Many advertisers are now moving from advertising on Facebook to Instagram because Instagram is now deemed to be the “place” for you to advertise your business.
Is this you, too?
I wasn’t thinking of writing an article about this topic but almost all the prospects I’ve got on a call with told me that they are only focusing on Instagram advertising.
And since I always tell people that I do Facebook ads, they always ask me back if I’m also offering ads services for Instagram — which yes, I do.
But the more pertinent issue here is, is Instagram far superior to Facebook?
And if you think yes, does this mean that you also dictate which placement you’re allowing your ads to show on?
Most of the time, when I do audit my clients’ ad setup, there are gonna be some campaigns that are set on manual placement, meaning they are cherry-picking the exact placements where they want the ads to appear.
Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing Manual Placement…
1- if you’re strictly looking for high-quality traffic.
2- your company doesn’t want to take the risk of ads appearing in publishers that you don’t recognize.
In case you’re not sure, now you can filter the publishers/accounts that you don’t want your ads to associate with or show on. Simply go to Business Settings > Brand Safety > Block List > Manage.
The question here is that, if you’re looking for purchases, do you mind where you’re getting those purchases from?
If you want Facebook to get the highest number of purchases, so that you can make your money back, I don’t think you should care where those purchases are coming from.
And so, this is when you’re optimizing towards Automated Placement.
My rule of thumb is simple.
Manual Placement = when I want high-quality traffic/clicks
Automated Placement = when I want to optimize toward conversion
Circling back to the main topic, Instagram vs Facebook, I had been reading that the CPM (cost per impression) for Facebook had been going down YoY, compared to Instagram.
This is where I want you to pay attention.
1- Does this mean people are abandoning Facebook and only advertising on Instagram? (see paragraph 1)
2- Or perhaps there is just a lot more available inventory from Meta that the CPM has now gone down?
3- Or that advertisers are simply abandoning Meta ads altogether? Perhaps the effect of the iOS14 update?
Before I explain more, let’s first…
Understand the user behavior on Facebook vs Instagram.
Take a step back and try to reflect on your behavior and state of mind whenever you open up Facebook and Instagram apps.
Here’s mine:
Facebook — I open up Facebook when I’m ready to consume content, more particularly, when I’m in the mood to read.
Read is the keyword here.
Yes, I still scroll away looking at pictures, but I’m more likely to read the caption since the primary text is located at the top of the pictures and has more text space.
And the content is more easy-going with a lot less curated pictures/selfies.
Instagram — If I’m being honest, I go to Instagram when I want to spy on competitors, to look at pretty pictures of my friends (which will lead me to feel conscious about myself), and to just consume content on Reels.
My motivation to read is very close to zero.
And, my scrolling speed is a lot faster than on Facebook.
It might not be the same for you — but try to take a moment and understand the different states of mind that you have when you go to Facebook vs Instagram.
Why is it important for us to understand this?
Because here is what I’ve seen with the corporate companies that I’ve worked with and clients’ accounts that I’ve managed:
1- More impressions and perhaps clicks are gotten from Instagram, but more conversions are gotten from Facebook.
2- A lot of impressions gotten on Mobile but more conversions on Desktop — if you have high ticket products.
Now, does this mean that you only need to advertise on Facebook Desktop?
No, not necessarily.
Instead of prioritizing one platform or placement or devices over the other, start thinking about how everything is complementing each other nicely.
Your customers might not convert the first time they see your ads on Instagram. But perhaps, when they are more open to consuming and reading content, they become more aware and curious about your product.
If your product is expensive, it might not be nice to read reviews, and do comparisons between your product and competitors on mobile. Maybe they wanna wait till they get on desktop and only convert then.
But the job of your ads is to give those prompts to your customers. No matter where they are.
It’s almost impossible for you to time each of your customers and that’s the reason why I mostly give the power to Facebook to show my ads anywhere as long as that person is most likely to convert.
There’s another part that I just want to go through very quickly with you.
User demographic on Facebook vs Instagram
Everyone says and knows that mostly millennials and older are on Facebook.
Well, they are not wrong.
But as always, you gotta take advantage of this. Millennials and older are the people with more and more disposable income.
Disposable income to buy your products.
To buy your premium products.
Should you prioritize one platform over the other?
To me, if it’s in the family of Meta, no.
But, if you’re doing a CPA comparison for example, between Meta and TikTok, and seeing that TikTok is performing way better, then yes, I might want to prioritize more budget onto TikTok.
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Now, your turn.
Do you give more priority to Instagram than Facebook? If yes, why?
