Facebook and Instagram ad comparison. Where is it better to advertise?

The current fickle advertising market requires a presence in social media. Paving the way and pushing the envelope in online advertising, by and large it’s single-owned Instagram and Facebook that have been providing commercial solutions for companies.

Are you interested in advertising on social media? Check which of them is worth betting on as the primary advertising channel and so where you can achieve the expected results.

Facebook and Instagram ad comparison – table of contents:

• Facebook and Instagram – differences and similarities
• What to consider when choosing a platform for advertising?
• Facebook and Instagram advertising – which to choose?

Facebook and Instagram – differences and similarities

Until recently, the comparison of the two social networks always came out in favor of Facebook. It could boast of the largest user base and the largest revenue from advertising. However, this situation is changing quite quickly. Today it is Instagram that is number one among advertisers. The increase in the dynamics of ad spending therefore falls crushingly in its favor. What are the reasons for such changes?

Paradoxically, Facebook and Instagram users do not have as much in common as it might seem at first glance. Of course, this does not mean that there are no people with accounts on both platforms. However, it is safe to assume that customers using Facebook prefer mainly posts and statuses, while Instagram users prefer photos, accounts and stories. You should reflect that in the forms of advertising presented to them. On Facebook’s side, a much more extensive ecosystem should be saved – Facebook ads can be displayed on other sites and even in Messenger.

Both portals, on the other hand, offer quite similar rules for creating a campaign. You can predefine the goal of the campaign. You are able to choose from building the image of the company, evoking interaction, a specific action (e.g. contacting a representative, writing a comment, or entering the website), to the typical sale. Depending on the chosen goal, you can use one of the predefined advertising forms, allowing you to better reach your customers.

What to consider when choosing a platform for advertising?

Of course, it seems most sensible to use for advertising purposes that platform on which the promoted company already has an active account, with posts and people subscribing to the content provided.

Both social networking sites can prove to be a very effective tool for attracting customers. It’s not worth closing yourself off to a particular solution. A good solution is simply to maintain a profile on both sites and compare the effects of your campaigns – taking into account the expenses and the results they bring. Perhaps some of the offered products or services will sell better on Facebook, and others just on Instagram. It may be the same with advertising formats – some content will more naturally blend into the Instagram “wall”, while others will better interact with the content appearing on the Facebook stream.

The presence of competitors and their customer acquisition efforts is also important. While its use of one of the platforms may be a valuable indication of its effectiveness, on the other hand it is likely to mean higher advertising prices due to the need to compete with other industry players.

Sometimes it is more profitable to find a niche that allows you to reach a somewhat limited number, but completely new customers who are not yet reached by the competition with their offer. In addition, for a significantly lower price.

Facebook and Instagram advertising – which to choose?

Contrary to appearances, it is impossible to clearly determine which offer better reaches the customers of a particular portal. Although it might seem that Instagram will better “sell” products such as clothing, gadgets or ornaments. The strengths of Facebook will be services and training, but this is an excessive generalization. There are many more factors to take into account – competitors’ actions, goals, preferred forms, location, consumer habits, or the target group.

It is true that statistically on Instagram, video content achieves much higher interactions. The biggest brands eagerly exploit it, with a taste for videos in the vertical format, which is currently performing best in terms of sales.

In addition, available data from the United States indicates that women made the majority of purchasing decisions in households, so campaigns targeted at ladies tend to produce better results. This may be a suggestion as to the appropriate targeting of posted content, but it is certainly worth acting on your own marketing strategy and not giving up on market research.

If you’d like to explore the topic of maintaining social media profiles, here you can find informations about managing business Instagram’s accounts and here some tips how to effectively promote your firm on Facebook.