Facebook vs Instagram: Why Facebook is Still Hot in 2021 (2023)

Social media marketing is changing rapidly, yet its influence remains undeniable. Today, there are3.78 billion active social media usersworldwide that marketers are trying to target and engage with the help of both organic posting and advertising. The question that might be bothering you is which social media to choose and where to focus while there are so many options out there?

In this article we are going to explore two of the biggest and hottest social media platforms across the globe – Facebook and Instagram to be able able to finally answer which is the best fit for you. Let’s discover whether Facebook, Instagram or both are the best for your brand!

Some people may claim that Facebook is old and not that widespread anymore and that everyone has gone to Instagram as well as other social media networks. But let’s not rush with conclusions and take a look at some stats and numbers first.

Facebook vs Instagram: What’s the difference?

To begin with, Facebook has 2.74 billion monthly users in comparison to 1 billion users on Instagram, which means that Facebook is leading the race in any case. However, in terms of engagement, people are more into Instagram rather than Facebook recently.

While being owned by the same entity, both Facebook and Instagram let you share really similar type of content, mainly posts, videos, and stories. On both platforms you can like the other person’s posts, drop a comment, share and follow anyone you wish out there. So, what’s the difference between these two platforms?

The answer is in the target audience. Facebook and Instagram is visited by different types of users, which we are going to look at in-depth in the following chapter. What’s important to remember for now is: if we want to share content in terms of pictures and videos, Instagram is a good platform; but if we want to share textual content, Facebook is a better choice.

Instagram vs. Facebook users

As we already know the number of users on both platforms varies drastically in volume. Facebook is the oldest and has more users than Instagram. What’s more, Facebookkeeps the most massive audience of all social media platforms worldwide as out of 3.78 billion active social media users globally,2.74 billion of them are active Facebook users. Apart from that, Facebook is thesecond-most visited websitein the world, bested only byThe Great Googleitself.

Instagram is growing rapidly, but mostly among the youth which is important to remember while thinking about your target audience and its payment potential. Today,67 percentof 18-29-year-olds say they use Instagram, so it remains the platform’s most sizeable audience. According to Statista results in 2021, more than half of the global Instagram users are 30 or younger. Right after Snapchat, Instagram is second in line for teenagers. So Instagram is currentlythe perfect platform for reaching a much younger audience.It’s a muchmore visual medium than Facebook, which is reflected in the categories that users tend to gravitate towards Fashion, Photography, Beauty, and Architecture to name a few.

By contrast, one thing that Facebook is exceptional at isattracting all age groupsof adult Internet users. The so-called silent generation has shown interest in Facebook more than millennials recently. 74% of Facebook users have high income because mostly they are adults over 30. If the demographic data shows your customers are aged around 30 or more, you know it’s easier to reach them on Facebook, since they spend more time there than on Instagram.

Paid Advertising: Facebook vs Instagram

Using social media for business means you might get interested in paid advertising at some point. Let’s review what are the advertising possibilities on Facebook and Instagram and how to choose best what fits your target audience.

Since you are able to share posts with links on Facebook, it’s more convenient to use this platform to publish posts promoting your blog or any other landing page of your website. By contrast, you can only use one link in bio on Instagram without the possibility to incorporate links to your posts.

Among the recent trends is the rapid growth of ad spend on Instagram, compared to previous years. However, despite Instagram’s dominance in engagement and reach, the Facebook News Feed has historically captured the majority of relative ad spend and still does, which is 58%. Both the Instagram Feed and Instagram Story ad placements are beginning to take a larger share of the pie, combining to make up 27.1% of ad spend.

Using Instagram Stories and IGTV, on the other hand, is a more powerful tactic to reach younger customers if that’s your target audience. Brands use hashtags, gifs, polls, stickers, and other interactive elements on product stories to increase engagement. Also, going live on Instagram can’t be overlooked.

We all know that video content is getting popular these days. A study by Adweek shows that photos outpace video 54% to 3% in terms of sheer post quantity. Yet videos get significantly more clicks. Facebook video stats show that users are likely to play live streams 4 times more than recorded posts. Therefore, we see businesses with Facebook profiles using Facebook Live more.

It’s important to note that most of the traffic is coming from mobile. 85% of the advertising revenue comes from mobile ads, and 98.3% of users access Facebook from mobile devices.

All in all, regarding Facebook vs Instagram advertising our experts tend to stay with Facebook more generating 70% more traffic than from Instagram according to Databox research. When it comes to lead generation, Facebook wins here as well, outnumbering Instagram by 78%.

In the end, ads need to be engaging. Simply relying on the fact that more people are going to see your ad isn’t going to be effective. That’s why it’s important to create engaging content for your social media, especially for paid promo activities.

The Takeaway

Considering all that we covered in this article, should you choose Facebook, Instagram or both for your social marketing campaign. Our choice would be to stay present on both platforms while focusing on the platform that is more in line with your target audience. If you are looking to get more awareness and reach among younger audience and teens than Instagram stories is your most target placement for the content to share. However, if your audience is mid-income middle-aged people then Facebook News Feed and live videos there are your must-have in terms of content creation.

While fewer teens are spending time on the platform than before, and overall engagement is down, Facebook continues to have the largest audience of all social media networks. In the end, all brands should have a presence on Facebook to showcase your company and reach your audience – whether organically, paid, or both.

All in all, we suggest that neither of the two platforms can replace each other. As a business owner, you have to identify what your audience prefers and what type of content you have. Sometimes using both at the same time is the best solution while concentrating on one of them as your major platform for communication with your target audience.

Don’t forget to test it for yourself and experiment with Facebook and Instagram’s individual strengths, placements, content types. Whatever you choose, remember to focus primarily on quality, rather than quantity.

Our specialists of course can help you choose the right platform which fits your needs. Nowadays it's more important than ever to find your audience online. Not knowing can cost you a lot of money without any result.

Focus on what you do good, and let us focus on showing online how good you are!