Instagram Ads vs Facebook Ads for Real Estate

Both Instagram and Facebook are among the most popular social media platforms with 1.393 billion and 2.912 billion monthly active users respectively in 2022. Their immense popularity and audience size make them promising options for Real Estate agents to run their marketing efforts on these platforms. Facebook ads for Real Estate are nothing new among agents. However, Instagram is relatively an untapped territory. Therefore, we have decided to compare Instagram Ads vs Facebook Ads for Real Estate and see how they fare.

Instagram Ads

Let’s first go to Instagram Ads.

What Are Instagram Ads

Instagram ads are posts for which businesses pay to be shown to a more specific audience. just like Facebook, Instagram ads appear throughout the app, such as newsfeeds, Stories, Explore, etc. They are similar to normal posts but are marked with a “sponsored” label to indicate that they are an ad. They also include more features than a normal post, such as links, CTA buttons, etc. On the other hand, since Instagram is a visual platform, text ads are not a thing here. You need images or videos (which can be accompanied by text) to run Instagram ads.

Instagram ads are becoming more and more popular as the platform grows as well. A survey by Strata in 2016 found that 63% of US ad agency professionals planned to use Instagram ads for their clients.

Types of Instagram ads

There are many different types of advertising formats on Instagram, including:

• Image ads
• Stories ads
• Video ads
• Carousel ads
• Collection ads
• Explore ads
• IGTV ads
• Shopping ads
• Reels ads

Benefits of Instagram Ads

Here are a few advantages you can find on Instagram to running Real Estate ads.

Read More: Facebook Ads for Real Estate: A Definitive Guide | 2022

Users’ Buyer Mindset

Users on Instagram are more likely to buy something from the app. In fact, 44% of people use Instagram weekly to shop using features like shopping tags and the Shop tag. Although that may not sound interesting for Real Estate agents since they do not sell products on Instagram, it goes to show you that people on the platforms have buying mindset and are ready to be offered and pay for services. In 2019, more than 1/3rd of Instagram users made an online purchase using their phones with their average spend is 15.4% greater than Facebook’s.

Great Organic Functionality

One huge plus of using Instagram is its potential to help you build your brand organically. In addition to paid ads on the platform, you can build your brand on the side (without spending a dime). Do it right and you’ll be able to grow your followers, fans, and word of mouth referrals – all helping increase ad conversion.

High Engagement Rate

Instagram arguably is the king of all social media platforms when it comes to engagement. According to Statista, Instagram had a better engagement in 2019 and 2020 than Facebook. This means ads will have a better chance of user interaction.

Younger Demographic

Instagram has quickly become the go-to platform for the younger generation while Facebook tends to appeal to older generations in general, with “75% of 18–24-year-olds” using Instagram in 2020. Facebook’s largest age group is 25-34 (31.5%) while the largest age group on Instagram is 25-34 (31.2%), with 18-24 close behind at 31%.

Facebook Ads

Now Facebook Ads

What Are Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads use paid social, which is similar to paid search, except that the advertising is done on social media. A while ago, it was much easier to show your content on social media. Facebook users would see almost all of the content their connections shared. However, due to changes in Facebook algorithms, it has become very difficult to reach your audience organically. That means you have to run ads to get a decent reach on Facebook. organic reach is becoming lower and lower every year.

That leaves businesses no choice other than to run ads on Facebook. Since Facebook is a social medium, running ads on it can be described as Paid Social. Running ads on Facebook bok will not just show your content in users’ news feeds. In fact, there are plenty of other places for your content.

Types of Facebook Ads

• Facebook News Feed
• Instagram Feed
• Facebook Marketplace
• Facebook Video Feeds
• Facebook Right Column
• Audience Network
• Facebook Messenger

Here are a few examples of Facebook Ads for Real Estate:

Facebook Ads helps an agent’s clients find them

Benefits of Facebook Ads

Facebook is currently king of social media. Facebook had 2.912 billion monthly active users in January 2022, placing it 1st in our ranking of the world’s most ‘active’ social media platforms. Here are a few perks running ads on it brings:

Visual Nature

Facebook is a social medium and is created to be visual with images and videos. Therefore, agents can run ads that contain images and videos which are more eye-catching and appealing to the common users. Creative videos tend to do well when advertising on Facebook. In short, a Real Estate agent needs to try to stop a potential lead from scrolling using great creatives, messaging, etc.

Affordable Pricing

Facebook Ads allow all agents to run ads even if they have a limited budget and tend to be cheaper than Google Ads. The average cost per action (CPA) for Facebook ads across all industries is $16.92 while it can cost up to $116.61 on Google Ads. On the other hand, the average CPC (Cost Per Click) for Real Estate on Google Ads is $2.37, whereas CPC for Real Estate on Facebook can be as low as $1.27.

Targeting

Although Google also offers targeting options for running ads, Facebook is the hands-down winner for advanced targeting options. Facebook enables agents to create audiences based on a wide range of interests and behaviors since Facebook is great at collecting information from its 2.6 billion monthly active users. You can be very specific with your audience.

Instagram Ads vs Facebook Ads for Real Estate: The Winner

To sum up, both Instagram and Facebook perfectly complement each other in general; the weakness of one is covered by the other, so at a business level, taking advantage of both platforms for running ads cant hurt.

Instagram has a younger audience while Facebook tends to trend toward older users. So if your target audience is from the younger generation you can count on Instagram ads to be better at reaching those younger generations. On the other hand, if you target senior citizens of the area and your city, Instagram may not be your best bet.

Regardless of the age of the target group, Facebook has a bigger user base and can reach a bigger number of people. but it all goes back to your business and what you need to achieve.