As Instagram Stories advertising prices continue to rise, some influencers are turning to a cheaper form of advertising: Facebook Stories. While the transition is hardly a far cry from businesses’ prior advertising techniques, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
No one likes Facebook’s News Feed ads by default, but it seems influencers and Facebook are both beginning to get on board with the hate. Put simply, News Feed ads aren’t anywhere near as interesting as the interactive ones found on Snapchat and Instagram; coupled with the inherent distrust toward Facebook these days, it’s no surprise that businesses are beginning to pull their News Feed ads in favor of more lucrative—if not diverse—alternatives such as Instagram.
Putting aside Instagram’s perceptible glamor in comparison to its ugly sister of a social network, a couple of factors have made Instagram more appealing to large businesses and influencers alike: Facebook ads are relatively stagnant by nature, and Instagram’s traffic better aligns with visual ads’ intended demographics.
This made it easy for brands like Nike and Apple to begin moving over their advertising content without having to change their format.
Unfortunately, Instagram’s cost means that the switch isn’t ideal for smaller businesses, making Facebook Stories the next-best decision for those hoping to maintain the Stories format without losing excess cash.
Despite the obvious locational disadvantages, Facebook Stories offer a couple of key advantages over their Instagram counterparts.
For one, they’re cheaper, making them an easy choice for smaller businesses or startups. More importantly, this price difference is due largely to lack of advertiser demand for Facebook Stories; since many small businesses’ competitors are moving off-site, there’s plenty of room for the smaller businesses to gain attention through Facebook Stories.
And as a bonus for those of you already invested in Instagram Stories – you can actually share them to your Facebook Stories.
Finally, businesses will eventually be able to move their ads over to Instagram (if doing so becomes viable) without the hassle of diversifying the content as one might when switching to an entirely different platform (e.g., Snapchat).
Though consumers have demonstrated less interest in Facebook Stories than one might hope, for the purposes of an advertisement campaign, the lack of larger competition and the availability of a cheaper advertising platform means that smaller businesses can compete without having to sacrifice a proven format.
