Brands Are Now Posting More On Instagram Than On Facebook

If you’re a marketer who is increasingly frustrated with Facebook, you’re not alone. The organic reach of brands on the social network has declined significantly over the past couple of years, and for those who don’t want to pay for ads, the value of their posts has certainly become questionable.

According to a new report from research firm L2, the decline in organic reach on the social network is one of the primary reasons that brands are now posting more on Instagram than they are on Facebook. While marketers now have to pay for reach with advertising dollars on Facebook, Instagram is primarily free. Although it has some advertising options, the majority of brand activity on Instagram is organic, and user feeds are unfettered by algorithms. Therefore, at least in theory, an Instagram user who follows a brand will see all of that brand’s posts.

“Enamored by 100 percent organic reach, brands have dialed up efforts on Instagram,” says L2. “Unlike the pay-to-play ethos of Facebook, pure sweat (namely, content testing and optimization) still drives meaningful results on Instagram. For brands, these are the salad days – motivated to both preserve user experience and create scarcity value, Instagram has kept advertising on the platform to a minimum.”

The L2 report indicated that the 250 brands it tracked posted an average of 9.3 times per week on Instagram and 8.8 times per week on Facebook in the fourth quarter of 2014. The activity on Facebook was down from 11.1 per week at the same time in 2013, while posting on Instagram increased almost two posts per week (from 7.5) and is up 23 percent over the last five quarters.

Brands are being drawn to Instagram in part because the platform has been purposefully cautious about crowding feeds with sponsored posts. Therefore, the regular, non-promoted content of a brand has far more visibility on Instagram than on Facebook.

But how long will this last?

It’s important to note that Facebook owns Instagram. In its report, L2 points out the strong likelihood that the company will eventually adopt a similar feed strategy with Instagram as it’s done with Facebook, choosing to limit organic reach to force brands to buy ads.

“Brands should expect that organic reach will be supplanted by pay-to-play (see: Facebook) on Instagram, and ensure the assets and skills being erected will stand when muscle (money) replaces sweat,” said L2.

As L2 suggests, there’s a good chance that the organic reach on Instagram will decline at some point. But, for now, it’s a great choice for marketers in this regard. Another reason that brands are increasing their focus on Instagram is that the network is attracting younger users than Facebook. According to L2, while an estimated 3 million U.S. teenagers abandoned Facebook between 2011 and 2014, the same demographic now cites Instagram as “the most important” social network.

Some other interesting findings about Instagram from the report, which L2 prepared in partnership with social marketing tech firm Olapic, include:

• The auto industry outperformed all categories (Beauty, Consumers Electronics, Travel, Watches and Jewelry, Fashion, Sportswear, Retail, Drinks) with a 1.52 percent per post engagement rate. The Drinks category was second at 1.32 percent.
• Of the 200 highest performing posts, 65 percent prominently featured a product, 43 percent included general lifestyle photography, and 29 percent included a brand ambassador or other influencer.
• Photo posts drive higher engagement rates than their video counterparts, at 1.03 percent for photo posts versus 0.79 percent for video posts. While videos attract more comments, photos draw significantly more “likes”.