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How many promotions can you have on instagram


How do Instagram Promotions Work? (Explanation + Steps to Create Yours)

How do Instagram promotions work? And why would you use them instead of ads? Good questions. 

In this article, we’ll explore answers to these and other equally important topics related to Instagram promotions. We’ll also show you how to create your very own promotion. 

How do Instagram Promotions Work? (+ Steps to Create Yours):

  • Monetising Instagram
  • How do Instagram Promotions Work?
  • What do Promotions Look Like?
  • Where do Promotions Appear?
  • Why Your Promotions Have a Good Chance of Success
  • Are Instagram Promoted Posts, Stories and Highlights More Expensive or Cheaper Than Ads?
  • How to Create an Instagram Promotion
  • Accessing Promotion Insights

Monetising Instagram

Back in 2009, monetizing Instagram wasn’t a clear path for the photo app. In fact, while the idea was definitely on the table, the brand had to evolve into something with a stronger value proposition and product.  

Today, Instagram’s caught up to the rest. 80 per cent of accounts follow a business on Instagram. This means more people are interacting with brand pages and this level of engagement is just what Instagram needed to be able to broaden it’s advertising offerings. 

Source: statista.com

The photo-sharing app offers four advertising options in addition to promotion options. 

These include: 

Photos:

Image: Instagram

Video:

Image: Instagram

Carousel:

Image: Instagram

Ad in Instagram Story:

Image: Instagram

Collection Ads:

Image: Instagram

How do Instagram Promotions Work?

Instagram also offers promotion options. These are different from photo, video, carousel and story ads. Here’s what you have access to and how they work:

Promote a Post You've Shared 

Familiar with boosting a post on Facebook? Promoting a post on Instagram works the same way. If you have a picture or video that’s drummed up a fair amount of likes, comments and shares, you can promote it. 

This option is a great way for businesses to get extra awareness for content they publish. The extra awareness is reach that could help feed your marketing funnel.

Promote a Story From your Profile, Highlights, or Stories Archive

Also similar to boosting a Facebook post, you can promote stories. While limited to those taken with the Instagram camera or in a vertical format, the option is still very useful. 

Some creative elements (filters and stickers) are not accessible when promoting stories, however, this shouldn’t stop you from taking the opportunity to ‘capture authentic moments that speak to your business,’ as Instagram recommends.

Create a Promotion From the Promotions Button on Your Profile

If you’re looking for a quick and direct way of generating results, you can do so with a fresh new ad campaign. These can be created from your business profile. In the process, Instagram will recommend which posts they think will do well as advertisements. This option is best if you're unsure which post you'd like to promote.

So, to recap, the major difference between ads and promotions on Instagram is related to the way you use each option to engage your brand. 

Promotions are used to generate extra awareness and engagement from already successful posts and stories. Ads are used for unique campaigns and generally feature new content. 

What do Promotions Look Like?

While Instagram promotional posts, stories and highlights look similar to their original (organic) forms, they include additional elements. 

Post, stories and highlights all include the “Sponsored” label below the account posting the promotion. 

Image: Instagram

Image: Instagram

As promotions are intended to generate some result, they also come with calls to action. Here’s a list of the options available:

  • Learn More
  • Shop Now
  • Watch More
  • Contact Us
  • Book Now
  • Sign Up

Where do Promotions Appear?

Promotions appear as posts and can also appear in stories. If you’d like to isolate your promotion to appear in one place, you’ll need to create your promotion in Ads Manager. 

Why Your Promotions Have a Good Chance of Success

Algorithmic updates are generally not the easiest to track. In fact, while there are many digital and social marketing circles that constantly test content to generate the best possible results, much about the intricacies of how AI and machine learning influence ad placement, reach and overall campaign success is largely unknown.

There are, however, a couple of interesting ideas we think you should bear in mind when creating your promotions. 

Promotions are all About Reach

Whether testing to find the higher-converting ad or scaling to generate more of the results you’re after, all spend on paid media should be made to generate results. When it comes to what we know about promotions, Instagram recommends that you use “a post that your followers really enjoyed.”

This means using content that’s received its fair share of likes, comments, and shares.

Why would this matter and how can you use this information?

Ad Revenue and Engagement Fuel Instagram

Instagram, like all other social platforms, wants to create products that users constantly access. The more users using their app, the more ad revenue they are able to generate. 

Instagram also knows that when users show interest in a certain piece of content, there’s a higher probability of generating even more engagement from it if it’s shared with a larger audience. 

Your already successful posts, stories and highlights, therefore, stand a better chance of being more successful with a wider audience. While we’re not sure about the intricacies of their algorithms, this logic is pretty sound.

Are Instagram Promoted Posts, Stories and Highlights More Expensive or Cheaper Than Ads?

There isn’t any conclusive data that shows ads cost more or less than promotions. In a report, AdEspresso found that CPC values range between $.70 and $.80. This average was based on two demographics. Audiences between the ages of 25-34 years can cost as much as $1.23 per click, where a younger group, aged between 13-17 years, came in at $.47.

While we haven’t seen any data on promotion costs, they could be close to these figures considering that you’re still paying to reach the same audience.

How to Create an Instagram Promotion

Creating your promotion is relatively easy. In fact, most of the heavy lifting is done for you. For example, you don’t need to worry about which post to promote because you’ll have data that shows which post received the most engagement. 

Set up Your Instagram Business Profile

To get started (from your phone), open Instagram and visit your business profile. If you haven’t switched to a business page for you your company, you’ll need to make the change. 

Instagram business profiles are linked to Facebook pages. To switch to a business account, go to Settings > Switch to Business Profile.

Image: Instagram

Next, add custom buttons to your account. These can include: 

  • Contact Us
  • Message
  • Start Order
  • Book 
  • Reserve

Note: if you haven’t added a link to your website and a bio, nows a great opportunity to do so.

Create Your Promotion

With the setup of your business profile taken care of, it’s time to create your promotion post. 

Start by accessing the Promotions options via the Promotions button. Next, locate the post you’d like to promote. 

Image: Instagram

Note: if that if you’ve never posted any content to your business profile, you’ll first have to publish a post and then start the process over to promote it. Also, if you already have content posted, Instagram gives you the option of promoting posts directly from your business profile.  

Image: Instagram

Select Your Post

If you’re promoting a post from the Promotion button, you’ll then need to select a post to promote. 

Choose your post and it will open with the option to View Insights or click on the Promote button. Viewing insights will show you how well your organic post performed. This also helps you determine whether this is the post you should really be promoting. 

Image: Instagram

Set Your Goal

Next, select your goal. 

Do you want more profile visits, more website traffic or more promotional views?

Image: Instagram

Establish Your Target Audience

Having selected your goals, it’s time to select your target audience. Instagram makes the process of establishing your target audience easy.  Here are the three options available: 

  1. Automatic: Instagram will target people who are like your followers
  2. Local: target people in a specific location 
  3. Manual: select people, places or interest to target with your promotion

Image: Instagram

Set Your Budget and Promotion Duration

Setting your budget is just as easy as previous steps. Instagram provides a daily budget option along with a duration (in days). 

While setting both, you’re able to get a summary of the estimated profile visits and reach for your promotion. 

Image: Instagram

Review Your Promotion

The final step of the promotion creation process is a review. You’ll be able to see the following: 

  • The post you’ll be promoting
  • The destination all traffic will be sent to 
  • What your action button will say
  • How your audience will be targeted
  • Your budget and promotion duration 

Once reviewed, click on Create Promotion. 

Accessing Promotion Insights

It’s a good idea to keep tabs on how your promotion performs. This will help you determine whether to increase spend and duration or terminate the promotion altogether.

To view insights, open Instagram >  go to your business profile > select the post you'd like to view insights on > below the post's image, tap View Insights.

Clicking on View Insights will show you: 

  • How many people were shown your promotion (audience reach)
  • How many impressions your promotion received 
  • The number of clicks on your promotion
  • How much of your budget has been spent

Summary

Instagram Promotions are one of the simplest ways to engage and reach a larger audience. Promotions can be created from posts, stories and highlights. When created, they appear in audience feeds and stories. 

While there are creative limitations, using promotions is still valuable. They help brands connect with audiences using authentic creative content. Instagram’s budget and duration options make it easy to determine the spend and length of a promotion, and insights will give you information on how well your post is performing and how much money has been used.

Instagram Promotion — How Does It Work and Is It Worth It?

What are Promotions on Instagram?

What are Instagram Promotions?

If you’re familiar with Instagram ads, you’ve probably at least heard of Instagram Promotions. What’s the difference?

INSTAGRAM PROMOTION DEFINITION

What is Instagram Promotion?

Instagram Promotions are regular, non-advertisement posts that a user would want to convert to a sponsored post, with elevated reach. 

The ‘Sponsored’ tag may appear in the same place, but Instagram treats these posts differently with their algorithm. Every user will have a different motivation and so the algorithm will do its best to correspond to those nuances.

Both ads and promotions are there to increase engagement and visibility. But an ad is best for conversion as it offers way more preferences for targeting.

A promotion takes a high performing post and turns it up a notch. It takes it to the next level regarding engagement — ramping up likes, views, shares, and more.  

Instagram ads are great tools to convert potential customers to repeat ones. Sometimes, your goals may not demand a full blown ad campaign.  

If you’re more in need of brand awareness, launching an entire campaign may turn out to be a waste of time and money. This is where Instagram Promotion comes in. 

Use them to turn a previous post into a sponsored one to extend your reach. If your objective is high visibility, promotions are your answer. 

Keep in mind, the algorithms of most social media platforms work on a virality factor. So the faster your posts get off the ground, the higher the ranking the algorithm puts you in the feed.

And it makes sense. About 95 million photos and videos are posted on Instagram per day. The competition for visibility is insane. 

So, how do you run an Instagram Promotion?

Give Yourself an Instagram Boost

How do Instagram Promotions work?

The great thing about Instagram Promotions is that they can be done directly from your phone. With ads you need to be in the Ads Manager to create your campaign. 

This is the Facebook Ads Manager. Important — if you want to use Instagram ads and Instagram Promotions, you do need an Instagram business profile.

If you’re promoting you can do it from the app, and simply switch to a business profile in settings. But if you want to use Instagram ads, you’ll need to be connected to that Facebook business page.

For more on this and how to promote, watch the video below. 

The 411 on Instagram promotion

Instagram promotion uses algorithms in order to determine who is likely to click on your ads based on your campaign motivations. 

How Do Instagram Promotions Work?

Choose your motivation

There are three different "motivations" for using Instagram promotion — increasing profile visits, website traffic or simply sharing your post to more IG users. Each one is very specific in its aim so to maximize your Instagram promotion efforts, make sure you understand each one and how they work.

Profile Visits 

If you want to increase your presence on Instagram. Instagram uses particular algorithms and for this one they’ll promote to people who are likely to go to your page.

Website Traffic

Instagram uses this information to determine who to reach out to for you. If you want more traffic to your website for instance, they’ll use an algorithm to make sure the people that typically click 

Promotion Views

This will show your post to as many people as possible, but it doesn’t promise engagement on the ad. This one is more for brand awareness.

SetTing Up Your INSTAGRAM PROMOTION

Direct your traffic

This is part of the motivation, and similar to above, you’ll be asked where you would like the traffic generated from the promotion to end up. There are three options, and, again, make sure you understand the ideal results for each promotion. Traffic can be directed to go to your IG profile, website, or store front. 

Who Are You Trying To Reach?

Select your target demographic

There are millions upon millions of IG users around the world — and there's no way you'll be able to reach all of them. Just like the parameters we've already discussed, you have to be selective and strategic with who your target demographic is.

When you're setting up your Instagram promotion, you have another three options to choose your desired audience.

Automatic Audience

This option targets people who are similar to your followers based on demographics. It also targets those who have already engaged and have been interested in your organic content previously.

This option makes sense if you're trying to solidify IG users who have already shown an interest. On the flip side, if your goal is to catch the eyes of completely new users, this would not be the best option.

Local Audience

Targets people within a certain radius of a certain location. With options for age range and gender. This could be good when you’re promoting a last minute event taking place in a specific location. It also shows your post to those who are similar to your followers based on location.

Manual Audience

Create your own specific audience based on age, location, interests, and more. This is typically best because you have more control, but it really depends on your specific objectives. 

The Fine Print of Instagram Promotions

Decide the price and duration

The app makes this part pretty hassle free with a sliding scale of how long and how much you’d like to pay. You can pay $10.00 a day for a 24-hour promotion and see how it works. Cost and duration options can get much higher and longer so it really comes down to your budget.

Instagram uses a 'CPM' or cost-per-mille, which really just means cost per 1000 impressions or views. Now that we know how to promote on Instagram, is it really worth it? In the next section, we'll get some results from influencers who have tried it out.

Do Instagram Promotions Work?

Instagram promotion results

Users with relatively high followers who are trying to gain visibility say it may not be worth the cash. And they seem to be struggling for the same reasons. 

Laura Price, an illustrator, gives us some key insights into her experience with Instagram’s $5.00 promo. 

What will a $5 Instagram promotion get you?

Alec Wilcock is somewhat of an Instagram expert and has a number of videos on his channel dedicated to how IG works. Watch as he takes us through his experience, with a bit more on how to promote.

The results seem to come back inconclusive but somewhat comprehensible...the more money you put in, the more effective your promotion will be. 

Was Alec's experience any better?

It’s pretty hard to measure success if you throw only $5. 00 for a mere 24 hours. But that doesn’t mean waste your money either. A combination of ads and promotions may be a good start until your business gets off the ground. Though, if you’re already a fairly successful brand, it may be best to keep your Instagram promotions running for longer.

UP NEXT

Guide to Instagram Ads

If you’re unsure about trying out Instagram Promotions, that’s all right. But don’t miss out on Instagram altogether. Instagram has the highest brand-consumer engagement than any other platform out there. Learn how to run Instagram ads, even if you’re not yet ready for promotions. 

Up Next: Make Instagram Ads→

Instagram is worth 49 times what Facebook paid for it sharing Instagram photos.

Instagram's new value is $35 billion. Citigroup's previous estimate was significantly lower at $19 billion. The reasons for this increase are given: these are higher audience growth rates and improved monetization of the service. Citigroup believes that Instagram can earn 2 billion a year. nine0006

Both the old and the new valuations are well above what Facebook paid for the 13-person company in 2012: $715 million, some of which was paid out in stock. Initially, it was about a billion. Only the lazy did not talk about the growing bubble then.

It was indeed a very risky move. The service had no monetization scheme for its 30 million users, each costing Facebook $33. The acquisition cost a quarter of all the cash that Mark Zuckerberg's company had at that time. nine0006

Today, Instagram has over 300 million users, more than Twitter. Since March of this year, the number of active users has grown by one and a half times. The photo sharing app is larger than LinkedIn and Twitter.

An Instagram user is expensive - each costs over $80, so don't expect aggressive monetization with overly annoying ads. Citigroup believes that by the end of next year, Instagram will earn $1.48 per 1,000 ad impressions. Although this is smaller than Twitter, the user base of photosharing is larger and growing faster. nine0006

At the beginning of this month, the number of active Instagram users exceeded 300 million. There were really a lot of users, so the administration promised to add the ability for celebrities to receive the status of a verified account, and also start deleting spammer accounts.

In particular, it was said that spam accounts will be rubbed, and not just blocked, as happened before. The other day, the first cleaning of inactive and violating the rules of the service accounts was carried out, and it caused a number of complaints from users - not everyone likes it when the number of subscribers suddenly decreases sharply. nine0006

According to a specially compiled list, celebrities have lost a lot of "weight" - from a few to 10-15 percent. The official instagram account has lost 30% of its followers.

The self-esteem of a certain chiragchirag78 suffered the most - it turned out that out of almost four million subscribers, only eight turned out to be real. What kind of account it was, now it is unlikely that it will be possible to find out - it has already been deleted.

Ordinary people were also affected. Some reacted positively to anti-spam measures, others reacted with swearing at the administration of the resource. It should be remembered that the disappeared accounts have long been deactivated, and they were just deleted. nine0006

how to use the social networks Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp after the company was declared extremist

Ekaterina Miroshkina

economist

Author profile

Facebook and WhatsApp is considered an extremist organization, and its activities are banned in Russia. These social networks are now also banned, but the messenger can still work. nine0006

Problems with access to Instagram and Facebook began even earlier, when Roskomnadzor began to block them at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office. But now everything has become official. And although the court decision has not yet been published, users and entrepreneurs should figure out how to read posts, publish and work now.

A separate analysis will be released soon for businesses and investors.

Why are Instagram and Facebook blocked? unrest. And Facebook did not delete posts and comments with materials that violate Russian laws, and at the same time closed the accounts of state media. nine0006

Source:
Decision of the Tverskoy District Court dated March 21, 2022

The court issued a corresponding decision. The company has been excluded from the list of foreign entities operating on the Internet in Russia, and Instagram and Facebook are no longer in the register of social networks.

There is a special list for those whom Russia considers terrorists and extremists. Members of such a list cannot conduct activities here, which means that Facebook and Instagram social networks cannot work either. So far, Meta does not appear on this list, because there is a month to appeal and the court decision has not entered into force. But it's probably a matter of time.

So what? 03/05/22

Responsibility for fakes about the army: when you can get a millionth fine and a real term

Is it possible to use Instagram and Facebook

Yes, you can, but with restrictions.

Here's what regular users and corporate account holders need to consider.

There is no law enforcement practice yet

Any actions in social networks are still the responsibility of a particular user.

Experts, lawyers and officials comment on what is happening with social networks. But no one can confidently state how the law will work or publications will be interpreted in a particular case. And what consequences will it lead to. Another month - before the entry into force of the court decisions - there can definitely be no sanctions. As the situation develops, we will update the material. nine0006

Posts are allowed. According to the prosecutor in the Tverskoy Court, Instagram and Facebook users are not liable for posting, reading or following. That is, you can maintain your profile, record stories and upload rails. But only if the content of the publications does not violate Russian laws. For example, there should not be materials that can be recognized by a Russian court as fake about the actions of the army or calls for riots.

Registration is possible. The presence of an account, even registered after the entry into force of a court decision, should not be the basis for administrative or criminal liability.

VPN - you can. Services for traffic encryption are not officially prohibited. But Roskomnadzor blocks them if it suspects violations. These are relations between the controlling body and services, they do not concern ordinary users. If the user has found a way to open Instagram or has Facebook working in any way, there is nothing illegal here. nine0006

/how-about-vpn/

How free VPNs work and how secure they are

Reposts are not allowed. Sharing links to publications on Instagram and Facebook can be dangerous, because this is the distribution of materials and the basis for sanctions under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In general, everything is very confusing. It can be assumed that no one will be punished for links to an online laminate store or a post about raising money for an operation. But how it will be in practice is unknown. nine0006

Logo is not allowed. Symbols of Instagram and Facebook will be banned. Individuals and businesses should not place social media icons on business cards, websites, or flyers. This can be regarded as an offense under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and threatens with a fine or administrative arrest. Even if leaflets and business cards were ordered a long time ago, now it is better not to use them. The presence of the Instagram icon on the screen of a personal phone will not be distributed and demonstrated. But the offer to log in through Instagram or Facebook may fall under the article. nine0006

Purchase of shares - unclear. Once the Meta is officially listed as an extremist, shareholding may be recognized as participation in the activities of a banned organization - criminal liability is provided for this. But in reality, there are a lot of investors who own shares directly or as part of funds - and it is unlikely that any sanctions will be applied to all. We need to wait for the regulator's comment. We will write a review when more details become available. nine0006

Advertising - only for bloggers. You can not spend money on advertising or promoting posts through the advertising account of social networks. That is, the money should not go to Meta. But bloggers do not have a ban on buying ads. If the money for mentioning an account in stories goes to another user, this is not considered funding for an extremist organization, because Meta receives nothing from such a transaction.

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