In the red corner, we have legacy media advertising. That’s right, the radio jingles, newspaper advertisements and TV commercials you remember from your youth. In the blue corner, we have social media marketing: user-specific ads, pay-per-click opportunities and targeted emails all reaching potential conversions. It almost goes without saying that digital marketers would expect the latter to come out on top. However, Facebook’s recent pummeling in the public square by members of Congress may have some wondering if this social media monolith is on the ropes.

From the perspective of a small business, the question of whether Facebook is a good place to park digital ad buy dollars is a fair one. Given our daily involvement in Facebook matters, we at WebiMax are here to tell you that Mark Zuckerberg’s brainchild is still the powerhouse it’s always been. For a company with a stock value of $585 billion as of June 20, 2018, Zuckerberg’s Congressional hearings this spring over inadvertent sharing of user data clearly didn’t cause financial hardships. (Our CEO previously weighed in on that and you can read about it here.)

Still, this recent negative press had some of us wondering if Instagram – another Facebook-owned property – was waiting in the wings as a scandal-free platform where leery advertisers could flee to. Is there any truth to that assumption? Read on for our take.

‘Powerful Tools’

From an advertising perspective, Instagram offers the following options for those looking to spread brand awareness: photo ads, video ads, carousel ads and story ads. With 1 billion active monthly users as of June 2018, how can you be sure that your efforts are landing in the laps of potential leads? If you were to hire a digital marketing firm to launch your business profile page and run an ad campaign, you’ll be able to take advantage of the user-specific options that put your product or service in front of those who need it most.

This is accomplished through assessing user location, demographics, interests, and behaviors. If you’re a brick-and-mortar store, it makes the most sense to take this route and appeal to those in neighboring towns. If you’re also a mom-and-pop shop, letting a digital marketing firm steer the ship also allows you to remain focused on the day-to-day operations and review the performance metrics later. “Instagram uses the same powerful advertising tools as Facebook,” Instagram’s advertising page states and therein lies the rub: Instagram is still hitching a ride off the biggest name in town.

Message, Meet Customer

Want to know how your Instagram ad is performing? Go ahead and give that topic a Google search; the top results will take you to – you guessed it – pages on Facebook.com. Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram in 2012 so it’s no surprise that we end up on a Facebook webpage outlining the other social media platform’s advertising nuts and bolts. Still, Facebook’s website also outlines the myriad ways for advertisers to reach the right audience. Many of the ad formats are similar to Instagram’s, but options like “Messenger” and “Canvas” ads are unique to Facebook. These two options will help clients “shorten the distance between your message and the customer.”

When a WebiMax client wants to spread brand awareness via social media marketing, we’re able to offer buzz-creating campaigns that stand out and rightly earn the attention of smartphone and desktop users everywhere. Facebook has, if you’ll forgive the pun, faced the music and came clearly out quite alright. The company’s own internal numbers claim that some 2 billion users log into Facebook every month and in our option, that’s a hard number to pass up. If your business is in need of an online boost and you’re looking for a trusted digital marketing agency to assist with Facebook or Instagram advertising opportunities, contact WebiMax today!