"Should I run Facebook ads or Instagram ads?" is one of the most common questions independent artists bring to Artvertise. And the answer isn't what most people expect.
Here's the reality: when you run Meta ads, you're not buying Facebook ads or Instagram ads. You're buying ads across the Meta family of platforms and placements - and Meta's system decides where to deliver them based on where you're most likely to get results.
Understanding how placements actually work is the first step to running them well.
How Meta Placements Actually Work
In Meta Ads Manager, "placements" are the specific locations across Meta's platforms where your ads can appear. These include:
- Facebook Feed
- Facebook Marketplace
- Facebook Right Column
- Facebook Stories
- Facebook Reels
- Instagram Feed
- Instagram Stories
- Instagram Reels
- Instagram Explore
- Audience Network (third-party apps and websites)
- Messenger
When you run a campaign with Advantage+ placements (Meta's automatic placement setting), you're not choosing between Facebook and Instagram. Meta is running your ads across all of these and allocating your budget dynamically toward wherever your specific audience is most likely to convert.
This is important to understand because it changes how you think about the "Facebook vs Instagram" question. For most campaigns, you're buying reach across the entire family - not just one platform.
Instagram Performance for Art Stores
Instagram is generally the stronger creative environment for visual art. Here's why:
The audience is in a discovery mindset. People browsing Instagram - especially the Explore tab and Reels - are actively looking for things they haven't seen before. This is a favourable context for art.
Visual-first format. Instagram was built around images and video. High-quality artwork gets treated well by the algorithm and feels native to the platform.
Younger, more engaged buyers. Instagram skews younger than Facebook, and the art print buyer demographic (25–45 broadly) is well-represented on the platform. Engagement rates tend to be higher.
Higher CPM, but stronger CTR. In our experience managing Artvertise clients' campaigns, Instagram placements typically run at higher CPMs (you pay more per 1,000 impressions), but click-through rates are also meaningfully higher. The net result - cost per click and cost per purchase - is often comparable to Facebook, and sometimes better for visual products.
Reels is currently cheap. Instagram Reels placements are running at lower CPMs than Feed in many markets. If you have short-form video content, Reels can deliver strong reach at lower cost. This won't last forever - CPMs tend to increase as more advertisers compete for a placement.
Facebook Performance for Art Stores
Facebook's role in a Meta ads strategy is different from Instagram's, but it's not irrelevant.
Lower CPM across most placements. Facebook Feed and Marketplace typically have lower CPMs than Instagram, which means more impressions per dollar. If your creative works on Facebook (not all art creative does), you can reach a wider audience for the same budget.
Stronger retargeting performance on desktop. Facebook is more heavily desktop-skewed than Instagram. Desktop users have higher average order values in many categories and tend to complete checkout more reliably than mobile-only visitors. For retargeting campaigns - where you're reaching warm audiences who need one more touchpoint to purchase - Facebook can perform well.
Older demographic. The average Facebook user is older than the average Instagram user. Depending on your art style and buyer profile, this can work in your favour or against you. Artists whose buyers skew 45+ often see strong Facebook performance. Artists whose buyers skew 25–35 typically see more of their conversions coming from Instagram.
Marketplace placement is underused. Facebook Marketplace is where people are already in a buying mindset. For print stores, Marketplace placement can surprise you with efficient CPA, particularly for lower-priced prints.
The Reels Opportunity
Instagram and Facebook Reels are the fastest-growing placements in Meta's inventory. More eyeballs, growing advertiser competition but still not saturated, and consistently lower CPMs than Feed placements in most markets as of early 2026.
For artist stores, Reels ads work best when the content doesn't feel like an ad. A 15–30 second video of a print being framed, a time-lapse of a painting being created, or a simple "here's what I've been working on" walk-through typically performs better than a polished promotional video.
The production bar for Reels is low - shot on a phone, minimal editing, genuine content. This is good news for independent artists who don't have a studio production budget.
Advantage+ Placements vs Manual: When to Use Each
Advantage+ Placements (automatic): Use this for prospecting campaigns. Meta has better data than you do about where each specific person is most likely to engage and convert. Automatic placements let the algorithm find the right placement for each individual impression.
For cold audience campaigns where you're trying to reach new buyers, Advantage+ placements consistently outperform manual placement selection in Artvertise's client accounts.
Manual placements: Use this for retargeting campaigns. When you're targeting warm audiences - people who've visited your site or engaged with your Instagram - you have more context about where those people came from and what kind of content they've responded to.
Artvertise's default retargeting setup: Instagram Feed + Instagram Stories. This combination performs consistently for warm art audiences. We occasionally add Facebook Feed for older demographic segments.
How to Read Placement Performance in Breakdown View
Once your campaigns have enough data, you can see how each placement is performing.
In Ads Manager, with your campaign or ad set selected, click the "Breakdowns" dropdown and select "By Delivery" then "Placement."
Your data table will break out by placement, showing spend, impressions, clicks, purchases, ROAS, and CPA for each one.
Look specifically at:
Cost per purchase by placement: Which placement is producing the cheapest conversions?
Purchase ROAS by placement: Which placement is driving the most revenue per dollar?
Spend allocation: Is Meta giving most of the budget to one placement? That's a signal it's found where your audience converts best.
Common finding for art stores: Instagram Feed and Reels take the majority of spend in Advantage+ campaigns, with Facebook Feed getting some budget for retargeting. Audience Network often has high impressions but low conversion rates - Artvertise typically excludes Audience Network from retargeting campaigns specifically.
Artvertise's Default Placement Strategy
For new campaigns:
- Prospecting: Advantage+ placements. Let Meta find the right placement per impression.
- Retargeting: Manual placements. Instagram Feed + Stories as primary. Add Facebook Feed if demographic skews 35+.
- Reels creative: If you have short-form video, create a separate ad in your ad set specifically formatted for Reels (9:16 ratio, no text near edges). Don't force landscape or square video into Reels.
For product launches to warm audiences, we'll often run Instagram-only placements for the first 48–72 hours where your most engaged followers are most likely to see the launch content before it goes broader.
The Facebook vs Instagram debate is largely a false choice. For most artist stores, the right answer is "let Meta decide for prospecting, and use Instagram placements for retargeting" - which is simpler and more effective than manually trying to split budget between the two.
If you'd like Artvertise to look at your placement data and tell you where your specific audience is converting, we offer a free audit for independent artist stores.
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