Facebook vs. Instagram Ads – A Selection Guide

In our previous blog we briefly touched on the topic of what social media platforms are best for advertising your Practice. While advertising on as many platforms as possible will maximize visibility, it isn’t something that is in every practice’s budget.

In this post, I’ll be covering the differences and benefits of Facebook and Instagram’s advertising platforms in order to help you figure out which is best for your practice and why.

 

Define Your Goals

When it comes to marketing your practice, the first step is defining your goals. Defining your goals will allow you to choose the platform best fit your needs. It will also help you understand your target market and the best ad method for reaching that audience.

Facebook Advertising

As you may know from our other blog posts, Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. With almost 2 billion active daily users, it has become one of the best platforms for advertising. What makes Facebook so appealing to so many users?

Facebook’s advertising suite has the most powerful tools for optimizing and targeting. Precise targeting allows marketers to establish a good foundation for campaigns while getting the most bang for their buck.

One of the most important things to consider when advertising on Facebook is your target audience. Facebook’s Ad Manager has many options when it comes to building your target audience. However, if you are unsure of your target audience or don’t really understand how to build one, Facebook may not be the best option for your practice.

Instagram Advertising

Instagram is also very popular. With 500 million daily active users, Instagram has become one of the largest platforms where young users make their purchasing decisions.

Instagram has successfully pushed the boundaries of the e-commerce world. By adding new shopping features that other platforms don’t offer, they continue to innovate and improve the buying experience.

Instagram has also become a major factor in the world of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing was ranked as the most popular and effective trend with the biggest ROI in 2021. If your patients already have some sort of a presence on social media, influencer marketing may be a great option for your practice to consider.

Still, if you are considering Instagram as a platform for advertising, I will caution you. Users expect high-quality content on the platform. This means if you are not ready to put in the time and effort to ensure quality visuals, your practice may be better off using a different platform.

While there are some pros and cons to each platform, it ultimately comes down to you and your practice. What makes more sense to you?

Maybe your practice is focused on a younger audience, in which case Instagram may be a better fit. Conversely, if have multiple locations and you want to advertise each one, Facebook can be a better fit.

Finally, if you’re still unsure about which route to take we encourage you to reach out to our Social Team for guidance on social media advertising.

 

—Marie Dubray, Social Media Specialist, Sesame Communications