Socialbakers Report

The State of Social Media Marketing:

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020

 About the Report
Facebook and Instagram serve as the de-facto leaders in social media
advertising when it comes to usage and volume - more than 6 million
marketers leverage Facebook and Instagram in their marketing campaigns
and no other social network comes remotely close to matching the paid
spend on these two platforms. When it comes to organic content and the
volume/reach of non-promoted posts, the story doesn’t change much -
Facebook and Instagram still reign supreme and have yet to be seriously
challenged by another platform.
from Q1 2019 - Q1 2020 to uncover the latest trends and insights that
Key Point: The sheer dominance of Facebook and Instagram when it
comes to both paid and organic social means that it is crucial for successful
marketers to have a comprehensive and current understanding of both
platforms and how they differ.
Introduction
What does it mean to have a “current” understanding of Facebook and
Instagram? As both platforms evolve their feature set, consumer behaviors
and demographics shift, and marketers adjust their strategies in response,
the landscape of both paid and organic social on either platform is constantly
changing.
This report will reference Socialbakers’ Facebook and Instagram data
are crucial for marketers to understand if they want to find success
leveraging social media in 2020.
This report will also review the current (Q1 2020) distinctions between
Facebook and Instagram that are important to consider in order for marketers
and brands to:
Effectively allocate paid advertising budgets between the two
platforms
Create content strategies that align with both platforms
Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 1
 Table of Contents
Facebook and Instagram at a Glance

3
Facebook or Instagram in 2020? 17-22

Key Trends and Developments

4-12
Key Audience and Demographic Figures
18

Engagement on Instagram Continues to Pull Away From 6-7

Ad Formats and Placements

20

Facebook
Ad and Campaign Objectives
21

Reach on Instagram Surpasses Facebook for Top Brands

8
The Takeaway

22
Shift in Paid Spend Towards Instagram
9

Rapid Growth of Instagram Stories

10

Blackout Tuesday Boycott

11

Stop Hate for Profit Boycott

12

New Feature Adoption and Development

13-16

Instagram TV
14

Instagram Shops and Checkout

15

Algorithm Changes
16

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 2

 Facebook and Instagram at a Glance

Facebook and Instagram

at a Glance
User Location - Top 3 Countries
Facebook and Instagram are the two biggest platforms
used by brands and agencies for social media marketing.
Before diving into recent trends and insights regarding the
two platforms, let’s look at a quick snapshot of both
India 241 M U.S. 88 M

platforms and examine how their use for businesses and

brands have evolved over time. 


U.S. 240 M Russia 28 M

Number of active users on each platform

Monthly Active Users

Brazil 139 M Brazil 27 M

Facebook 2.5 B

Instagram 1B

Source: venturebeat.com, techcrunch.com, thenextweb.com, www.statista.com Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 3

Key Trends &
Developments

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 4

Key Trends and Developments

Facebook and Instagram -


Instagram’s Contribution to Facebook’s Revenue in 2019
Key Trends & Developments
In 2016, Instagram brought in
In 2019, Instagram brought in

$3.64 Billion out of $27.638 Billion (15.4%)
$20 billion, out of $70 billion for Facebook as a
whole (28.6%)
One of the biggest trends covered by almost every marketing publication
over the past 2 years has been the shift in total ad spend from Facebook to
Instagram, a trend that continued at a far more blistering pace in Q4 of
2019 compared to previous years.

We can look at Socialbakers’ data from the past year (with metrics compiled
2016 2019 from the top 100,000 branded accounts across all social media channels),
and see that this trend is tied to positive shifts in engagement and reach
metrics for Instagram over the past two years. Despite the impact of
COVID-19 in Q1 of 2020, the existing trends in overall engagement and
reach established in 2019 continued into 2020.

Instagram Facebook Total

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 5

Key Trends and Developments

Engagement on Instagram Total Interaction Rates

Continues to Pull Away
from Facebook
Over the course of the past 3 years, Instagram has cemented itself as the
dominant platform over Facebook when it comes to engagement - in Q1 of
2020 this trend continued and the gap between the two platforms continued
to rise with total interactions on Instagram more than 16 times higher
than Facebook, despite brands posting more on the latter.

To see how drastic the difference in engagement is across both platforms,

we can simply look at any number of brands and analyze cross-posted
content.

To the right, we can see an example of Disney cross-posting the same post
onto both Instagram and Facebook. In addition, this was Disney’s top
performing post in terms of engagement on both platforms. For two identical
posts published at the same time, the number of interactions was
dramatically higher on Instagram compared to Facebook.

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 6

 Key Trends and Developments

E ngagement on Instagram
Ecommerce 17.0% Continues to Pull Away
from Facebook (cont)
Retail 13.8%
Services 8.8%
Fashion 8.1%
Auto 5.9%
Electronics 5.6% Almost 30% of Facebook’s interactions fall under the category
FMCG Food 5.3% “other”, while Instagram’s engagement is more concentrated among a
Finance 5.1%
select number of industries.

Others 30.4%

While Instagram dominates when it comes to overall audience engagement,

the chart to the left shows us that there is still a clear distinction between
Fashion 25.9%
the content users value based on the platform they are on.

Ecommerce 18.0%
Beauty 11.7%
Auto 10.4% The fact that there are industries that see top 8 levels of engagement on
Retail 9.6% Facebook but almost none on Instagram gives a clear sign that certain
Electronics 4.5% spaces have not found success on Instagram and are not leveraging the
Sporting Goods 4.1% platform.

Services 3.7%
Others 12.0%
Regardless, Instagram’s continued dominance over Facebook when it
comes to engagement has led many to shift their spend to the newer
platform, especially in E-Commerce where Facebook is losing ground.

Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2020; Sample: Facebook Brands Pages & Instagram Brand Profiles Worldwide; Source: Socialbakers data Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 7
 Key Trends and Developments

Audience Size on
Instagram Surpasses
Facebook for Top Brands Total Audience Total Posts Total Interactions

Similar to engagement, brand audiences on Instagram have been trending

up while the same metrics for Facebook remain stagnant. In Q4 2019, the
total audience size on Instagram (for the top 50 brands) surpassed that on
Facebook for the first time. In Q1 2020, the trend continued and the gap
grew - for top 50 brands, audience sizes on Instagram were 28% larger.

While Instagram leads in engagement and audience size, brands still post
more on Facebook. The platforms differ in how users interact with them,
with Facebook often being the choice for more informative content - in
addition, there are industries that likely don’t leverage Instagram at all.

Instagram is now a platform that is highly effective at driving engagement

and reaching large audiences, but most brands still find value in Facebook,
and some don’t find success on Instagram in any capacity. This serves as Q1 2019 Q1 2020
a testament to the fact that the platforms aren’t substitutes for one
another and must be approached as entirely separate channels.

Chart Time Range: January 01, 2019 - March 31, 2020; Sample: 50 Biggest Facebook & Instagram Brands Profiles Worldwide; Source: Socialbakers data Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 8
 Key Trends and Developments

Shift in Paid Spen d

wards Instagram
Relative Spend by Platform Position

Top 5 Placements by Spend To

70

60
Despite Instagram’s dominance in engagement and reach, the Facebook
News Feed has historically captured the majority of relative ad spend and
Relative Spend (in %)

50

still does as of Q1 2020. However, in the past two quarters there has been a
40
slight decline in Facebook’s share of ad spend, with more budget being
allocated towards Instagram’s offerings. The chart to the left illustrates the
30

relative spend for different ad placements on both Facebook and Instagram

20 in Q1 2020.

The Facebook News Feed still saw the largest percentage of relative spend
10

0
by a sizable margin at 58%, however this figure is down from the previous
Feed Feed
Stories
 Video Feeds
Instream Video

two quarters (60% and 62.3% respectively). Both the Instagram Feed and
Instagram Story ad placements are beginning to take a larger share of
Facebook Instagram Instagram Facebook Facebook

Relative Spend
the pie, combining to make up 28.7% of relative ad spend.

Chart Time Range: February 1, 2020 - March 31, 2020; Sample: All Ad Accounts Benchmark; Source: Socialbakers data Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 9
Key Trends and Developments

Rapid Growth

of Instagram Stories
Although Facebook remains dominant in terms of relative ad spend, these
figures don’t put into context the rapid growth of Instagram Stories. Overall,
the spend on Instagram Stories increased by 40% compared to the
previous year, and by 91% over the previous two years.

A key longer term takeaway from Instagram’s success with IG Stories -

although a functionality directly copied from Snapchat, Instagram has
shown that they can implement features from other platforms and launch
them with high rates of adoption amongst their users (many of whom utilize
the original platforms).

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 10

 Key Trends and Developments

Ad Spend (in USD) by Region

Median Daily Ad Spend Values
#BlackoutTuesday 300

250
#BlackoutTuesday was a coordinated boycott of social media and business
activity in a demonstration of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter

Spend (in USD)

200

movement. Taking place on June 2nd of 2020, the chart to the right clearly
150
highlights to what extent US brands stood up to support the movement.

100
Ad spend in North America decreased dramatically on June 2nd, before
recovering in the following week. Globally, the same trend was observed but 50

to a lesser extent - note that #BlackoutTuesday did not specifically target

0
advertisers, however brands were clearly conscious enough to pause their
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun

paid campaigns. 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020

East Asia Northern America Western Europe South America

Southeast Asia Southern Europe Central America Worldwide

Chart Time Range: 1st January 2020 - 27th June, 2020; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks.; Source: Socialbakers data Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 11
Key Trends and Developments

Stop Hate for Profit

Boycott
In the wake of #BlackoutTuesday and a growing concern over Facebook’s
handling of misinformation and hate speech on its platform, a longer term
boycott specifically targeting paid advertising on social media started to
gain momentum.

On June 17th, the advocacy group Stop Hate for Profit called on brands to
pause their ad spending on Facebook in July, demanding that the company
address concerns over racism and misinformation on its platform. As of
June 30th, over 100 brands have pledged to participate in the boycott
including Coca-Cola, Unilever, Verizon, and Ford.

It’s safe to say that both ad spend and Facebook’s revenue will see historic
lows in the month of July - Unilever alone spent more than $42 million on
Facebook advertising in 2019. A running list of participating companies can
be found on Stop Hate for Profit’s website, in addition to resources detailing
how both consumers and businesses can contribute to their cause.

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 12

New Feature
Adoption and
Development

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 13

New Feature Adoption and Development

IGTV: Still Important?

IGTV, or Instagram TV, is the platform’s venture into long-form video. Since
it initially launched in 2018, user adoption has been less than stellar.
Throughout 2019, there were a number of Instagram features added to
increase viewership on IGTV. These updates include:

Featuring IGTV content in the explore tab

Allowing creators to post embedded IGTV previews to their Instagram Stories

Allowing creators to post embedded IGTV previews to their feed

Although IGTV viewership figures are not made public, the addition of
features promoting IGTV have led to increased views for creators and
brands alike. For example, the leftmost video was only uploaded to
IGTV, while the video on the right was cross-posted to Sephora's feed
- the difference in engagement is huge.

Instagram also launched the first stage of monetization to a limited number

of creators and advertising partners. This is a sign that at least internally,
Facebook is bullish that IGTV will begin to pick up more traction.

Look for Facebook to continue scaling their monetization of IGTV in 2020.

By 2021, Facebook expect full monetization of IGTV, with all brands and
creators able to use in-stream video ads.

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 14

New Feature Adoption and Development

Instagram Shops

and Checkout Industry Specific Insight: E-Commerce

Instagram checkout was first released in July 2019, with a limited rollout to As we saw in our section on engagement, the beauty industry has boasted
certain brands. Now the feature is available to all brands who sell physical the highest average engagement rate on Instagram while E-Commerce takes
goods in the U.S market.

the crown on Facebook. However, E-Commerce comes in at a close second

on Instagram as well - in Q4 of 2019, E-Commerce engagement on
Instagram checkout is part of Facebook’s initiative to break into Instagram grew by an astounding 118%. If the trend continues, E-Commerce
E-Commerce alongside Facebook shops, with the goal of having the entire could easily usurp Fashion and become the most engaging industry across
buying process contained within each platform, eliminating the need for both platforms.

users to sign up and store payment information with disparate brands.

“The surge in engagement for E-Commerce is due to Facebook’s initiatives

For companies, the value lies in a reduced number of abandoned shopping centered around in-platform shopping, with the eventual goal of allowing
carts, as one of the main points of friction in the selling process for sellers to run their entire marketing funnel through Facebook or Instagram -
E-Commerce has always been entering payment information and personal from product discovery to post-purchase customer support.”

details during checkout.

Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO, Socialbakers

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 15

New Feature Adoption and Development

Algorithm Changes
In addition, over the past 2 years Facebook executives have been pitching
While old news, Facebook made key changes to their newsfeed algorithms
the importance of Instagram Stories to shareholders. Looking at transcripts
in 2018 with the goal of prioritizing content posted from friends and family
of quarterly Facebook earnings calls between Q3 2018 and Q1 2020,
and reducing the amount of content shown from businesses and brands.
Instagram Stories has been mentioned over 200 times.

Facebook’s official announcement regarding the changes explicitly stated

that this would result in lowered engagement and reach for brands and
advertisers on the platform.

With Facebook owning both social networks, it’s clear that they have been
promoting and encouraging brands to spend more on Instagram. Since the
feature launched, Facebook has constantly emphasized the importance of
the vertical to its advertisers and brand partners.

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 16

Facebook or
Instagram in 2020?

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 17

 Facebook or Instagram in 2020?

Key Audience and

Demographic Figures
Over the years, the active user bases on Facebook and Facebook Instagram

Instagram have become more distinct. Understanding the Monthly Active Users 2.5 B 1B
general differences between audiences on Facebook and
Instagram is crucial for marketers so they can make the right
Largest Age Cohort 84% of 25–30 75% of 18–24
decisions when choosing what platform to utilize for specific year olds use year olds use
Facebook Instagram
marketing goals. Although both platforms offer robust
targeting for promoted content, it’s still always important to
understand the broader context and “big picture” breakdown User Location India: 280M
U.S.: 120M

U.S: 190M
India: 88M

of each social network.

Indonesia: 130M
Brazil: 82M

Here are some figures that will allow you to get a general idea
of the “who” when it comes to both Facebook and Instagram Average Time Spent on Platform 58 min 53 min

The theme of Instagram catching up to Facebook in

various metrics continues. The average time spent on
Instagram now only trails Facebook by 5 minutes, and
Instagram’s user counts have ballooned since 2016.

Source: venturebeat.com, techcrunch.com, www.statista.com, www.pewinternet.org, www.mediakix.com Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 18
 Facebook or Instagram in 2020?

Facebook Instagram
Ad Placements

Feeds Your ads appear within users' News Feed.

Your ads appear in-between people's

Your ads appear within users' Feed.

Your ads appear in-between people's

in 2020
Stories
Facebook or Messenger stories. Instagram stories.
Your ads appear in a column
Ad placements and formats on both platforms are
Right-hand Column / Your ads appear in the browsing experience
on the right-hand side to users accessing
Explore when someone clicks on a photo or video. constantly evolving - in 2021 we’ll most likely have
Facebook on their computers.
in-stream IGTV ads, and Facebook’s renewed focus on
Groups Your ads appear in Facebook groups. developing and promoting “Facebook Groups” has
made the “Group” ad placement much more compelling
Your ads appear within Facebook Instant
Instant Articles for advertisers.

Articles in the mobile app and Messenger

Your ads appear in the Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace home page or when someone browses In order to take full advantage of Facebook and
Marketplace in the Facebook app. Instagram's potential to engage, it's important to know
Your ads appear within videos on Facebook the different ad formats that are available on each
In-stream Video that are watched both on desktop and on platform and their strengths and weaknesses. Certain
mobile.
ad formats are better tailored to different campaign
Your ads appear in the Home tab of
Messenger Inbox goals - awareness, driving sales, etc.

Messenger.
Your ads appear next to relevant Facebook

Facebook Search Results

and Marketplace search results.

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 19

Facebook or Instagram in 2020?

Ad Formats in 2020
Facebook Instagram What to use it for:

An ad utilizing a single image with multiple An ad using 1 photo, appearing
 Drawing attention to your business or specific products through eye-catching
Single image
placements available on Instagram’s main feed. photographs.

An ad using 1 video that appears on

An ad using 1 video that's up to 60 seconds
Facebook’s main feed, or in-stream alongside Complementing your TV advertising campaigns.

Single video long. Can be displayed on Instagram’s main

Facebook’s video feed. Videos can be long Telling more complex business stories.
feed or in-between Instagram Stories.
form - up to 240 minutes long.

Directing users to specific places on your website.

Showcasing multiple products or services .

Carousel An ad using 2 - 10 scrollable images. An ad using 2 - 10 scrollable images.

Explaining how your business or product works.

Telling a compelling story - one image at a time.

Grabbing users' attention and encouraging them to interact with your ad

An interactive ad allowing you to tell a story

Canvas Acquiring new customers.

using a mix of photos and videos.

Raising brand awareness.

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 20

 Facebook or Instagram in 2020?

Distribution of Campaigns by Objectives

Mean Account Objectives Distribution on Facebook & Instagram

Breakdown of Ad and Post Engagement

Link Clicks
23.2%
20.2%

Campaign Objectives on Reach

Conversions
18.6%
9.8%

Facebook and Instagram Video Views

Brand Awareness
9.8%
5.7%
Page Likes 3.7%
Lead Generation 2.5%
To the right is an analysis of roughly 9,000 ad accounts on Facebook and Prod. Catalog Sales 2.3%
Others 4.3%
Instagram, segmented by campaign/ad objective.

It points to further differences in how marketers set their objectives for the Link Clicks 28.6%
two platforms. For instance, on Facebook, marketers are mostly paying for Reach 20.0%
Post Engagement 19.5%
engagement, which we know has declined over past years, while on
Conversions 9.8%
Instagram, where engagement is still free, marketers are paying for user Video Views 8.7%
action further down the funnel. These differences again show that both Brand Awareness 6.3%
platforms require a tailored advertising strategy. Prod. Catalog Sales 2.2%
Lead Generation 2.2%
Messages 1.2%
Others 1.5%

Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2020; Sample: 4,676 Facebook Advertising Accounts; Source: Socialbakers data Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 21
The Takeaway

The Takeaway
When we look at this data in the context of the trends uncovered in the first section of
this report, we can come to the conclusion that in general, Facebook is great for driving
sales and conversions while Instagram is better for brand marketing and awareness.

Strictly in terms of E-Commerce or direct-to-consumer sales, Instagram is catching up

with its focus on Instagram Shops. However, Facebook remains the go-to channel to
drive conversions and clicks; it’s still less costly and offers additional targeting.

While they share many similarities and are managed from one platform, Facebook and
Instagram must be viewed as distinct channels requiring their own unique strategies.

The space of digital marketing is in constant flux as technology, consumer behavior,

and marketing strategy intersect and evolve alongside and in response to one
another.

As two of the world’s largest social networks that also reside at the forefront of
technology and innovation, Facebook and Instagram will continue to evolve in response
to changing consumer desires and sentiments. It’s key for marketers to maintain a
comprehensive and current understanding of these platforms in order to stay effective.

Facebook vs. Instagram in 2020 22

Methodology and Glossary

Have a question regarding any

of the data in the report?

Contact us at ask@socialbakers.com

socialbakers.com

Trends Report | Q4 2019 54