Instagram's marketing potential can surpass Facebook's thanks t
-
In 2012, Mark Zuckerberg caused a stir when he bought Instagram for $ 1 billion and announced that he would develop this social network independently. Specifically, the American businessman informed the media: “For many years, Facebook focused on providing the best user experience by sharing photos with friends and family. Now, with the entry of Instagram, we want to provide more of an interest-based photo sharing experience. We thought these two types of experiences would complement each other, so we wanted to develop Instagram independently instead of trying to integrate everything into the Facebook platform . ”
Six years later, Mark Zuckerberg's decision was hailed as wise. From a photo-sharing network with only 13 employees and 30 million users, Instagram has now surpassed 1.28 billion monthly active accounts, making it to the top 10 most visited apps in the world. There are even many conjectures that Facebook and Instagram are entering a new era. There, Instagram could even “beat” Facebook in terms of marketing potential.
Mark Zuckerberg bought Instagram for $ 1 billion and vowed to develop this social network independently
Will this scenario happen? Gaurav Sharrma, Founder and CEO of digital marketing company Attrock compared Facebook and Instagram based on 4 points: Demographics, Engagement metrics, Ad Spend, Algorithms.
4 marketing-related differences between Instagram and Facebook
Demographic
As of April 2022, 70.8% of Instagram's global users are aged 34 or under. Users look to Instagram for creative ideas and lifestyle inspiration. The platform also attracts users who want to become Influencers, showcasing their personalities and interests to help brands reach target users.
Instagram attracts users who want to become Influencers
Meanwhile, Facebook has a wider user base than Instagram. Although the platform targets both the young and the old, Facebook is said to be popular among the older population. Recent statistics show that 31% of Facebook users are between the ages of 25 and 34. Meanwhile, almost 60% of Facebook users are between the ages of 25 and 54. Facebook's broad user file will help with Brands want to target many different customer segments.
Nearly 60% of Facebook users are between the ages of 25 and 54
Interact
Both Instagram and Facebook have high engagement rates because of their popularity. However, there are differences between the two platforms in terms of user interaction goals.
Accordingly, Instagram is a platform to help users discover new trends, products, places and events. So, the primary interaction on Instagram is to learn, observe, and inspire.
Both Instagram and Facebook have high engagement rates because of their popularity
Meanwhile, Facebook will show the brand better. This platform suggests products and services that may not be relevant to the user. As such, the brand can expand its reach to new potential customers.
Ad spend
Facebook offers targeted advertising services to brands. This service uses data to analyze user behavior and preferences. From there, Facebook can help brands show ads to the right users. The service is similarly implemented on Instagram. However, the two have different costs.
Facebook offers targeted advertising services to brands
Facebook generally delivers better value to advertisers on a per-click basis. A study by Social Insider found that the average CPC for Facebook ads is $0.49 while that for Instagram is $1.09.
Algorithm
Previously, social network algorithms ranked news in chronological order. This sort of arrangement allows the user not to miss a single post. But things get messy when users start following too many accounts, leaving their favorite news sources buried under fresh but irrelevant information.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21767262/Suggested_Posts_in_Feed.png)
Algorithm to sort posts by relevance
To solve this problem, social media platforms have developed algorithms that give users exactly what they want. Related posts also appear at the top of the feed. Both Instagram and Facebook platforms are applying the same algorithm, but there are still some differences in the order of preference. Specifically:
Instagram's algorithm will prioritize:
- Relevance: Does the post provide value to the user?
- Timeliness: Relevant and still fresh
- Engagement: Posts with lots of likes and comments
- Time to watch a post: Instagram prioritizes posts that are likely to get more time from users
- Relationships : Prioritize content posted from accounts that users frequently interact with
- Searches: Accounts with a higher search rank
- Shares: The account has many shares from users
Instagram prioritizes content posted from accounts that users frequently interact with
Facebook's algorithm will prioritize:
- Friends and family: Friends' posts appear at the top of feed
- Engagement: Posts with lots of likes, comments and shares
- Visual content: Posts with trending images and videos. Text-only posts will not be prioritized
Facebook prioritizes posts with lots of likes, comments and shares
Instagram vs Facebook, which platform has greater marketing potential?
In 2018, research results from Edison Research showed for the first time that Facebook showed signs of decreasing usage. More surprisingly, while the "mother" application was less attractive to users, Instagram thrived. Instagram is predicted to overtake Facebook in terms of total usage.
To reinforce the point, the author Convice and Convert gives 4 reasons that Instagram will overtake Facebook as a popular application in the future.
1. Instagram is more mobile-friendly
Instagram has both mobile and website versions. However, the platform is designed for a more mobile experience. Instagram is famous for its features related to layout, Newsfeed priority and visual images. Therefore, it is not surprising that Instagram is more mobile-friendly than Facebook. With 98.8% of users wanting to surf online by mobile, this feature of Instagram will be a big advantage.
Instagram is designed for a more mobile experience
2. Instagram is suitable for storytelling
Instagram's original roots are up from a "storytelling" platform. After many years, Instagram launched many functions from Instagram Stories, Instagram Reel to help users easily tell their stories with text and visual images. In particular, Instagram Stories is a popular feature when more than 500 million people use it every day.
Instagram Stories is a popular feature when more than 500 million people use it every day
3. Instagram is more suitable for commercial purposes
Commerce on Instagram is so popular that users believe it is an existing extension of the platform. Instagram knows how to incorporate experiences into shopping. Users can make purchases directly by clicking on a photo without having to leave the Instagram interface and switch to another website.
Instagram knows how to incorporate experience into shopping
4. Instagram has less algorithm changes
Constantly changing the display algorithm makes it difficult for brands to post on Facebook. Meanwhile, Instagram adjusts the algorithm more appropriately, without too much influence on the visibility of the brand/user on the platform.
Instagram adjusts the algorithm to be more suitable, not to have too great an impact on the visibility of brands/users on the platform
