If you are an international digital marketer with experience targeting the Latin American market, then you will know how important it is to keep up to date with the trends and user behaviours in each country you are targeting.
This is because the different countries’ digital landscapes are constantly evolving, and these changes and variations need to be taken into account when creating your digital marketing strategies.
Furthermore, each strategy must be tailored to each individual market, to ensure you are reaching each audience on the right platforms where they are present online.
That is why I have created the Webcertain search and social report 2024: Latin America, an in-depth report that goes country by country, providing an overview of the most important points all Latin American digital marketers should know in 2024.
This blog post will go through some of those key points. Let’s dive into it!
1. Internet penetration in Latin America in 2024
Internet penetration rates differ across Latin America. Whilst there are some countries with almost full internet penetration, there are others where the market is still developing and where it may still be important to include offline methods as part of your marketing strategy.
The countries with the highest internet penetration rates in the report are:
- Chile: 96.1% internet penetration rate
- Argentina: 90.8% internet penetration rate
- Peru: 85.3% internet penetration rate
Meanwhile, the countries with the lowest internet penetration rates in the report are:
- Mexico: 78.0% internet penetration rate
- Brazil: 82.3% internet penetration rate
- Colombia: 82.7% internet penetration rate
Before creating a marketing strategy for a new market, make sure you check the internet penetration rate. This will give you a better idea of how important (or not) offline mediums will be as part of your overall marketing efforts.
2. Social platforms in Latin America in 2024
Let’s look at the social media and messaging landscape in Latin America.
As a general trend, I saw the following platforms commonly being the top five most popular across most Latin American countries:
- Facebook: This is a great platform to be on if you are a B2C brand. By posting regular, engaging content, you have a huge opportunity to engage with potential clients and drive sales. Not only that, but Facebook’s highly specific targeting capabilities mean that you can use Facebook advertising to reach new users who fit your target audience profile perfectly.
- Facebook Messenger: This can be used to support your Facebook marketing efforts. You can use it as a communication channel to message your prospective customers.
- Instagram: This is a great platform for B2C brands to be on, particularly if your products are in a visually appealing sector such as fashion, design, cosmetics or travel.
- TikTok: This platform is particularly good if you are a B2C brand targeting young people. The most popular business industries on this short-form video platform are beauty, fashion, jewellery and art.
- WhatsApp: This hugely popular messaging platform could be used by your brand as a way of providing customer service. Depending on your sector, customers may welcome this as a convenient way to communicate with your business and ask you questions.
Bonus platform! The professional social network LinkedIn also appeared in the top five most popular social platforms in Peru.
When entering a new market, always check the most popular social platforms in the country – and specifically check where your target audience likes to spend their time online interacting with brands like yours. Only by taking a tailored approach such as this, can you know you are using your social media budget wisely – and in the places most likely to get good results.
3. E-commerce platforms in Latin America in 2024
The e-commerce landscape looks a little different in Latin America compared to the rest of the world. Whilst Amazon may reign supreme in many other countries, it does not take the number-one spot in any of the Latin American countries in the report.
The most popular e-commerce platforms across Latin America are:
- Mercado Libre: This is the most popular e-commerce platform in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.
- Mercado Livre: This is the most popular e-commerce platform in Brazil.
- Falabella: This is the most popular e-commerce platform in Peru.
If you are planning on selling your products via e-commerce platforms in Latin America, make sure you focus your efforts on the right platform for the country you are targeting. By targeting the local platforms where your audience is actively looking to buy products like yours, you will get the biggest return-on-investment.
Commentary from our in-house experts
Samantha Brazel, a Production Manager at Webcertain says: “Your digital marketing strategy for the Latin American Spanish market should account for regional linguistic nuances. Whilst generalised Latin American Spanish is common, an idiom or phrase used in Mexico might not be well-understood in Argentina. Depending on your industry and the nature of your content, tailoring your approach for specific countries like Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina can foster better engagement. Recognising each country’s unique cultural and linguistic characteristics will strengthen your connection with the audience and boost return-on-investment.”
Anlieka Marconi, an Audience Marketing Team Leader at Webcertain says: “If you are an e-commerce brand entering the Latin American market, an important thing to look at is cultural nuances. Did you know that in Brazil, for example, paying in instalments is the preferred method of payment for most people? If you do not offer this kind of payment method, you might lose the interest of a large percentage of the market. This and other cultural nuances are so important to research beforehand. That is why we always recommend doing either market or persona research before diving in.”
Want to learn more?
If you want more Latin American digital marketing insights, check out the Webcertain search and social report 2024: Latin America. The report covers six Latin American countries, making it an ideal read for digital marketers wanting an easy-to-digest overview of the Latin American market. Download your copy for free from Webcertain’s Self-learning platform today!
Data sources
All the stats quoted in this blog post are taken from the Webcertain search and social report 2024: Latin America, which used the latest data taken at the time of writing from the United Nations Population Fund, Internet World Stats, DataReportal and Similarweb.
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