Instagram vs Facebook: Where Should Your Business Focus?

Most owners ask this as if they have to choose a team. Facebook or Instagram, pick one and commit. It feels like a big decision, so it tends to get put off, and neither account gets looked after properly in the meantime.

Here is the good news. For a local business, instagram vs facebook for business is mostly the wrong fight. Both apps belong to Meta, both run from the same set of tools, and the real question is smaller and easier: which one should lead?

Who actually uses Facebook and Instagram in the UK?

The best UK figures we know of come from Ofcom's Online Nation 2025 report, which measures how many online adults open each smartphone app in a month. These are its May 2025 numbers:

Look down the Facebook column first. It barely moves. Young, middle-aged or retired, somewhere between eight and nine in every ten people have it on their phone. The movement is all in the Instagram column, which starts close behind with under-35s and then slides with every age band.

Time spent tells a similar story. Ofcom found people spend 43 minutes a day on Facebook and Messenger on average, against 20 minutes on Instagram. And on Facebook it is the 35 to 54s who stay longest, at 50 minutes a day, with over-55s on 45 and under-35s on just 31.

Two honest caveats. These figures count people who open the app, not people who buy from local businesses on it. And they cover the whole UK. Ofcom does not split them by town, so we won't pretend to know the numbers for Rotherham or Barnsley. What they do give you is a fair starting guess, which your own insights can then correct.

What Facebook does better for a local business

• It reaches your older customers. If the people paying your invoices are homeowners, landlords or business owners over 45, Facebook is where you will find most of them.
• Links sit naturally in a post. Share your quote form or booking page in a Facebook post and people can tap straight through to it while they are still interested.
• Local groups. If your area has a busy community group, that is where people ask who to use for a job. Being known, and recommended, in those threads can be worth more than a month of posts.
• Words carry further. A proper explanation of a job, a price or an offer reads naturally on Facebook. On Instagram the picture has to do the work and the caption is a supporting act.

What Instagram does better

• Anything people judge with their eyes. Brows, nails, hair, tattoos, cakes, a detailed car, a finished bathroom. When the work itself is the sales pitch, Instagram is built to show it off.
• Younger customers. Among under-35s the two apps are almost level, and this age group spends the least time on Facebook of anyone, so Instagram can be where a younger buyer actually notices you.
• Being checked out. Some people will look you up on Instagram before they book, even if they heard about you somewhere else. A tidy grid of real work reassures them.
• Messages that turn into bookings. For appointment businesses, the Instagram inbox can be where the enquiry lands.

If Instagram ends up leading for you, our Instagram strategy guide for small businesses covers how to set the account up so strangers can find you and book.

Facebook or Instagram for your type of business?

This is a rule of thumb, built from the Ofcom figures above and our own view. It is not a law. Use it as a first guess and let your own enquiries overrule it.

Doesn't "pick one platform" still apply?

It does, and we still stand by it. In our step-by-step social media guide for small firms we tell owners to choose one platform and do it properly, rather than spreading themselves across four.

Facebook and Instagram are a special case of that rule, not a break from it. Adding TikTok or LinkedIn means a new app, a new style of content and a new inbox. Adding Instagram to Facebook, or the other way round, mostly means adjusting the same posts for a second app. You still choose one to lead, meaning the one you plan for, shoot for and judge yourself on. The second one gets the same work, adjusted a little.

How to run both without doubling the work

The tool that makes this possible is Meta's own. According to Meta's own page for Meta Business Suite, it lets you manage your business activity on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram from one place: creating and scheduling posts, stories and ads, answering messages and seeing how things performed. Here is the routine we would suggest:

1. Connect your Instagram professional account to your Facebook Page, so both show up in Business Suite together.
2. Plan the month for your lead app. Decide what you are posting and when, with that audience in mind.
3. Make one version of each post, then adjust it for the second app. Usually that means a taller crop for Instagram, a shorter caption, and pointing people to the link on your profile.
4. Schedule both in one sitting, once a week, rather than posting live every day.
5. Answer messages and comments from the one inbox, ideally within the hour during working hours.
6. Once a month, check where your enquiries actually came from. If the second app keeps winning, swap which one leads.

That last step is the one that matters. A month of real enquiries is worth more than any national figure, including the ones in this article.

What about paid ads?

With adverts, the choice almost disappears. One Meta campaign can show on Facebook and Instagram at once, and the system spends your budget wherever it gets results cheapest. We explain how that works, and when limiting it to one app is worth it, in our breakdown of Instagram advertising costs.

When the business has nothing to photograph

People often assume Instagram is only for pretty products. Reception Hub, a call-answering service based in Wath upon Dearne, is about as far from pretty products as you can get. It sells a phone being picked up. When it launched it was a brand nobody had heard of, with no reviews yet and no finished jobs to show.

We built its website, and we run its social media and targeted Meta campaigns alongside it, as one piece of work rather than separate jobs. With no product to photograph, the words and the offer have to do the selling. Founder Shaun Yates said in his review: "Their knowledge, creativity and attention to detail have helped us build a much stronger online presence and, most importantly, generate real results for the business." You can see the build in our portfolio.

So the "does my work look good in a photo?" question is useful, but only for deciding which app leads. Having nothing pretty to show is not a reason to stay off Meta altogether.

What it costs to have both done for you

If you would rather not do the weekly routine yourself, our social media management starts from £225 a month and covers Facebook and Instagram together, not one or the other. It includes:

• 12 branded posts every month across Facebook & Instagram
• Content plan, captions & hashtags done for you
• Scheduling at optimal times + community engagement
• Plain-English monthly report

All our prices sit openly on the packages page. Hold them up next to any other quote you have.

Frequently asked questions

Not sure which app should lead for you?

Instagram vs Facebook for business is rarely either-or, but which app leads does matter. Drop us a WhatsApp message, or call 01709 225755. Tell us what you do and who your customers are, and we'll say honestly which app should come first for you. While we're looking, we'll put your site and Google listing through our free 10-point check too, no strings attached.