Instagram Leads Platforms As Driver Of Stand-Up Ticket Sales

EXCLUSIVE: As a comic whose life changed when his clips took off on TikTok — someone who went from performing on the back of a truck to selling out the nation’s largest venues in the span of a couple years — Matt Rife is often asked what advice he’d give to those looking to make a mark online.

Recently, however, he’s admitted that he has no idea. Even more striking is the statement (made on TikTok) that he no longer posts much on the platform that made him famous, as he no longer feels he can rely on TikTok to boost his business.

“My only advice…is, you’re so f*cked. There’s nothing you can do whatsoever,” Rife said. “It is so one million percent out of your control now… [The algorithm] changes so much…You can build a fan base on social media — it’s great — but it’s getting harder and harder and harder to do, and you just cannot rely on it.”

Of course, for many performers today, including comedians, mastering digital strategy essential to success. Rife admits that he’s “super lucky to have been discovered, broken through, found my audience” before doing so became all the trickier. But where does what he’s pointed out leave everyone else?

Attempting to become part of the solution and, in the process, boost the overall stand-up ecosystem, Danny Frenkel believes he has the answer to their quandary — and remains positive that breaking through online is still very much possible.

A former Facebook exec, Frenkel is the co-founder and CEO of Punchup Live, a digital platform launched in 2023 to give comedians more direct control over their relationship with fans. The idea with Punchup has been to give comics a centralized hub where they can post their content, list tour dates with direct ticket links, sell merch, and build an email-based “guest list” of fans who get alerted when their favorite stand-up is performing nearby. The ability to communicate directly with fans in a specific area ahead of a show is fostered by location-based fan data and complemented by ticket sale insights, so comics can plan tours more strategically.

To Frenkel, a primary question for comics looking to build success off of their digital presence is “where folks should prioritize their time if they’re trying to sell tickets, not just be social media famous.” The answer is hinted at in a study he conducted, looking at ticket sales across his platform from August 2024 – August 2025, and comparing those numbers to data from the year prior, the results of which have been shared exclusively with Deadline.

To be more specific, the study looks at the platforms from which fans have been coming to Punchup before moving on to ticketing platforms and making their purchases. The results show that over the last year, ticket sales by way of Instagram have increased nearly 15%, as Punchup has expanded to host more and more comics. There are mixed signals when it comes to Facebook — which, like Instagram, is under the Meta umbrella — given that the platform has continued to contribute a large portion of raw ticket sales, but at the same time has seen its share of overall tickets sold via Punchup decrease by nearly 12% from year to year. TikTok and YouTube both ticked up modestly in ticket sales — TikTok, by 0.35%, and YouTube, by 0.56% — while X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, saw a decrease in ticket sales of almost 4%, becoming the only platform to drop off in terms of both share and raw ticket volume.

To Frenkel, these results fly in the face of what we might expect, given broad perceptions of the different social platforms. “I think going into this, you would’ve expected that YouTube would play a significantly larger role, because everyone is putting all their comedy specials there, and you would’ve expected that TikTok would play a larger role because that is, or was, a bit of the talk of the town,” he told Deadline. “And I think now, everyone is unclear on what exactly’s happening with the long-term of TikTok and what’s happening in the short term in terms of, are people still investing in it?”

To be transparent, the Punchup study is drawing only on internal data, and therefore while it can perhaps hint at broad trends in stand-up, it’s inherently limited in the way any one platform is, capturing just a fraction of ticket sales across the global landscape. Generalizations emerging from this data are just that, and won’t apply to every comic. It’s also important to note that what we’re dealing with here is organic marketing, rather than paid advertising or the monetization of individual posts.

In any case, Frenkel finds that his data aligns with broad industry trends. Per Meta’s Q2 2025 earnings report, for example, Instagram video time was up more than 20% year-over-year globally — a fact working in the favor of comics, who are often promoting through Reels. Instagram is inherently suited to visual storytelling — i.e., stand-up clips and promo — as well as discovery, with the algorithm often surfacing content to non-followers. Between stories, comments and DMs, there are lots of ways to nurture a fan base, and with myriad event promo tools, also including countdown stickers, location tags, and direct link stickers in stories, there are lots of ways to promote ticket sales. Facebook remains strong in supporting community-based events (i.e. local comedy shows), though time spent is not growing as quickly as on Instagram.

Recently, TikTok announced a new event promotion feature tied to creator bios and linkouts, which can only be helping discoverability. Meanwhile, YouTube’s reach across long- and short-form content remains robust, and the platform has likely seen both YouTube Shorts and “Community” posts contribute to a rise in ticket sales. Introduced in 2020 as Google’s answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts are now watched by over 2 billion logged-in users monthly, per Google data in Q1 2025.

Among comedy insiders, the consensus around X is that trust and user engagement — especially for smaller creators — have declined since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and subsequent rebranding of the platform in 2023.

Steve Richo, Co-Founder of the Nashville-based digital marketing agency Noise New Media, opines, “I think that Twitter has lost a certain segment of their audience based on controversies in the news cycle. Also, a lot of opinionated content being in people’s feeds, mostly political, I think it’s become more of a platform that folks looking for more lighthearted content are tending to stay away from.”

Ryan Handelsman, the founder and CEO of UpHigh — a social media and digital marketing agency geared toward comedic entertainers — agrees. “I think over time, [X has] just become, for lack of better words, a cesspool of political controversy,” he said. “Regardless of what side of the aisle you’re on, there’s always just a fight happening somewhere. I do see an advantage for comedians whose satire is driven highly based on politics or cryptocurrency or elements like that. But for the most part, the general wholesome clean comedian like a Nate Bargatze probably is not seeing the type of conversion on X that they are on a Facebook or an Instagram.”

Frenkel also points out that link visibility was deprioritized on X mid-2024. Moreover, reports from the likes of Similarweb and Sensor Tower show declining traffic referrals from X across industries.

When thinking about connecting with an audience on social media, generally, we also of course have to discuss the fundamental issue of demographics, as you’re not going to find the same audience everywhere. While younger emerging comics might be better served targeting Instagram and TikTok, Handelsman points out that with an artist like Leanne Morgan, “I would expect the majority of her ticket sales to be coming from a Facebook advertisement versus a TikTok advertisement because that’s ultimately where her audience lives.”

Facebook’s demographics are part of why the platform is less relevant generally for ticket sales than Instagram, Frenkel notes, because Instagram captures a younger audience that is perhaps more likely to go out to see stand-up. Meanwhile, Facebook maintains an older audience — and thus, the Punchup exec says, “No one’s particularly shocked that Facebook is decreasing in relevancy.”

Comedian Paul Elia broke down his perception of the platforms and their demographics as follows: “I look at Instagram as the portfolio app where you put the best of your best. Facebook is where old people go, and that’s where you just put all the whatever stuff. TikTok is for kids. You can have a massive TikTok following, but it doesn’t translate to ticket sales because all of your fans are 13, so no one is going. And Snapchat, the same thing.”

Elia underscores that Instagram “is probably the most tried-and-true app, for sure. If your following on Instagram is strong, people know you, and those people on Instagram have money to buy a ticket. Facebook, I would say same thing.”

Beyond the consideration of demographics, social media platforms can be distinguished by the kinds of marketing to which they cater: Direct response or brand-related. “Direct response advertising is like, ‘Hey, you should buy these shoes for X amount of dollars because they’re on sale. Click here to buy,’” explained Frenkel. “Brand advertising is, ‘Nike: Just do it.’ Facebook and Instagram are really good at knowing who to show what advertising to so they end up actually buying stuff, and they allow you to click off of the platforms to go buy it. So it’s not surprising that Facebook and Instagram account for the highest percentages of ticket sales because they have businesses based around showing people content and then sending them somewhere else to go buy things.”

TikTok and YouTube, in contrast “are growing theoretically in terms of popularity, but they just don’t account for a high percentage of [ticket sales] because they have a brand advertising business. So their whole business is about keeping you on the platform and just showing you as many ads as they can. It’s essentially television advertising; that’s the way to think about it.”

Regarding YouTube, Handelsman finds, “If we’re working on a big tour for a comedian that’s a theater or potentially an arena act, nationally or internationally, the likelihood of a consumer to actively transact and purchase tickets while consuming content on YouTube is low. Metaphorically speaking, it’s like running a commercial while you’re sitting down watching TV. That person’s not going to get off the couch and act right then and there.”

Certainly, stand-ups can build a following on YouTube with podcasts, stand-up clips, and the like. But Handelsman says these kinds of material serve as more of a “reminder” of upcoming shows, if anything, which “might be the catalyst that ultimately converts to that ticket sale tomorrow when they’re served that ad on Instagram.”

Eric Seufert, an analyst at Mobile Dev Memo, makes another key point — that “the most common way that YouTube is viewed” nowadays “is on the TV. [There’s] the form factor issue of it being now primarily like a CTV device.” And for this reason, the platform lends itself less to selling tickets.

Like YouTube, TikTok has its inherent limitations in this respect. On TikTok today, “the only thing you do is tell people, ‘Go to link in bio,’ but people are scrolling through a feed,” Frenkel noted. “Nobody wants to break that; they just want to go from one video to another to another.”

The general takeaways from the Punchup data seem to be that comics should lean heavily into Instagram, especially Reels and Stories, for campaigns and creator-driven promo. Promotion on X should be low priority, but Facebook should still be a major tool in the arsenal, as should TikTok and YouTube.

Ultimately, said one comedy agent, “The rising tide lifts all ships. They all help each other.” And it’s always going to be in comics’ best interest to be active across a range of platforms. “These social media companies tinker with their algorithm every day, so you kind of have to hit them all,” said one source familiar with the stand-up world. “TikTok for comedians was the hottest thing for a year or two, and now I feel like more people are leaning towards Instagram, but that could change in a year.”

In addition to a diversity of platforms, both Handelsman and Richo suggested that diversification of the kinds of promotional materials being distributed (key art, lists of tour dates, videos, etc.) is critical to avoid ad fatigue and work with the nature of the algorithm.

One lesson, to comedian Elia, is that you really can’t be precious with your material today. “The bar has been raised,” he said. “If there’s any comic who’s considering getting on social media and posting content, content cannot be precious anymore. [Some] older comics that I’ve seen have been doing the same joke since I met them in 2010… and it’s like this whole era of keeping the jokes tight, you’re just going to sink. It’s like, we want new thoughts. We live in a scroll culture.”

At the end of the day, it’s critical to ensure quality across the board, giving ample focus to both your stand-up act and your promo. While comedian Adam Ray told me he utilizes “all” social platforms, prioritizing Instagram and Facebook when it comes to his stand-up, the majority of his focus is on “content and creating and giving people a reason to follow me and the ticket sales usually follow.”

In discussing social media best practices, Handelsman also made sure to point out the value he finds in having clients “lean in on email acquisition,” and the reasons for that.

“One is obviously, if you’re collecting emails online from fans and followers, not only can you just email them and have a very high likelihood of an open rate and a conversion through that email, but you can also upload those emails into Meta and other ad platforms and essentially create an audience of those fans,” he said. “So if they opt in and use [a specific email address] to log into Facebook or Instagram, it will know that and it’ll serve me an ad, or it’ll also help build a lookalike audience of targeting, as well.”

Handelsman has his clients capturing email addresses everywhere from their websites to the link in bio on their social channels, to DMs, and even live shows, through the use of QR codes.

For his part, Richo finds value in “burning in captions” into social media material. “That may be a no-brainer for the audience,” he said, “but using tools like CapCut to get captions burned onto videos is a simple way to make sure that folks, when they’re laying in bed at three o’clock in the morning, can consume comedic content and it makes sense to them if the sound’s not on. I think that’s super important.”

While speaking with sources for this piece, each also offered predictions as to the direction in which we’ll see social media platforms move, and the impact that might have on sales.

“I would say that Meta’s products probably continue to be really strong for driving stand-up ticket sales. I could see Instagram growing more in this space just because of its popularity, and also because the native format works,” said Seufert. “I think TikTok could probably gain more share, just as a function of reach, and if they’re able to continue to invest in direct response advertising products. YouTube, fundamentally, it’s not the kind of platform that would be good for driving direct response ticket sales, so I don’t know that it would change much.”

Frenkel predicted you’ll see more and more comedians migrate more towards platforms like Substack (and his own) that allow comics to own their audiences. Meanwhile, both Elia and Richo predicted that AI tools and innovations will disrupt comedy, as it’s disrupting the world at large. But that’s a subject for another story.

This piece originated as part of Deadline’s new Comedy Means Business newsletter. Sign up here.