traffic site, has a respectable dwell time of high value B2B users.

Australian Social Media Usage by Age

However, when overall population dynamics are included, the over-representation of younger users in social media usage becomes much more muted. It’s really only at age 65+ that usage drops off dramatically as a proportion of overall population.

Australian Social Media Preferences by Age: 18 years and under

Social Media Use – Proportion By Platform, Age 18 and under

Social Media Network	7-9 Years Old	10-12 Years Old	13-15 Years Old	16-18 Years Old
Roblox	80%	49%	36%	0%
TikTok	0%	44%	33%	37%
Facebook	11%	4%	4%	6%
X	9%	3%	2%	4%
Snapchat	0%	0%	25%	30%
Instagram	0%	0%	0%	22%

Social Media Use – Minutes of User Per Day, Age 18 and under

Social Media Network	7-9 Years Old	10-12 Years Old	13-15 Years Old	16-18 Years Old
Roblox	127	136	133	0
TikTok	0	122	121	107
Facebook	17	11	15	18
X	14	9	9	13
Snapchat	0	0	93	87
Instagram	0	0	0	65
Total	158	278	371	290

Social Media Use – Active Users by Platform, Age 18 and Under

Social Media Network	7-9 Years Old	10-12 Years Old	13-15 Years Old	16-18 Years Old
Roblox	60%	62%	47%	0
TikTok	0	39%	48%	44%
Facebook	33%	38%	42%	46%
X	36%	42%	45%	42%
Snapchat	0	0	47%	46%
Instagram	0	0	0	50%

Australian Social Media Usage by Gender

Australian Social Media Advertising Statistics

• Australian digital advertising grew by 11.6% in the year to January 2023 to be USD 3.71B. (Source,).
• Australia is estimated to be the 5th largest Social Media Advertising market in the world. (Source)

Investing in a platform it is important to identify which platforms your potential customers use, which are growing and which shrinking. This allows you to invest your time wisely for the longer term.

Below are the eligible audience reaches as a percentage of the total Australian population, (13+) for each of the major networks

The Top Australian Social Media Sites By Advertising Reach

Rank (By Reach)	Network	Growth Last Quarter (January 2023)	Population Reach	Absolute Reach	Female/Male Split (January 2023)
1	Youtube		86.8% (18+)	17,820,000	50.9%/ 49.1%
2	Facebook	-1.3%	79.2%	14,900,000	53% / 47%
3	LinkedIn	0%	67.2% (18+)	14,000,000	46.3% / 53.7%
4	Instagram	-3.3%	61.9%	11,780000	56.2% / 43.8%
5	TikTok	-1.6%	40.3% (18+)	8,300,000	53.5% / 46.5%
	Snapchat	3.4%	29.9%	7,700,000	53.0% / 46.8%
6	X (Twitter) See note	11.7%	24.5%	5,250,000	31.7% / 68.3%
7	Pinterest		20.0%	4,335,000
9	Messenger		2.4%	420,000

Unfortunately there are no locally available data on social media advertising fees for Australia but the following global statistics provide an effective ready reckoner on what to expect on a relative basis.

What is clear here is the predominately B2B network (LinkedIn) has much higher cost per click rates AND much lower click through rates. This generally equates with the value per sale being higher in B2B marketing and the cost per lead being acceptably higher.

Australian Internet access

• There are approximately 1.26 mobile connections for every man, woman, and child in Australia . (Source, Analysis by Genroe)
• 96.2% of Australians have access to the internet – similar to Singapore (96.9%) and ahead of the US (91.8%) (Source, Analysis by Genroe)
• Australians spend an average of 6 hours and 24 minutes accessing the internet everyday – in the bottom 40% of all countries. This is up from 5 hours and 50 minutes 12 months prior. (Source, Source, Analysis by Genroe)
• 95.3% of Australians use Mobile Phones to access the internet and 79.9% use computers. In terms of time for each device it is split 47% Mobile / 53% computer, one of the lowest mobile phone proportions in the world. (Source, Analysis by Genroe)
• Australia has the world’s 92nd fastest average fixed line internet speed (54.41Mbps). Down 19 places in the 12 months since January 2023. It is slower than Nepal (57.82Mbps) and Palestine (63.49Mbps). It is approximately 1/5 the speed of Singapore (263Mbps). (Source, Analysis by Genroe)
• Australia has the worlds 21th fastest average mobile internet speed (93.1mbps). This is down 7 places from January 2023. We are now slower than the United States (106.28) and India (94.62Mbps) . (Source, Analysis by Genroe)
• 31.1% of of Australian internet users (16-64) use tools to block ads online in October 2023 this is about stable from 33.7% in October 2021 and 32.5% in October 2021 (Source, Source, Source)
• 44.3% of Australian internet users (16-64) are concerned about mis-use of their personal data. This is the 7th highest rate in the world and up from 37.0% on October 2022 (Source, Source)
• In October 2023, 31.3% of Australian internet users (16-64) decline cookies at least some of the time. About stable from 40.5% on October 2022. (Source, Source)
• 25.1% of of Australian internet users (16-64) use a VPN service for at least some of their on-line activities. This is 13th highest rate in the world but has decreased from 27.4% in October 2022. (Source, Source, Analysis by Genroe)
• 86.1% of Australians aged 16-64 use their mobile phone to access the internet while only 77.1% use a computer to access the internet. (Source)

Australian Internet Media Consumption

Australians internet media consumption is substantial. In October 2023 (Source ) it looked like this:

Here are the numbers:

Internet Media Type	Change in Australians Using
27.5% (Oct 2023) of Australian internet users (16-54) listen to podcasts	Up from 23.3 % (Jan 2023) and 19.5% (Oct 2021)
18.9% (Oct 2023) of Australian internet users (16-54) watch VLOGs	Up from 16.1% Oct 2021
45.7% (Oct 2023) of Australian internet users (16-54) listen to Streamed Music
32.6% (Jan 2023) of Australian internet users (16-54) use their phone for video calls	Up from 29.3% Oct 2021
94.5% (Oct 2023) of Australians (16-64) stream TV content via the internet	Up from 92.4% Jan 2023
75.7% (Oct 2023) of Australians (16-64) play video games (on any device)	Up from 74.5% (Jan 2023) and 75% Oct 2021
20.3% (Oct 2023) of Australians (16-64) own a smart home device. The 10th highest rate in the world.	Up from 16.9% (Jan 2023) and 14.4% Oct 2021
36.7% (Oct 2023) of Australian use QR codes on their mobile each month. In the bottom third of global usage rates.
45.9% (Oct 2023) of Australian use online Financial Services each month. The 7th highest rate in the world and almost double the global average of 26.8%.
20.5% (Oct 2023) of Australians check health symptoms on-line at least weekly. In the bottom half of usage globally.

Key Australian Facebook Facts

• Facebook is Australia’s most popular social network (16-64 years olds) with 66%, or 16 million, Australians using Facebook on a monthly basis. This is steady on the previous period (Source, Analysis by Genroe)
• Facebook is Australia’s 3rd highest trafficked site after Google and YouTube. (Source)
• Australia Facebook users are the fourth most active “Likers” in the world an average of 15 likes per month vs the global average of 12. (Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• Australia Facebook users are equal 6th most active “commenters” in the world an average of 8 comments per month vs the global average of just 5. This has declined in the last 12 months by 1 comment per month (Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• Visitors spend an average of 18 min 49 secs and view 8.29 pages per day on Facebook (Apr-Jun 2020, (Source)

Australian Share of Facebook page posts by Post type

Post Type	Share of Total Page Posts
Photo posts	49.15%
Video posts	12.89%
Link posts	37.41%
Status posts	0.55%

Australian Facebook Post Engagement Benchmarks

Post Type	Average Engagement as Percent of Fans
All Posts	0.06%
Photo posts	0.09%
Video posts	0.05%
Link posts	0.02%
Status posts	0.16%

Australian Facebook Demographics

While users skew to the 25-34 age group, there are more than 1.9 million Facebook users over 65 in Australia (Facebook data analysis by Genroe)

Age	Number of Users
13-17 years old	820,000
18-24 years old	4,000,000
25-34 years old	5,100,000
35-44 years old	3,900,000
45-54 years old	2,900,000
55-64 years old	2,100,000
65+ years old	1,900,000

Australian Facebook Advertising Statistics

• Total audience (aged 13+): 18 million (Facebook data analysis by Genroe)
• Australia Facebook users are some of the most active advert clickers in the world an average of 22 adverts clicked per month vs the global average of 12. This is in the top 8% of countries globally. (Source, Source Analysis: Genroe)
• Facebook has an estimated 80% market share of the Australian Social Media Advertising market. (Source)

Facebook Australian Advertising Audience By Education

• University Graduate: 5.1 million (Source)

Meta’s Australian Ad Audience Demographic Profile (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger):

Age	Female	Male
13-17	2.8%	2.0%
18-24	9.6%	8.8%
25-34	11.9%	11.9%
35-44	9.8%	8.5%
45-54	7.8%	6.7%
55-64	5.9%	4.5%
65+	5.7%	4.1%

Meta’s Australian Ad Audience Gender and Age Profile (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger):

Facebook Advertising Costs and Conversion Rates Q3 2020 (Global)

• Average Cost per Click: USD0.39 (Source)
• Lead gen cost per complete:USD0.67 (Source)

Key Australian LinkedIn Facts

• LinkedIn is Australia’s premier B2B Social Media platform.
• Visitors spend an average of 10 min 42 secs and view 8.52 pages per day on LinkedIn (December 2020, Source)
• 59% of LinkedIn Users return fewer than 3 times a week. (Source)
• LinkedIn has an estimated 5% market share of the Australian Social Media Advertising market. (Source)
• 67.2% of Australian’s 13+ have a LinkedIn account. It has the third highest penetration rate of all social media platforms after Facebook and YouTube, (Source Analysis by Genroe)

The implication for B2B business using LinkedIn is that they need to post new content several times a week to ensure that it gets in front of the majority of uses in the infrequent number of times they visit the site.

Australian LinkedIn Advertising Statistics

• Total audience: 64.9% of Australian’s 13+ in July 2022 (Source )
• LinkedIn is one of only three only global social networks (Tiktok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest) where Australia ranks in the top 20 countries for advertising reach.(Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• Australia is the 16 highest percentage of population LinkedIn advertising reach market in the world and the equal 13th largest total market. (Source, Analysis: Genroe)

LinkedIn Australian Advertising Audience By Seniority

High level individuals (Partner, Owner, Director, CXO, VP)	1.4 million
Middle Management (Managers, Senior staff)	3 million
Junior (Unpaid, training, entry level)	2.8 million

Note that numbers will not add to 11 million as data not available on all users.

LinkedIn Australian Advertising Audience By Company Size

Micro-Companies (up to 10 employees)	600,000 individuals
SMEs (11 to 200 employees)	1,300,000 individuals
Corporate (201-1000 employees)	770,000 individuals
Enterprise (1001+ employees)	2,300,000 individuals

Note that numbers will not add to 11 million as data not available on all users.

LinkedIn Advertising Costs and Conversion Rates Q2 2021 (Global)

• Average Cost per Click: USD5.58
  • Senior decision-makers: $6.40
  • Junior employees: $4.40
• Average Cost per Thousand impressions (CPM): USD33.80
• Global Cost per Lead ranges from $15 to $350
• Linkedin Lead gen form completion rate benchmark: 10%
• Average Click Through Rate for APAC: 0.8%

(Source)

Key Australian Instagram Advertising Statistics

• Instagram reaches 52.5% of the Australian population aged 13+(Source, Source, Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• 56.2% of Instagram users are Female and 43.8% are male. (Source)

Key Australian Snapchat Advertising Statistics

• Total Australian Snapchat advertising audience reach is 33.7% of the Australian population aged 13+ or 7.45m people.(Source)
• Australia has the 14th largest Snapchat advertising audience reach market in the world. Down three spots in the last 12 months. (Source, Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• Snapchat is one of only three only global social networks (Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter) where Australia ranks in the top 20 countries for advertising reach.(Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• Snapchat has an estimated 5% market share of the Australian Social Media Advertising market. (Source)

Key Australian Twitter Advertising Statistics

• Australia is not in the top 20 Twitter advertising audience reach markets in the world for either percentage or population or total population. (Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• Total Australian Twitter advertising audience reach is 23.7% of Australians aged 13+, up from 18.5% (Source, Source, Source)
• From January 2020 to July 2020 Twitter fell out of the top 50 most trafficked sites in Australia. Twitter does not have the same influence in Australia as it does in other geographies.
• Twitter has an estimated 5% market share of the Australian Social Media Advertising market. (Source)

Key Australian Pinterest Advertising Statistics

• Total Australian Pinterest advertising audience reach has risen ~60k (1.3%) to 4.65m in 18 months to October 2021. This is 21.5% of the Australians aged 13+ (Source, Source, Source, Source Analysis: Genroe)
• Australia has the 13th largest Pinterest advertising audience reach market in the world. This has fallen four places place in the last 24 months. (Source, Source, Source, Analysis: Genroe)
• Pinterest is one of only three only global social networks (Tiktok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest) where Australia ranks in the top 20 countries for advertising reach.(Source, Analysis: Genroe)

Key Australian TikTok Advertising Statistics

• Total Australian TikTok advertising audience reach is: 40.3% in January 2023 (Source)
• TikTok had 8.26 million users aged 18 and above in Australia in Q2 2023. (Source)
• 53.5 percent of TikTok’s ad audience in Australia was female, while 46.5 percent was male. (Source). This is almost exactly consistent with the global figures of 53.5 percent of TikTok’s ad audience in Australia was female, while 46.5 percent was male. (Source)

Source List

Source 1: The Global State of Digital 2021

Source 2: Digital 2021- Australia

Source 3: The Global State of Digital 2020

Source 4: Digital 2020: October Global Snapshot

Source 5: Social media marketing trends in 2021

Source 6: Speedtest Global Index

Source 7: Alexa – Top Sites In Australia

Source 8: Understanding Facebook Ads Cost: 2019 & 2020 Benchmarks

Source 9: Share of LinkedIn users in Australia as as of April 2018, by frequency of use

Source 10: Regional population by age and sex

Source 11: Hootsuite Global Report

Last Updated 16 June 2024