Facebook vs. Instagram Ads: How to boost your business after COVID-19

Written on 19 May, 2020 by Julia Hammond
Categories Social Media Tags coronavirus COVID-19 facebook instagram online marketing social media

With the COVID-19 lockdown continuing to fuel businesses online, your advertising spend is best used in the virtual worlds your customers frequent.

With 13 million daily Facebook users in Australia and more than 14 million active Instagram accounts, these platforms are two of the highest-profile social advertising mediums. It’s important to determine which platform is right for your marketing, and how you can best you’re your budget for success in the transition to a post-COVID-19 world. Here are four factors that can help maximise your advertising budget and determine if Facebook or Instagram advertising is right for  your business.

1. Target audiences and profiling

Both Facebook and Instagram have options to boost advertisements towards your target audience. Of the two, Facebook has slightly better audience profiling. They’ve developed extremely sophisticated audience targeting capabilities based on age group and personal interests – including pages liked, interests, and even friends of those who are already interested in your content to grow your pre-existing audience. This means depending on who your desired audience is, you can easily build effective targeting strategies that ensure your message is seen by the right people. . Facebook advertising should also remain channel agnostic, maximising the ability to use multiple ad placements to reach people wherever they spend their time.

2. Audience engagement and target immersion

The greatest advantage of Instagram advertising is undoubtedly their advertising placement in Stories. People now spend more time watching Stories than scrolling through their feeds with 400 million global users watching Stories on a daily basis. Placing your ads in Stories means your placement will maximise its audience reach with a high-impact, immersive format in one of the highest engaged environments. Even across Facebook however, with more than 13 million people accessing the platform every day in Australia, a wide audience reach can be engaged with specific targeting. Naturally, this means the best option for your business is to use the channel that best amplifies the content you are developing, using Instagram for live interactions, Q&As, and sharp photos, where Facebook is better suited for text posts that can blend more organically within the target’s news feed.

3. Content usage and Cost-per-Click

Isolation has brought with it a significant jump across both Instagram Live and Facebook Live usage, especially as more celebrities and musicians turn to these channels to stay connected with their followers and fans. Instagram Live views alone jumped 70 per cent across the month of March. Facebook has also had a significant drop in advertising delivery costs as advertisers have reduced their spend during COVID-19, leading to cost-per-click (CPC) dropping by over 35 per cent in Australia and New Zealand. Businesses have a unique opportunity to reach a larger audience for lower costs right now, as in the post-COVID landscape the prices are likely to rise again.

4. Advertising spend and Cost-per-Mille

A decreased CPC has brought with it one of the lowest cost-per-mille (CPM), or thousand, in years. Businesses should use this cost decrease effectively and bring investments into the platform sooner rather than later to establish best value across both platforms before moving into a post-COVID world. Instagram remains slightly cheaper here, but with Facebook’s integrated option to simultaneously publish advertisements across both platforms, your business spend will go much further than it did pre-COVID. Live video is also likely to continually grow and should be implemented across any strategy in a post-COVID world to maximise budgeting cost.

The takeaways

While COVID-19 has wrought a flurry of new and unpredictable circumstances for businesses to navigate, as the dust begins to settle businesses should remain prepared to connect with their audiences on the advertising platforms that matter to them most. Both Facebook and Instagram can be relevant to your business, but by critically evaluating the purpose of your campaigns and the habits of your target audience, you can find success as we transition slowly back into a post-COVID world.

Helping Australia’s small-medium businesses grow

Our mission at Netregistry has always been helping small and medium businesses on their journey to growth. We focus on personalised strategies that take into consideration your unique business goals, budget and brand voice. With expert teams in SEOPPCSocial, and Websites – we can help you build an online presence on any of the most popular channels.

During these uncertain times, we’re committed to finding creative solutions for both new and existing client’s. If you’re an existing client, please contact your account manager directly for assistance. If you’re brand new and want to discuss digital marketing options; call us on 1300 638 734 or submit a message online.

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