Throughout my years of writing about social media, I’ve noticed a visible increase in the finance content industry across social platforms.
Finance-related creators are becoming more numerous and many B2B and B2C companies have taken slices of the pie through product placement and sponsorship.
It’s time we accepted that social media has a much bigger influence than we thought. People shop through social media, plan out events, read the news, and even get investment advice.
For this guide, I thought I take a look at Facebook and Instagram in the finance content industry:
- Share of Total User Interactions for Finance Brand Pages on Facebook Q4 2022
- Share of Total User Interactions for Finance Brand Profiles on Instagram Q4 2022
- Median post interactions
- Relative median post interactions
- Median post-engagement rate
- Distribution of posts types on Facebook
- Distribution of post types on Instagram
This may look intimidating but don’t worry. I’ll make it as simple and as clear as I can. At the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of how finance-related content is popularized on Facebook and Instagram.
You can also decide if this type of content is for you. Content creators can easily use this type of info to research a potential niche in which they want to create content.
Let us begin!
Section I: Share of Total User Interactions for Finance Brand Pages on Facebook Q4 2022
You should already be aware of what a Facebook brand/business page is. It’s designed with commercial organizations in mind. You can use it to grow your brand, promote your products, and more.
In this section, I’ll look at Facebook’s user interaction with the top brand pages in Q4 2022 and see how Finance fares. See the chart below:
| Type of Brand Page | Distribution of Total User Interactions |
| eCommerce | 29% |
| Retail | 13.7% |
| Services | 10.1% |
| Finance | 6.1% |
| Fashion | 5.3% |
| Electronics | 4.1% |
| Fmcg Food | 3.9% |
| Telecom | 3.7% |
| Others | 24.2% |
Based on this chart, finance-related brand pages only received 6.1% of the total user interactions in Q4 2022 (October – November – December). That’s discouragingly low, to be honest.
Even though it’s the fourth most popular type of content based on distributed interactions worldwide, 6.1% is not that great. However, because this is a worldwide statistic, the situation changes quite a bit.
Think of it this way – Facebook had 2.963 billion users in January 2023. Naturally, not all of those users are going to interact with your brand page. You get a share of the 6.1% of interactions that are distributed to finance-related brands.
It’s a reasonable assumption that at least a billion people will interact with finance-related brand pages on Facebook per month. So, that’s about 61 million people reserved only for finance-related brand pages, per month.
This means you have a share of 61 million potential visitors to your finance brand page, more or less. Depending on how popular your brand is and how efficient your marketing campaign is, you’ll get a higher or lower share of visitors.
Section II: Share of Total User Interactions for Finance Brand Profiles on Instagram Q4 2022
Instagram brand profiles fulfill the same role as Facebook brand pages. Let’s see how those same stats for the above apply on Instagram.
| Type of Brand Profile | Distribution of Total User Interactions |
| eCommerce | 25.2% |
| Fashion | 19.6% |
| Retail | 9.2% |
| Services | 7.8% |
| Auto | 6.7% |
| Beauty | 6.7% |
| Sporting Goods | 4.8% |
| Electronics | 3.3% |
| Finance | 1% |
| Others | 16.7% |
Worldwide, the finance content niche is not doing very well on Instagram. It only has 1% of the share of total interactions of brand profiles on the platform.
That’s much worse than Facebook, and considering that Instagram has 1.318 billion users worldwide, that gives you a potential client base of around 13.18 million user interactions for all finance-related brand profiles.
Again, depending on how popular your brand is, you’ll receive a higher or lower share of those 13.18 million users to interact with your brand profile.
The final conclusion is that Facebook is a much better choice if you’re looking for a bigger share of the audience for your brand. You get:
- A share of 6.1% of the total user interactions on finance-related brand pages on Facebook
- A share of 1% of the total user interactions on finance-related brand profiles on Instagram
But that’s not all there is to it, as you’ll soon see in the following sections!
Section III: Median Finance Post Interactions on Facebook vs. Instagram
In this section, I’ll be looking at the average interaction on finance posts on Facebook and Instagram from October 2021 to December 2022, so a whole year:
| Period | Facebook Median Finance Post Interactions | Instagram Median Finance Post Interactions |
| November 2021 – January 2022 | ~ 15 – 13 interactions | ~ 45 – 43 interactions |
| January – March 2022 | ~ 13 – 11 interactions | ~ 43 interactions |
| March – May 2022 | ~ 12 – 10 interactions | ~ 43 – 35 interactions |
| May – July 2022 | ~ 10 interactions | ~ 35 – 36 interactions |
| July – September 2022 | ~ 10 interactions | ~ 36 – 37 interactions |
| September – November 2022 | ~ 10 – 11 interactions | ~ 37 – 40 interactions |
| November – December 2022 | ~ 11 interactions | ~ 40 – 35 interactions |
Based on this chart, Instagram’s median interactions for posts are much higher than Facebook’s. This means that, on average, a finance-related post on Instagram will receive more interactions than one on Facebook.
Let me explain how the median post-interaction value is calculated:
- You take the total number of interactions on a post and order them in ascending order for every day/week/month/year
- Assuming you’re calculating the median post interaction for a whole year, you could have the following number of interactions per month: 13, 18, 25, 16, 5, 26, 32, 48, 13, 10, 23, 28
- First, you order these in ascending order, so: 5, 10, 13, 13, 16, 18, 23, 25, 26, 28, 32, 48
- Then, if the values are in an uneven number, you take the middle number and that’s your median value
- If the values are in an even number (like in your case – 12 values), you average out the 6th and 7th values, in this case, “18” and “23”
- The result is “20.5” but the median value can only be a whole number, so we round it to 20
- The median value is 20 post interactions per year with the post interactions I provided above
The median post interaction is important because it directly tells you how engaging your posts are.
Plus, it’s a very accurate descriptor of post engagement because it avoids biases by outliers like posts with unusually high numbers of interactions.
In our chart, Instagram finance posts must have clearly received many more interactions than Facebook per day so that the median interactions per month would be higher.
So, the conclusion is that Instagram gives you more engagement with finance-related posts per month. In the next section, we’ll be looking at the relative median value of post-interaction!
Section III: Relative Median Finance Post Interactions on Facebook vs. Instagram
The relative median value of post interactions will show the difference between Facebook and Instagram in terms of post engagement for the October 2021 – December 2022 period:
| Period | Facebook Relative Median Finance Post Interactions | Instagram Relative Median Finance Post Interactions |
| November 2021 – January 2022 | ~ 100 – 80 interactions | ~ 100 – 98 interactions |
| January – March 2022 | ~ 80 – 79 interactions | ~ 98 – 96 interactions |
| March – May 2022 | ~ 79 – 68 interactions | ~ 96 – 80 interactions |
| May – July 2022 | ~ 68 – 65 interactions | ~ 80 interactions |
| July – September 2022 | ~ 65 interactions | ~ 80 – 83 interactions |
| September – November 2022 | ~ 65 – 75 interactions | ~ 83 – 90 interactions |
| November – December 2022 | ~ 75 interactions | ~ 90 – 80 interactions |
What this chart shows is that, on average, Instagram received more post interactions for finance posts than Facebook even while taking into account Facebook’s median post interactions.
However, this is simply one metric that influences the success of finance-related posts. Others, like the type of content, marketing strategy, and demographics, are just as important.
The next metric I’ll be looking at is the median post engagement rate, which effectively shows the overall engagement rate for all your posts across a certain period. Take a look below!
Section IV: Median Finance Post Engagement Rate on Facebook vs. Instagram
The same thing as above but this time we’re analyzing Facebook and Instagram’s median finance post engagement rate for October 2021 – December 2022.
See the chart below:
| Period | Facebook Median Finance Post Engagement Rate | Instagram Median Finance Post Engagement Rate |
| November 2021 – January 2022 | 0.70% | 3% – 2.85% |
| January – March 2022 | 0.70% | 2.85% – 2.90% |
| March – May 2022 | 0.70% | 2.90% – 2.85% |
| May – July 2022 | 0.69% | 2.85% – 2.75% |
| July – September 2022 | 0.69% – 0.70% | 2.75% |
| September – November 2022 | 0.70% – 0.85% | 2.75% – 2.90% |
| November – December 2022 | 0.85% – 0.90% | 2.90% – 3.10% |
As you can see, Instagram scores consistently higher on the median engagement rate for finance posts. This means that, on average, finance posts on Instagram will receive more engagement from users. Purely for being on Instagram.
Given these stats, Instagram’s median finance post engagement rate is about three times higher than that of Facebook, which is a clear advantage for Instagram users.
My final conclusion, after looking at Facebook and Instagram in terms of post-interaction rate and median engagement rate, is that:
- If your brand is already somewhat popular and you have a loyal client base, then it might be better to use Facebook to get a larger share of the user interactions in your industry
- If your brand is not yet known, then Instagram might be better because the engagement rate is much higher, which means you’ll build a client base that much faster through Instagram
But we’ve still got some way to go before we’re done. We should look at the distribution of post types for both platforms and see which is better for the finance industry.
Coming up in the next section!
Section VI: Distribution of Financial Post Types on Facebook & Instagram
This section will tell you which types of posts are the most used for the finance industry. It won’t tell you which are the most successful directly but there must be a reason why a given type of content is more common, right?
Let’s see the chart for Facebook first:
| Period | Video Posts % | Status Posts % | Link Posts % | Photo Posts % | Live Video Posts % |
| November 2021 – January 2022 | ~ 18 – 16% | ~ 0% – 1% | ~ 13% – 12% | ~ 65% | ~ 0 – 1% |
| January – March 2022 | ~ 16 – 17% | ~ 1 – 2% | ~ 12% | ~ 68% | ~ 0 – 1% |
| March – May 2022 | ~ 17% | ~ 1 – 3% | ~ 11% | ~ 69% | ~ 0 – 1% |
| May – July 2022 | ~ 17 – 18% | ~ 1 – 3% | ~ 11% | ~ 69% | ~ 0 – 1% |
| July – September 2022 | ~ 18% | ~ 1 – 3% | ~ 10% | ~ 69 – 70% | ~ 0 – 1% |
| September – November 2022 | ~ 18% | ~ 1 – 3% | ~ 10% | ~ 70% | ~ 0 – 1% |
| November – December 2022 | ~ 18 – 19% | ~ 1 – 3% | ~ 10 – 9% | ~ 70% | ~ 0 – 1% |
Photo posts are, by far, the most dominating type of content in the financial industry on Facebook. The numbers are astonishingly higher than other types of posts.
With around 65-70% of financial posts being in photo form, it’s counterintuitive to use any other type of post to share your content.
I can understand why photo posts are the preferred type of content for financial information, though.
Given how complex financial information is, representing it visually with helpful charts and other visual cues will simplify it and make it more accessible to everyone.
Now let’s take a look at the same chart but for Instagram this time:
| Period | Video Posts % | Carousel Posts % | Image Posts % | Reel Posts % |
| November 2021 – January 2022 | ~ 22% | ~ 22% – 21% | ~ 51% – 54% | ~ 4% |
| January – March 2022 | ~ 21% | ~ 22% | ~ 54% – 51% | ~ 4 – 6% |
| March – May 2022 | ~ 21% | ~ 22% | ~ 51% – 50% | ~ 6 – 7% |
| May – July 2022 | ~ 20% | ~ 22% – 23% | ~ 50% – 47% | ~ 7 – 10% |
| July – September 2022 | ~ 20% – 10% | ~ 23% | ~ 47% – 46% | ~ 10 – 20% |
| September – November 2022 | ~ 10% – 8% | ~ 23 – 22% | ~ 46% – 45% | ~ 20 – 23% |
| November – December 2022 | ~ 8% | ~ 22 – 21% | ~ 45% | ~ 23 – 28% |
Not much is different for Instagram. Photo posts are still the most popular form of content for financial posts, though they’re not as popular as Facebook photo posts, apparently.
Instead, Instagram’s video and carousel posts are also quite popular in the financial niche. Video posts, however, have started to lose their popularity among content creators over the one-year period from 2021 to 2022.
Carousel posts, on the other hand, remained at around 22-21% usage in the financial industry.
The most surprising piece of data is the percentage of reel posts used throughout the year. It went up from 4% in November 2021 – January 2022 all the way to 23 – 28% in November – December 2022.
That’s a 475% – 600% increase in usability for reel posts throughout an entire year. And the uptrend was consistent ever since the end of November all the way until December 2022.
Instagram reels, if you’re not up-to-date with them, are short-form videos (15 seconds max) like those on TikTok. It’s quite expected that these have become popular, even in the financial content industry.
Facebook or Instagram for Finance Content?
Given all the data I came across while building this article, the answer to this question isn’t as black and white as you’d think.
To summarize:
- Facebook provides a much bigger share of user interactions for any finance-related brand pages: 6.1% of the total user interactions as opposed to 1% on Instagram
- Instagram provides a much better median engagement rate for finance-related posts: between 2.75% to 3.1% as opposed to 0.69% – 0.85% on Facebook. This is also evident from the median and relative median finance post interactions (Instagram has a much higher interaction rate than Facebook)
- Photo posts are the most popular form of financial content on both Facebook and Instagram: over 65% usage on Facebook and around 45% usage on Instagram
- Instagram reels have increased in usage by 475% – 600% in a year for financial posts, so that might be worth looking into
To give you my honest opinion, I’d say that Facebook offers quantity and Instagram offers quality. What do I mean by this?
Well, if you use Facebook for finance-related posts, you’ll have a much bigger reach since financial posts get a 6.1% share of the total user interactions worldwide.
If you use Instagram, you’ll have a much smaller reach (about 1% of the total user interactions worldwide) but the engagement rate is much higher.
This means that financial content is much more engaging for Instagram’s audience. Or, in other words, that, on average, financial content is more effective at engaging Instagram’s audience.
To make an analogy, you can think of the total user interaction value as the popularity of financial posts, while the engagement rate is the effectiveness rate.
A post can be popular, which means that it attracts a lot of attention, but it might be very ineffective at maintaining that attention or persuading users to take action based on the information provided.
Similarly, a post can be very effective at prompting users to take action but not that many users see the post (lower total user interactions).
However, remember that there are several other factors that define how successful a financial post is on Facebook or Instagram, such as:
- Userbase demographics
- Marketing strategy
- Ads
- Quality of the content
- Existing brand reputation
- Personalized content that fits your target audience
In truth, both Facebook and Instagram are extremely good for content creators in the finance industry. Which one you end up using depends on your marketing goals, target audience, brand image, and more.
I do hope I’ve helped you make an informed decision and that you’ll put the data and commentaries provided above to good use.
Stick around for more similar guides that you can only find on Whizcase!
Sources
- Emplifi – Finance Worldwide
