In the blue corner, weighing in at over 2 billion users, we have the mother of all social media networks:

Facebook.

And, in the purple-y, orange-y, yellow-y corner… we have its counterpart! Weighing in at over 800 million users:

Instagram.

Today they’re facing off and we’re deciding which one is better; Instagram ads, or Facebook ads?

A couple real quick disclaimers before we get too far into this…

We are talking about advertising on these platforms.

Not organic, and not personal use–but rather, paid advertising for both Instagram and Facebook.

So let’s try to figure out once and for all which one is gonna be best, and which one is gonna be best for your business.

The very first criteria we need to take a look at is ease of use.

What we’re talking about here is:

Which one is easier to create ads for?

And, which one is easier to deploy?

And to monitor, and watch, and scale, and optimize?

All the stuff that goes into advertising.

And when it comes to ease of use, it’s probably no surprise, but the winner is…

Both. It’s a tie.

The reason for this is, both Instagram ads and Facebook ads use the exact same advertising manager.

The Facebook Ads Manager.

This means that if you’re able to go out there and create an ad campaign for Facebook, well you’re able to do the exact same thing for Instagram by clicking another box.

The second criteria we need to take a look at is reach.

Which one is gonna give you access to more people?

Now, this one is pretty cut and dry.

‘Cause Facebook has over 2 billion users, and Instagram has just over 800 million users.

So, if you’re just looking at masses of people in general, obviously the edge here is gonna go to Facebook.

It’ll be the winner if you need to reach more people.

That leads us nicely into engagement.

It’s not really just about reaching more people, but also about how they’re gonna engage with the content.

And this is where Instagram starts to pull ahead.

People are 10X more likely to engage with content (specifically branded and advertising content) on Instagram than they are with Facebook.

So the winner here is Instagram.

Next, we’ve gotta talk about one of the most popular advertising options of all, which is video ads.

Now, both Facebook and Instagram have relatively robust video advertising options available.

Especially with the new introduction of IGTV over on Instagram.

That said, Instagram videos are limited to either 60 seconds, or 15 seconds, depending on what format you choose.

But with Facebook, your videos can go significantly longer.

So, in this case Facebook is the winner.

This is especially true because with Facebook and the fact that you’ve got those longer videos available…

Well, you’re able to create different audiences based on the percentage of the video they watch.

Giving you more options for custom audiences and lookalike audiences.

So the winner of video ads goes to Facebook, but let’s talk about:

Image ads.

This one’s a pretty easy win for Instagram.

After all, the platform was designed specifically for pictures.

So, if you’ve got a brand or business that’s visually appealing or the benefits can be portrayed through the use of a picture…

Instagram is obviously gonna be a pretty easy choice here.

Alright, lastly, let’s talk about the “cool factor” of Instagram and Facebook ads.

Now, as great as Facebook is, and as valuable a marketing tool it is for any brand or business…

There’s not too many people who would go around calling it “cool”.

Instagram on the other hand, is cool.

So it’s easily gonna win this one hands down.

Let’s tally up the scores.

After looking at things like

• ease of use
• reach
• engagement
• videos ads
• image ads
• and cool factor…

We have a final score of:

Instagram – 4

Facebook – 3

But this by no means is an excuse to shut down all your Facebook ads and put all your eggs in the Instagram ads basket!

As Mark Zuckerberg said,

“We believe [Facebook and Instagram] are different experiences and compliment each other”

So, my advice is to use both.

Facebook ads and Instagram ads.

Mostly because it’s not that hard!

But also because it’s the smart thing to do.