Introduction to Instagram Ads

You have probably seen this before - random posts that pop up while you are scrolling through Instagram, watching your friends’ stories or checking out the Explore page. These posts are Instagram ads that businesses or organizations pay to reach a specific target group. They can come in the form of images, videos, or carousels (multiple images), depending on the type of content it aims to achieve. A “Sponsored” label often accompanies these posts and they feature phrases like “Learn More”, “Go to Profile” or “Shop Now”. This label depends on the aim of the campaign’s objective, i.e whether the advertiser wants to get website traffic, increase their followers or get people to make a purchase. Instagram Ads have been shown to reach about 96.6% of Instagram’s active user base monthly, which is a total of 2 billion people.

In this guide, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about Instagram Ads, including how to run, create and promote on Instagram. Keep reading!

Why Are Instagram Ads Important?

As a small business owner, Instagram advertisements are important because they can help you get leads and increase website traffic because of your visually appealing and engaging content. These ads help you users directly purchase products without leaving the platform. By adding your website link and using a call-to-action phrase such as “Shop Now”, users can click on the phrase and be directed to your website, where they can find out more about your products. Apart from getting leads and increasing traffic, you also get the chance to boost your sales. 81% of Instagram users use the platform to research products and services. This has recently made shopping more prominent on the platform as users tap on shopping posts every month.

How To Create An Instagram Business Account

1. Create a new account or login into your personal account.

2. Switch from a personal account to a business account. Go to your profile and click the hamburger lines in the top right corner.

3. Then click Settings

4. Then select Account

5. Then click Switch to Professional Account

6. Choose what best describes your business

7. You’ll be asked to choose whether it’s a creator or business account. Note that Creator accounts are for content creators, influencers, or public figures. Since you are a business owner, a business account is the right option.

8. You have to complete your profile. Here, you have to choose a profile photo which, of course, should represent your business. Then, add your bio and include other information about your company info.

You can now start posting content on your business account! 

How To Create Instagram Ads

There are two ways you can create Instagram ads. The first way is by boosting an existing post and the second way is by creating a new ad using the Meta Ad Manager. We’ll go through both methods below.

1. Boosting an existing post: If you have a post that's getting good engagement, boosting it is a great way to increase its success and make it visible to people who don't know about your business. To do this, you need an Instagram business account and a Facebook Business Page connected to your Instagram account. Follow the steps above if you've not switched to a business account. After this, click on the blue button that reads “Boost post” on the post you want to create into an ad. Then, you’ll be asked to choose your goal and you’ll be given three options. These are more profile visits, more website visits, or more messages (this includes more WhatsApp messages if your WhatsApp number is included). The next thing is for you to define your audience. It’s either you let Instagram determine your audience (using your follower data) or, you create your audience by selecting your targeting options. You can also choose to run the boosted post on Facebook if you want. Now choose your daily budget and the duration of time you want the ad to run. You choose a particular number of days or let it run until you pause it yourself. Finally, review your ad and click “Boost post” when you’re ready.

2. Creating an Instagram ad using the Meta Ad Manager: Even though it requires more work, using Meta Ads Manager to create an ad will give you the best out of Instagram’s marketing.

   To get started, go to Meta Ads Manager and select the green button that reads “Create”. The next thing is to choose an objective. These objectives include Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App promotion, and Sales. It’s important to choose the objective that matches your marketing goals. After that, select Continue. The next step is to name your campaign. It's important to give it a specific name so you can keep track of your various campaigns. Then select Next. The next thing is to choose your budget and schedule. You can either choose the daily budget, where there’s a maximum daily spend OR the lifetime budget, where you can set a maximum spend for your campaign, with a set end date. Under Ad Scheduling, the most common is to run ads continuously, or only at certain times of day. When you adjust these options, you’ll see the Audience Definition and Estimated Daily Results modules which will give you an idea of your budget’s expected reach. Pro tip: Try to make your ad set fall in the middle of the green range. The next step is to identify your audience. Here, you can either use your previously saved audience or create a new audience from scratch. Saved Audiences are past audiences from your previous campaigns that did well. Your new audience is based on location, demographics, gender and interests. After selecting your audience, select your Instagram ad placements in the Placements section, and you can decide where your ads will appear. You have two options. The first one is the Advantage+ Placements, where your audience will see your ads where they perform best. The second one is the Manual Placements. Here, you choose where your ad will appear. If you’re a newbie to Instagram ads, it’s best to go for Advantage+ placements. Please note that if you want to limit your ads to show only on Instagram, you can do that using Manual Placements. Here, the Ads Manager will display the technical requirements for each one. You can now create a new Instagram ad finally. Choose your New [goal] Ad from the left-hand menu. You’ll see a screen where you can customize your new Instagram ad. You get to edit your ad name and add creative elements like images, videos, headlines, and CTAs. In addition, you can add any copy, other related links, and tracking parameters. If you want to track conversions from your ad, you have to select the Facebook Pixel in the Tracking section. After connecting to your website or app, your Facebook pixel will show you insights about your audience and how they interact with your business after viewing your ad. Lastly, click Publish. Remember to check your Instagram Analytics regularly to see how your ads perform.

Instagram Analytics - How To Measure Success Of Your Instagram Ads

As a small business owner using Instagram ads, you have to be able to measure the success of your Instagram ads. This is known as Instagram analytics. These are performance metrics that tell you how your Instagram content is doing and reactions to your ads. Below, we will delve more into Instagram analytics and how you can measure it.  To view analytics on Instagram, you need an Instagram business account. Please scroll up to switch your accounts if you've not done so yet. One reason Instagram analytics is very important is that you get to test different types of content and see what gets the most attention. This helps you create an Instagram content strategy that your audience can relate to. Also, it can help you measure growth to see if you’re achieving your KPIs for your business.

How to measure the success of your Instagram ads:

1. Impressions: This metric tells you how many times the content you posted has been viewed. This is a good yardstick because having a lot of impressions can mean that your content appeals to your audience, and people want to come back to it. However, too many impressions can lead to ad fatigue and reduce conversions.

2. Comments received: This tells you how engaging your content is. Unlike likes, which are easy to give without having a second thought, comments are usually well thought out. It's an indication that your content had an impact on your audience, whether positive or negative, for the individual to take the extra step to leave feedback. With positive comments, you have a chance to build community and create a loyal fanbase.

3. Follower growth: This shows you whether your followers are steadily increasing or decreasing. You have to note if this is happening due to something like a huge promotion by another brand or paid ads. Taking note of this will help you figure out what is and isn’t working in your Instagram marketing strategy. Your followers influence the engagement of your content. That’s why it’s important that you organically grow your audience.

4. Reach: This tells you how many people are seeing your content. You might be confused by reach and impressions. Simply put, your Instagram reach shows actual views of your content while impressions mean it was displayed but did not generate a click or other form of engagement.

5. Engagements per follower: This metric shows engagement with your content relative to the number of your followers. While you might be tempted to compare the performance of your content with big companies, you shouldn’t because your audience is not the same.

Best Practices For Instagram Ads

To get the highest ROI with Instagram ads, you have to follow some practices to create great Instagram ads. Below are some best practices for Instagram ads:

1. Infuse Your Ad with Personality: Whether it’s an emotional video, a funny one, or just an intriguing image showing off your brand, if your Instagram post doesn’t feel humanized then you will not reach your engagement potential. On Instagram, people want to be entertained, amused, or amazed. Your audience can either be on the bus to work or trying to unwind after a long day, which means no one is looking for a boring corporate advertisement. This is why your ads have to appeal to their emotions.

2. Your Ad Has to Be Contextually Relevant: What functions well on one social media platform might not function well on another. For instance, because the audience on LinkedIn and Twitter tends to be of different mindsets, your company probably wouldn't advertise the same material through both platforms. In the same way, Instagram. Consider yourself your target customer, and pay attention to where they are.

3. Use Hashtags:.You have to get more creative and do some user research to see which hashtags are more likely to be searched for by your audience. Also, don’t go overboard with hashtags. This can make your post look a bit unappealing and desperate. 9 hashtags is the ideal number for the highest post engagement. Don’t forget that longer hashtags often perform better.

4. Run a Contest: Contests are one of the most efficient methods to increase engagement for your ads. People love freebies! What better approach to ignite interest in your brand?

5. Write Actionable Captions: A Call-To-Action typically has text that is clear, simple, and actionable so that potential clients may follow it to meet their needs. It should seize the interest of your audience and compel them to act right away. Write captions with a call to action (CTA) that are in line with the goals of your advertising campaign.

Types of Instagram Ads

There are six ad formats you get to choose from on Instagram. Two of those are for Instagram stories, which appear at the top of the feed like Snapchat. The other four are formats designed for the Instagram feed, which are more commonly used by advertisers. In the subsequent paragraphs, we’ll look at these ads and the sizes/resolutions that are recommended.

1. Image Feed Ads: This is the most standard ad format, and often what you see when you scroll through your feed. They are usually single images that will appear as your audience is scrolling through their feed. One good thing about these ads is that they don’t feel like ads, because they fit in your feed without any noticeable difference. Here are the rules for image ads: - File type: jpg or png - Maximum file size: 30MB - Minimum Image Width: 600 pixels - Image Ratio: 4:5 minimum, 16:9 maximum

2. Image Story Ads: Same concept as Image Feed Ads, but these are for your Instagram stories. Here are guidelines for image story ads: - Image Ratio: 9:16 recommended - File type: jpg or png - Minimum Image Width: 600 pixels

3. Video Feed Ads: There’s no doubt that your ads are brought to life with videos. If you take the time to make a quality video, then you will be doing your brand a favour by promoting it through your Instagram feed. While most video files are supported by Instagram, they recommend using progressive scan, H.264 compression, stereo AAC audio compression at 128 kbps, fixed frame rate, and square pixels. It should last for 60 maximum. Here are guidelines for the size and resolution: - Video Resolution: 1080 x 1080 pixels (at least) - Maximum file size: 4GB - Video Ratio: 4:5 minimum,16:9 maximum

4. Video Story Ads: This is another great way to run video ads because stories are where Instagram users often expect to see videos, so the “selling” part of advertising doesn’t feel as forced. The video specs for video story ads are the same as above, but the duration should be 15 seconds at most. Here are the guidelines for size and resolution: - Video Resolution: 1080 x 1920 pixels (at least) - Maximum file size: 4GB - Video Ratio: 9:16 maximum

5. Carousel Feed Ads: This format shows your audience a series of scrollable images instead of just one single image. It’s great for visual brands, like those in the fashion industry, food industry, or real estate. Apart from these visual brands, they can also work to humanize your brand or show off your culture by showing the people behind your startup or finance company. This format allows you to choose from up to 10 images within a single ad and you can also add videos to the carousel. Here are the guidelines for size and resolution: - File type: jpg or png - Maximum file size: 30MB - Minimum Image Width: 600 pixels - Image Ratio: 4:5 minimum, 16:9 maximum

Common Errors With Instagram Ads

The barrier of entry for Instagram ads is low and Instagram ads are easy to create. This can lead to unnecessary mistakes that could end up costing you money, harm your brand, and cause revenue losses. Below are some of the common errors to avoid while running Instagram ads:

1. Lacking goals: Many business owners make the mistake of creating ads with opaque objectives. Setting goals such as “increase my revenue” or “improve my business” are nice but aren't specific. Without specific goals, your ads might be underperforming. The solution is to set more specific goals because that way, your ads are more effective. Examples of these goals include: Increasing traffic to your website, driving more engagement with your posts, building brand awareness on the platform, and increasing sales or app downloads.

2. Boring visuals: On Instagram, it’s easy to get an audience by sharing visually appealing and engaging posts. These posts can either be high-quality photos, graphics, and videos. That being said, dull visuals can negatively affect your audience and brand awareness. The goal is to persuade your audience to interact with your brand.

3. Your ad is too long or too short: Your ad has to be short and interesting. If your ad is too long or too short, your audience will end up unappeased or bored and won't interact with your ad. You have to make sure your ad is short enough so they can watch it to the end and long enough so they get the message of the ad. Although it may be tempting to include everything about your product or service in your ad, if ads don't stand out within 30 seconds, no one will be interested in seeing them.

4. Reaching the wrong audience: This mistake is made by every brand, even famous brands. Ad teams are bent on creating amazing ads that they don't consider the target market. If you target the wrong people, your content is worthless, and you’re wasting resources. To avoid this, you have to learn how Instagram’s targeting system works and modify your content strategy accordingly. If you do this effectively, you will reach your desired demographics, interests, age, location, and preferences.

5. Creating confusing content: With Instagram ads, there's no doubt you'll want to be creative and try something new. However, if your content ends up confusing your audience, you’re going to lose them. To remove confusion, create clear and concise content. To ensure that your ads are on track, draft the title, copy, and image before you begin constructing the actual ad. Additionally, you must ensure that your images reflect the values that your brand upholds. Also, don't forget to use hashtags!

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Instagram ads can boost your business by expanding your reach beyond your followers. With the various types of photo and video formats, you get to choose the appropriate format and experiment with different target audiences. If you find your customers are always on Instagram, Instagram ads can be your best bet at reaching them.

• Social Media
• Marketing
• Instagram