Which is a Better Marketing Tool – Instagram or Facebook?

Do you personally use Facebook or Instagram? If you’re a marketer, you are likely already using both. After all, the best way to learn platforms and tools is to be an active user. How you personally consume media – whether through video, photos, live stream, written forms, etc – will always influence your decision.

Both platforms serve different purposes.

Assess Your Goals

Set a goal for your company as a benchmark and understand that folks aren’t always going to convert immediately. Nurturing a relationship with a past or potential customer is where content marketing fits in the mix. Take it from us, building trust will pay off long-term.

Facebook makes it much easier to drive traffic to your website. Instagram is a much more engaging platform, however, not being able to include links in your caption hinders your ability to drive your audience to take action, leaving them at the top of the funnel (see figure below).

The AIDA-funnel

Who Is Your Audience?

Are older people (35+) your primary clients? Stick with Facebook. Instagram users are typically younger and more engaged audiences, however, you won’t be driving as much traffic to your site since organic content does not allow you to have a link in your post.

Define your audience and determine where your potential clients spend time. There are over 2.3 billion monthly active users on Facebook and this number continues to grow. That’s with a B. This audience is too big to ignore for any company.

Facebook

• Facebook users are 53% female and 47% male.
• 62% of online Seniors aged 65+ are on Facebook and 72% are between age 50-64.
• 88% of online users of age 18-29 are on Facebook, 84% of those 30-49.
• 82% of college graduates are on Facebook.
• Facebook’s share in the digital advertising market is 20%.

Instagram

• 20% of Facebook’s mobile ad revenue comes from Instagram.
• 1 billion people use Instagram
• 80% of users are outside of North America
• 60% of U.S. users are under 30
• 70% of teens use Instagram every day

Influencers

Top influencers will primarily use Instagram. This means you need to have a presence to get noticed and gain traction as a brand. Instagram is highly visual and allows people to share your brand story in a way that feels authentic. Local, or micro influencers build trust in a community quickly by partnering with the best local brands. If your brand is getting noticed, you want to have an optimized profile and quality content to back-up the influencers remarks.

Paid Targeting

Always use Facebook to create ads on either platform since Instagram is now a standard placement using Facebook Ads Manager. Facebook offers superior targeting, tracking, and pixel integration. Define an audience based on demographic data and interests, utilize existing customer lists, and retarget folks who have engaged with your content or website.

Test and tune. Start with both platforms because Facebook makes it so easy. There is not a one size fits all solution.