Why Do My Ads On Facebook Get More Attention When Posted By Someone Else?

I do a lot of advertising for my cake business on social media, primarily Facebook. It has by far been the most successful form of advertising for me since I can show pictures of my work.

I have recently noticed something that puzzles me. When companies form some kind of common bond and advertise for each other, those ads get so much more interest than when advertised by the original company. Even when they target the same audience, same age range etc.

I'll give you some examples. I have a friend who runs a photography studio and we do a lot of trading, I'll make a cake for her son's birthday in exchange for an hour photo session for my kids. We also advertise for each other on our pages. When she advertises a picture of one of my cakes, it gets hundreds of likes and comments. I can run the same ad, targeting the same audience and it will perform about half as well. Again, I can advertise one of her photo shoots on my page and get the same results.

Here's another example. Me and my husband are selling our home and we have it listed through a real estate agency. As well as using her company's website, my agent has a Facebook group set up just for her own listings. She ran a paid ad, highlighting the features of our home. It received several likes and comments over the course of 4 days, I was pleased with the result. Since interest has since wained, I decided to share the listing on my cake page, also using a paid ad. It has only been an hour and it already has more shares than her original. Wow! We are targeting the same location, age range, and interests!

Any thoughts on why this is?