Facebook Alternatives: 7 Alternatives to Advertising on Facebook to Consider

Listen to your Grandma: Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Sure, your Gran probably wasn’t talking about Facebook marketing, but her wisdom holds true.

For some time now, the cost of advertising on Facebook has increased while impressions have gone down.

Relying too much on one form of customer acquisition is dicey for any business. You’re bound to get caught with your pants down at some point.

Plus, you’re missing out.

People don’t just use Facebook. In fact, the average internet user has an average of 7.6 social media accounts!

There are also tons of other advantages to diversifying your advertising channels, such as cross-channel retargeting.

Bottom line, diversity brings security and advantages.

In this article, you’ll get an overview of seven channels that are great alternatives to Facebook.

Let’s dive in.

Facebook Alternative #1: Google Ads

Google Ads is one of the best alternatives to marketing on Facebook.

In fact, Google is the only digital advertising channel that receives more U.S. digital ad spend than Facebook.

This is unsurprising when you consider that Google processes more than 4.5 billion search queries each day – that’s over 70,000 search queries every second.

You can use Google Ads to advertise on their Search Network and/or their Display Network.

Advertising on Google’s Search Network is when you bid to place your ads on Google’s search engine results page, or “SERP.”

Here’s an example from footwear company Vivobarefoot:

Next, advertising on Google’s Display Network lets you place ads on websites which use Google AdSense:

There are numerous benefits to using Google Ads, such as:

• Advanced targeting
• Budget control
• Highly measurable
• Fast results
• Remarketing tools

Google Ads is based on a pay-per-click auction system.

In essence, advertisers bid on keywords, and the highest bid wins the advertising opportunity. Then, advertisers pay Google each time someone clicks on one of their ads.

To get started, check out our guide: Google Adwords Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide to Your First Campaign.

Facebook Alternative #2: Instagram

Instagram may be owned by Facebook, but it’s a different beast entirely.

Instagram has experienced massive growth in recent years and now has more than one billion monthly active users.

Plus, more than half of Instagram’s users visit the platform at least once per day, making it a brilliant alternative to Facebook.

So much so, that many advertisers are shifting ad dollars from Facebook to Instagram.

In fact, performance marketing agency Merkle recently reported that ad spend on Instagram was growing at four times the rate of ad spend on Facebook.

Specifically, year on year during Q2, Instagram’s ad spend went up 177 percent compared to Facebook’s 40 percent increase.

And there’s more.

This advertising channel is ideal for businesses outside of the U.S. or those looking to expand internationally, as 80% of the platform’s user base lives outside of the U.S.

Unsurprisingly, most of Instagram’s users are Millennials. In fact, 31% of Instagram users are 18 to 24 years old, and 30% are 25 to 34.

You can run five different types of Instagram ads:

1. Photo ads
2. Video ads
3. Carousel ads
4. Slideshow ads
5. Stories ads

It’s also easy to get started with Instagram ads if you’re currently advertising with Facebook. This is because Instagram ads are managed through Facebook’s ad manager.

To learn more, check out: Instagram Ads: How to Successfully Sell Your Products.

Facebook Alternative #3: YouTube

YouTube now has nearly 1.8 billion monthly active users.

It’s Google’s most popular service, with viewers watching more than 1 billion hours of video each day.

Here’s the crazy part…

YouTube on mobile alone reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.

This advertising channel is well worth exploring, especially as video content is expected to claim 80 percent of all web traffic by 2019.

And according to “The State of Video Marketing in 2018,” 81 percent of people are convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. Plus, 76 percent of businesses say video helped them increase sales.

When it comes to marketing, YouTube is a suitable alternative (or addition) to Facebook, with advanced targeting, remarketing capabilities, and plenty of other features.

There are six types of YouTube ads you can use:

1. TrueView ads
2. Non-skippable instream ads
3. Bumper instream ads
4. Sponsored card ads
5. Overlay ads
6. Display ads

These various advertising formats allow you to get extremely creative with your messaging and content.

For example, check out how Nike showcases their brand personality in this six-second bumper video ad:

YouTube also allows you to set your video campaign objective from one of the following:

• Leads
• Website traffic
• Product and brand consideration
• Brand awareness and reach

To get started, check out: YouTube Ads for Beginners: How to Launch Your First Campaign.