Within this blog, we want to tackle two huge platforms – Facebook and Instagram. All businesses want to know the key to social media success and what will really drive customers to engage with certain content but importantly to keep coming back. One of the biggest success rates can be through ads and that is what we will cover. A huge part of that is firstly, choosing which platform will or has been producing more sales and engagement already but ultimately, what is the better platform overall to put your ads on?
We will cover target audiences, cost-effectiveness, and what sort of ads to produce on either – and your business can decide at the end what could work best or better for you going forward.
Why Are These Two The Options?
Technology now is at its current best and most individuals use it daily and very consistently. This comes alongside the real reason a lot of us might pick up our phones and that is due to a wide variety of social media platforms. 2 of which are Facebook and Instagram. Facebook has an average of 3.065 billion monthly average users and Instagram has 2 billion makes it inevitable that these could do a great deal for your business.
The two separately, are very popular with all age ranges and genders with the content they produce and, where all of us have unique senses of humour and hobbies. For years now, both have been keeping a steady position in the top 5 most popular social networks, serving millions of users daily and providing marketers with access to diverse demographics. However, their audiences, interactions, and effectiveness can vary greatly depending on your business goals and target demographics.
Both are part of the same social media family run by ‘Meta Platforms’ but when it comes down to branding a product or service of yours, which one will produce the best ad results for your business?
What Ads do They Put Out to You?
Before we kickstart the debate of what ad really out-beats the other, an important element of input would be to understand what ads you may have noticed or ones maybe not so much, from either of the platforms.
Firstly, Facebook ads are a form of paid advertising that businesses can use to promote their products or services as well as content for its associated platforms which are, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. These will be marked with a sponsored tag so we know it is an ad. Ads on Facebook are very specific to the certain audience segments that they want to target.
Facebook gathers a huge amount of data about its user behaviours and therefore very able to understand what will produce the most engagement. As just mentioned Facebook has many associated other platforms for itself and for example can make its ads appear on Messenger and Facebook stories, so for your business, there is a high likelihood that many potential or existing customers could see the ad.
Overall, Facebook has a wider age viewing base whereas Instagram has noticeably a younger audience when compared this gives Facebook an advantage to post different ad content without the risk of not being ‘trendy’ enough or putting out unfamiliar popular content that other generations aren’t bound to understand.
Next Up, Instagram:
Instagram can be very similar to Facebook in adding ads onto stories and in-feed, but equally, some of the content is distinctly different. Naturally, the learning curve is not as steep with Instagram.
Most likely due to the focus on a younger audience, Instagram has more uploading and viewings toward its visual content – typically in shorter lengths too – although 15-60 seconds can be a struggle for certain businesses who might need crucial points to make or a demonstrative video.
Are There Content Differences?
Although Instagram and Facebook have different content due to the length, target audiences, etc, they are quite similar in content.
We believe from our own brand experience that visuals such as images, gifs, and short videos are more crucial than most realise and can play into the effect on certain audience’s viewing patience – it has a 2,200 character limit compared to Facebook’s 63,206 characters and therefore clear, bite-sized, fun ads will be more appreciated on this platform – they are better for ease compared to Facebook. If the target audience for your business is ‘Gen Z’ and other younger audiences, Instagram is the better choice.
It is clear that funny posts, stories, etc are the most popular and are an evergrowing and loved category and these statistics are very similar for Facebook especially with funny at the top, it is just discovering what audiences find funny as the age range in humour can differ a lot.
When deciding between advertising on Facebook or Instagram, it’s important to consider your industry. Visual-heavy sectors such as food, fashion, and trendy consumer goods tend to perform better on Instagram due to its image-centric nature. If you manage accounts on both platforms, review your social media analytics to identify which one is already generating the type of organic engagement you’re seeking. If Facebook is driving more clicks, use this insight to design an ad that aligns with the content style that’s performing well there.
What to Look at Overall:
- Ad Formats
- Ease of setting up an Ad
- Costs
- ROI
But without diving into all of these sectors, both Instagram and Facebook are there for beginner and experienced marketers but it really is decided by what content you want to put out there and how much interaction you can get from it. So we advise finding your target audience by reviewing what content has previously been successful and the budget you have for the overall ad – after reviewing, Instagram does cost slightly more per ad. Here are some statistics from ‘MadgicX’ we put in our own graph.
Get Ahead Today with Your Ads With Us!
And if reading this page has made you realise you need to reexamine your social strategy before you embark on paid ads, get in touch with us at Active Internet Marketing, our expertise in paid social media ads allows us to generate more leads for your businesses. Whether you prefer in-person meetings at our Stamford office or online consultations, get started and call us at 01780 693003 and our helpful team can tailor our solutions to align with your specific sales and marketing goals.
