In this content industry analysis, I’ll look at the Fashion industry, which is arguably one of the most popular and thriving industries in the world. And social media is the main channel through which fashion is promoted.

Facebook and Instagram are top-tier promotional channels for Fashion, and today, we’re going to see how the two platforms compete in terms of interactions, engagement, and performance for Fashion posts.

Here are the sections I’ll walk you through:

Sections

I. Total Interactions Distribution of Fashion Brand Pages/Profiles on Facebook & Instagram

II. Median Post Interactions for Facebook & Instagram on Fashion Posts

III. Relative Median Post Interactions for Facebook & Instagram on Fashion Posts

IV. Median Post Engagement Rate for Facebook & Instagram on Fashion Posts

V. Distribution of Post Types on Facebook for Fashion Posts

VI. Distribution of Post Types on Instagram for Fashion Posts

VII. Organic Performance of Post Types on Facebook for Fashion Posts

VIII. Organic Performance of Post Types on Instagram for Fashion Posts

IX. Top Performing Fashion Pages on Facebook

X. Top Performing Fashion Profiles on Instagram

XI. Relative Expenditure by Platform Position on Facebook & Instagram for Fashion Posts

XII. Click-Through Rate by Platform Position on Facebook & Instagram for Fashion Posts

XIII. Click Through Rate for Fashion Posts on Facebook & Instagram

XIV. Cost per Click for Fashion Posts on Facebook & Instagram

XV. Expenditure for Fashion Posts on Facebook & Instagram

As always, you’ll find the main highlights for each category below. Read through them and if you need more details, go through the main sections in the following paragraphs:

Highlights

• Fashion posts get 5.5% of the total interactions on Facebook and 19.4% on Instagram
• Instagram receives around 10 times more median post interactions for Fashion posts than Facebook
• Facebook provides more stable Fashion post interactions, while Instagram is less stable in its engagement
• Instagram is considerably more engaging than Facebook for Fashion posts
• Photo posts account for 83%+ of the total number of Fashion posts on Facebook, followed by 16% of video posts
• Image posts are the most popular type of posts on Instagram (56-41% usage) for the Fashion niche
• Reel posts are exploding in usage on Instagram for the Fashion niche (28% usage)
• On average, Facebook live video posts have the most median post interactions in the Fashion niche – a whopping 65 interactions
• On average, Instagram video posts have the most median post interactions in the Fashion niche, at 119 interactions
• PrettyLittleThing was the top-performing Fashion page on Facebook with over 24.1 million interactions
• Dior Official was the top-performing profile on Instagram with over 12.5 million followers and 15.5 million interactions
• The Facebook Feed attracts the most investments from Fashion brands (42%). That’s likely because Facebook is the most versatile platform and reaches the widest audience spectrum
• The Instagram Feed also attracts a substantial share of the investment (22%) from Fashion brands. This shows the platform’s growing importance in marketing. Instagram seamlessly integrates its feed with the users’ content, which leads to more authentic target audience acquisition for brands
• Instagram Stories get 18% investments while Instagram Reels get 3% and the Instagram Explore gets 2%. It looks like Instagram has more worthwhile communication channels for Fashion marketers compared to Facebook, which only has the Feed
• The Facebook Feed has a 1.68% click-through rate for Fashion posts, which is the highest click-through rate among other communication channels, including the Instagram feed (1.07%). Instagram pales in comparison to Facebook on this level
• The cost per click of Fashion posts has decreased from $0,24 to $0.21 from May 2022 to May 2023 after fluctuating during the year
• The Click Through Rate of Fashion Posts decreased from 1.2% to 1% from May 2022 to May 2023, after fluctuating a bit
• Fashion posts have a higher CPC (cost-per-click) than the worldwide industry average
• The Expenditure of Fashion Posts has increased from $7,900 to $10,000 from May 2022 to May 2023

Alright, let’s not waste any more time and get started!

Section I: Total Interactions Distribution of Fashion Brand Pages/Profiles on Facebook & Instagram

First and foremost, we’re going to look at how the Fashion industry compared to other industries in terms of share of interactions on Facebook and Instagram.

This’ll give us a broader understanding of how popular the industry is as a general idea. It might be important to know know this before you throw all caution aside and choose this industry.

Here’s what Emplifi says about this:

Industry	Instagram Profiles / Share of Interactions	Facebook Pages / Share of Interactions
eCommerce	25.4%	25.2%
Retail	8.1%	15.5%
Services	8.4%	9.6%
Beauty	6.1%	2.1%
Sporting Goods	4.9%	Not Applicable
Finance	Not Applicable	5.6%
Fashion	19.4%	5.5%
Electronics	3.1%	4.1%
Fmcg Food	Not Applicable	4%
Auto	7.4%	Not Applicable
Telecom	Not Applicable	4%
Others	17.1%	26.5%

As you can see, Fashion is the second most popular industry on Instagram and the fifth most popular industry on Facebook, according to the share of interactions.

It makes sense since Instagram is known for its emphasis on everything beauty and fashion-related. Facebook, not so much.

A 19.4% share of interactions is huge, and I get the feeling this guide will reach a clear conclusion – Instagram has a much bigger potential for social media marketing compared to Facebook.

But as you’ll have learned by now, these statistics can be initially misleading. The more data we gather, the clearer the picture becomes. Let’s move on to the next stage!

Section II: Median Post Interactions for Facebook & Instagram on Fashion Posts

Through the median post interactions, we see how social media users interact with Fashion posts monthly on Facebook and Instagram.

The “median” part means that we’re looking at the average per month of all the interactions. Generally, this is where we see the largest disparity between Facebook and Instagram’s engagement.

Here’s the data:

Period	Facebook Median Post Interactions	Instagram Median Post Interactions
May 2022	13 interactions	138 interactions
July 2022	13 interactions	103 interactions
September 2022	13 interactions	108 interactions
November 2022	12 interactions	114 interactions
January 2023	12 interactions	100 interactions
March 2023	13 interactions	103 interactions
May 2023	13 interactions	93 interactions

Instagram brings around 9-10 times the amount of median post interactions for Fashion posts compared to Facebook. This can mean one of two things:

• Instagram posts are naturally more engaging than their Facebook counterparts

• Instagram is better-suited for the Fashion industry, and there’s a much bigger audience for it on the platform

Either way, it becomes clear that Instagram is the better option if you’re in the Fashion industry. You’ll get a lot more median interactions for every post compared to Facebook.

Even when considering out-of-season periods, Instagram blows Facebook out of the water . However, Facebook looks more stable compared to Instagram. Though, that’s not really helpful when the difference in interactions is so large.

Section III: Relative Median Post Interactions for Facebook & Instagram on Fashion Posts

Up-next, I’ll show you the relative median post interactions to get a better idea of the increase/decrease of median post interactions for both platforms.

That’s where the “relative” part comes from – both platforms’ median post interactions are shown relative to one another starting from May 2022 (the 100% point).

Here’s the data:

Period	Facebook Relative Median Post Interactions	Instagram Relative Median Post Interactions
May 2022	100%	100%
July 2022	92%	78%
September 2022	94%	80%
November 2022	92%	84%
January 2023	92%	76%
March 2023	94%	77%
May 2023	100%	75%

Like I said before, Instagram is the less stable platform regarding median interactions per every Fashion post. You can see this as the months go by – Instagram has larger decreases.

However, this is largely irrelevant due to the fact that you get 9-10 times more median interactions per post compared to Facebook. So, even when Instagram’s interactions go down a bit, they’re much more numerous than on Facebook.

We can also see that, throughout the 1-year period, Facebook’s median post interactions reverted back to 100%, from May 2022 to May 2023.

On the other hand, Instagram seems to have lost 25% of its median post interactions from May 2022 to May 2023. So, this isn’t a seasonal shift but rather a platform decrease in interactions for Instagram. It’s worth keeping this in mind.

Section IV: Median Post Engagement Rate for Facebook & Instagram on Fashion Posts

Now, let’s see what the engagement rate is for both Facebook and Instagram on Fashion posts. This will paint a clearer picture of which platform performs better using similar content.

Engagement is the core of any good marketing campaign, after all. And even if you’re not doing a full-fledged marketing campaign, engagement is key to getting leads on regular posts too.

Let’s see how the engagement looks:

Period	Facebook Median Post Engagement Rate	Instagram Median Post Engagement Rate
May 2022	0.48	2.30
July 2022	0.47	2.30
September 2022	0.47	2.38
November 2022	0.47	2.41
January 2023	0.48	2.50
March 2023	0.47	2.49
May 2023	0.49	2.67

As you can see, Instagram has three times the engagement rate compared to Facebook for Fashion posts across the entire assessed period.

Even though Instagram fluctuates more wildly, that’s to be expected with more interactions and more engagement. Facebook seems to attract almost as many users every month, which doesn’t really bode well for a growing brand.

Instagram, on the other hand, looks pristine with its bumping engagement rate. The fact that it fluctuates a lot is not that important considering the massive difference in engagement vs. Facebook.

Another interesting observation is that both Facebook and Instagram had a better engagement rate in May 2023 compared to May 2022. Instagram had a greater engagement improvement, as well.

Section V: Distribution of Post Types on Facebook for Fashion Posts

Now, we’re going to be looking at which post types are most popular on Facebook for the Fashion industry. With this data, marketers will be able to make the best decisions when doing a marketing campaign on Facebook.

But don’t forget – a lower share of usage for a post type doesn’t necessarily mean that the post type is bad for a particular industry.

It just means that most marketers are not using that post type, for one reason or the other. Making this decision rests upon your marketing campaign and other analytics.

Anyway, here’s the distribution of post types on Facebook for Fashion posts:

Period	Share of Video Posts	Share of Status Posts	Share of Link Posts	Share of Photo Posts	Share of Live Video Posts
May 2022	16%	1%	4%	83%	1%
July 2022	16%	1%	4%	83%	1%
September 2022	15%	1%	3%	84%	1%
November 2022	15%	1%	3%	84%	1%
January 2023	14%	1%	3%	84%	1%
March 2023	14%	1%	3%	84%	1%
May 2023	14%	1%	3%	84%	1%

Photo posts are the best type of content for the Fashion industry, according to their usage. Around 83-84% of all Fashion posts on Facebook use this type of post. So, there has to be a good reason behind this, right? Engagement and interactions are the two likeliest reasons.

If you think about it, what’s the core element of the Fashion niche? That’s right, visuals. Potential clients like to “see” what a piece of clothing looks like before buying it.

Naturally, photos achieve this effect immediately and have the highest impact on a viewer’s decision to buy or skip. Fashion is, above all else, a visual niche.

The second-most used type of post is the video post. Again, it’s a very visual type of post that adds motion, which can be a good thing once in a while.

Section VI: Distribution of Post Types on Instagram for Fashion Posts

Let’s do the same for Instagram – a distribution of the post types used for Fashion posts. The same rules apply as above:

Period	Share of Video Posts	Share of Carousel Posts	Share of Image Posts	Share of Reel Posts
May 2022	8%	30%	56%	7%
July 2022	8%	26%	51%	12%
September 2022	3%	27%	47%	22%
November 2022	2%	28%	45%	25%
January 2023	1%	27%	46%	26%
March 2023	1%	29%	43%	28%
May 2023	1%	30%	41%	28%

As you can see, a couple of things happened on Instagram regarding the distribution of Fashion post types over the year:

• The share of video Fashion posts has dropped significantly from 8% to 1%
• The share of Carousel Fashion posts has stayed almost the same (around 30%)
• The share of Image Fashion posts has dropped a bit from 56% to 41%
• The share of Reel Fashion posts has increased a lot from 7% to 28%

We can see a shift in post type usage, from videos and images to reels. And this makes sense, since Reels are a relatively new addition that everyone loves. They create a lot of engagement and they’re great for marketing too.

Especially in a visual niche like Fashion, Instagram Reels are one of the best content type options if you want to engage your viewers instantly.

We don’t see any such shift in Facebook’s case, which simply means that Instagram is currently in an evolving phase. With Facebook, marketers have had time to analyze the performance of content types for a long time. They settled on the best ones and will not shift to others.

Instagram is another beast altogether. The platform isn’t recent by any stretch of the imagination but marketers are still finding new ways to use it. Plus, the Reels feature was only added 3 years ago, in 2020.

Section VII: Organic Performance of Post Types on Facebook for Fashion Posts

Now, we’ll look at a more substantial piece of data – the organic performance of post types on Facebook for the Fashion industry. This will tell us the median post interactions per post type, which serves as a better metric than simple usage.

Combine the median post interactions with the usage and you start to see a silver lining. Anyway, here’s the data:

Post Type	Median Post Interactions
Live Video	65
Video	10
Photo	8
Link	7
Status	7

In descending order, live videos, videos, and then photos produce the most median post interactions in the Fashion industry on Facebook.

Live videos are extremely far ahead of other content types, though, with 6.5 times more interactions than video posts, and 8 times more interactions that photo posts.

We’ve seen the same happening for almost every industry but the silver lining is this – live videos are not the most common type of post used at all. They’re among the least used, in fact. That’s because they simply don’t work for the majority of content that marketers will post.

However, live videos are great at catching the attention of viewers with a high-impact video that showcases a new product or a new production line.

Section VIII: Organic Performance of Post Types on Instagram for Fashion Posts

Now let’s look at the same thing but for Instagram. We should see a lot more median post interactions compared to Facebook but that’s a given already.

Here’s what Emplifi says:

Post Type	Median Post Interactions
Video	119
Reel	115
Carousel	98
Image	58

Videos and reels are neck and neck in the competition for median post interactions. They’re both incredibly engaging, with videos receiving a bit more interactions.

Carousels are on third place with 98 median post interactions, followed by Images with 58 median post interactions. These aren’t bad results at all. In fact, the least engaging post type on Instagram has almost as many interactions as the most engaging post type on Facebook.

This shows that purely based on organic performance, Instagram beats Facebook by a landslide. If you were ever unsure about Facebook vs. Instagram in the Fashion industry, this metric should give you a pretty good idea of which is better.

Another interesting observation is that less utilized types of Instagram content produce more engagement (median post interactions). Videos are the least used types of content and yet, they’re the most engaging.

Reels are also less used by both Carousel and Image post types, but they produce more engagement than each of them.

Section IX: Top Performing Fashion Pages on Facebook

Let’s take a look at the most popular Fashion pages on Facebook so you get an idea of what popularity means in this industry.

I’ll give you the number of fans, posts, and interactions for each brand, and then I’ll also go through Instagram’s most popular pages so we can compare them.

Here’s Facebook:

Brand Name	Fans	Posts	Interactions
PrettyLittleThing	3,011,554	1,059	5,350,655
Cute n’Country	1,820,249	1,845	2,801,625
D&C Myanmar	1,121,689	4,258	2,568,744
Schwarzer Kaffee	887,091	736	2,236,052
Minh Tu	971,891	143	1,395,801
Via Marte	3,445,787	92	1,254,067

The top performing Fashion page on Facebook, as of Q2 2023, is PrettyLittleThing, with 5.3 million interactions, 1,059 posts, and 3 million fans.

Even if you do an average of interactions per post, PrettyLittleThing comes out among the best. Here’s a list of interactions per post:

• Via Marte – 13,631 interactions per post, on average
• Minh Tu – 9,760 interactions per post, on average
• PrettyLittleThing – 5,052 interactions per post, on average
• Schwarzer Kaffee – 3,038 interactions per post, on average
• Cute n’Country – 1,518 interactions per post, on average
• D&C Myanmar – 603 interactions per post, on average

For top performance regarding number of interactions per post (engagement), Via Marte appears to trump every other brad. It has an average of 13,631 interactions per post, which is almost triple the interactions of PrettyLittleThing per post.

Section X: Top Performing Fashion Profiles on Instagram

Now, we’ll be looking at the top-performing Fashion profiles on Instagram, the same thing as for Facebook. Here’s the data:

Brand Name	Followers	Posts	Interactions
Dior Official	44,519,121	374	36,884,443
Louis Vuitton	53,857,508	272	34,961,322
Calvin Klein	24,147,608	95	23,294,050
SHEIN.COM	29,473,799	825	21,601,491
BVLGARI Official	13,462,327	127	15,424,621
gucci	51,970,970	183	15,357,001

Dior Official is the number one Fashion profile on Instagram, with 36.8 million interactions, 44.5 million followers, and 374 posts.

Remember, these profiles are ranked based on the total number of interactions, not number of followers. If we took followers as a baseline, Louis Vuitton would win with its 53.8 million followers.

For overall performance and the average interactions per post, here’s a list:

• Calvin Klein – 245,200 interactions per post, on average
• Louis Vuitton – 128,534 interactions per post, on average
• BVLGARI Official – 121,453 interactions per post, on average
• Dior Official – 98,621 interactions per post, on average
• gucci – 83,808 interactions per post, on average
• SHEIN.COM – 26,183 interactions per post, on average

Dior Official is no longer the most engaging platform when it comes to number of interactions per post. Far from it, in fact.

Calvin Klein as more than two times the interactions per post, on average, which shows that the brand is much more engaging and gets the attention of viewers faster. Even with fewer followers/fans and four times fewer posts, the brand manages to amass two times the interactions per post.

Then, there’s Louis Vuitton and BVLGARI Official, both of which have more interactions per post than Dior Official. So, really, the only that thing Dior Official excels in is the number of overall interactions.

Section XI: Relative Expenditure by Platform Position on Facebook & Instagram for Fashion Posts

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty now, with a thorough analysis of the monetary expenditure for Fashion posts on Facebook and Instagram. First, I’ll show you the share of expenses for every communication channel on the two platforms, for Fashion posts.

Here’s the data:

Communication Channel	Relative Spend (in %)
Facebook Feed	42%
Instagram Feed	22%
Instagram Stories	18%
Instagram Reels	3%
Instagram Explore	2%

The Facebook Feed is the main channel that Fashion brands focus their spending on, with 42% of all the expenditure funneling toward it. Then comes the Instagram feed with 22% of the expenditure, which is followed by the Instagram Stories with 18% of the expenditure.

In spite of everything we’ve seen above (Instagram’s dominance over Facebook), most Fashion brands are still investing the bulk of their marketing funds on the Facebook feed.

This ultimately shows the central role that Facebook plays in online marketing for the Fashion industry and not only.

The Instagram Feed and the Stories get a lot of attention, too, underlining Instagram’s still-evolving ecosystem and growing marketer interest. It might be a long way before Instagram overtakes Facebook as the king of social media marketing but it’s getting there.

Section XII: Click-Through Rate by Platform Position on Facebook & Instagram for Fashion Posts

The CTR (Click-Through Rate) of the most popular communication channels on Facebook and Instagram will tell us which is more engaging for Fashion posts. Or, at the very least, which creates the best impression initially.

Let’s see what Emplifi has to say:

Communication Channel	Click-Through Rate (in %)
Facebook Feed	1.61%
Instagram Feed	1.07%
Instagram Stories	0.6%
Instagram Explore	0.24%
Instagram Reels	0.15%

The Facebook feed still has the best CTR out of all communication channels on Facebook and Instagram. Generally, a CTR above 1% is already really good, and a 1.6% CTR is better than most.

As for the Instagram feed, it manages to get above 1%, putting itself out there as a worthy competitor to Facebook.

The other Instagram communication channels get a much lower CTR, showing that they’re not that engaging yet. I say “yet” because the Instagram Reels feature is still coming into its own after being introduced 3 years ago. Marketers are still learning how to use it.

For now, the Facebook Feed attracts the most attention from viewers and it’s the reason why marketers invest so much in it.

Section XIII: Monthly Click-Through Rate for Fashion Posts on Facebook & Instagram

Now let’s look at the Click-Through Rate per month for Fashion posts on Facebook and Instagram. This gives us a better look at the evolution of CTR over the course of a year.

I’ll show you the Worldwide vs. Fashion CTR, comparing posts belonging to all industries, as an average, versus only Fashion posts.

Here’s what I found:

Period	Worldwide CTR	Fashion CTR
May 2022	1.03%	1.2%
July 2022	1%	1.23%
September 2022	0.98%	1.1%
November 2022	0.98%	1.19%
January 2023	1%	1.3%
March 2023	0.9%	1.13%
May 2023	0.88%	1%

The Fashion industry is performing really well when compared to the Worldwide Industry average for posts on Facebook and Instagram.

The Fashion CTR is ahead by a few decimals throughout the entire year, which shows that Fashion is slightly above the average in terms of engagement and consumer interest.

Don’t look at how unstable the Fashion CTR is compared to the Worldwide Industry average. It’s quite natural, since the Worldwide stats is an average of multiple industries. It should be more stable compared to one single industry.

If you take out any single industry and analyze its CTR, it’ll show almost the same instability over time. What matters is its effective CTR throughout the year, and Fashion posts are great in this sense!

Section XIV: Expenditure for Fashion Posts on Facebook & Instagram

As always, these last two sections will be about the cost per click and expenditure for Fashion posts. First, I’ll show you the average Expenditure for Fashion posts on both platforms.

We’ll go through the May 2022 – May 2023 period and see how the Fashion expenditure has evolved when compared to the Worldwide Industry average.

Cue the chart:

Period	Worldwide Expenditure (in USD)	Fashion Expenditure (in USD)
May 2022	$3,000 – $2,900	$7,900 – $7,700
July 2022	$2,900 – $3,000	$7,700 – $7,000
September 2022	$3,000 – $3,900	$7,000 – $9,800
November 2022	$3,900 – $3,800	$9,800 – $10,000
January 2022	$3,800 – $3,000	$10,000
March 2022	$3,000 – $3,900	$10,000 – 11,500
May 2023	~$4,000	$11,500 – $10,000

As you can see, Fashion posts have a much higher expenditure than the Worldwide Industry average, sometimes even triple the expenditure. This is good, it shows that Fashion posts are extremely valuable in terms of the ROI (Return on Investment) when users click the ads.

Generally, the Fashion expenditure tends to follow the Worldwide Industry average in its ups and downs, so there’s not much to say there.

However, Fashion posts consistently have a higher expenditure throughout the year, especially during holiday season when everyone’s out to buy something.

Section XV: Cost per Click for Fashion Posts on Facebook & Instagram

This last section will present the average CPC (Cost per Click) for Fashion posts on the two platforms, emphasizing the difference between the Worldwide Industry CPC and the Fashion CPC.

Look at the data below:

Period	Worldwide CPC	Fashion CPC
May 2022	$0.19	$0.24
July 2022	$0.17	$0.19
September 2022	$0.17	$0.22
November 2022	$0.2	$0.23
January 2023	$0.17	$0.17
March 2023	$0.17	$0.20
May 2023	$0.19	$0.21

The CPC for Fashion posts is generally higher than the worldwide industry, which shows a higher interest in Fashion compared to some other industries.

But it’s not so high as to single out the Fashion industry out of the pack. Clearly, there are other industries that are at least as profitable as Fashion per individual post.

Toward the end of the year, the Fashion CPC seemed to go below the Worldwide CPC, so something might have happened in that period that affected Fashion. A short-term drop, to be sure.

Anyway, that’s all I have for you today. The Fashion industry is definitely one of the more popular ones, and according to the stats, Instagram is the more engaging platform to do your marketing on.

Facebook is always a sure bet because of its many users and established reputation in the marketing ecosystem.

Sources

1. Emplifi – Fashion Worldwide