Instagram and Facebook have a total of an estimated 3.30 billion registered users, which is why they are both the best platforms in social media for video marketing. However, both major platforms have their benefits when it comes to being technical as Facebook has a complete package, whereas Instagram is more on image representations.

Social media marketing is a resourceful and powerful tool to use for businesses and small-time marketers. Whether if it’s your first time or your hundredth time in advertising, you would still want to know which platform is the best to initiate your social media campaign.

Facebook and Instagram are some of the most well-known social media platforms to date, but the problem is you can’t choose to invest between both platforms. It’s better if you would take a closer look at the advantages of both Facebook and Instagram, and this article is going to help you do that to aid you in choosing whichever is the better option for your business.

Facebook’s Marketing Algorithm Vs. Instagram’s Marketing Algorithm

The algorithm of Facebook has been adjusted multiple times since the day it started. For instance, back when you’ve started using Facebook, your newsfeed all contain your friend’s posts, pictures, and updates. With the increasing number of users and content, Facebook adjusted its algorithm to show more relevant and spam-free content.

Back then, Instagram has a different algorithm from Facebook as the platform is all about lifestyle Instagram accounts that involve clicking images and uploading it immediately, which is shown in chronological order. Instagram’s algorithm became similar to Facebook’s, and the one thing that keeps them apart is the potential reach to users with the use of hashtags.

The Organic Reach Of Facebook Vs. Instagram

As of recent years, Facebook’s organic reach to users has buried its own grave due to the fact that businesses and marketers no longer have the maximum potential to reach users. Digital marketing experts disclosed that Facebook’s organic reach could only approach approximately three percent of the market’s total fans, excluding the engagements of a post.

Instagram has a higher potential of reaching its users compared to Facebook because of the platform’s hashtag system, which can categorize and prioritize posts. Users of the platform have observed that once an account gets 500 to 1000 followers, the potential for an organic reach escalates to a certain level.

What Do Both Platforms Have To Offer?

Facebook has grown so much since then that the number of daily users can easily get up to one billion. However, the original purpose of the platform is to get in touch with family, friends, and other connections. Still, in recent years, the platform’s major purpose is to aid businesses to grasp the attention of consumers through advertising their market.

Although Instagram is rather young, launching back in 2010, it has become a significant platform that homes a visual narrative for everyone and anyone, which includes celebrities, artists, and other iconic brands. With its staggering 800 million registered users as of 2017, the platform also became a home for marketers that takes advantage of their platform.

The Platform’s Brand Engagement

With an increasing number of registered business pages on Facebook, approximately only 30 percent of its followers engage in their content only by sharing and leaving comments. However, Instagram has a better situation, because almost 70 percent of businesses based in the U.S use Instagram for their marketing purposes.

Although having a lower engagement for a brand, Facebook still gets a little over 8 billion views on a daily basis, and Instagram is doing great with images. As a result, both platforms can be a great marketing system when doing video advertisements on Facebook and Photo advertisements on Instagram.

Targeting and Audience

Although Facebook is not the most exceptional platform in social media when it comes to engaging its customers with brands, however, it’s one of the earliest forms of social media that has a massive audience worldwide. On the other hand, Instagram has a lesser count in the number of viewers compared to Facebook.

In conclusion, if you’re trying to gain attention from younger generations, which are the Millennials and Generation Z, you should broadly advertise on Instagram as the platform’s main audience are people between 18 to 30 years old. Concerning older generations, they’re not so active in both platforms, but there’s a high chance of reaching them through Facebook.

Mobile-Friendliness

Instagram lacks the desktop experience compared to Facebook that it puts numerous restrictions and limitations when users login using a web browser. For instance, users can’t upload photos and videos easily, edit existing posts, or even watching Instagram’s stories. Instagram was made with only mobile users in mind.

Facebook, however, is an all-around social media platform because, back in the day, Facebook can be accessed only through web browsers. The Facebook experience for mobile and desktop is not so different as the only difference it has is the layout of the platform. 

The Costs Of Facebook and Instagram

All of the social media marketing campaigns are expensive, which also includes Facebook. The average cost-per-click is an estimated 0.27 dollars, and the cost per a thousand impressions is 7.19 dollars. There are also many components that influence the cost of an ad, such as audiences, ad quality, ad objectives, and the industry.

Instagram isn’t any cheaper because the average cost-per-click is around 1.40 dollars, and the cost for every thousand impressions is almost 8 dollars. However, the value of the advertisements is determined by numerous components that range from the feedback of your ads to the number of audiences you have.

Knowing the high expenses when advertising on both Instagram and Facebook, it’s still worth it to use both platforms in advertising as it gives a potentially high return of investment. But be careful to not go bankrupt with advertising in social media as the businesses need to be canny when it comes to picking and making types of advertisements.

A Duo Strategy

Facebook’s advertising is still very compelling because it can reach an older group of users more than the other major platform. Facebook is also excellent when it comes to creating an arch to other external sites due to the fact that anyone can post links that can lead to other websites to promote brands and markets.

However, when it comes to establishing an identity for your brand, Instagram is the best platform as it can offer a direct engagement to the customers. Therefore, businesses shouldn’t dump all of their marketing resources to a single platform when they can use both Instagram and Facebook to use all of their advantages.

Takeaway

Instagram and Facebook are both major platforms when it comes to social media, and both platforms have plenty to offer that can deliver a high return of investment. So the best path to take when it comes to deciding which platform is the best when it comes to video marketing is choosing both. 

Always put in mind that there are other types of advertisements, such as video and image ads, that are better on one platform and exceptional on the other. Take advantage of Facebook and Instagram because there are countless marketing strategies and possibilities for using both platforms for video marketing.