Another common question I get about social media ads is about posting your ad on Facebook or Instagram or both. The answer depends on the ad and the advertiser. However, what is nice about the two platforms is that you create one advertising account and can select which platform(s) to post your ad on. Once you create your Facebook Ads account at the Ad Set level (where you select your audience targeting) you check off a box of which platform (Facebook or Instagram) you would like your ads to show on.
Based On The Advertiser
It is no secret that Instagram tends to skew younger (even though older generations are starting to use it). Therefore, if your product skews towards older audiences (those 45+) it is important to decide if Instagram is the right fit for your ad. If your target market is below 35, I would recommend including Instagram as a placement for your ad.
Another thing to consider is the mobile-friendliness of your website. Since Instagram is a mobile-only platform it is important to make sure the webpages you are driving to are completely mobile friendly in terms of speed and design. If the pages are not completely mobile friendly than perhaps redoing the website to be mobile friendly before promoting on Instagram would be a good idea.
Based On The Data
When using the Ads Manager you are readily able to see the data broken out by placement. To get to this view click “view chart”, the image with the mini bar graph either in the campaign or ad set level. This can allow you to compare Facebook and Instagram data and see which platform is performing better based on reach and impressions and also results (the goal you set for Facebook and Instagram to optimize your campaign for). When I decide to pause a placement I look to see if there are reach and impressions and no results. It is very easy to make the decision to pause if you see a lot of reach and impressions and no results. However, sometimes there are some results and also reach.
As a general rule of thumb if I see a wider gap of 10% more reach than there are results than I would consider pausing the ads. If you are spending money to have your ads show with impressions outweighing the results then you are showing to a lot of people who aren’t converting. Therefore, if you shift your ads to another channel, say pause Instagram and have your ads show exclusively on Facebook perhaps you will see better results.
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