Social media platforms once seen as a platform for fun and entertainment have today become indispensable tools for businesses of all categories and sizes. There are several social media platforms today. Among the two most popular ones are Facebook and Instagram. Both offer their own brand of enviable features and capabilities making them suitable for marketing and advertising purposes.
But when it comes to determining which platform is better, Facebook VS Instagram, for your business, it’s essential to first understand them and how best they align with your business objectives and goals.
FACEBOOK VS INSTAGRAM
To understand the difference between Facebook VS Instagram, check out the following aspects.
KNOWING THE BASICS
As a social network giant, it is a complete platform.
Its broad collection of tools for brand promotion makes It a business-friendly platform. From Facebook Pages and Groups to Marketplace and Facebook Ads, they all help businesses to connect in different ways with customers.
As a visual-first platform launched in 2010, its places greater emphasis on photo and video content. With its pleasing aesthetics; storytelling features based on high-class images and videos; and Instagram Stories, it is ideal for businesses looking to connect with the younger audience age-groups.
VERDICT
Facebook caters to a broad collection of content categories. On the other hand, Instagram being heavily visual-based focuses more on creative, captivating imagery and video. This makes it an ideal choice to connect with the younger audience. Selecting the right choice is a bit tricky. It all depends on how your business presents itself and engages on each platform with customers.
AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS
Both platforms find favor with almost all audiences. They are used by several thousand users across the globe. That’s where the similarity ends as their audience demographics differ significantly.
Having started early, Facebook has a more broad and diverse user base. Worldwide it has over 3 billion active monthly users. Although it is used by people of all age-groups, it appeals to the older age-groups, businesses and working professionals, and organizations. To date it remains among the consumers and marketers the most popular social media platform
- AGE-RANGE: Although it has an evenly distributed age range, its largest audience segment remains 25-54 age groups.
- GEOGRAPHICAL REACH: It has a significant global reach from North America to Asia, Europe, and Africa.
- USERS INTERESTS: Facebook users have varied interests. They are inclined to follow brands, join groups, and indulge in varied hobbies and lifestyle preferences.
Known as the platform for Gen Z and Millennials, Instagram has a younger user-base. A significant proportion of this is between 18 to 34 age-groups. Today, it is said to have a monthly active user-base of over 2 billion worldwide.
- AGE-RANGE: Its largest user-base is 18 to 34 age-groups. Younger generation tend to patronize it for its visually-driven content. This makes it ideal for businesses looking to target younger age-groups.
- GEOGRAPHICAL REACH: It’s hugely popular worldwide. However, the user base is confined to a certain category. That is, countries with high Smartphone penetration like India, etc; and urban areas.
- USERS INTERESTS: As it mainly caters to younger generation aspirations, users’ interest is more lifestyle—driven. That is, visual-content of Food, Travel, Beauty, Fashion, etc.
VERDICT
If your business is oriented towards younger generation or is driven by visually captivating content like fitness, beauty, fashion, food, travel, etc, then Instagram makes for a suitable choice.
Facebook caters to a more diverse population. This includes mostly middle-aged and older audience. Facebook’s format and features suits businesses looking to reach all audience segments.
ADVERTISING ON INSTAGRAM VS FACEBOOK
Both are highly effective advertising platforms. Their ad formats allow businesses to connect with target-audience on varied aspects like location, behaviors, interests, and age.
There are however certain differences in how advertising on each platform is used.
As a more mature, comprehensive platform, it has for long been a leader in social media advertising. Businesses by leveraging its robust array of advertising tools can run highly-targeted campaigns. Besides, it also offers vast data collection capabilities. With Facebook Ads Manager, businesses will be able to create different kinds of ads like,
- IMAGE ADS: Simple, direct visual ads that drive traffic.
- VIDEO ADS: Dynamic ads that helps to showcase products in motion.
- CAROUSEL ADS: Ads that feature videos or multiple images in one post.
- LEAD ADS: Forms that are designed to generate leads directly within Facebook.
What counts in Facebook’s favor is,
- Sophisticated ad targeting options. They help businesses to reach out to specific audiences in line with their behaviors, interests, life events, and even job titles.
- It allows extensive A/B testing and detailed analytics. This enables businesses to fine-tune their campaigns.
As a mostly visual and engaging platform, its ads are predominantly designed to be eye-catching and visually pleasing. They can be seamlessly integrated into users’ feeds or stories.
Instagram offers the following ad formats.
- FEED ADS: Full-screen, scrollable images or videos that appears in user’s main feed.
- STORIES ADS: Full-screen vertical ads that appear between Instagram Stories.
- REELS ADS: Ads that run within the short-form video feed, similar to that appearing in Tik Tok.
- SHOPPING ADS: Ads that allow users’ to purchase products directly from the feed.
What makes Instagram a better choice is,
- Ad formats. Its true Instagram offers the same type of ad formats, that is, Image, Video, Story Ads, and Carousel. But it places more emphasis on aesthetics.
- Facebook’s Ads Manager. Businesses can run their campaigns across both platforms at the same time, but Instagram Ads tends to be more effective when aligned with the platform’s visual-first nature.
- Seamlessly integrates ads into users’ feed and stories.
VERDICT
Facebook is a better choice for businesses
- With a diverse customer base.
- Wanting to connect with a broad, diverse segment of audience across varied stages of the customer journey.
Instagram’s visual nature makes it ideal for businesses
- Relying on creative content. Like for instance, artists, fashion brands, lifestyle companies, and such likes.
- Involved in visually appealing products or services
- Wanting to connect with a younger audience who prefer more engaging experience. Businesses like fashion, beauty, food, travel, etc, fall in this category.
CONTENT CREATION
This depends upon the kind of content you’re looking to create.
FACEBOOK CONTENT
Facebook supports a range of content formats. They include, text, videos, images, live streams, etc. If your business focus is on sharing articles or posting webinars or creating community groups or running detailed product demos, then Facebook’s multifaceted content options will suit it.
- TEXT-BASED CONTENT: In Facebook, you can post long posts. This makes it suitable for sharing detailed stories or updates.
- COMMUNITY BUILDING: With Facebook Groups, you can crate communities, foster discussions, and engage with your audience directly.
- EVENT PROMOTION: With Facebook Events, you can promote offline events, live streaming, and webinars.
INSTAGRAM CONTENT
Instagram is suitable if you’re looking to present visual storytelling. With its focus on visual content, it suits businesses who deal in products that are visually pleasing. And who look to tell a story through videos or images. With its formats like Reels, Stories, and Feed Posts, you can generate a captivating brand presence and at the same time engage with creative visuals your audience
- INSTAGRAM STORIES: It’s great for presenting behind-the-scenes looks or quick and engaging content, and flash sales.
- INSTAGRAM REELS: It’s suitable if you’re looking to present short-form, high-value video. The content can share brand stories with your audience in a fun, engaging manner.
VERDICT
If your intention is to connect with a younger audience and you can leverage high-class, visually pleasing content, then Instagram makes for a better choice.
FINAL VERDICT
Which is better, Facebook or Instagram, for your business?
This depends on your business nature and type, content nature and relevance, and above all, target-audience.
Facebook will suit your business if you
- Want to reach out to a diverse audience including older generation.
- Look to run detailed, complicated ad campaigns with multiple objectives. Objectives like website clicks, lead generation, event promotion, etc.
- Look to build your community or engage your customers and benefit from long-form content through groups.
Instagram is suitable if your
- Target-audience is 16 to 34 year old age group; or highly visual industries like beauty, fashion, food, etc.
- Intention is to create captivating, visual content aligned with Instagram’s aesthetic-driven nature.
- Looking to leverage short-form Video, Stories, and Influencer Marketing to create brand awareness.
CONCLUSION
No specific answer can be given to the question – which is better, Facebook VS Instagram? Selecting the appropriate platform from among the two depends on the nature of your business, its goals, and target audience. It also depends on the kind of content your business intends to create consistently. In many cases, businesses benefit from leveraging both platforms as they come from the same family – META and complement each other very well. While Facebook offers better targeting power and broader reach, Instagram on the other hand offers to the younger demographic a visually, stimulating experience. To leverage them to the maximum and extract maximum benefits, make OptMum Digital your choice. You stand to benefit from a comprehensive array of value-added digital marketing and social media marketing services.
FAQs
1. Which is better, Facebook or Instagram, for my business?
It all depends on your business nature, goals, content strategy, and target audience. Facebook offers detailed targeted options and more ad formats. It is ideal for businesses looking to reach a wide and diverse audience Instagram on the other hand, is for businesses like fashion, beauty, travel, etc, prioritizing visual storytelling and looking to target younger audiences.
2. Which is better, Facebook or Instagram, for better ROI?
It depends on your business category and objectives. Facebook with its expansive audience base and targeting options can generate excellent ROI. This makes it good for businesses looking to across broad demographics build brand awareness or drive conversions. Instagram on the other hand, offers higher engagement ROI rate and visually compelling content. This suits businesses from beauty, lifestyle, or fashion segments.
3. Should my company advertise on Instagram and Facebook?
YES, it’s a smart strategy if you are looking to reach different audience segments. Since they are managed through the same platform, that is, META Ads Manager, they can be optimized in line with their performance. By running advertising on Instagram and Facebook will help to maximize your business reach across diverse audience demographics and extract maximum benefits.
4. Which platform offers superior targeting options, advertising Facebook VS Instagram?
Facebook with its more advanced targeting options. You can target users via Facebook PIXEL in line with their demographics, interests, and even specific actions taken on your website. Instagram’s targeting capabilities in many ways are similar. That’s because both platforms are integrated. However, Facebook provides more granular control making it a better bet for businesses needing in-depth audience segmentation.
5. Which businesses benefit from Facebook VS Instagram?
Facebook suits those businesses like B2B businesses that look to target a broad audience demographic and run a host of ad formats. Instagram on the other hand, fits businesses relying on visual content. Some examples include Beauty, Food, Travel, etc.
6. What are the benefits of advertising on Instagram VS Facebook?
Instagram when compared to Facebook, offers
- HIGHER ENGAGEMENT: Offers higher engagement rates for content like stories, reels, and posts with visuals.
- VISUAL APPEAL: Designed to present visual content. This suits businesses engaged in creative industries or visually appealing products.
- STORIES AND REELS: Provides unique ad formats that engage users in dynamic immersive ways.
- YOUNGER AUDIENCE: More popular with the age group 18 to 34. This suits businesses looking to target millennials and GEN Z.
7. Is it possible to use the same content for Instagram AND Facebook?
YES, you can. However it is better to tailor content to each platform’s specific strengths. Instagram scores better with short-form video content and high-class images. On the other hand, Facebook is better with detailed messaging, calls-to-actions, and links. You can however use both to run a unified campaign and allow the platform to optimize ad placement and format.
