Whatsoever be the platform, social media is taking over the world in its grip each day.

But as a marketer, you are also in a dilemma as to what is best for your given brand, when comes to marketing it over social media.

Two platforms that top this race are Facebook and Instagram.

Although both of them are now under the same leadership of Mark Zuckerburg, both of their own pros and cons as a social media platform.

The point is, if you are smart enough to understand the dynamics of both platforms, you will be able to launch a perfect integrated marketing campaign, keeping in mind the advantages and disadvantages.

To a study by Statistica, by 2021, the investment in social media marketing would be around 48 billion dollars. Clearly, the cards are in favor of social media marketing, that is why many businesses are shifting to it for making their market more effectively in the marketplace.
 

But the statistics are not much clear on which platform as a marketer you should prefer more when comes to launching a campaign.

Let’s move forward to understand as to how to actually distinguish between these two when comes to launching a brand on them.

Features of Instagram and Facebook

No doubt both of these platforms are amazing when comes to interaction and engagement, hence ensuring you better ROI.

Facebook is older than Instagram and is having a bigger user base in comparison.

Both are now under Zuckerberg, who bought Instagram back in 2012, two years after it was launched.

It goes without saying that both platforms are great for advertising but, still both have different advantages when it comes to introducing a social media campaign on each of them.

Let’s make a difference in various parameters to actually deduce which one is the best!

1.    Engagement:

To give you an idea, Facebook has about 60 million business pages. But the engagement rate over a facebook page is less than a business account on Instagram.

Having said that, Instagram is more pro Images rather than videos. Facebook, on the other hand, have about 8 million views when comes to videos; Instagram has a lower reach.

Both of them indicate two things clearly.

• Instagram is great if you are planning Photo Campaigns
• Facebook is better to be used for Video Ads

2.    Target Audience

Due to being in the market longer than Instagram, Facebook gets the advantage of having an enormous audience.

But you will find the generations more active over Facebook. Instagram is a more millennial thing and the place where you can tap into the generation Z.

Here, you will have to analyze the market of your product and then get into which platform fits the bill.

It is easier to choose after that application that, if a product is something which will interest the older generation then it is better to target them over Facebook and if the audience is relatively younger than choose Instagram.

3.    Optimized as per Mobile Usage

The Facebook interface is adaptable to all the platforms: desktops, tablets and smartphones, you can use almost every tool available.

But there is a constraint when comes to Instagram. It doesn’t provide the same flexibility, also you can’t use desktops to efficiently use them, like for posting ads, or posts & stories in general.

Instagram is more mobile-friendly for the very reason that people can share their life updates quickly. 

Smartphones have taken over the market and usage is also dominated by the same.

Therefore, a Facebook campaign must be optimized carefully as per mobile phones and Instagram is anyway highly optimized for such campaigns. 

4.    Type of Advertisements

On Facebook, you can post a lot of different types of ads like Video, Image, Carousel, Collection, events and so on.

Variety is a there on Facebook, whereas on Instagram only 4 types exist:

• Photo
• Video
• Story
• Carousel

Well, you definitely have more options when comes to options when comes to Facebook but Instagram Story Ads are very effective.

Facebook’s Carousel and Collection also fetch great ROI. But can we say that any one of them is better? Well, that is hard to pick.

This again depends upon the demographic and the type of business of yours is.

5.    Cost-effectiveness on Ads

Both platforms have costly ad campaigns. As per few statistics over the Internet, Facebook is about $0.27 CPC and $7.19 CPM whereas Instagram ads cost about $1.41 CPC and $7.91 CPM.

So, established is the fact that money can’t be a point of difference and advantage.

Then, how to invest in looking at the cost?  What should be the criteria? Considering the above factors, you look into:

The kind of strategy you are using for your brand will be one factor.

• Look into the purpose of the ad and then take your pick
• Your social media is like a long time investment, don’t expect fast returns. This ain’t cost.
• The demographics used in the formation of an ad, use them carefully. Be clear about the area, age and other aspects of your audience when you are constructing your Ad.
• Quality over Quantity. Focus on your content and visual along with it
• Hashtags are your strength. Use them wisely.

It has been a long comparison showing the pros and cons of both sides.

Facebook being older than Instagram got that trust and recognition but Instagram is the Millennial wildfire with absolutely no stopping.

Content is getting consumed on a daily basis. The shift to social media by companies is the indicator.

More than these analytics, there is also the quality of your content, your hard work, consistency, and strategy which goes into making any campaign successful.

Don’t forget the organic source of popular which could be done through SEO optimization as that is cost-effective and has long-lasting results.

Other than this, a faith of consumer in your brand and product also make the campaign successful, there is nothing like a loyal consumer.

But if talking about whether to choose any one amongst both of these platforms, there is no fight but a smart approach.

Using the insights just shared, you can use both of them to your advantage without spending too much money but just using your intellect.

On an endnote, both of them should be used keeping in mind their best qualities.

Author:

Vanshikha Kanojia is a prolific writer at Doors Studio and has been writing professionally since five years. Being a true Millennial at heart, she is inclined towards Digital Marketing and Social media. Hence, she is agressively researching and writing over these topics extensively.