Facebook and Instagram are leading social media platforms that are widely used by businesses and brands to build their online presence and enhance their growth. If you are thinking about investing your time and money in social media marketing, then knowing all about social media platforms is necessary. Engagement is what matters on social media the most. For that, you can buy Facebook followers or gain Instagram likes.
Most of the time, new marketers get confused between Facebook and Instagram. Well, it is obvious, as knowing which one is better is quite complicated. That is why, to ease your confusion a bit, we have prepared a whole description on Instagram vs Facebook stats for your business marketing.
Facebook Vs Instagram Business Marketing
1. Algorithm
Facebook algorithm
Facebook’s algorithm has changed a number of times since its start. In the beginning, your feed was full of posts from your friends such as pictures, videos, statuses, etc. But now you can observe a lot of differences in it. The new algorithm focuses on more relevant, spam-free, and sponsored content that increases Facebook’s ad revenue. For example- you might not see your friend’s post but you can see a sponsored ad or popular content from another Facebook page. This makes the current algorithm highly in support of the marketers.
Related: How to Use Facebook for Business: Facebook Marketing Tips and Tricks
Instagram algorithm
Instagram’s algorithm is almost similar to Facebook after it was acquired in 2012. The only difference between both is that Instagram’s organic reach is higher as compared to Facebook and hashtags play an important part in it. After getting a minimum of 500 followers, Instagram accounts start performing better organically. Marketers can increase the brand’s engagement by being consistent as it also depends on the engagement of the previous posts.
Winner
Instagram has clearly a better algorithm than Facebook. Your posts will have a better reach and your account may grow more organically on Instagram.
2. Engagement rate
Facebook’s engagement rate
Facebook’s current engagement rate is 0.53% that has decreased a lot over time but millions of active users give enormous opportunities to brands to create engagement manually. This may change in the future as Facebook will surely upgrade its algorithm and give more importance to the content shared by profiles rather than Facebook pages. In this case, Facebook’s engagement rate will also increase. To increase your engagement rate on Facebook, you can-
- Increase your page followers through Sponsored Likes Campaign
- Share in different groups
- Ask employees to share
- Collaborate with others for cross-posting
- Focus on Videos
- Share informative & creative ads for the audience
Instagram’s engagement rate
Instagram’s engagement rate is 0.84% which is the highest among all the major social media platforms. Though, according to Locowise, it is decreasing rapidly but still managing to stay at the top. According to a study by Forrester on “how the audience engages with the top 50 brands of the world”, the users interact with the brand on Instagram rather than any other social media platform. To increase your engagement rate on Instagram, you can add relevant and trending hashtags to your posts to increase its visibility.
3. Demographics
Facebook demographics
According to a study conducted by Pew Research, demographics of active users on Facebook:
- Percentage of active users on Facebook- 79%
- Percentage of female active users on Facebook- 77%
- Percentage of male active users on Facebook- 71%
- Most active age group: 18 to 64
Instagram demographics
According to a study conducted by Pew Research, demographics of active users on Instagram:
- Percentage of active users on Instagram- 36%
- Percentage of female active users on Instagram- 42%
- Percentage of male active users on Instagram- 33%
- Most active age group- 18 to 49
4. Marketing effectiveness
Facebook marketing effectiveness
According to several digital marketing experts, Facebook marketing campaigns are at the 3rd position in having the most marketing effectiveness when organic and paid digital marketing is considered. It stands on 2nd when only the paid marketing platforms are considered. With over 2.7 billion active users, it is highly fortunate for a marketer to promote his ad to such an enormous mass of audience. Moreover, there are different ad objectives and types available on Facebook which allows the marketer to experiment with new forms of creative marketing.
Facebook’s reach is quite less as compared to that of Instagram but it has a variety of platforms where you can share your content and promote your brand. For example- groups, pages, events, live broadcasting, etc. The sales conversion rate of Facebook is 2nd best in the list of all types of digital marketing platforms
Instagram marketing effectiveness
Instagram enhances the digital visibility of a brand. It lags behind Facebook in a number of aspects such as conversion rate, quality of leads, and also the number of active users (1 billion active users).
Well, this does not mean Instagram is useless. When organic digital marketing is considered, the reach of Instagram is higher which helps businesses and brands to do cross-platform promotions. It must be noted that getting an organic audience from Instagram is much easier than that from Facebook, as your content gets promoted to the audience who wants to see it.
Conclusion
Facebook and Instagram both are great digital marketing platforms but if we are asked to choose one, then we will strongly suggest Instagram. It has better algorithms, organic reach, and engagement rate as compared to Facebook. Well, this does not conclude that as a marketer, you should totally skip Facebook. Remember, Facebook is bigger than Instagram and will do you good if you have deep pockets. Instagram is a perfect option for starting your social media marketing and you may proceed to Facebook afterward.
