If you are a small business or a brand and have posted something on any of the social media platforms, you must know the feeling of having carefully crafted content go unnoticed.
That’s where ads come in to give you a little boost.
Outdoing others on social media platforms is not an easy task. Having said that, it is also not something that cannot be achieved, you just need to handle it tactfully.
Luckily, when done right, Instagram ads can be the answer to boosting your social media results without breaking the bank.
In this article, we’ll help you understand how to properly use Instagram ads to the benefit of your brand and budget.
Instagram ads that work
How to place ads on Instagram through Facebook?
What Instagram ads placement options do you have?
How to place and run Instagram ads in Stories?
How much do Instagram ads cost?
What Instagram ad creative types to use?
- Instagram Image ads
- Instagram Video ads
- Instagram Carousel ads
- Instagram Collection ads
- Instagram Slideshow Ads
- Instagram Story ads
How to improve Instagram ads CTR (click-through rate)?
Why create Instagram ads?
For starters, as of 2020, there are over two billion monthly Instagram users worldwide, so the opportunities to expand your audience through ads are unlimited.
While organic content helps your Instagram audience stay connected to your brand, paid ads push your content beyond your regular audience, and draw in new leads.
Simply put, Instagram ads campaigns effectively help you create brand awareness and increase conversions while promoting conversations throughout the entire process.
After all, conversions are the main campaign objectives for most ads (26.94% of them), and the average click-through rate for an Instagram ad is 0.82%, a Socialinsider Facebook ads study shows.
Moreover, about 53% of Americans are more loyal to the brands they follow, according to Convince and Convert.
How to place ads on Instagram through Facebook?
To get a better understanding of how to create the correct Instagram ads, you will need to optimize every step of this process.
Facebook has a lot of user data (age, interest, location, gender, etc), which is very effective in targeting the audience with ads of their interest.
What’s more, you can also use email segmentation and database to create targeted ads with Audience Network.
Putting together all of that data makes for a well-rounded, strategically sound effort of sending your messages to the correct audience.
With that in mind, here is a walkthrough of the process.
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Step by step Instagram ad placement
Here are the main things you need to consider before creating your Instagram ads, as well as the steps you need to take in your Ads Manager.
A. Have your goals defined
The key is to focus on the goal of your Instagram ads through Facebook. In all probability, you want to build or grow the brand awareness or bulk up the follower count.
You need to ask yourself what is the output you want: is it sales, downloads, promotion, or more traffic to your website?
This is necessary to determine the target audience for your Instagram ads placement and positioning.
B. Set your objective
You need to choose the objective of your advertisement according to your goals.
There are multiple options in the Ads Manager. Some examples include brand awareness, traffic to your webpage, reach, video views, messages, engagement, app installs, etc.
This will determine your Instagram ads campaign format as well as the bidding options for it.
It is always recommended that your goal should reflect in your objective, to ensure that your budget is going toward accomplishing your KPI.
C. Choose your audience
Targeting the correct audience is the key to running a successful Instagram ads campaign by increasing views and CTRs, while still keeping your costs on the low side.
You can customize your requirement basis the age, location, gender, language. A key feature is that you can choose the audience basis their interest, connections they have, or even based on their past behavior.
D. Select the ad type or format
Choosing the right ad can be consider the make or break moment of your campaign. So select wisely, there are multiple options to choose from.
For example, share ads and video ads are the most common and have the highest ad spend, as proven by our ads study.
Keep reading to find the Instagram ads options that you can choose from, explained later in this article.
E. Select the appropriate images or video
Focus on the product you want to promote, use high-quality visuals of your product, or create an eye-catching context for your service.
High-quality images to grab the attention of your audience, having high click-through rates (4.66%) while videos add more personality, despite not being the best option is clicks are your goal.
F. Finally, place your Instagram ads
There is a placement section, here you can decide where you want the ad to appear on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Audience Network.
But there are also specific placements within Instagram that you can choose from.
What Instagram ads placement options do you have?
You can also choose to create Instagram sponsored ads, also known as a promoted post.
An Instagram promoted post is an organic post that is an on-platform post and you need to pay or "sponsor" it. What you are doing is creating an option to engage more users, using the same ad.
They look exactly like the other Instagram advertising. The post will appear on the Instagram page but adding an URL using the "action button" will lead the crowd to your desired destination.
While feed ads are pretty self-explanatory, things get interesting with story ads and ads in explore.
Facebook advises to use Automatic Placements for your ads to maximize your ad's delivery and budget by optimizing the placement of your ads across our platform, but you might still want to line up these placements according to your needs.
For instance, if you’d like to reach new audiences, ads in explore will expose your message to new people outside your own audience. These are users who are in a discovery mindset, searching through the explore section of the app.
On the other hand, Story ads will complement your feed and have the ability to target your ads by reach, video views, traffic, conversions, app installs, and brand awareness.
How to place and run Instagram ads in Stories?
Instagram ads in stories are created with the help of Ads Manager, following these steps:
- Select the option "create"
- Select the objective that is in sync with your goal, as discussed above
- Fill in the campaign details, and choose the placement level, you can opt for "automatic" or "manual" placements. If you decide to go for manual placement, click on the box that says stories, this is placed under Instagram
- Set your ad's budget and the ad schedule
- Choose the image option i.e. single image, single video, or carousel
- Add the image or video of your choice and fill up the other details
- Finish by selecting confirm
Review your add by clicking "preview", and then submit it. It will be reviewed and released.
How much do Instagram ads cost?
Truth be told, there is no straight answer to that, as there are multiple factors that trigger the cost, such as targeting, placement of the ad, format of the ad, and the time when the ad is posted.
That being said, an overall average of Instagram ads cost per click is around 0.98 dollars and the cost per mile is about 5.33 dollars in 2020.
The better way to look at it is for you to decide upon the amount you wish to spend. You can always do a little advertising on Instagram with any budget.
It can range from 5 dollars per week to 50,000 dollars per week.
You can fully control your advertising cost by setting up a limit to the campaign spending or the bid strategy.
What Instagram ad creative types to use?
When optimizing your Instagram ads, you can also get creative and find the best format for the message you’re trying to convey. Here are the most popular options.
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Instagram Image ads
The classic ad includes a single high-resolution image, with two lines of text to display, and a regular call to action.
This is a great format if your objectives include traffic, reach, conversions or lead generation, brand awareness, or even catalog sales.
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Instagram Video ads
Same as with images, these ads are best used when you want to engage your users in installing apps, awareness of your brand, getting conversions, generating leads, improving your reach, or traffic.
The trick is that videos tend to stand out and make the message more personal, so viewers might be more inclined to notice video ads.
You’ll also get the option to include various action buttons like install now, learn more, etc.
Remember to keep your videos short, maybe a minute long, and ensure the branding in the starting seconds of the video.
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Instagram Carousel ads
These ads help you with all the similar features stated above and provide you an option that can promote catalog sales.
Using this creative feature you can allow users to swipe through multiple images and videos, with action buttons that will direct them to your application or website. Think of it as an all-in-one ad.
Good to use when you have multiple products to offer or a story that you want to share in parts.
Instagram Collection ads
Instagram Slideshow AdsSimilar to video ads, slideshow ads contain a series of images that run as a slideshow - an automatic carousel if you’d like - that showcase a series of products.
They appear as videos in users’ feeds and can include text and audio.
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Instagram Story ads
Stories are undeniable one of the most popular features on Instagram, so it comes as no surprise that they’re also a popular option for ads.
Brands can use images or videos in Stories, and can easily configure them from Ads Manager.
Story ads serve as a boost of brand awareness, reach, views, conversions, app installs, lead generation, or traffic.
Unlike regular stories, stories ads can run for as long as you wish and can be optimized to match the business objective that matters to you.
How to improve Instagram ads CTR (click-through rate)?
Click-through rates of any social media ads posted on the Facebook network - which includes Instagram - are highly dependent on the visuals and format that you choose.
The best possible way to improve CTR is by posting multiple status ads. Apart from choosing a visual creative option, you also have the option of creating status ads, which allow for more text, but no call-to-action button, except for sending a message within Facebook.
Statistics state that CTR for status ads is 6.65% followed by photos which are at about 4.66%.
Here are some other quick tips to improve your CTRs:
- Post status ads when you have maximum active users followed by photo ads.
- Generate urgency using countdown timers.
- Use ad extensions - currently, review extensions are in trend.
- Use symbols that grab attention like "%off" or "registered symbol".
- Use the keyword you have bid on in your URL.
- Get your users to click the "call-to-action" button using catchy phrases or prominent names.
- Offer people solutions to their needs - your ads should focus on helping more than selling.
Final thoughts
We hope we have given you enough insights about creating Instagram ad campaigns and promoting them.
Having said all that it is of utmost importance that you understand your audience and have made a connection with them. Your actions on Instagram should make you look like a thought leader, while still addressing people as humanly as possible.
And finally, pay attention to analytics, to understand what your audience responds to. Your brand is there to serve them, after all, and ads are no exception.
