Table of contents
- Instagram Vs. Facebook; How Do They Compare?
- Facebook or Instagram – Which Is The Best For Your Business?
Business owners and marketers have come to the realization that their online existence will never be credible enough without a good social media marketing campaign. People spend a huge chunk of their day scrolling through their social media home pages, and use these platforms as a major source of information, news, shopping and entertainment. It is no longer limited to socializing, but has become a huge digital marketplace where companies and brands meet their customers.
Facebook is the leader of them all. It is the largest social media site, with over 2.7 billion active users. Ever since its launch in 2004, Facebook has made a huge contribution in the digitalization of our lives, and has hooked each of us with its versatile, dynamic and user-friendly features. Facebook algorithms have changed a lot ever since it was launched. Today, it strives to maintain content relevancy for viewers, ensure spam-free usage, and focus on generating maximum possible revenue from ads.
Even though it was acquired by Facebook in 2012, Instagram is a separate entity and has major differences. If you use Instagram and Facebook both for your business page, the two accounts will have different marketing goals, and strategies.
Just like Facebook, Instagram’s algorithm also works to provide the latest, most relevant and most relatable content to users. Instagram launched the “Business Account” feature in 2016, and is rapidly becoming the best and favorite social media platform for businesses and marketers. Instagram claims that its users visit at least one business profile every day!
With over 3.2 billion users active on social media today, marketers are incorporating a whole lot of social media marketing in their strategy. To help you pick which platform your business’s marketing strategy can start from, here is a complete comparison between Instagram and Facebook.
Instagram Vs. Facebook; How Do They Compare?
The two are compared on the basis of the following factors:
- Types of Ads
Both have various types of ads you can create for your brand. With Facebook, you can use story ads where your paid content appears on users’ stories section. You can create video ads, image ads, carousel ads, instant experience ads and event/offer ads too!
However, even with such a variety of ads you can use, Facebook offers less freedom of creativity and personalization.
With Instagram, you can create story ads very similar to the ones on Facebook. Video, image and carousel ads are also possible with Instagram. With the carousel ads, you can create slideshow-like visuals for your users where they can swipe through 10 pictures and read informative or prompting CTA’s as captions.
As a recommendation, story ads for both platforms are a much better choice. This is because they are more engaging, and let you use features like stickers and filters to personalize your ad. Plus, the insights feature on stories is very user-friendly, and allows you to quickly take a glance at an ad’s performance and reach. Statically, Instagram stories are a huge success. One thirdof the most-watched stories are from brands and businesses, while 500 million users watch Instagram stories every day!
- Cost
In terms of diversity, Facebook ads do take a win over from Instagram. Now, let’s see how the two platform ads cost.
Average CPC on Facebook is $0.27, and $1.41 on Instagram. Several factors influence this cost, such as your ad’s nature, goal and objective. Ad quality and the industry you are working in also influences ad costs.
- Content
The kind of content you post on the two platforms and the way these platforms function are very different. Let’s start with Facebook first.
Content posted by businesses on Facebook is more about providing information to user. So, announcing events, updating store timings, providing a detailed explanation about your business are a lot more possible and effective when done through Facebook. You can even create event ads on Facebook and get an excellent reach out of it. Facebook is less about customer engagement driven content, and more about providing your customers with endless amounts of information.
Instagram has been all about capturing pictures and uploading them since day one. Now that it has become such a huge digital marketplace, the aesthetic element of Instagram has taken over the business world too. Brands on Instagram are all about interacting with customers through aesthetically pleasing feeds, pictures, and videos. Users on Instagram have limited information and variety of actions they can take. For example, on Facebook, you can react to a certain post in several ways. But with Instagram you only get the “heart” button and comments option. It is less informational, and more about user engagement, content quality and brand image.
- Engagement
Compared to the many social media platforms out there, Instagram has the highest engagement rate. There are two reasons for this. One is that Instagram engagement is directly linked to the number of followers you have on your account. The higher the number of followers, the higher are your chances of engaging with users.
The second reason is that Instagram does not really let its users filter out the content they see on their feed. As a result, marketers can benefit from it and have higher chances of their content appearing on the user’s feed.
In comparison, Facebook has many content filters, and its algorithm has changed a lot over the past few years that organic reach has seen an overall decline. Consequently, brand engagement on Facebook is also lower than that of Instagram’s.
Facebook or Instagram – Which Is Best For Your Business?
The final verdict about which platform is the best for your business’s marketing strategy depends on the following factors:
- Your budget – decide which platform you want to opt for based on the cost of advertising and estimated turnover.
- Your goals – if your goal is to maintain an existing audience and less on bringing new people, then Facebook is ideal for you. For providing information and raising awareness of your brand through events and diverse ads, Facebook seems to be the better option.
- Product category – identifying the kind of product you are selling is important. Products that can have excellent visuals such as art, clothes, jewelry should be marketed on Instagram due to the aesthetic element.
- Who is your audience – different platforms have different demographics, Instagram is used largely by a younger audience compared to Facebook. If your product targeted this type of audience?
Both platforms require you to remain social media-savvy, and make the most out of features like the “insights” on Instagram and the sorties feature. You need to be equipped with affordable AT&T home internet services so that you do not end up bankrupt with all the bandwidth you will need to create your ads, engage with customers and respond to their queries all throughout the day.
Baldwin Jackson is a successful digital marketer with expertise in search engine optimization and content marketing. The perfect balance of his analytical ability and creative thinking is what sets him apart from other practitioners in the digital marketing realm. He has helped a lot of small and medium-sized businesses in crafting their digital marketing strategies that are not only cost-effective but delivers results as well.
Baldwin is also a proud father of two kids and a Sports enthusiast. When he is not working, you will find him watching ESPN and NFL network. He has been able to get an amazing package on his favorite channels from Buytvinternetphone.com.