With 3.7 billion active users on both platforms, Instagram and Facebook are the two largest social media platforms in the world. Millions of marketers use the platforms to reach new audiences, and to achieve their business goals.

Both channels offer a wide range of advertising formats and ad objectives. This allows you to reach your target audience, drive traffic, and increase sales. Although these channels can achieve the same goal, they are not identical. It is important to be aware of the differences so that you can choose which channel is best for you.

What are the benefits of advertising on Facebook?

Facebook advertising offers many benefits to your business.

• The most widely used social platform – Facebook has over 2.7 billion active users which surpasses Instagram and all other social media platforms.

• All age groups use Facebook. statistics shows that 51% (13-17 years old) use Facebook, 79% (7-29 years olds), 79% (7-49 year olds), 79% (79% (30-49 year olds), 79% (79% 30-49 year olds), 68% (64-64) and 46% (46%+) use Facebook. Facebook ads allow you to reach many people.

• Can be used by B2B or B2C businesses. All types of businesses can advertise on Facebook, so no matter who they are, they’re most likely to be there.

• The most popular social media platform – 74% check the site at minimum once a day. This is more than Instagram’s daily users, so your chances of reaching your target audience are high.

• A wide range of effective advertising features –Facebook offers a vast array of ad types, targeting types, and retargeting options to help you reach your target audience. You can retarget to your audience, creating similar audiences, as well as different ad formats and measurement capabilities.

What are the benefits of Instagram advertising?

It’s important to know the benefits of Instagram advertising, along with the benefits of Facebook Advertising. These benefits include:

• Instagram users purchase from the app.One third of Instagram users have purchased directly from an Instagram advertisement. These users have a buying mindset, which makes it easier to convert on the app.

• Instagram offers you the perfect opportunity to grow your brand organically. It’s easy to build a following and increase awareness for your brand without spending any money. You can increase your fans, followers and word-of-mouth referrals if you do it correctly. This can help you to increase ad conversions.

• Engages ad audiences better –Instagram, a visual platform, helps drive more engagements. Instagram is the best place to share visual content.

Are you allowed to run ads on Facebook and Instagram?

Many clients are curious whether it is better to run ads on Facebook or Instagram. This question is not easy to answer because it depends on your brand, content and target audience.

Although both platforms are beneficial to your brand, it is possible to run ads on one. However, if your budget is tight and you have to choose one, we recommend choosing the one that your target audience uses most.

These are the top factors to consider when selecting the right platform for your business.

Ad Management

The Facebook Ads Manager allows you to manage both channels. This makes it simple to place ads on both channels, and to select the best placements.

Facebook’s campaign manager gives you options for ads, objectives, and ad sets. You can also preview your ads and test a variety of ad combinations.

Instagram’s ad manager makes it easy to use. The app allows you to create an ad in a matter of minutes from an existing story or post. Instagram’s ads manager is perfect for those who don’t need a lot of data but want to get the basics.

Content

Instagram and Facebook are very different in terms of how they use content and the interactions they can create.

Facebook lets you use a variety of ads, such as:

• Carousel: Two or more scrollable images, videos

• A single media is an image, video, or slideshow of images.

• You can share any links that you may have shared in your existing posts

Instagram offers the same options, but it is not possible to make your caption clickable. To add a link to your site, you will need to use a Call Action button.

Consider what you want to accomplish with your ads.

Facebook behavior is all about interacting with family and friends, and sharing informative and interesting links. To increase engagement on Facebook, you should share useful content like blogs, news articles and case studies.

Instagram is more visual-oriented than other channels so make sure to create compelling photos and videos for the highest engagement.

Goals

You can use goals to help you determine the success or failure of your campaigns based upon the results you want to achieve. Facebook’s Ad Manager makes it easy to choose a goal for your campaign. You can choose the best objective right from the start. Options include everything from brand awareness to driving traffic to your website or conversions.

Facebook’s Ad Manager allows you to manage ads on Instagram and Facebook. However, not all options are available on Instagram. You’ll need to think about what you want before you launch your campaign on Instagram to ensure that Instagram is able to help you achieve your goals.

You can’t choose an objective when advertising on Instagram via the mobile app. This is why you need to be aware of this when planning your campaigns.

Industry

Your industry can make a big difference in whether or not you are able to use Instagram. Businesses that sell food, fashion and consumer goods tend to do better on Instagram.

The industry you are in can have an impact on the price of your ads. You will need to run ads that cover the entire customer journey, from awareness to consideration to purchase, if you are selling more expensive products and services. It will also cost more to stand out from the crowd if there is a lot of competition. If your industry doesn’t have a strong presence already, it is likely that you will have less competition, so your advertising on Facebook or Instagram will be less expensive.

Audience

The available audience is one of the most important differences between Instagram and Facebook. Active users on Facebook include men and women of all ages. The most active users are those aged 25-34. Facebook allows you to reach many people, or individuals within a particular age group.

Instagram, on the other hand, has a smaller audience. Statistics indicate that both men and women use Instagram, but not all age groups or both. The 18-24-year olds are the most active on Instagram, while 25-35-year olds are the most active.

Instagram is the ideal platform to reach younger audiences (Generation Z or Millennials). Facebook is the best channel for other age groups.

Types of ads

Facebook lets you create many different ads to reach your customers. These are all different ways to engage people on Facebook and allow them to interact with you.

There are many types of ads that you can post on Facebook:

• Video ads
• Image ads
• Ads from the Collection
• Carousel ads
• Slideshow ads
• Facebook instant experiences/canvas ads
• Lead generation ads
• Advertisement
• Post engagement ads
• Adverts for event response
• Likes on Page

Instagram is a more visual platform, so adoptions are less. Instagram allows you to run the following types of ads:

• Photo ads
• Video ads
• Carousel ads
• Stories ads

You can see that whether you advertise on Facebook or Instagram depends on many factors, including your industry, target audience, budget and what you are trying to achieve. Knowing the differences between each channel and where your audience is located will help you make the best choice for your business.