How do Forex brokers market themselves on Social Media?

Forex brokers are very active with advertising. If you have ever searched for a broker on the internet chances are high that you are receiving plenty of promotional posts from them. Today the industry is growing daily and FX brokers find themselves in the heat of the competition. We decided to examine how are the brokers dealing with the competition and how do they market themselves on different social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. We will find out which Forex broker is the most successful in social media marketing, the most popular, most active and hence have more reliability in the eyes of potential customers. Where and how the brokers market themselves through social media and how do they compare to each other. Last but not least, who are the biggest losers on social media among the fifteen biggest Forex brokers you can find on the market today:

• XM
• eToro
• IQ option
• Admiral Markets
• FxPro
• Plus 500
• Forex.com
• Saxo Bank
• Ava Trade
• IG
• Oanda
• CMC Markets
• FX Open
• Axi Trader
• and Alpari

This sequence is random but you can see which brokers are on top of the social media and which one has hit rock bottom below! Let’s start!

Please reference www.forexnewnow.com as the source of this article when republishing

If you are not on social media you do not exist, this is not a cliche statement anymore but a pure fact especially when it comes to business. Social media for Forex brokerage is as important as for any other small or large businesses. It is essential for a broker to have a social media presence not only on one network but on multiple. There are simple reasons why social media is so important. First things first, it grants worldwide visibility as more than three billion people worldwide are using social media every month and add authority to the brokerage. Today, when customers hear about the new broker or any kind of business the first thing they do is check their website and social media pages. In many cases, this step is the decisive stage – if the broker is not present on social media, or has poor presence customers do not go any further to examine the broker.  

The most popular Forex brokers on Facebook

1.56 billion people log onto Facebook each day, most of them are between the age of 25 and 35. This two statistics make Facebook the most important social media for the Forex brokers, therefore let us start with it.

The winner – eToro

The leading Forex broker on Facebook is eToro, it was one of the first brokerages to start communicating with the large audience through social media in 2009. The page of the broker is liked by 1,807,336 people, meaning that almost two million people are receiving the communication of the broker all around the world. eToro is a leader when it comes to the content as well. Various types of content the broker posts on a daily bases are engaging and entertaining. As a result, it has the highest engagement rate among the brokerages without promoting any of the posts. In the last 30 days, the broker had maximum organic interaction of 5,4K including likes, shares and comments and average interaction of 539.6 per post which is a great result for the broker. The broker offers diverse, well-designed posts and provides updates about the market and the company itself to keep customers engaged and updated.

IQ Option

Another leader on Facebook is IQ Option with 1,348,809 people liking the broker’s FB page. The broker is distinguished with a friendly and caring tone of voice on Social media that encourages people to engage in the conversation with the broker. The best part of the page is a high rate of being socially devoted as the representative on the FB page replies to all the comments. The content is entertaining and interesting, for example, the broker posts weekly updates of the best traders on its platform.

XM

The next one on our least of top brokers on Facebook is the page of XM which is liked by 963,648 people. The main part of the content that is placed on social media is technical analysis and blogs shared from the website of XM. In terms of the engagement, XM is far behind the IQ option and eToro, however, it is the most active broker on Facebook, posting 10 posts daily on average.

How do the brokers market themselves?

Generally, there is no big difference between how the brokerages are marketing their products and brand themselves on Facebook. The main type of content formats still remains traditional – image posts. It is followed by links shared from the broker’s website or blogs, and with video content. It is not surprising that the brokers use rather traditional formats and tools for Facebook marketing. For a very long time, the financial sector, including the trading industry was considered a relatively boring sector where there was no space for innovative and engaging marketing. This is why most of the brokers on our list have quite a similar communication style on Facebook. The content that these brokers are placing on their pages to get the attention of the potential customers falls mainly into the four categories:

Market updates

This is the most common content type for all of the brokers. All of them provide information about major changes and events on the Foreign Exchange market. Some of the brokers do it better than others, for example, Saxo Bank provides constant updates on its page, so does IG,  Avatrade, eToro, XM, and IQ Option. Oanda, on the other hand, fails to provide updated information as the last post made on its FB page dates back to 10th of July. Which is unacceptable for the modern day brokerage.

Blogs with tips for traders 

Some brokers suggest tips for traders such as ways to calculate the risks correctly, how to understand the psychology of trading and etc. This content is actively used by Alpari, FxPro, and Plus500.

Motivational posts/pictures

This content is mostly used by FxPro that encourages existing and potential customers to trade and gives them tips on how to do it like a professional as the moto of the broker suggests.

Technical analysis 

providing technical analysis is also common, this content can be seen most on the XM Facebook page. XM also is one of the brokerages that actively provide company updates, it helps the broker connect with the audience more.

Who are the losers on Facebook?

Now let us talk about the brokers that are still struggling to establish social media presence and get the attention of the global audience.

Axi Trader

One of them is Axi Trader. It has an audience of 41,460 people on only and hence it’s Facebook page is not verified as an official business page. As expected the broker is not very active and had only five posts made during April. Axi Trader is not very original with the content and only posts the analysis of the major currency pairs. While it is helpful information for traders the content is still too dull for social media and hence the broker has up to 10 likes on the post at best. Moreover, traders do know where to get information about the currency rate changes and Facebook pages are not on this list.

Forex.com

Another big broker with a title of a loser on Facebook is Forex com. The page is only liked 34,568 people and we cannot blame others who chose not to click on the like button. The communication is so boring that even though the broker is posting an average of 5 posts in 24 hours the page still looks dead. Forex.com mostly posts charts of the currency pairs and almost none of the posts are liked by the users

The biggest loser on Facebook? – CMC Markets

After seeing the communication of Forex.com I could not think it would go any worst. However, the award of the biggest loser on Facebook goes to CMC Markets. The Facebook page has the least number of likes  – only 28,676. It is quite a low number considering that CMC markets do provide its service to the international audience. Moreover, the page was created 10 years ago and the broker had quite a lot of time to come up with a good social media strategy. The broker tries to get away with the pages shared from its own website but clearly, it is not working well for it since the posts have low engagement.  

Which countries do the brokers run Facebook ads?

Most brokers you can come across claim to be international brokerages. It is a title that gives more rating to the broker in the eyes of customers. When they see the broker is international they assume that it is well established, reliable and trusted by the traders around the globe. All fifteen brokers are claiming to be international as well but not all of them are truly international. It is interesting to see where the brokers are running their ads and where are they trying to get the attention of traders. The list of countries does not include the territories where Forex trading is prohibited such as Iran, or North Korea where the internet is strictly limited.

The broker that is covering most of the countries and runs a Facebook advertisement for truly an international audience is Oanda. It is one of the few brokers that advertise in the United States and Canada. The advertisements are visible to the users from the EU member countries, and the audience in South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The few countries where the broker does not run advertisements currently include Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan, Laos, Afghanistan, New Zealand.

eToro’s official page runs ads mostly in the EU member and other European countries, in China, Australia, and some other countries. It does not have ads in the USA, Japan, New Zealand, and most of the African countries. However, national pages, for example, eToro UAE runs adds without filtering countries.

Another broker that covers almost every country with ads is FxPro, it has adds targeted to the worldwide audience except the United States and Canada.

XM Global currently has active ads in 61 countries,  it includes 15 countries in Europe (the EU member countries), 14 in South America, 25 countries in Asia including Japan, 6 countries on the African continent and Australia. The broker advertises general service in most of the countries, however, has specific bonus offering ads in certain countries.

IQ option does not run any advertisements in the EU member countries or Nordic countries, The United States, Canada, Australia, China, Japan, Israel, and Iraq. The broker covers South American and African continents and other Asian countries.

Axi Trader has active ads in several European countries: The UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Poland. It only targets South Africa from the African continent. Australia, New Zealand and the number of Asian countries such as the UAE, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Malaysia, Philipines, and Taiwan.

FX open advertises its products in several EU countries such as the UK, Germany, Greece, Italy and 10 more. In most of the African countries and three Asian ones: Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

Saxo Bank runs ads mostly in Europe, the list includes 26 countries that consists of EU member countries as well as the countries outside of the Union. Apart from Europe, the broker advertises in UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

The official AvaTrade Facebook page runs advertisements in several European countries: The UK, Ireland, and Germany. Also in the middle east and Asian countries, in South Africa and Australia. However, the regional facebook pages of AvaTrade cover more some other European, South American, and African countries, such as Italy, Uruguay, Nigeria and more.

Plus 500 advertisements are visible in Austria, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Norway, Switzerland, and Israel. However, the broker has several regional pages that run advertisements in Spain and the UAE.

CMC Markets advertises only in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Norway, France, Poland, and Germany.

IG has a small list as well, the broker targets the following countries only: The US, the UK, Norway, Sweden, Italy, and Switzerland.

Forex.com has active ads only in the United States.

As for the Alpari and Admiral Markets, according to Facebook, these brokers are not running any adds currently.

Overall Facebook platform is best used by eToro, XM, and IQ Option. These brokers are the most active and have the biggest audience of FB users and constantly run advertisements in multiple countries.

Forex Brokers on Twitter

Twitter is one of the best social media websites for promoting services, communicating with the audience and engaging them into the conversation. It is especially helpful for reaching the residents of the US as it is a leading country with the number of Twitter users. According to the April 2019 statistics, there are almost 50 million users on Twitter from the US. It is followed by Japan, the UK, UAE, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, India, Mexico, and Spain. This is why all of the brokers are using Twitter for communication, some of them are more successful in it than others.

The winners on Twitter

The main metrics for Twitter is the number of followers as they are the only ones receiving communication from the broker. The most popular broker on Twitter is Forex.com with 140K followers. It is not surprising since the platform is actively used by the people from the USA, and the broker advertises its services exactly there. eToro is one of the leaders on Twitter as well with 113K followers. Plus500 is followed by 87.7K people, Saxo Bank has  30.3K followers and XM – 28.8K.

Most of the brokers use the same content on Facebook and Twitter which is a big mistake since these two platforms are very different from each other. What works on Facebook might not work on Twitter and vice versus. Forex.com is a good example. The broker is on 14th place based on Facebook likes, however, it has most followers on Twitter. As it seems like the broker pays more attention to Twitter than to Facebook. It also is the most active broker on Twitter with the total number of tweets (42.7K). Forex.com has exactly the same communication on Twitter as it has on Facebook, but posts on Twitter are not engaging as well. Forex.com might be the most followed and most active broker on Facebook but it is also on the bottom with the total likes. All of the tweets have only 132 likes together.

Plus500, XM, and Saxo Bank also have communication similar to what they are using on Facebook.  eToro, on the other hand, is the broker to be praised. It has absolutely different communication on the tweeter, seems like eToro is a broker that truly understands the value of social media and the differences between them. It uses different formats on Facebook and Twitter to tell the same story. While on Facebook the broker posts images and videos, on Twitter it has short videos and proper tweets.

The most active brokers on Twitter are Forex.com, Admiral Markets, Oanda, eToro, and Axi Trader. Axi Trader and eToro also top the other brokers with the number of likes. Tweets from Axi Trader has been liked 5899 times and eToro has a total of 4,392 likes on all of its tweets.

Losers on Twitter

Surely we have some Twitter losers as well in two categories. Brokers with the least followers and least activity. These two metrics show how much effort do the brokers put into Twitter and how good their communication is, or as in this case – how bad is it.

AxiTrader is on the fifth place of losers with 14.4K followers. It is not surprising as the communication of the broker is rather boring. The next broker is AvaTrade with 9658 followers. CMC markets have 3,730 Twitter users that are interested in communicating with CMC Markets. FX Open has only 2,404 followers. And the biggest loser is Alpari that has 711 followers, the broker usually posts the links that redirect us to the market reports, hence it is not surprising that this account is not very popular among the Twitter users.

The list of the least active brokers on Twitter consists of FxPro, CMC Markets, FX open, Alpari and Plus500. All of them have fewer than 10K tweets, even though they have active accounts for years. The Loser brokers on Twitter only have the account for the sake of having them, as they do not put much of the energy and creativity to make it lively and valuable for the audience.

Which broker is the most popular on Instagram?

You might think that Instagram is not the best or even a proper social platform for a brokerage, seemingly some brokers agree as well since IG, Oanda, CMC markets, Axi Trader, and Forex.com do not have official Insta accounts. However, Instagram is often rated as the best platform for leading natural and genuine communication for every kind of businesses including the ones operating in the financial industry. Surely it also depends on how the platform is used. As mentioned above it is wrong and not effective to have the same kind of communication and the same type of content on every social media. While all of them serve the same purpose – increase brand awareness and recognition and inspire brand loyalty each of them has the formats that work best for various social media.

The most popular broker on Instagram is IQ Option with 79.7K followers. The other most followed brokers are FxPro, eToro, XM, and Alpari with this order.

IQ Option

IQ Option has a smart strategy for Instagram, as the platform is designed for the pictures the broker is using interesting images for attracting the attention of the followers and gives them pieces of information about the market and trading. Seemingly this strategy works well for the broker as it has most followers and also #IQOption is mentioned more than the brand name of any other broker by the users of Instagram.

FxPro

FxPro is on the second place with the number of followers, in total the broker has 28.5K followers. It is not few but there is a big difference between the audience of IQ Option and FxPro. The broker has a similar strategy as IQ Option with a trump card. FxPro is a sponsor or Formula1 team McLaren as well as the football club Watford. The broker uses it in both ways, first, it communicates the sponsorship with the large audience to drive the brand loyalty and also drives a lot of great content while showcasing the sponsored teams.

eToro

eToro has a modern approach to Instagram that pays off with the number of followers. The broker is followed by 25.6K users. eToro uses different content formats to entertain followers. From professionally designed posters to random office pictures, Insta stories, cats, babies, and memes – everything that Internet loves -eToro got them all. The page is interesting and entertaining. eToro also showcases the pictures and short stories of the successful traders that are loyal to the broker for several years.

XM

XM Global is using Instagram differently from the other brokers and very smartly too. The broker uses the platform to bring the human side of the company on the frontline and inspire natural communication and engagement. On the broker’s feed, you will see the pictures of XM teams in other countries. The broker showcases teams and employees on different events and in different countries. It is one of the best ways to bring costumes closer to you as they actually see who is behind the trading platform and who provides various services for them. XM is also showcasing that the broker sponsors Usain Bolt. XM is followed by 10.4K Instagram users.

Alpari

The last one on the top 5 most popular brokers on Instagram is Alpari with 6841 followers. It does not have a good strategy as the other four brokers in the list. Alpari does not follow one thread and posts different kind of pictures and videos. There are a lot of Star Wars references, news and promotional posts for their own services

Other five brokerages that use Instagram are not very successful with it as most of them have fewer followers than 5K. The loser on Instagram is FX Open. The broker seemingly does not pay much attention to it, it has 39 posts only and 214 followers. The broker is mainly posting inspirational posts about trading, currency rates and charts that are absolutely irrelevant for Instagram.

Who are the people talking about?

When you are a celebrity or a business it does not matter if you have an Instagram account or not, people will still talk about you on the platform. Hashtags on Instagram help with it a lot. The most frequently mentioned broker on Instagram is IQ Option. There are 224,095 #IQOption posts made by the Instagram users, other frequently mentioned brokers are #Plus500, #eToro, #FxPro, and #Alpari. The least mentioned broker is IG, there are only 5 #IG posts to be found on the platform.

Brokers’ youtube channels

Youtube is a great way to show customers how much do you care about them, their success, and education. Videos are a great tool to provide the necessary information and teach traders how to trade better. At the same time, it is a great way of attracting new customers. Many young people prefer to get the necessary education with videos. It is more convenient and the visual materials help to understand the matter better. Hence, many turn to youtube when they want to get educated in Forex. The most popular channels for getting Forex education are successful trader’s channel when they teach the others and broker’s channels as well. When a person is getting an education with a certain broker, odds that the person will open an account with this broker are high. The only brokers that do not understand the importance of Youtube channel are Plus500 and FX Open. All other brokers are leading Youtube channels.

Most subscribed channels on Youtube

This is a website where Alpari shines, the broker has the most subscribers: 30,494 users. But it is the only good thing about the Alpari Youtube channel. It has 838 videos only and the channel is pretty much abandoned as the broker has not posted any new video for years.  The playlist of the broker includes various webinars and technical analysis. In total Alpari, the channel is viewed 3,996,719 times.

The second most popular broker on Youtube is XM. It has 28,576 subscribers that are constantly receiving new videos from the broker as XM is the most active broker on Youtube. In the last four weeks, the broker has uploaded 94 videos, meaning that it posts 3 videos per day on average. XM has various playlists including Forex news, different analysis, educational videos that are for beginner and advanced traders, FX review outlooks, tutorials and more. XM also has the biggest library of videos, there are  3,107 videos that have been viewed 44,906,461 times.

Yet there was no top broker’s list without eToro. Same is for this one. The channel is subscribed by 26,354 times and it has the most views. In total, all the videos have been viewed 53,092,231 times. On the youtube channel of eToro, one can see the broker’s, webinars, tutorials, educational playlists for different trading instruments such as cryptocurrencies, stocks, commodities, and commercials.

IG also has a fair amount of subscribers and is active with uploading new videos. The broker has 20,642 subscribers and 1,271 videos on Youtube. It is one of the most active brokers with 24 videos uploaded in the last 4 weeks. IG provides subscribers with videos about market information, different tutorials, and strategies. The videos have been viewed 6,410,020 times.

The Last broker in the top five most popular brokers’ channels is IQ Option. Broker has 15,603 subscribers and only 159 videos. However, the broker uploads them relatively actively as it had 24 new videos uploaded in the last 30 days. IQ offers playlists for the videos about trading strategies, market news, weekly reports, and crypto digest. Overall the videos have been viewed 1,421,149 times

Most viewed brokers

A number of subscribers are not the only metrics to measure the success of the broker. Some of the brokers with the small number of subscribers have the highest number when it comes to the views. People mostly watch videos from eToro and XM. The other most-watched broker is FxPro that offers webinars and outlooks. FxPro videos have been watched 10,897,729 times.

Brokers on LinkedIn

Out of all social media, LinkedIn is considered to be a platform for more professional communication. The majority of brokers have LinkedIn profiles and are relatively active there. On LinkedIn there is not much space for various types of contents, the most acceptable are articles, videos, and links. This is how all of the businesses including brokerages showcase themselves on this platform. Out of 15 brokers we are examining nine are on LinkedIn XM, Admiral Markets, FxPro, eToro, IG, Oanda, CMC Markets, FX Open, and Axi Trader.

LinkedIn is where most brokers feel like a fish in the sea simply because one can get away with more traditional content that is considered outdated on other social media platforms. At the same time, LinkedIn does not “require” frequent posting. If you will not post anything on Facebook the audience might even forget about, this is not the case for LinkedIn. Hence more “modest” brokers often find their way on this platform.

The most popular broker on LinkedIn is IG which has 30,797 followers. It is followed by Oanda with 18,625 followers and again eToro with 13,059 followers.

The least successful broker when it comes to LinkedIn communication is FX Open which is followed by 631 people only. A telegram is also an option for brokers to market themselves and connect with the audience. From these 15 brokers only IQ Option, FxPro and FX open have telegram accounts with 4,777; 1,403, and 127 members respectively.

The brokers with the best social media marketing

As you can see all of the brokers are having different objectives when it comes to social media marketing and therefore is using various social media differently. However, some of them have a better social media strategy than others and have better results. Some of them simply have accounts to have at least required presence on the internet and be there when potential customers are trying to search for them.

The broker with the best social media marketing is undoubtedly eToro. It is in all the “Top” charts we have suggested. eToro is on the list of the broker with the most likes on Facebook, most followed on Instagram and Twitter, most subscribed and viewed on Youtube, on the list of most active on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as well as one of the most frequently mentioned on Insta.  The broker has a good social media strategy and has a different kind of communication on each social media channel. eToro is also one of the brokers that cover a wide area with the Facebook advertisement and has multiple different ads in various countries.

The next best broker with its social media marketing is XM. Just like eToro, it is in most of the lists. XM is on the list of most liked Facebook pages, one of the most followed on Instagram, it has the most subscribers on Youtube, is most active and is on the list of the most viewed channels on Youtube. Contentwise the broker is also creative and actively offers valuable information through different channels.

Last but not least, the third broker with the best social media marketing is IQ Option. It has the most followers on Instagram, is on the list of the most liked Facebook pages, is most mentioned broker on Instagram, One of the most active and subscribed brokers on Youtube.