How to create instagram ads 2020

How to Create Instagram Ads In 2022

I’m sure you’ve heard stories about entrepreneurs running Instagram ads and having massive success.

And they probably make you think about integrating ads into your own Instagram marketing strategy.

But just how much do Instagram ads cost, and how do you go about setting up an Instagram advertising campaign? These are a few important questions that I aim to answer.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about Instagram ads, including how to set up your first ad campaign on this social network.

Post Contents

What Are Instagram Ads?
Types of Instagram Ads
- Stories ads
- Explore ads
- Collection ads
- Shopping ads
Benefits of Instagram Ads
How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost?
How to Create Instagram Ads
- How to run Instagram ads within the app
- How to create Instagram ads using Facebook Ads Manager
  - 1. Pick an objective
  - 2. Name your campaign
  - 3. Set your budget and schedule
  - 4. Choose your target audience
  - 5. Select your ad placements
  - 6. Create your first Instagram ad
Conclusion
Want to Learn More?

Start selling online now with Shopify

Start your free trial

What Are Instagram Ads?

Instagram ads are posts that pop up on a user’s Instagram feed.

The business or person advertising pays to display the content across Instagram, which is often accompanied by a “Sponsored” label.

Post ads typically appear in the form of a carousel, still image, video, or slideshow.

They can also feature a call-to-action button like “Shop Now” or “Learn More”. This depends on the campaign’s objective, i.e. whether you want to get traffic or conversions.

Types of Instagram Ads

Instagram also has many other ad types. The most interesting ones include:

Stories Ads
Explore Ads
Collection Ads
Shopping Ads

Here’s some information about each type:

Stories ads

Instagram Stories Ads appear between people’s Stories in full screen.

The call-to-action in Stories Ads encourages the audience to “swipe up” from the bottom of the story to shop or learn more.

Plus, the ads allow you to utilize all capabilities of Instagram Stories, like adding video effects, face filters, and stickers to grab the attention of your audience.

Explore ads

Instagram has an “Explore” section that allows people to discover content linked to their interests.

But Instagram Explore ads don’t appear in that section. Instead, they only display after a user opens an image or video from Explore.

Source

The best thing about Explore ads is that you can run them alongside post ads by choosing Explore as an additional ad placement (I’ll talk more about ad placements later in the article).

Collection ads

Instagram collection ads enable audiences to view and purchase your products.

When users click on an item within a collection, the platform redirects them to Instant Experience, a type of an ecommerce storefront within Instagram.

Source

These creative Instagram ads typically include a collection of product images or videos.

Shopping ads

Instagram also lets you promote shoppable posts as ads.

Users who tap on these ads are redirected to a product description page within Instagram. They can then buy the featured item from your mobile shop.

If you have an Instagram Shop for your business, you can create these ads on the fly. (To set one up, check out our post: The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up an Instagram Shop).

Benefits of Instagram Ads

At its most basic level, running Instagram ads is an effective way to get your products in front of a vast audience.

In fact, around 500 million people log into Instagram daily, so you have a large consumer base to target.

Also, Instagram’s engagement is on the rise, meaning you can get a better response rate on Instagram compared to other social media platforms. Businesses using Instagram can generate 4x more interactions on the platform compared to Facebook.

What’s more, 80 percent of Instagrammers report making a buying decision based on something they discovered while using the app.

This means you have an opportunity to drive sales by putting your business front and center of people’s feeds – courtesy of Instagram ads.

That’s not all.

On Instagram, you’re able to set up advertising using Facebook’s Ads Manager. If you’re already running Facebook ads for your business, the steps to create Instagram paid ads should come easy. As an icing on the cake, Facebook’s superior targeting and budgeting options are available to you.

How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost?

Honestly, there’s no real answer to the question of how much Instagram ads cost. I, however, know from experience that costs tend to vary between target locations, days of the week, chosen demographics, ad placements, and other factors.

For example, it costs more to deliver Instagram ads to millennials than to adults, as 25 to 34 years old users are one of the most coveted audience groups on social networks.

Likewise, Instagram ads price increases on weekdays since the platform gets higher levels of engagement during this time.

When it comes to ad placements, running Instagram feed ads costs more than other options. That said, AdEspresso reported that the average CPC for more ad placements is $1.20.

So how much budget should you set aside for Instagram advertising? Think how much a conversion is worth to you and spend $20-$50 at first. Then test everything and double down on the campaigns that work best. Use Instagram Insights to measure your performance and dedicate some extra money to ads that help boost your engagement and sales.

How to Create Instagram Ads

Instagram doesn’t have an ad creation tool of its own, but there are two ways to place ads on Instagram:

Promote an existing post within the app
Create ads via Facebook Ads Manager

Let’s begin with the easiest way.

How to run Instagram ads within the app

The simplest way to start advertising on Instagram is to promote a post that you’ve already created.

Choose one that has generated the most engagement and tap “promote” in the lower right corner to run it as an ad.

You’ll need to set up an Instagram business profile before you’re able to see the promote option. If you’re currently using a personal profile, here’s how to convert it into a professional one.

Previously, Instagram also required that you connect a Facebook Business Page to your Instagram account.

But a few weeks ago, the company announced that it would allow new advertisers in some countries to create ads without having to link to a Facebook Page.

So if you’re promoting an Instagram post for the first time, you’ll be able to track and manage campaigns right inside Instagram.

How to create Instagram ads using Facebook Ads Manager

Since Instagram and Facebook are tightly integrated, you can also use Facebook Ads Manager to create ads for Instagram.

For those unfamiliar with it, Facebook Ads Manager is an incredibly powerful tool that lets you customize and pinpoint audiences. And you can also use it to define a campaign objective and track the performance of your ads.

To access Facebook Ads Manager, you’ll need a Facebook account with access to a Facebook Business Page.

Plus, you’ll need to link your Instagram account to your Facebook Business Page. Here are the steps:

1) Open your Facebook Business Page.

2) Go to Page Settings > Instagram.

3) Click the blue “Connect Account” button.

4) Add details of your Instagram account.

5) Click “Save”.

Once done, Facebook will let you create and run Instagram ads using Facebook Ads Manager.

Assuming you’re a complete beginner who’s never run Facebook or Instagram ads, here are the steps to create your first Instagram ad campaign.

1. Pick an objective

To start, open your Facebook Ads Manager and click the green “+ Create” button in the Campaigns tab.

Choose between Guided Creation and Quick Creation. If you want step-by-step instructions on how to set up an Instagram ads campaign, choose Guided Creation.

Facebook Ads Manager will then present you with list of objectives across three categories:

Before you choose an objective, give some thought to what you want to achieve with Instagram advertising. Do you want sales? Customer data? Increased brand awareness? Think about your goal and then pick an objective that best matches your desired outcome.

Picking the right objective is crucial, as Facebook uses your selection to determine which ad objectives, bidding types, and ad placements will be suitable for you.

If you’re running an online store, you will most likely be looking to increase sales. In this case, “Conversions” would be the most suitable objective for your Instagram campaign.

But using Instagram ads for conversions requires you to take an extra step: you have to create and install a Facebook pixel. This is a tiny code that you can place on your website to track conversions and sales.

If your online store’s site is hosted on Shopify, you just have to copy the pixel code from your Facebook Ads Manager and paste it in the Pixel ID field in Shopify Preferences.

To learn more about the Facebook Pixel and its benefits, read our post: The Facebook Pixel, Explained.

Facebook Ads Manager also lets you decide where you want to send the people who click on your ads.

You can send them to your store’s website, an app, Messenger, or WhatsApp.

2. Name your campaign

After choosing your objective, Facebook Ads Manager will let you give a name to your campaign.

While you can use a generic name like “Campaign 1”, it’s best to include certain elements in your campaign name – for example, target location, creative type, etc.

Doing so makes it easy to identify different campaigns as well as measure their performance.

Next, decide whether you want to test campaigns against each other to determine which strategies work best.

Through an A/B test, Instagram will test different campaign variations and allot the biggest budget to the one that performs best.

3. Set your budget and schedule

This part lets you define how much you want to spend on your ad campaign and for how long.

Here, you can choose between Campaign Budget Optimization and manual set up.

Campaign Budget Optimization is a new feature that identifies the ads that perform better and then allocates your budget to those. It does that while aligning with your spend limits and bid caps for each ad.

If you’re new to Instagram advertising, I highly recommend using Campaign Budget Optimization as it helps ensure you pay the lowest amount per conversion.

Facebook Ads Manager also lets you choose between a daily and lifetime budget. Here’s what you get with each option:

A daily budget makes your ads run continuously throughout the day while spending up to your allotted budget each day.
A lifetime budget allows your ads to run for a specified period while pacing your budget over that timeframe.

If you set a lifetime budget, you can also define a specific schedule for your campaign.

For example, you can configure your Instagram ads to run only on weekends or when your audience is the most active.

To get an idea of what days and time are best to advertise on Instagram, check out our infographic: The Best Time to Post on Social Media in 2021.

4. Choose your target audience

Here’s where the fun begins.

Through audience targeting, you can set up your Instagram Ads to reach certain demographics, interests, and behaviors.

For example, you might be selling a gadget and interested in targeting millennials in Australia. In audience targeting, you can enter “Australia” as the location and enter “gadget” and “technology” as interests under Detailed Targeting.

You also get the option to target Custom Audiences. These typically include people who have visited your website but can also refer to past customers whose information is saved in your contact list.

With that covered, let’s move onto placements (aka. where you want your ads to display).

5. Select your ad placements

Facebook Ads Manager gives you two options for ad placements:

Automatic placements: This feature displays your ads across multiple properties based on where they’re likely to work best.
Manual placements: Selecting this option allows you to handpick the properties where you want your ads to appear.

For Instagram ads, choose manual placements and then check the boxes for Instagram-only properties.

6. Create your first Instagram ad

The last step is where you pick a specific ad format, upload a creative and write your ad copy.

The following ad formats are available:

Choose a format that makes the most sense for your Instagram ads campaign.

Next, upload a relevant creative for your ad and write a text description to go along with it.

On a side note, make sure to pick the right Instagram ad size because the Ads Manager rejects inappropriate sizes for creatives. If you’re looking to run ads on Stories, this is a good time to check out our Instagram Stories dimensions guide.

Pro tip: Instagram offers a range of apps you can use to enhance your ad creatives. Layout is one good option for combining multiple images into a single photo. For Instagram video ads, check out Hyperlapse for creating time lapse videos while in motion.

If you choose “Conversions” as the campaign objective, you’ll also get the opportunity to pick from a variety of call-to-action texts. Select the one that’s relevant to your campaign and target audience.

Once you’re satisfied with everything, hit the green “Publish” button to start running Instagram ads for your business.

Conclusion

Okay, that’s all about Instagram ads.

Now you know what Instagram ads are, the benefits they bring, how much they cost, and how to set them up for your business.

Before signing off, I encourage you to do one thing after you create your ads: measure their performance.

No matter how well-structured your campaign, evaluate the ads to check where you could improve and save money.

You might find that one ad creative is driving five times more conversions. Or one specific ad placement is resulting in lower costs.

The easiest way to measure your ads performance is to use the built-in analytics inside Facebook Ads Manager.

By tracking and learning from the reports this tool provides, you’ll be able to find the best ad sets to run for a given campaign.

Are you using Instagram ads for your business? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Start selling online now with Shopify

Start your free trial

Want to Learn More?

What is Self Employment: Everything You Need to Know
The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Video for Businesses
How to Make Money on Instagram in 2021
The Definitive Guide to Instagram Live Video for Businesses
15 Best Instagram Analytics Tools for 2021

How To Create Instagram Ads? Examples, Tips & Tricks [With Template] • Filmmaking Lifestyle

In case you’ve missed the memo, Instagram ads are here. Like Facebook and Twitter ads, Instagram ads are a great way to advertise on social media.

Below, we answer some of the most frequently asked questions about Instagram Ads.

Instagram ads are the newest thing in social media advertising. So what are Instagram ads?

Essentially, Instagram ads are a way for people and companies to promote themselves on the popular photo-sharing platform.

The ads appear as sponsored posts, alongside other users’ pictures and videos. They’re simple to create and they cost very little: you can pay as little as $1 per day for an ad on Instagram.

How To Create Instagram Ads

What Are instagram ads?

In case you’ve missed the memo, Instagram ads are here. Like Facebook and Twitter ads, Instagram ads are a great way to advertise on social media. Below, we answer some of the most frequently asked questions about Instagram Ads.

Instagram was made for mobile devices and its users spend nearly as much time on their phones as they do on their computers. There’s no shortage of new users either.

Millennials are especially big fans of Instagram and are many times more likely to follow brands than older generations.

Oh, and did we mention that brands can now target these younger users with super-specific demographic criteria?

What Are Instagram Ads?

Instagram is a mobile-first platform, which makes it ideal for advertisers who want to reach their audience on the go.

The app has been downloaded more than 1 billion times, which means that most of your target audience has already downloaded it.

That’s a big deal because it means you don’t have to worry about creating or distributing an app or landing page to reach them.

You just need an account and your ad!

The average cost of an Instagram ad is $0.75 CPM, which means you only pay when someone actually clicks your ad.

The CPC or “cost-per-click” rate is $0.05, which is far less than other social networks like Facebook or Twitter.

In just a few years, Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms around, with over 300 million active monthly users.

And businesses have taken note – 82% of marketers are currently using or plan to use Instagram for advertising purposes this year.

What’s more, there’s a good chance that you’re already on Instagram (if you’re reading this article).

A recent study found that almost three in four U.S. adults use Instagram, so if you’re targeting Americans, it’s worth taking a look at how your business could benefit from advertising.

Types Of Instagram Ads

Let’s talk about Instagram Ads.

Instagram is the platform for visual storytelling. This image-centric app has more than 700 million users who are surely attracted to authentic, inspiring and beautiful photos and videos.

Typical Instagram ads can be of three types: video, photo and carousel. Let’s dive into each one:

Video Ad: Video ads tend to have a better engagement rate than other types of Instagram ads. They also have the potential to be highly different from what your business usually does.

The catch? Video ads cost more to create and can be harder to produce in your existing production environment. So if you’re not used to creating videos, it might be smart to hire someone else to do it for you or at least consult with someone who can help you with this type of ad creation.

Photo Ad: This is the most common type of Instagram ad. It’s easy to create and manage compared with video ads, but harder (and more expensive) than carousel ads. Carousel Ad: A single image with multiple images within the ad unit that viewers swipe through in order to see all the images in order. This format is a good way to show multiple products or services in one ad, especially if they are related.

Benefits Of Instagram Ads

If you’re like most business owners, you’ve heard of the benefits of running Instagram advertisements, but aren’t quite sure how to get started. If that sounds like you, you’ve come to the right place!

Instagram ads can help your business grow in many ways. From targeting customers who are specifically interested in your product or service to building brand awareness and increasing website traffic, there are countless benefits of Instagram Ads for every type of business.

In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the best ways to use Instagram Ads for marketing.

Paid social media marketing is a great way to promote your business, however, you should know the benefits of Instagram ads before you actually create them.

The best benefit of Instagram ads is that it gives you an opportunity to attract people who are interested in your products and services. You can also target your audience through their interests and location.

Another benefit of using Instagram ads is that it will allow you to create brand awareness on Instagram. You can use a variety of tools in order to target users on various devices.

To conclude, the benefits of using Instagram ads is that it allows you to choose your target audience easily and it will help you to increase ROI (Return On Investment).

How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost?

The old saying goes that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Even if you’re not buying a sandwich from a deli on your lunch break, it’s safe to assume that you’re paying for it in some way or another.

Trying to get free things is unrealistic, so why do so many people expect things to cost nothing?

Many people are under the impression that social media advertising should be free. For example, when Facebook first introduced ads, many publishers and bloggers were upset because they were required to pay in order to reach their audiences.

However, there are many benefits to using social media advertising, and you’ll have a lot more success with your campaigns if you put some money behind them. Here are three reasons why investing in your social media ads is worth the cost:

You Can Reach More People with Ads

When you publish content on your blog or website and want people to see it, you have several options for getting the word out: You can share it on social media, send an email newsletter about it, or even wait for Google and other search engines to pick it up.

2) You Can Target Your Audience Better with Ads

When you use social media ads, you can target the specific groups of people.

How To Create Instagram Ads

Creating and promoting your ad on Instagram can be done simply by using the platform’s advertising features. It’s all self-serve, so you don’t need to involve a third party or do any fancy coding to create your own ads.

Description:The best place to get started with Instagram advertising is the Instagram business center, which you can find at business.instagram.com .

You’ll need to log in with your Facebook account, which is required for all businesses that want to advertise on Instagram. After you’ve logged in, you’ll see some information about advertising on the platform and then you’ll be taken to the main page of the business center.

Although the process of creating an ad is simple, it can feel overwhelming if you’re not familiar with how native advertising works. The first step is deciding what kind of ad you want to run.

You can choose between a video (10 seconds or less) or a photo (up to 30 seconds). After you’ve made that decision, there are a few things you can do to add more information about your ad and customize it.

Once your ad has been created, it will show up in the dashboard of your business center under “view ads.” There are several other areas where you can monitor the performance.

How To Choose The Best Instagram Ad Type

When running an Instagram ad, you’ll often have to decide between three ad types: Video, Carousel, and Photo. When choosing which format to use for your ad, consider the following:

Video Ads

As their name suggests, video ads play a video when users click on them. This makes them perfect for promoting products that require a demonstration or explanation about how they work.

For example, if a user needs to see how your product works in order to make a purchase decision, video ads are the way to go.

Trying to promote a more abstract concept? Videos aren’t the best option. If you’re selling something like clothes or makeup that doesn’t really need a demonstration before being sold, then you’re better off using photo or carousel ads instead.

Photo Ads

Photo ads are just what they sound like – an image posted as an ad on Instagram. Because of this, they tend to be used more commonly in branding campaigns than direct sales campaigns (although they can also be used for lead generation).

They’re also great for posting behind-the-scenes content that your followers might not otherwise see in your main feed – think photos of the company at work or photos from events you’ve attended. You can also use photo ads with carousel formats.

How To Advertise On Instagram

Social media has changed the way businesses market their products and services. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are just a few of the social media platforms that have gained immense popularity in the past decade.

Trying to determine which platform is right for you? There are many factors to consider before making a decision. It’s important to choose a platform that best fits your business goals, so you’ll want to research each option carefully.

Type of Company

There are several different types of companies that might benefit from advertising on Instagram. Here are three examples:

Large Companies: Large companies such as Coca-Cola, Nike, and McDonald’s have used Instagram to advertise their brands by sharing photos with fans. These companies have millions of followers on Instagram, but even smaller companies can achieve great results using this strategy.

Small Businesses: Small businesses are able to target a specific market through Instagram advertisements. For example, a florist might want to attract brides who live in a particular area or want certain kinds of flowers for their wedding day.

By targeting that specific group of people, the florist can connect with potential customers who already have an interest in its products or services.

Small Businesses: Small businesses are able to target a specific market through Instagram advertisements.

Best Practices For Instagram Ads

When you’re new to Instagram Ads and don’t have an elaborate marketing strategy in place, it can be difficult to decide what your best practices are.

To help you get started, here’s a list of some of the best practices for Instagram Ads:

Have a Strategy When you first get started with Instagram Ads, it can be tempting to just start a campaign and see what happens. However, it’s much better to have a strategy in place first.

This way, you’ll know where you want to take your Instagram presence. You might want to focus on driving website traffic, increasing brand awareness or getting more followers. Your strategy will help guide your decisions on how many ads you should run and which ad types are best for your goals.

Use Relevant Hashtags Using relevant hashtags is one of the best ways to get your content seen by people outside of your immediate network. It also makes it easier for users who do see it to discover related content that might interest them.

The most obvious ways to find relevant hashtags are by researching similar accounts or by using tools like RiteTag or Keyhole . If you want more control over your hashtags, though, consider using Tailwind .

Tailwind allows you to create an account and connect with other Instagram users based on their posts.

Are Instagram Ads Worth It?

Instagram’s advertising platform, which it calls “Sponsored Posts,” is fairly simple, but that doesn’t mean you should go crazy and spend a lot of money on it.

Treat Instagram ads like you would a new dollar bill—you probably wouldn’t try to buy everything in the grocery store with it. If you know their value and how to spend them wisely, they can be an awesome resource for your business.

If you don’t, then they could disappear into thin air faster than the last time you opened a pack of gum.

So, are Instagram ads worth it? Yes… if you use them correctly.

Instagram has been flooded with ads for the past few months, and so have I. Every time I log on to my account, there’s a tiny red tag on top of the “Explore” bar that says “Ad.” Clicking on it reveals a grid of sponsored posts from companies like Nike and Lululemon, which are sponsoring my feed.

If I scroll down for long enough, I’ll eventually see another ad for something else, maybe a new TV show coming out or an ad for a new song. It is not subtle.

But these ads aren’t just annoying; they’re effective. In fact, they appeal to me so much that they actually make me want to buy things. And I’m not the only one.

The numbers speak for themselves: according to AdWeek , Instagram’s sales are up 600% compared to last year. This year alone, businesses have spent $600 million on advertising on the social media platform.

What’s The Overall Engagement Of Your Ad Campaigns?

One of the most important metrics that you should be tracking is your overall engagement rate, which is the percentage of people clicking on your ad.

Tuning into your ad performance metrics can reveal a lot about what’s working and what isn’t in your campaigns. If you notice that some ads are performing much better than others, you can optimize those to get the greatest return on your ad spend.

Understanding Your Ad Performance Metrics

Your ad performance metrics fall into four main categories:

Cost per action (CPA). The cost of each action is based on the CPC or CPM price you pay for each click, but it also includes any variable costs associated with your campaign.

So if you set up an ad campaign to promote a free ebook, the cost per action would also include variable costs like shipping, handling, labor and other expenses related to fulfilling the offer.

To calculate cost per action, take all of your campaign costs divided by total actions taken by visitors.

2) Click through rate (CTR) . This number represents how many people clicked on your ad divided by how many times the ad was shown to a potential audience. CTR is always expressed as a percentage. It’s good practice to set goals for CTRs.

How To Promote An Instagram Post

Promoting your Instagram post is a great way to get more followers and likes on Instagram. The question you might be asking yourself is how do I promote my Instagram post? This can be done through many different channels, one of the best ways is to promote your posts on Facebook.

Promoting your posts on other social media platforms like Twitter and Pinterest can increase the reach of your post, but not as much as promoting it on Facebook.

So now that you know where to promote your Instagram post let’s talk about how to promote them. The first thing you should do is make sure that you are following people who are interested in similar content as you.

You can find these people by using hashtags to search for similar content and then following those people. Another way to promote your posts is by using paid ads like promoted posts or sponsored stories.

Promoted posts will show up in the news feed of users who have similar interests as you while sponsored stories will only show up in the news feed of your followers. After you have promoted a few of your posts they will start showing up on the explore page, which means that users who don’t follow you will also see your post and possibly even follow you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8HgPPx_seE

Tips For Creating High-Performing Instagram Ads

Instagram ads are a great way to get your products in front of customers. In fact, they’re one of the most popular social media advertising platforms there is. Most recently, Instagram launched full-screen and carousel ad formats that allow you to show off more of your product at once.

Tailoring Your Ads To Your Audience

Before creating any new ads, it’s important to understand who you’re advertising to. You can use Facebook’s Audience Insights tool to gain valuable information about your ideal customer.

What age range is most likely to purchase from you? What gender? What interests are they most likely going to have? This information can help you create an ad that will be appealing to them, which will in turn improve your click-through rate (CTR).

Creating A Compelling Ad

Once you’ve got a handle on who’s going to be viewing your ad, it’s time for the fun part! While there are several different formats for Instagram ads (including carousels, videos and slideshows), the most common one is the photo or video format.

Your best bet here is a single image or video with a clear CTA. Remember that while Instagram is a visual platform, text can still play an important role in grabbing.

h4 Tag:

How To Run Instagram Ads Within The App

Creating and running an ad on Instagram is pretty easy. Open up the app, head to the top right menu and select business tools, then ads. From there you can create a campaign, ad set and ad.

TIP: The first thing you’ll want to do is select your objective. This can be something like driving traffic to your website, directing users to download an app or getting them to engage with a piece of content (like a video).

Once you’ve selected your objective, you’ll need to choose your business profile and audience. To get started, simply tap “Create Ad” and select either “Website Traffic” or “App Installs.” For the latter, you’ll need to choose the business profile associated with your app in order to access this option.

Next you’ll begin building out your audience by tapping “Edit.” At this point, Instagram will ask that you connect your Facebook Pixel so it can pull in conversion data from your website (if you’re running retargeting ads) or allow you to use advanced targeting controls (if you’re using other tools like Facebook’s Audience Network).

In addition, you’ll be able to connect a number of different data points from Facebook here as well — including age, gender, location and language.

How To Create Instagram Ads Using Facebook Ads Manager

Instagram is one of Facebook’s best performing ad platforms. With a new interface and the addition of video and carousel ads, it seems to be even more effective for advertisers. But there’s one problem: Instagram isn’t an ad platform per se.

I’m going to show you how to run Instagram ads through Facebook Ads Manager, so you can take advantage of its superior targeting tools and analytics.

If you’re creating an ad in Facebook Ads Manager, you’ll have a few options in the top right hand corner of the screen. Click on the down arrow next to the “select objective” option and choose “Create an ad with a link.”

This will take you to a template that includes a website banner and a text field. You can change both of these. Now, we’re ready to add our first image!

Facebook gives us two options for our first image: Post Titles & Image or Photo Link (URL). We want to select Photo Link (URL) because we want to use the URL from our Instagram page instead of an image from our website or blog.

You’ll see that we have three fields available for this option: Image URL, Image Size, and Crop Image. The image size is automatically set at 1200px by 628.

How to properly set up ads on Instagram - Setting up ads on Instagram - Marilyn Blog

Instagram audience has grown significantly, and in terms of the number of active authors, according to statistics for October 2020, Instagram took first place - 42. 8 million people against 27.7 million people a year before. According to Mediascope, 16 million people check their news feed every day. Instagram ads are a great opportunity to spread the word about your brand. There are several types of advertising on Instagram - targeted, through bloggers and in thematic communities. Let's take a look at how to set up targeted ads step by step.

Content

What needs to be prepared for launching targeted advertising on Instagram

Registration and filling out an account

How to configure advertising on Instagram through

Publication Publication

Promotion of history

How to configure targeted advertising on Instagram through Facebook

Facebook Advertising Center

Facebook Advertising Cabinet

Creating an ad

How to set up ads in stories

Life hacks for launching advertising on Instagram

Control and optimization of the advertising campaign

What you need to prepare for launching targeted advertising on Instagram

Targeted advertising on Instagram allows you to:

fine-tune your audience;
track performance with statistics and control spending;
quickly set up and run ads;
do not depend on a blogger who can fail with the timing and quality of content.

You can set up targeted advertising on Instagram in the application or in the Fb advertising account. In Facebook Ads Manager, the functionality is wider. Facebook also has more settings for goals and targeting. In the application, the functionality is limited, but the process itself is simplified.

To launch targeted advertising through Facebook, it is enough to have a company's business page. If you want to interact with your target audience on Instagram, then you need to register a business account in it. This will allow you to track publication statistics, see information about subscribers, add data about your company.

You can connect a business profile to your regular Instagram account. In the app, go to "Settings" → "Account" → "Switch to a professional account".

Connecting a business profile to Instagram

When should I select "Author" in the professional account settings, and when should I select "Business"? "Author" is suitable for bloggers and those who want to promote their brand. To promote an online store, select "Business". In the next step, specify contacts and a category.

Then link your Facebook business page to your Instagram business account. This could be done at the stage of creating an Instagram business account, or in the profile → “Edit profile” → “Public information about the company” → “Page”. Next, enter the Facebook page.

You can also do this through Facebook.

Linked your Instagram account to your Facebook page, you can now edit your Instagram profile and reply to comments through the Facebook interface. Remember, when running targeted ads without an active Instagram account, the cover and page title will be pulled from Facebook.

Registration and filling of the account

A successful description, as well as a correctly completed Instagram profile will help promotion.

Examples of successful account design

Tell us about yourself, add a username and avatar - a blank page can scare away potential customers. Your avatar and username will appear in the feed, so it's important that they are clear, concise, and understandable. Main elements:

Name - 30 characters max. It should be as clear as possible and contain key information.
Landing link.
Profile description - no more than 150 characters. What are you promoting, are there any current promotions and special offers. Structure the information so that it is easy to understand - all bloated text is not a good idea.
Use the list of services, describe the benefits.
Avatar - your photo, product photo or brand logo.

Don't leave your newly created Instagram account naked, add content with a story about products, prices, benefits, promotions, share customer reviews. This will help increase user confidence. Remember, the more information is available to the user and the benefits are more obvious, the more likely it is that he will become your client.

Answer a few questions: do you have a business page on Instagram with a suitable design, are contacts filled in, are benefits described, is there interesting content. If yes, then congratulations - we are moving on to launching targeted advertising on Instagram.

How to set up ads on Instagram through the phone

Only posts or stories that have been published before can be promoted through the application. Plus, as we said, there are fewer targeting options.

Promote a post

Open the post you created earlier and click Promote.

You can lead users to your Instagram page, website or private messages. If you want more subscribers - go to your account; promote the site and want to get more transactions from it - to the site; to involve the target audience in communication - in direct.

If you select a site, the landing page will be pulled from your profile. The call to action "Learn more" can be changed - in the "Your site" section, click on the "Edit" link and select from the list provided.

Let's move on to choosing the audience. You can trust it to Instagram or set your own targeting parameters: geo, demographics, interests. Automatic targeting can only be used when you are sure that the subscribers are not bots, but real representatives of the target audience. Otherwise, create your own audience:

In the "Places" section, specify geotargeting, it can be configured up to a radius of one to thirty kilometers around the desired address. This fine-tuning is necessary to target Instagram ads to those who are close to your cafe, flower shop, tire shop, or when you have a limited delivery area.

In the "Interests" section, start entering what you need, and the system will offer you possible targeting options.

Select the age and gender of potential customers. Targeting "Places" is a must, and "Interests" is up to you. After all the settings, the system will show the approximate coverage. If it turns out to be too narrow, Instagram will warn about it. Expands coverage with geo and demographic targeting settings, as well as interests. Add the name of the target audience and click "Finish". It will be possible to target the created audience in the future.

Next, set the daily budget limits and the planned duration of the AC. The system will update the reach data based on the campaign budget and duration.

It is better not to run targeted ads on Instagram for less than 3 days, it will not be possible to adequately evaluate the effectiveness - the algorithm will need some time to adapt. It is important to set up impressions in such a way that the content does not bother the audience.

Before starting, you can check the targeting settings and enter the preview mode - it will show all options for displaying content.

Accommodation can be paid by card or PayPal. Keep in mind that 20% VAT will be added to the budget. That is, if you decide to spend 5000 ₽ on targeted advertising on Instagram, then pay 6000 ₽: the budget + 20% of its amount.

Click "Create Promotion" and wait for moderation results.

Story promotion

Stories on Instagram are promoted according to the same principle: choose the story where you want to lead users, set targeting and budget. If the story was published within the last 24 hours, just go to it and click "Promote". Please note that you cannot promote Stories that have tapable elements such as polls, etc.

You can track the effectiveness of the campaign through the profile section "Promotions" - here you can see the promotion period, budget consumption, the number of clicks and characteristics of the audience.

The targeting parameters set through the application will not allow you to accurately select the target audience, plus you cannot limit placements. Running targeted ads in an app is more of a test. For more detailed settings, it is better to use the functionality of the Facebook account interface.

How to set up targeted advertising on Instagram via Facebook

You can set up targeted advertising on Fb in your advertising account or in the Advertising Center.

Facebook Advertising Center

The setup process in the Ad Center is similar to the setup in the app, so we won't describe in detail all the steps for choosing targeting. This method has the same significant disadvantage - you will not be able to disable the promotion of the publication on Facebook and Messenger, that is, the post will be advertised not only on Instagram.

To run Instagram ads, you need a Fb business page. If it is not there, go to your Fb account, click "+" → "Advertising".

Create an advertising page by filling in all fields.

After creating the page, you can go to the "Ad Center" through the same menu and select the desired action - "Promote a post on Instagram".

Next, you will need to set up targeting and select a payment method. There are more features in Ads Manager, so let's dwell on it in more detail.

Facebook Advertising Account

He is Ads Manager. Log into your account and click "Create".

Select the goal of targeted advertising on Instagram. All options are available except: Messages, Catalog Sales, Store Attendance.

Variants of goals of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Recognition . This includes Brand Awareness and Reach. Both goals are aimed at increasing interest in a product or brand - the content will be shown to the maximum number of people. Sales are not the top priority here.

Review . The goals of this section are designed to interest potential buyers, get more comments and likes, attract subscribers, increase the number of app downloads and video views, and collect contacts.

Conversion . It will help to find those who are ready to take the necessary actions - to buy, register for events, leave applications, as well as attract potential customers to points of sale. Here it is important to set up the collection of statistics on events on your site by installing the Facebook pixel.

The goal you choose will determine the strategy for displaying targeted ads. Instagram will analyze users who perform the necessary actions, and then it will look for a similar audience.

Enter a clear name for the campaign so that you don't get confused in the future among the many ads. If you plan to conduct A / B testing, you will need to create several content options. You can enable budget optimization so that the system automatically redistributes funds between the most effective publications for maximum results. Enter budget limits for the duration of the campaign or set a daily budget and add a bid strategy:

Lowest Price - Fb looks for the cheapest placements while aiming for the full daily budget.
Price cap - Fb will first try to find the cheapest placements, then move on to the higher bids, while keeping the average cost below the benchmark bid.
Limit bid - here the system also first focuses on the cheapest options, but places a bid within the control price.

The benchmark bid is the desired maximum CPA value, such as a site visit or shopping cart interaction. Each goal has its own set of strategies and parameters, they differ.

When setting a budget for the entire duration of the campaign, you can choose the display schedule for each ad group. If you do not enable optimization, budget settings will be available in the next step - creating an ad group. You also need to select the Facebook page that represents your business or the linked Instagram account.

The estimated reach will be displayed in the right window and will change depending on the targeting change.

At the stage of setting up an ad group, you can activate "Dynamic creatives" - you upload several variants of creatives, and the system automatically substitutes them, revealing the most effective combinations.

This is also where you add audience options.

You can create a new audience or set up retargeting and look-a-likes to those who have already interacted with your site. But this requires an installed Facebook pixel, which has already collected enough data about landing visitors. To create such an audience, click "Create" in the "Custom Audience" line. Or add the characteristics of a new audience:

Location . Choose from several categories: living here, recent visitors or travelers. Specify the country, region, city or desired address with a radius of one to eighty kilometers. You can not only add, but also exclude locations.

Age, gender and languages  . Set up targeting depending on the characteristics of your target audience.
Detailed targeting . You can add interests and demographics. If you click "Recommendations", then Facebook will tell you the audience close in his opinion. You can also narrow your audience or exclude users with inappropriate interests.

Connections targeting allows you to add or exclude audiences that have interacted with your Fb page and app or responded to an event.

Locations . It is important for us to set up targeted advertising on Instagram, so we choose the placements ourselves - we leave only Instagram: "Feed" or "Stories". Create different creatives for stories and posts, as the requirements for these formats are different. The feed is suitable when you rely on text, and stories work better when the main tool is visuals.

In the advanced settings, you can select targeting for the desired devices and operating systems, this is true for app advertising.

Optimization and display . Depending on the goal you set at the outset, you can optimize your ads to get more conversions, leads, app installs, and more. Targeted ads on Instagram will be shown to a specific audience in order to receive more of the specified targeted actions at a minimum cost.

The next step is to add creatives.

Create an ad

If your Instagram account is linked to Facebook, you can take a ready-made post and promote it or create a new one in one of the following formats: for each picture. If there are more than three images in the gallery, users will see only the first three, and the rest will become available when the story is revealed. The system can also test cards and show the most effective ones. The carousel is great for advertising multiple products.

The "Selection" format allows users to view products and place an order directly in the application. And Instant Experience allows you to create a storefront in full screen format. You can run a test and choose the most effective creative format.

Add a call to action and the ability to track events on the site, if you have a Facebook pixel embedded, it also works on Instagram. Click "Publish" and wait for the results of the verification.

How to set up ads in stories

In Ads Manager, go through the same steps to launch ads as for posts, but select Instagram stories in placements. Next, upload media files and submit for review.

Instagram story advertising allows you to increase brand awareness and target audience engagement, tell about discounts and promotions. By default, the story is shown to the user for only 5 seconds, so it is important to immediately grab his attention. You can show photos or videos, talk about the benefits of the product.

Create native stories, direct advertising can cause rejection. Users will also appreciate creativity and expressiveness. Add a call to action and use text on pictures to make advertising more effective.

Life hacks for launching ads on Instagram

We talk about possible mistakes and share life hacks on how to effectively set up targeted ads on Instagram:

To use the maximum targeting, do everything through Ads Manager. You'll have to figure it out, but it's worth it.
Ad content and formats must comply with Fb requirements.
Define clearly the goal of targeted advertising, otherwise the result will not be what you expected.
Stories and Instagram feed require different creative formats.
In case the video is shown without sound, duplicate important information with subtitles.
Track which creatives your target audience likes best and use this experience for future activities.
If you use videos in stories, show the main information at the beginning.
Divide your audience to show them the most relevant content.
Get a separate card to pay for advertising on Instagram.
Use analytics to see the big picture.
In 2020, the restrictions on the amount of text in the image were canceled, but remember, everything should be in moderation.

PK control and optimization

If you run a lot of advertising campaigns not only on Instagram, but also on other sites, then connecting an automation system will help save time and effort. For example, Marilyn knows how to manage contextual, targeted, and media advertising. It can:

automatically track the implementation of planned KPIs;
show detailed statistics for all sites in one window;
in a few clicks create reports in different sections and set up their receipt on a schedule;
smoothly turn off the budget, avoiding overspending or remaining funds for campaigns;
manage rates in order to achieve different KPIs;
automatically make UTM markup of links;
create audience segments and show content based on the geolocation of potential customers, as well as those who saw your ads offline.

Read the case studies where we share our real-life experience with the Marilyn automation platform and apply for a free test drive.

Read the latest cases

How to free up 69% of time and reduce CPC by 20% by automating advertising

How to increase the number of applications for the purchase of business class apartments by 15% and reduce their cost by 7% reduce CPA and optimize advertising budget spending

How to get cheap traffic in the USA and bring orders for $127,118 for $363

How to find premium customers using geolocation and reduce the cost of a lead by 5 times

How to set up Instagram ads: 2022 guide

Instagram* has over 1 billion active users worldwide. In Russia, at the beginning of 2022, 59 million people used Instagram, and now this figure is even higher. And along with users, new advertisers also come here: more and more beginners are looking in search engines for how to launch ads on Instagram.

In this article you will find two step-by-step instructions for setting up ads on Instagram, with nuances and pitfalls.

How to switch to a business account on Instagram

First of all, you need to transfer your profile to the status of a business account, without this it is impossible to run ads.

Go to the desired profile on Instagram. Go to the settings, section "Account" and at the bottom find the item "Switch to a professional account":
Select the Business type and select a category.
Follow the onscreen instructions to connect your professional account to your Facebook Business Page*. To do this, you must have page administrator rights.
If there is no page yet, there are three options:
- create a Page directly in the Instagram interface, specifying the basic data,
- skip this step - to do this, select the option "Do not link to Facebook",
- go to Facebook and create a company Page there, and then link the pages in the settings:
  You can unlink a Page or link another one in the "Account" - "Linked Accounts" section.

Done , the status of the page will automatically change, and you will have access to statistics, the ability to specify contact information and, of course, advertising management directly from the application.

You can also link accounts in your Facebook business page settings. To do this, select the Instagram section in the menu on the left and enter your profile.

In addition to the ability to run ads through Ads Manager, after linking a business account to a Facebook Page, a couple more functions will open up:

Comments on Instagram posts will be stored in the Inbox menu on FB and you can reply to them. This way you won't miss user questions.
You can edit your profile description on Instagram via FB.
The profile name in the ad will become active, users will be able to go to your account.

How to set up advertising through the Instagram interface

First, let's talk about the simple thing: how to launch targeted advertising using the social network itself.

Publish a post and then click the Promote button next to it.

You can also select any existing post in the Promotions section of your profile:

By the way, you can also promote Stories. To do this, open the desired story and find three dots in the lower right corner. In the list that opens, there is an item "Promote":

Or swipe up to go to the history statistics and click on the arrow in the form of a graph.

Attention! There are restrictions on promoting stories: you won’t be able to promote old stories and those that use touch-enabled elements — polls, a timer, and so on.

Next you need to:

Choose a destination, which is also a target action - what the user should do after they see your ad. Options:
- go to Instagram profile,
- go to the site via the link (here you can choose different names for the button),
- write a message to Direct.
Select an audience. The social network can automatically collect an audience, but we do not recommend doing this. For example, this is how manicure lovers from Perm see advertisements for salons from Krasnoyarsk - the audience is interested, but does not fit in geo, and the advertiser spends money. Therefore, select the item “Create your own” - indicate the places (by region or your geolocation), the interests of users and their age. Instagram itself offers options for interests, but not all of them are displayed on the screen - use the search.
Specify the budget and duration of the advertising campaign. Instagram advises launching a campaign for at least 3 days - during this time it promises to study your audience. You can set any budget, but the social network advises spending at least 200 rubles, otherwise the coverage will be small.

Done! Check your settings, add a payment method and click "Create Promotion".

This is how you run an Instagram ad in a couple of minutes. It will be shown in the feed and Stories of users, as well as in the "Interesting" section. But there is a catch: such targeting will not be very accurate, which means that the effectiveness of advertising will not be maximum. There are several reasons for this:

audience settings are very limited - you can't accurately select an audience by interests or those who have already interacted with you, there are restrictions on geolocation, etc.,
Feed and Stories are different formats (in terms of image size and mechanics), and you can’t choose one,
you won't be able to test different versions of the same offer, otherwise you'll have to put them all in the feed.

Next, let's see how to run ads on Instagram through the Ad Center and Facebook Ads Manager. These methods are more difficult, but more accurate, and increase your chances of getting into the right audience.

How to run ads with Facebook Ads Manager: Simplified version of Ads Manager

If you've already migrated to the new Facebook 2021 interface, you now have Ads Center. Here everything is configured in the same way as in Ads Manager, but the interface is simpler and more compact - all settings are on one page. The main differences are that when running ads through the Ad Center, it is not possible to turn off Facebook placement, and some promotional goals and targeting options are missing.

The Ads Center is great for the first time you run ads, but you'll still need to figure out the Ads Manager interface later on. Otherwise, you simply won’t get to the main point settings like conversion optimization.

So, to get to the Advertising Center, select it in the business page settings or click + in your Facebook account and select the "Advertising" item:

You will be prompted to select the promotion goal. If you manage several pages on Fb, select the one you need in the block on the right:

Promote publication . Select any published post on your Facebook business page and promote it.
Promote a post on Instagram . The same, only you need to select a publication from a business account on Instagram:
Increase the number of leads . This is an ad with a lead form, we talked about it in detail in the next article.

Get more messages . It's an ad with a "Send Message" button that takes the user to Messenger.
Promote your app . Format for those whose target action is to download an app from the App Store or Google Play.
Promote page . Suitable if you need subscribers.
Promote the company locally . Advertising will be shown only within the specified radius: from 1 to 80 km. from geopoint.
Attract visitors to the site . The target action here is a transition to the site.

Let's look at an example of setting up a campaign through the Advertising Center using the example of driving traffic to a website.

Unlike FB Ads Manager, the first step in Ad Center is to create ad creatives. Fill in the description, title, button name, link, upload an image and check how the creative will look in all placements. To do this, click "All Previews":

Then select the audience for showing ads. If you already have audiences created, they will appear in the list. If you don't have audiences yet, create one using the "New" button or the pencil:

In the settings, you can specify not only the gender, age, and geolocation of the audience, but also demographic interests, personal interests, and purchasing behavior. Advanced audience settings are available in FB Ads Manager.

Then select the duration of the advertisement and the daily budget that you are willing to spend on it.

Then go to the final block:

Locations . By default, the ad will be broadcast on all Facebook platforms: on the social network itself, Messenger and Instagram. You can't turn off FB promotion in the Ad Center, but you can turn off Messenger and Instagram.
Facebook pixel . Be sure to install it on the site, if you haven't already done so - it will record the actions of people who went to the site from advertising. This will give you more options for optimizing your campaigns. If the pixel is installed, but you don't see it in the list, then you don't have access rights - request them from the colleague who installed the pixel on the site.
Payment method . Link the card with which you will pay for advertising.

And then click "Promote" and follow the results in the statistics of the Ad Center. It can be accessed from the community menu.

Now let's take a look at a full-fledged Facebook advertising account.

How to set up advertising through Facebook Ads Manager

Log in to Ads Manager using the profile linked to the company's Fb page. If you use AdBlock or other ad blockers, add Ads Manager to the exceptions, otherwise the ad cabinet functions may not work correctly.

The hierarchy in the advertising account is arranged as follows:

the campaign is the goal (to get coverage, subscribers, clicks, etc.),
ad group is targeting, i.e. the audience we want to show ads to,
ads - several types of advertising offers.

You can use this by spelling names so you don't get confused which campaign is responsible for what.

Example: campaign: Traffic —> group: Men 25-34 St. Petersburg —> advertisement: 30% discount.

Now start creating a new ad campaign. Facebook will ask you to select an interface - choose "Help Mode", which is what we use in the examples below.

In general, the system may look different in different articles and webinars, but the content is generally the same.

Select the goal of the advertising campaign

It all starts with the goal: what exactly do you want to get from the promotion?

We will not describe the obvious goals like "Installing the application" and "Messages", but we will briefly analyze those that are not always clear to beginners.

Coverage . Suitable for image advertising, when your goal is to make sure that as many people as possible see the ad. For example, such a goal is used in event advertising.

Brand awareness . Suitable if you are launching a new brand / product on the market, and you need the target audience to remember it. Facebook knows how many times it needs to show an ad to a particular user, at what point, and in what format in order for them to remember it. Unlike reach, brand awareness does not work on the number of people, but on their “quality”.

Traffic . Use when you need to get targeted clicks to the site.

Involvement . Choose if your goal is to collect comments, likes, subscriptions and other user reactions to your posts.

Lead Generation . The application form is being promoted, which the user fills out directly on Instagram.

Conversions . Suitable if the goal is some action on the site. To do this, you need to set up event tracking using the Facebook pixel. The pixel must be created in Events Manager and installed in the site code. It captures events - user actions on the site and transfers data to the Events Manager.

You can also automatically transfer call data from the site. For this to work, you will need not only a pixel, but also a call tracking service - it is he who is responsible for calls. It is important that call tracking can be synchronized with Facebook Ads*. For example, such a function is available in Callibri MultiTracking.

MultiTracking

counts calls, requests and letters from advertising,

shows what ads customers come from,

helps optimize advertising.

Try

Point attendance . Needed to attract users offline. For example, in a restaurant, shop or office of your company. Advertising is configured by geolocation - a suitable audience is selected within a certain radius from the point.

Messages . We can say that this is an analogy of the “Conversion” goal, but for those who do not have a website, and sales occur directly on Instagram. Your ads will be seen by users who are more likely to write messages in Direct.

You can send messages from Instagram Direct to Callibri MultiChat. This means that your operators will be able to respond to these messages, as well as work with requests from six social networks and instant messengers in one window, and for the client, the dialogue will still take place on Instagram.

After selecting a goal, enter a name for the campaign and ensure that Ad Budget Optimization is disabled.

Then you can set the budget and schedule manually.

Take care of billing

If this is your first ad campaign, after selecting a goal, Ads Manager will ask you to fill in information about your ad account. Specify the country for which you are going to show ads, the currency in which you will pay the bill, and the time zone - this is important for reports.

Set up the audience

Important: do not mix several target audiences in one ad group. If you want to show the same ad to different target audiences, create different groups for them. For example, if you sell subscriptions to a fitness club and you need to offer them to office workers, fit girls and girls on maternity leave, divide the groups. Otherwise, you will not be able to track which audience the post reached best and where it failed. The statistics will become unreliable.

What's in the audience settings:

For first-time ad set builders, there isn't much to build a custom audience out of yet, so we'll get back to it later.

First, fill in the basic data about your target audience.

Seats . Specify the region (or several regions) in the field to be filled in and the radius to include in it. If necessary, exclude unnecessary places, to do this, switch to the “Exclude” mode.

Be sure to include the people you need to find in these places. These can be:

Residents or Recent Visitors,
"People living here" - local residents, only those who live in the selected region,
"Recent Visitors" - people who have been in this region recently,
"Travellers" - those who have recently been in this region, but their main place of residence is more than 125 km away.

Enter age and gender.

We go down below and move on to detailed targeting.

You can specify demographic interests (education, work, marital status, etc.), interests and behaviors (life events, online activities, etc.). The "View" button will help you figure out the options - it will show you approximately what you can choose from. Then enter all the necessary characteristics in the input field - after that the "Recommendations" button will become active, which will select interests close to those already indicated.

In the "Languages" block, indicate the language your audience speaks - for example, people of different nationalities live and go online in Russia, and they speak different languages.

If you click on "Show advanced options", the "Connections" block will open.

Here you can select people who interacted with you on Facebook: liked your page, attended events, rated the app, etc.

Pay attention to the "Audience size" block on the right: if the arrow is in the green zone, there is enough audience. If it is in the red zone, get rid of some conditions, otherwise the coverage will be very small. If the audience, on the contrary, is too wide, add conditions.

At the end, you will see a Save This Audience button. Click it if you want to use matched people in the future. Here we return to the custom audience.

If you save the selected audience, the next time you can select it in the "Use the saved audience" block.

You can also create a custom audience. These are people who have been on your site, bought something, visited an offline store, been in an app, or performed actions on your Instagram or Facebook accounts.

Nuances

To collect an audience that has visited your site, you need a Facebook pixel.
You need a minimum of 1,000 unique contacts to create an audience of existing customers.

Once you've created your first custom audience, you can find people similar to it using the Lookalike Audience feature. Just specify the region and the percentage of similarity (the higher the percentage, the less similar audience you will get, but there will be more of it).

Select placements (placements)

Ads Manager includes all possible placements for the Facebook family of ads. Therefore, placements need to be clearly filtered. To do this, select the “Edit placements” item and uncheck all items except Instagram:

The system will automatically check the necessary checkboxes:

Landing Page. Specify Instagram Direct and placements will be determined automatically.

Only one placement can be left. To the right of the Placements list, Ads Manager displays recommended image and video sizes. You can design different images in the same ad group, but you can’t find out which worked better.

Also here, by clicking on the line "Show advanced options", you can select the types of devices to display, operating systems and specific models of smartphones and tablets. And set ads to show only if the user is connected to Wi-Fi:

Specify the budget and schedule of the impression

Select the desired ad optimization result in the "Impression group optimization" section, the options depend on the goal you selected at the beginning.

You can enter a daily budget or a lifetime budget. We advise you to choose the second option - it's easier to control the cost of an advertising campaign and you definitely won't get a surprise in the form of a multi-thousand bill because you forgot about advertising (it happens, we are all human).

In the advanced settings, you can specify a specific time for the ad to be shown to the user. For example, a coffee shop can show ads for breakfast strictly in the morning hours:

Create an ad

So, we got to the ad itself. You can select a post that's already in your feed (in the "Use an existing post" section) or create a new ad. Check that the correct Instagram account is selected.

There are three formats available for Instagram: Carousel, Single Image or Video, and Featured.

Single image

You can create up to six ads with a different image, video, or slideshow. Here you can also customize the ad for the feed or stories by selecting different images or cropping one.

Next, fill in the ad text and select a call to action (button). If you are taking people away from ads to your site, don't forget to add UTM tags to the link. So you can track the number of transitions.

Add a payment method

Link a card from which money will be debited. Usually, specialists allocate a separate card or electronic wallet for this so that funds are not debited from your personal account.

Enter your TIN - Facebook needs this information because we pay VAT. And then link the card.

Done! The ad will be sent for moderation. As soon as it is approved, you will receive a notification. You can find statistics on the results of an advertising campaign on the main page of Ads Manager.

To avoid moderation issues, please read the Community Guidelines beforehand. And then - a list of prohibited materials and types of prohibited content. In general, there is nothing supernatural in these rules - do not discriminate, do not advertise alcohol, tobacco products and gambling, do not publish nudity (at the same time, using works of art in advertising is possible, but this is fraught - moderation can still reject the ad and restore reputation it will be long and painful). The main rule is don't cheat. This is especially important if you are selling a subscription to a service.

Things to remember about Instagram ads

To summarize:

Setting up ads in the Instagram interface severely limits your targeting options. If you want to find your audience more accurately and get more impact from your ads, set them up through Facebook Ads Manager.
Learn more