Post-Covid, India is experiencing a high level of energy and enthusiasm in commerce, which is reflected in the protracted bull rally in the stock market, high growth forecast by the IMF, an increasing number of startup unicorns, and other indicators.

If you are a small business, your best opportune moment has come. Rapid digitalization of the business processes is leading to fast recovery of the market and opening new opportunities across all boundaries.

Whether you are going to start a new business or revamp an existing one, you can’t do without digital marketing. Digital marketing will power your venture with great products and techniques and help you adopt the best strategy for your business, considering your goal, budget, and other aspects.

One such important consideration is your social media marketing budget. Social media channels are increasing in number but if you think about branding and marketing your products on social media, you have to select the right channels that’ll give the highest mileage in terms of highest visibility to the right audience, and of course affordability.

Facebook and Instagram are the two most visited social media platforms that can be a good source of audiences for most businesses. And both offer some great ad formats and ad targeting options.

As of September 2021. source : statista.com

But the question is which platform to go with. Although the user bases in both have some commonality, they are different in terms of characteristics, behaviour, features, and general demographics.

Ad campaigning on both channels is an option but is cost intensive. If you have a tight budget it makes better sense to compare both platforms and select the one that suits you best.

In this blog we have discussed the various aspects to answer your quest – facebook vs. instagram, which is better for you?

Instagram ads or Facebook ads?

It depends, as there are multiple factors to consider. Although both platforms have massive user bases and are from the same parent company, Meta, they differ in terms of cost, content types, interactions, management, and demographics. We will delve into each aspect individually.

Cost

Your Facebook and Instagram ad costs are determined by the bidding model you choose. The options are CPC ( cost-per-click) or CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions).

In the CPC model, you will have to pay based on the number of clicks by the viewers gained by your ad. The CPM pricing model, on other hand, is based on how many times your ad will be shown.

If you have a limited budget and want to generate quick sales, take the CPC model to drive more traffic to your website. But if you focus more on branding and product awareness go for the CPM model.

The below table provides you a tentative cost idea for each channel. You must note that the rates vary as per the demand and competition. For example, if your product category is apparel, the competition is high and the rates will be higher than many other products.

Management of ads

Both Instagram and Facebook ads can be managed by using Facebook’s Ads Manager. This is an all-in-one tool for creating, managing, and tracking the performance of your ad campaigns.

You can choose from a variety of audiences and placements thanks to this centralised ad resource. Campaigns are simple to manage, and the results may be downloaded.

When it’s about managing facebook ads, the campaign manager offers a lot of options for objectives, ad sets, and advertising. There are numerous combinations to try out, as well as numerous ways to preview all of the available adverts.

On Instagram, the ad manager takes the “less is more” approach. You can get your ad set up with an existing post or story in just a few taps. Instagram is the ideal ad management platform for you if you just want an easy and intuitive way to create and manage your ad campaign without the nitty-gritty statistics and control.

One advice, if you’re new to advertising on both platforms and have existing audiences on both, start with Instagram first. You’ll be better equipped to make the most of Facebook’s options once you understand how it operates.

Content type

Many social media content makers just republish the same information across many social media platforms. While there’s nothing wrong with repeating information occasionally, the truth is that different platforms need different messaging. This is especially true when it comes to the two most prominent social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram.

Instagram and Facebook are very different in terms of content types and interactions. They serve diverse purposes and meet distinct user expectations. Brands must have bespoke plans and approaches for both channels.

Facebook ads options

On Facebook you can have a variety of different ad formats:

• Single media ads – Single Image, video, or a slideshow of photos
• Carousel ads – enables you to use upto ten images or videos in a single ad, which can be scrolled through.
• Instant Experience – it gives your audience a full-screen experience when a mobile user taps your ad. To visually emphasise your business, products, or services and create an Instant Experience.
• Collection – When someone interacts with the collection format, it opens as an Instant Experience with several products. Customers may use their phones to explore, browse, and buy things in a visual and engaging way.

Instagram ads

Instagram has some very impressive statistics to speak for itself –

Instagram ads reach over 1.2 billion individuals, or 20% of the world’s population over the age of 13, and 27% of users claim they purchase new items and brands through paid social ads.

So if you plan for paid social ads, Instagram is your platform. The audience on Instagram is much more visually oriented. Before developing any other sort of material, you should think about making appealing photos or videos.

Following are the different types of Instagram ads available as of date:

• Image ads – You can use only single images to advertise your brand, products, and services.
• Instagram Stories Ads – These are full-screen image or video ads that you can use in between users’ Stories.
• Video ads – Video ads on Instagram allow you to give your users an insight into your brand, products, and services. You have the option to make your In-feed video ads up to 60 minutes long, but shorter videos garner more attention.
• Carousel ads – This enables you to use multiple images or videos in a series that viewers can swipe through. Carousel ads can be used in both In-feed and Instagram Stories.
• Collection ads – Collection ads combine carousel ads and shopping ads to showcase products directly from your product catalog.
• Explore ads – Explore ads show on the Explore tab, which is a section of the site where users visit to find new content and accounts based on their Instagram usage habits. More than half of all Instagram users visit Explore at least once a month, so it’s a wonderful location to be noticed.
• IGTV ads – These are essentially video ads that feature in the IGTV videos that users often watch from their feed. IGTV ads can be maximum 15 secs long and should be viewed full screen.
• Instagram Shopping ads – This enhances e-commerce by landing users straight on to a product description page within the Instagram app and enables them to purchase through your mobile website.
• Reel Ads – Reel ads are the full screen vertical videos, similar to Stories ads, and appear in-between Reels. They can be maximum 30 secs long and should be adorned with music and sounds for seamless integration with organic Reels.

The large variety of Instagram ad formats allow you to select the most appropriate ad type for your business objectives. But unlike Facebook You won’t have any clickable in-caption links. Instead, you have to use the call-to-action buttons on your Instagram ads

Demographics

Reaching out to the right demographics is another major consideration that defines the success of your ad campaign. As your objectives include generating new followers and fans, you have to be particular about the platforms and their demographics. Make sure the channel you select is crowded with people that fall within your desired group.

Facebook’s demographics are the most diverse of any social media platform. Many products and brands will most likely find at least some of their target audiences on Facebook.

By contrast, Instagram has a younger audience base. Below tables contain the details of demographics on each platform.

Facebook demographics data 2021

courtesy:napoleoncat.com

Instagram demographics data 2021

Courtesy: napoleoncat.com

To start your campaign, you need some existing followers or fans who will interact with your ad to create a successful ad with engagement. The simplest way to achieve this is to boost a post in your profile, which is accessible for both networks. This is very easy. No ads manager is required.

Wrap up

Benefits of Facebook ads at a glance

• Facebook is most visited social media platform
• You’ll find users from all age groups on Facebook
• Used by both B2B and B2C companies.
• Facebook offers a lot of effective ad features

Benefits of instagram ads

• High conversion rate
• Great organic functionality of the platform.
• High engagement rate

Source- Fluidscapes
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