As marketing strategies are evolving day by day, marketing experts are using all sides of social media for advertisements. As a marketer, you may know the value of social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Even though Facebook is considered the leading platform, Instagram is not ignorable. The Statista report says Instagram has crossed 800 million active users. Through this report, it is evident that people are increasing their interest in Instagram.
So, what do you think? Will advertising on Instagram be effective? Through this blog piece, you will get to know more about Instagram advertising and how to master it.
Listed below is the content to be seen in the article, let’s dive in, shall we?
- What Is Instagram Advertising?
- Why Is Instagram Advertising Beneficial?
- What Are the Methods of Advertising on Instagram?
- How to Choose the Best Ad Type for Instagram?
What Is Instagram Advertising?
You may have seen many feeds or posts based on products or services while scrolling through Instagram. Even though these posts look normal, there will be some buttons that are different from normal posts. Instagram advertising is a method of promoting content through Instagram to get more reach. It also includes paying for sponsored content posts.
Instagram advertising has a great role in branding and improving leads. According to the same report from Statista, 60% of people discover new products through Instagram.
Why Is Instagram Advertising Beneficial?
Instagram is the best place to share your thoughts, photos, and videos and connect them with people across the world. Here are some of the benefits of Instagram advertising.
Targeting Options
Instagram is the best social media platform with great targeting options. It helps in understanding the behavioral patterns of the users. As Instagram is connected with Facebook, its features match Facebook’s abilities. It allows you to target people across the world or based on specific locations.
Brand Awareness
Through various reports, it’s proved that Instagram has 200 million users who visit at least one business profile daily. Instagram has a significant role in attracting users to brands and products or services. You can easily work on brand building through captivating and visually appealing ads. These high-quality ads on Instagram help brands to improve their reach and visibility.
As I said before, Instagram is connected to Facebook. But it has an additional feature like organic functionality that is not on Facebook. These features allow you to achieve actions without directly paying for ads. These features in Instagram help people to recognize the brands and build a relationship between them.
Easy to Create
Are you already using Facebook for business through paid or organic growth? If yes, then it will be easy for you to expand your advertising and create more on Instagram. Facebook has a lot of features supporting a business like targeting options, optimizing functions, etc. You just have to connect your Instagram account with Facebook.
It is easy to place ads through feeds, stories, and posts on Instagram. Along with these, it also allows for gathering data from the user’s actions. The web traffic you get can be easily retargeted and monitored through other platforms like Facebook and Google.
Great Engagement
No matter which media platform, most marketers expect to have maximum engagement in their ads. Being an active space like Facebook, Instagram is great for promoting brands and other products. Along with these, it can also build trust between customers and the company through engagements.
To boost the reach and improve engagement, you can leverage user-generated content. For example, you can add hashtags, ask questions, or develop partnership programs. These can improve the reach and visibility of the websites, ad posts, etc.
Easy to Measure
Above all, another highlight of Instagram is it is easily trackable. It also provides the same tracking features as Facebook. These will allow you to measure the leads and sales easily. Instagram helps you in analyzing the ROI through clicks, leads, and conversions.
It will help you in checking the effectiveness of your ads and planning for future campaigns.
What Are the Methods of Advertising on Instagram?
After considering and understanding all the above-mentioned factors, you should learn about the two advertising methods on Instagram.
First method: Creating and promoting posts through apps.
As you know, creating posts on Instagram can be done easily. Similarly, you can advertise by promoting one of the existing posts. You may be having some of the posts with great reach and engagement. Expand and increase its reach and visibility by showing it to new people.
- This can be done easily by clicking on ‘Promote Post’ to the post you want.
- Then, you have to choose the preferred audience, destination, budget, and duration.
- After these, you have to ‘Create promotion’.
Second method: Instagram ads through Facebook ads manager
You may feel it is a longer step than promoting it in apps. But it is very effective and helps in promoting brands and products.
Here are the steps to promote ads through the Facebook ads manager.
Select your objective
- Move to the ads manager and click on Create.
- Then you have to choose the campaign objectives from options like traffic, brand awareness, lead generation, and many more.
- After choosing the specific objectives, give a name to your campaign.
- Then switch on the campaign budget optimization.
Budget and schedule
There are two options to fix the budget, such as:
- Daily budget
- Lifetime budget
You can select your ads to run constantly through ad scheduling. Through these options, you will get to know the daily results of ads and audience definition. It will help you understand the reach of a particular budget.
Identify your audience
After these, you have to target and identify the specific audience. Select either create a new audience or use a saved audience.
You might be wondering about the difference between the saved and new audience. A saved audience is the group of audience that you already targeted. It may also include visitors who visited your website in the past through previous campaigns. Whereas the new audience means the audience that needs to be targeted and considered for expanding business.
If you already have a custom or past audience, you can use a saved audience. If you don’t have any past audience, you can simply create a new audience. This will help you in finding the right audience based on demographics, interests, etc.
Selecting ad placements
This section is all about deciding where your ads should appear among the two options.
- Automatic Placements – ads will be shown based on where they can perform best. The system will identify the placement of your ad based on its algorithm.
- Manual Placements – Here, you have to choose where your ads should appear. The ads manager will show the technical requirements during previewing the placements.
Creating Ads
The steps to create ads are as follows:
- Choose your Facebook page and the Instagram account associated with it.
- Select the ad format you prefer.
- Go to the Ads Creative to fill in some important factors.
- Select the images or video clips.
- Insert your ad copy.
- Choose a payment option.
- Review the ad and click to Confirm.
- Choose the button for call-to-action and add a website URL to know who clicks your ad.
After creating your ad, it is necessary to track and monitor it. To track its performance, you should select Facebook Pixel in the tracking section. It can help you track the insight of the ad and people’s interactions. When you are ready and fixed all these options, you can confirm to launch the ad.
How to Choose the Best Ad Type for Instagram?
Even though Instagram is great with lots of options, sometimes it may confuse you in choosing the ad type. Some of examples of these ad types are:
- Collection ads– These are used to display products from the catalog that mostly suits eCommerce brands.
- Explore ads– These ads mostly appear on the explore tab of Instagram through which people get to know a lot of content.
- Shopping ads– These ads are used to drive the users directly to the product’s description page.
- Image Ads– These are posts with a single image with visually appealing content and message.
- Stories Ads– These are full-screen images or videos which always have a higher engagement.
Learn more ad types on Instagram through this blog: How to Advertise on Instagram
So, to choose the right type of ad for Instagram, you have to focus on some factors.
Fixed Goal
What do you expect from the Instagram ads? This is the first question that you have to answer. You should be aware of the goal and objectives behind generating ads. Some of the significant goals can be lead generation, brand awareness, reach, sales growth, etc.
If you have a fixed goal, it will help you in selecting the ad format suitable for it along with adding a proper call to action. Through this, it can bring great outcomes.
Finding the Right Audience
Finding an audience will be mostly based on the products and services you provide. You have to consider the audience’s behavior or habits. For example, if your target audience mostly prefers stories rather than posts, then you have to focus on creating IG stories.
This data will help you in creating better ads for Instagram.
Organic Performance
There is a need for you to check which ad performs best organically. There might be many similarities between the organic followers and the audience you target. So, by monitoring its organic performance, you will get to know which ad works best or organic search and ad targeting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Instagram Advertising Beneficial?
1. Targeting Options
2. Brand Awareness
3. Easy to Create
4. Great Engagement
5. Easy to Measure
Name the Best Ad Type for Instagram?
1. Collection ads
2. Explore ads
3. Shopping ads
4. Image Ads
5. Stories ads
What are the steps to create ads?
The steps to create ads are as follows:
1. Choose your Facebook page and the Instagram account associated with it.
2. Select the ad format you prefer.
3. Go to the Ads Creative to fill in some important factors.
4. Select the images or video clips.
5. Insert your ad copy.
6. Choose a payment option.
7. Review the ad and click to Confirm.
8. Choose the button for call-to-action and add a website URL to know who clicks your ad.
Wrapping Up
Along with being trending, Instagram ads are very useful in achieving maximum reach and growing sales. It is also a cost-effective method to connect and target a wide range of people across the world.
Are you interested in Instagram advertising? Have you tried it before? Share your experience with Instagram advertising in the comments.
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