Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising DIFFERENCES & BEST PRACTICES A SOCIALBAKERS STUDY Facebook and Instagram are two of the biggest social media platforms, with a combined audience of over 2.7 billion users. The massive size of the networks’ community is currently being leveraged by more than 6 million marketers, which makes Facebook and Instagram some of the most popular spaces for social media advertising. The large number of users is just one of many assets, though. Facebook and Instagram are offering businesses many possibilities to customize their marketing strategies, including multiple ad formats, a variety of precise ad objectives, and advanced targeting options. That’s why it’s not surprising that so many companies turn to the networks to advertise. While both Facebook and Instagram can help marketers achieve their business objectives, it’s important to understand the differences between the platforms. In order to tap into the networks’ marketing potential, companies need to develop effective strategies that will play to Facebook and Instagram’s varying strengths. In this whitepaper, we discuss the platforms’ distinct features and explain how to best leverage them for advertising. We also provide valuable insights based on our exclusive data to help marketers get the most out of their Facebook and Instagram presence. Table of Contents Facebook and Instagram’s Audiences in Numbers 4 How Engaging Are Facebook and Instagram? 7 How to Select the Best Advert Format 9 What Ad Placements Should You Choose? 13 What Are the Most Popular Ad Placements? 15 How Engaging Are Different Ad Placements? 16 What Can You Achieve With Facebook and Instagram Ads? 17 What Are the Most Common Ad Objectives? 19 How Much Are Marketers Paying for Different Ad Objectives? 20 What’s the Correlation Between Engagement and Advertising Costs? 21 The Takeaway 23 Facebook and Instagram’s Audiences in Numbers Whether you already have a strategy in place or you’re beginning to build one, knowing the key differences between Facebook and Instagram’s communities is necessary to develop a marketing game plan that’s properly tailored to each of the platforms. Here are some facts that will allow you to get a better idea of the audiences you are advertising to: Monthly Active Users 1.94 800 billion million Sources: VentureBeat: “Facebook Passes 1.94 Billion Monthly Users, 1.28 Billion That Use It Daily”; TechCrunch: “Instagram Now Has 800 Million Monthly and 500 Million Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 4 Daily Active Users” Facebook and Instagram’s Audiences in Numbers Biggest User Age Group 25-34 25-34 year-olds year-olds (21% of user base) (25% of user base) Average Time Spent on Platform 35 15 minutes minutes Sources: Statista: “Distribution of Facebook users in the United States as of December 2016, by Age Group”; Statista: “Distribution of Instagram Users in the United States Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 5 as of December 2016, by Age Group”; Mediakix: “How Much Time Do We Spend on Social Media?” Facebook and Instagram’s Audiences in Numbers Top User Locations India U.S. 241 million 88 million U.S. Russia 240 million 28 million Brazil Brazil 139 million 27 million Sources: The Next Web: “India Overtakes the Usa to Become Facebook’s #1 Country”; Statista: “Leading Countries Based on Number of Monthly Active Instagram Users” Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 6 How Engaging Brands Receive More Engagement on Instagram Compared to Facebook Are Facebook Total Number of Interactions on Facebook and Instagram (in Millions) and Instagram? 7 7 Audience differences are not the only thing marketers should 600 600 prioritize while developing their Facebook and Instagram strategies. The platforms also vary in terms of the engagement 500 500 volume, which can affect companies’ results and, consequently, 400 400 the way they are distributing their digital marketing resources. iions 3 3 On Facebook, media companies receive over 4x more 200 200 interactions than on Instagram. However, if you’re a brand, you might want to focus on Instagram, where brands’ engagement 100 100 is over 3x higher compared to Facebook. Therefore, companies 0 0 2016 7 2016 7 unable to generate desired engagement solely on Facebook’s ntertainment eebs edia rands ommunit marketing platform should use Instagram as a social media marketing tool as well. Some brands are more successful in achieving the results they require when they optimize their use of both platforms. Chart Date Range: January 2016 - March 2017; Sample: 20,686 Entertainment, Celebrity, Media, Brand, and Community Facebook Pages and 9,972 Entertainment, Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 7 Celebrity, Media, Brand, and Community Instagram Pages TIP Just how much engagement your content will receive largely depends on the right timing. Knowing your audience’s behaviors is key to ensuring your posts will achieve maximum exposure and response. With PrimeTime Publishing in Socialbakers Suite, you’ll be able to publish at the optimal time and easily increase the number of interactions. Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 8 How to Select the Best Advert Format In order to take full advantage of Facebook and Instagram’s potential to engage, it’s important to know the ad formats that drive the interactions. And because the platforms are different, marketers need to develop a slightly different strategy for each. Single Image Photo An ad which allows you to create 6 An ad using 1 photo different versions of one ad using one image What to Use It For Drawing attention to your business through eye-catching photographs Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 9 How to Select the Best Advert Format Single Video Video An ad using 1 video that’s up to An ad using 1 video that’s 120 minutes long up to 60 seconds long What to Use It For Complementing your TV advertising campaigns Telling more complex business stories Carousel Carousel An ad using 2 - 10 An ad using 2 - 10 scrollable images scrollable images What to Use It For Directing users to specific places on your website Showcasing multiple products or services Explaining how your business or product work Telling a compelling story one image at a time Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 10 How to Select the Best Advert Format Slideshow Stories An ad using a looping video with An ad consisting of one photo up to 10 images or video that’s up to 15 seconds long that appears between What to Use It For people’s stories Telling a brand story across devices What to Use It For Telling a brand story Canvas An interactive ad allowing you to tell a story using a mix of photos and videos What to Use It For Grabbing users’ attention and encouraging them to interact with your ad Acquiring new customers Raising brand awareness Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 11 How to Select the Best Advert Format One of the things marketers should consider while picking the right ad format is the story they want to tell. For example, if there’s one product in particular that a company wants to showcase, a single image ad might be sufficient. If marketers aim to promote a whole range of products or provide customers with additional information about the business, carousel or canvas ads would be a good choice. The choice of the platform is even more significant. Facebook is great for driving sales while Instagram has potential to raise brand awareness, which means that your presence on both of these platforms should be closely tied with your business objectives. Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 12 Selecting a suitable ad format is equally important What Ad Placements to deciding where to place your ad. On Facebook, Should You Choose? you can select five different ad placements, while on Instagram your choice is limited to two different slots. Feeds Stories Your ads appear within users’ News Feed. Your ads appear between people’s stories. Groups Your ads appear in Facebook groups. Feeds Your ads appear within users’ Feed. Right-Hand Column Your ads appear in a column on the right-hand side to users accessing Facebook on their computers. Instant Articles Your ads appear within Facebook Instant Articles in the mobile app and Messenger. In-Stream Video Your ads appear within videos on Facebook that are watched both on desktop and on mobile. Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 13 What Ad Placements Should You Choose? The placements listed on the previous page only concern ads that appear directly within the platforms. Facebook offers marketers two additional placements that aren’t platform-bound: Messenger and Audience Network. In the case of Messenger, ads are delivered as messages directly to the users through the Messenger app. Audience Network is more comprehensive, as it enables marketers to go beyond Facebook and place their ads in third-party mobile ads and websites. When choosing between the ad placements, keep in mind that the Right Column ads are only available for desktop while the Instant Articles, Messenger, Audience Network and Instagram ads will only appear on mobile. This information is essential to appropriately selecting ad placements for the stages of your audiences’ customer journey. Since most purchases are happening on desktop, marketers should consider desktop ads for the conversion stage and use mobile ads to reach users at the awareness stage. Socialbakers Studies: Facebook vs. Instagram Advertising 14 Facebook Mobile and Desktop News Feed Are the Most Popular Ad Placements What Are Average Ad Placement Distribution on Facebook and Instagram the Most Popular es Feed obie 82.7% Ad Placements? es Feed estop 78.8% We discovered that Facebook is a more popular space obie 6.8% for adverts over Instagram by researching how companies leverage available ad placements.