When it comes to social media marketing, Facebook and Instagram are the two leading social media platforms of choice for entrepreneurs and start up corporations to reach out to their audience. But which one is the superior option when it comes to Facebook advertising VS Instagram advertising? Read on to find out.
To begin deciding between Facebook advertising or Instagram advertising, there are several factors to consider- what are your advertising needs? How well can each platform meet these needs? Here are 5 factors that can help you come to a decision:
- Accessibility
As of the moment, Facebook has an advantage compared to Instagram. While a good fraction of online users are accessing the internet through mobile, there’s still quite a substantial amount using computers. Out of all internet users, the number of multi-device users ( mobile, tablets and pcs etc) are by far surpassing mainly mobile users.
Facebook has taken advantage of this fact by making the social media platform available in mobile apps and also online through computers so users can stay connected on Facebook virtually anywhere everywhere. Whereas so far, Instagram is mostly supported on mobile instead. You can access it through PC but the online version does not allow for much, including posting, which can be a major drawback.
- User base
As a whole, Facebook has been around longer than Instagram and it’s user base is vast with ages as young as teenagers to older folk using the social networking platform on a daily basis. However, Instagram poses as an immensely strong competitor as it’s growth since it’s introduction has only been positive.
When you take a closer look at user demographics however, Instagram has the advantage when it comes to engagement since it’s specifically marketed as a platform for visual content brands. While it is true that you see business pages on Facebook, Instagram has a largely younger user base full of creative influencers with large followings, social media savvy marketers, millennials, aspiring artists and more!
- Content
Another distinctive difference between Instagram and Facebook are that Instagram functions mainly on image-based camera roll layouts so images are it’s main way of engaging others. Facebook on the other hand, relies mainly on text since it’s mostly for informational purposes so if you’re looking for a company and it’s information (address, opening hours, location, events etc), you can find everything on Facebook a lot easier compared to Instagram.
- Advertising
For users who wish to advertise, managing and scheduling ad campaigns are a lot easier on Facebook compared to Instagram. Keeping track of ad campaigns are a lot easier on Facebook since Instagram disallows users from adding clickable links to posts, meaning to say you cannot track certain conversions well. Instagram advertising is a fairly new feature compared to Facebook so it’s natural to expect several limitations in different areas since it’s focus was always on building user base and brand recognition instead of purely advertising.
- Competition
However, one thing to note about Instagram is that it also means lesser competitors. Those brave enough to venture into Instagram advertising actually stand to gain many benefits, including revenue growth at a faster speed, a stronger positioning in the Instagram market, and more! It pays to adapt early since it gains you much more attention compared to constantly comparing with everyone on Facebook.
At the end of the day, Facebook advertising is still beneficial compared to Instagram advertising. However, one should not dismiss Instagram advertising altogether. There are benefits in advertising on different platforms and even Facebook themselves are starting to tap into and recognise all that Instagram has accomplished where they can’t. So why not give both a try? You can certainly boost up your recognition and relevancy through these two channels even if you focus on advertising in different levels of priority.
