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A 5-Step Guide to Using Instagram Ads

If you have a budget allocated for paid social, you should strongly consider running Instagram ads. Why?

27% of users say they find new products and brands through paid social ads, and Instagram ads can reach over 1.2 billion people, or 20% of the world’s population over age 13.

In this article, we’ll give you a comprehensive overview about how to advertise on Instagram, including an easy 5-step guide to create your first ad in just a few taps.

What are Instagram ads?

How much do Instagram ads cost?

Types of Instagram ads

How to choose the best Instagram ad type

How to advertise on Instagram

Best practices for Instagram ads

Bonus: Download a free pack of 8 eye-catching Instagram ad templates created by Hootsuite’s professional graphic designers. Start stopping thumbs and selling more today.

What are Instagram ads?

Instagram ads are posts for which businesses can pay to serve to Instagram users.

Source: Instagram (@oakodenmark, @elementor)

Similar to Facebook, Instagram ads appear throughout the app, including in users’ feeds, Stories, Explore, and more. They look similar to normal posts but always contain a “sponsored” label to indicate that they are an ad. They also often have more features than a normal post, such as links, CTA buttons, and product catalogs.

How much do Instagram ads cost?

The cost of Instagram ads is highly dependent on a variety of factors – there is no average or benchmark price. Some cost factors include:

  • Your targeting
  • Competitiveness of your industry
  • Time of year (costs often go up during holiday shopping periods in Q4 such as Black Friday)
  • Placement (costs can differ between ads shown on Facebook vs Instagram)

The best way to evaluate your budget is to set up a draft campaign in Ads Manager and look for the Audience Definition and Estimated Daily Results modules, which will tell you if your budget settings will be sufficient to reach your desired audience within your desired duration.

Note that there is no “best practice” for how much to spend. You can get started by spending just a few dollars a day, and scale up from there based on success.

In order to control the costs of your Instagram ads, you can set either daily budgets or lifetime spending limits. We’ll explain this in more detail in our 5-step guide below.

Types of Instagram ads

There are many different types of advertising formats on Instagram, including:

  • Image ads
  • Stories ads
  • Video ads
  • Carousel ads
  • Collection ads
  • Explore ads
  • IGTV ads
  • Shopping ads
  • Reels ads

The wide range means that you can choose the best ad type that matches your specific business goal. Each ad format has its own selection of call-to-action options, which are listed below.

Image ads

Image ads allow businesses to use single images to advertise their brand, products and services.

Source: Instagram (@veloretti)

Image ads are best suited for campaigns with compelling visual content that can be conveyed in a single image. These images can be created from high-quality photography or design and illustration.

It’s also possible to add text to images. However, Instagram recommends limiting overlaid text as much as possible for best results.



Instagram Stories Ads are full-screen image or video ads that appear between users’ Stories.

Instagram Stories are a well-used part of the app, with over 500 million Instagram users viewing Stories every day. Engagement is often higher with Stories ads, as the format covers the whole mobile screen and feels much more immersive than in-feed ads.

The best Instagram Stories ads are ones that look and feel like normal Stories and don’t stand out as ads. When designing Stories ads, businesses can use all organic Instagram Stories features like filters, text, GIFs, and interactive stickers.

Source: Instagram (@organicbasics)

Stories ads can use still photos, videos, and carousels. The call-to-action is presented as a swipe-up link at the bottom of the Story.

Video ads

Similar to image ads, video ads on Instagram allow businesses to give users a closer look at their brand, products, and services.

In-feed video ads can be up to 60 minutes long, but shorter videos are usually more effective. Read more best practices for designing Instagram video ads.

Source: Instagram (@popsocketsnl)

Carousel ads

Carousel ads feature a series of images or videos that users can swipe through. They can appear both in-feed and within Instagram Stories, with a call-to-action button or swipe up link that lead users directly to your website.

You can use carousel ads to:

  • Showcase a collection of related products
  • Tell a multi-part story
  • Share up to 10 images or videos

Source: Instagram (@sneakerdistrict)

Collection ads

Collection ads are a combination between carousel ads and shopping ads. Collection ads showcase products directly from your product catalog.

Collection ads are best suited for ecommerce brands, as they allow users to purchase products directly from the ad. When a user clicks on the ad, they’re directed to an Instagram Instant Experience Storefront where they can learn more about the product and proceed to purchase.

Source: Instagram (@flattered)

Explore ads

Explore ads appear within the Explore tab, an area of the platform where users discover new content and accounts that are tailored based on their Instagram usage habits. More than 50% of Instagram users access Explore every month, so it’s a great place to gain exposure.

Instagram Explore ads do not appear in the Explore grid or the topic channels, but rather are shown after someone clicks on a photo or video from Explore. As the content in users’ Explore tabs is constantly changing, Explore ads allow businesses to be shown alongside culturally relevant and trending content.

Explore ads can be both images and videos.

Pro Tip: No need to design brand new assets for Explore ads. You can simply re-use existing assets.

IGTV ads

IGTV ads are video ads that play after a user clicks to watch an IGTV video from their feed. Videos can be up to 15 seconds long, and should be designed for vertical full screen viewing (more IGTV ad specs).

They are shown midroll (in the middle of the video), potentially with the option to skip.

IGTV ads are currently available to users with Instagram Creator accounts in the US, UK, and Australia, with more countries rolling out soon. Creators can opt in to having ads shown in their IGTV videos, and receive 55% of the advertising revenue generated from each view.

Shopping ads

With 130 million users tapping on shopping posts every month, it’s no wonder Instagram has been heavily improving its ecommerce features over the last 1-2 years. With Instagram’s newest Shopping features, users can now view and purchase products without ever leaving the app (limited to businesses with Instagram Checkout enabled).

Instagram Shopping ads take users directly to a product description page within the Instagram app. They can then purchase through your mobile website.

In order to run Shopping ads, you need to set up your Instagram Shopping catalog.

Pro Tip: Take advantage of Hootsuite’s integration with Shopify to access your catalog right from your Hootsuite dashboard.

Source: Instagram

Reels ads

With the successful launch of Reels, Instagram recently announced the ability to advertise within Reels.

Ads are shown in between Reels, with similar specs to Stories ads (full screen vertical videos), and can be up to 30 seconds. They should include sound or music to be well-integrated with organic Reels.

How to choose the best Instagram ad type

With so many different ad types available, it can be overwhelming to select one to use for your campaign. The good news: Ads Manager is well set up for experimentation, which means you can test multiple formats and see which one performs best before running a full campaign.

To narrow down the formats, use these questions to guide you.

1. What is my goal?

With your social media marketing strategy in mind, identify the most important outcome for your Instagram ads campaign. Do you want to:

  • Drive traffic to your website?
  • Get video views for a new product?
  • Increase brand awareness for a new business?
  • Drive ecommerce purchases, app installs, or email signups?

After clarifying your goal, you can choose some potential formats based on the supported objectives and call-to-action options for each ad type. For example, Stories, IGTV and Reels ads are better for driving video views, while Shopping and Collection ads will be best for driving ecommerce purchases.

Bonus: Download a free pack of 8 eye-catching Instagram ad templates created by Hootsuite’s professional graphic designers. Start stopping thumbs and selling more today.

Download now

2.

Who is my target audience?

Depending on who you wish to target with your Instagram ads, some ad types may be better than others.

Think about your audience’s habits and behaviors. Do they like watching lots of videos? Are they avid online shoppers? Do they spend more time watching Stories and Reels instead of scrolling through their feed?

Choose ad types with objectives and call-to-actions that match your audience’s natural preferences.

3. What has performed best on organic?

Chances are that your organic followers have lots of similarities to the audience you’ll be targeting with your Instagram ads. So, look to your organic feed to see what types of content have performed well, and that can give you a good indication of what paid formats might resonate with your audience.

How to advertise on Instagram

There are two routes for creating Instagram ads campaigns: promoting a post and Ads Manager. Promoting an existing post only takes a few taps and can be done right from the Instagram app, but lacks the customization options available in Ads Manager.

Below, we’ll walk you through both methods.

Source: Instagram

Instagram advertising method 1: Promoting a post in-app

The easiest way to start advertising on Instagram is to promote one of your existing Instagram posts. This is similar to Facebook’s Boost Post option.

If you have a post that’s performing well in terms of engagement, promoting it within the app is a quick and easy method to scale up the post’s success—and show it to new people who aren’t following you yet.

You’ll need to have a business or creator account on Instagram to do this. You’ll also need to have a Facebook Business Page connected to your Instagram account (here’s how to connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts in Facebook Business Manager).

Then, it’s as simple as clicking Promote on the post you wish to turn into an ad.

You’ll be prompted to choose your preferred audience, destination, budget, and duration for your ad to run.

Finally, tap Create Promotion.

That’s it! Your ad will be reviewed and approved by Facebook. Once it goes live, be sure to monitor the results of your ad in the Promotions tab of your Instagram profile.

Instagram advertising method 2: Creating Instagram ads using Facebook Ads Manager (5-step guide)

In order to get the most out of Instagram’s extensive ad targeting, creative, and reporting abilities, you can use Facebook Ads Manager to create ad campaigns (remember that Facebook owns Instagram).

Although it requires a bit more work, our 5-step guide will guide you through the process.

Step 1: Choose your objective

To start, go to Ads Manager and click +Create.

First, you’ll need to choose your campaign objective from the list below.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what each of these objectives aims to achieve.

  • Brand awareness: Increase awareness of your business or products among users who haven’t heard of you yet.
  • Reach: Show your ad to as many people as possible in your target audience.
  • Traffic: Drive clicks to your website, app, or any other URL.
  • App installs: Get users to download your app.
  • Engagement: Increase comments, likes, shares, event responses, and offer claims on your ad.
  • Video views: Get video views from users most likely to watch it.
  • Lead generation: Gather personal info from interested users (i.e. email signups).
  • Messages: Get users to send a message to your brand account.
  • Conversions: Drive sales or sign-up conversions on your website or app.
  • Catalog sales: Promote sales from your online store catalog.
  • Store traffic: Direct users to your brick-and-mortar location.

This video can help identify your objective:

[Instagram Ad Options video]

After selecting your objective, you’ll be prompted to name your campaign. Tip: Give it a specific name based on the campaign objective to help you keep track of your campaigns.

Finally, you’ll have the option to turn on Campaign Budget Optimization. This option allows Facebook’s algorithm to determine how to spend your budget across ad sets. AdEpresso has a full guide about if you should use Campaign Budget Optimization.

Step 2: Choose your budget and schedule

In this step, you’ll choose how much you want to spend and how long your campaign will run.

For your budget, you’ll have two options:

  • Daily budget: Set a maximum daily spend, useful for always-on ads
  • Lifetime budget: Set a maximum spend for your whole campaign, useful for ads with a clear end date

Under Ad Scheduling you can choose to run ads continuously (most common), or only at certain times of day (for example, if you’re a food delivery company and only want to run ads in the evening when your audience is most likely to place delivery orders).

As you adjust these options, you’ll see the Audience Definition and Estimated Daily Results modules in the right-hand column which will give you an idea of expected reach for your chosen budget. Try to choose settings so that your ad set falls in the middle of the green range.

Step 3: Identify your audience

The next step is to define your audience targeting. In this step you can either Create a New Audience or use a Saved Audience.

Saved Audiences are useful if you have your own custom audience data (i.e. past website visitors) or past audiences from previous campaigns that performed well. If not, you can create a new audience based on demographics, interests, and behavioral targeting.

During this step, you can also select Dynamic Creative. If you choose this option, you can upload separate visual assets and headlines, and Facebook will automatically create combinations that are optimized for your target audience.

Step 4: Select your ad placements

In the Placements section, you can decide where your ads will appear.

There are two options:

  • Automatic Placements: Ads will be shown to your audience wherever they’re likely to perform best.
  • Manual Placements: You can choose specifically where your ad will appear (and not appear). If you want to limit your ads to show only on Instagram (not Facebook), you can choose this using Manual Placements.

Here’s where you can select your manual placements:

While previewing placements, Ads Manager will display the technical requirements for each one. To ensure your visual assets are optimized for each format, see our guide to social media image sizes.

Step 5: Create your ads

Now it’s time to create the actual ad. Start by choosing your Facebook Page and corresponding Instagram Account. Then you can select your preferred ad format.

Then, proceed to fill out the rest of the details under Ad Creative:

  1. Choose your pictures or videos (unless you’re using an existing post)
  2. Input your ad copy
  3. Select a payment option
  4. Review your ad
  5. Click Confirm

At this step you will also choose the call-to-action button and enter the URL where you want to send people who click on your ad.

If you want to track conversions from your ad, it’s important to select the Facebook Pixel in the Tracking section. Once connected to your website or app, your Facebook pixel will allow you to see insights about how your audience interacts with your business after clicking on your ad.

When you’re ready, click Confirm to launch your Instagram ad.

Best practices for Instagram ads

Now you have everything you need to know about setting up and launching Instagram ads. The next step is designing effective visual assets for your ads.

Here are some tips for how to design attention-grabbing creative for Instagram ads.

Design mobile-first ads

98.8% of users access social media via a mobile device, so it’s vital to design your creative for mobile viewing, not desktop.

Here are a few tips to design mobile-first ads:

  • When capturing video content, make sure to film in vertical (9×16) as this is easier to crop to 4×5 than from landscape
  • Minimize the amount of text in your ads
  • If you do add text, choose large font sizes that are easy to read on mobile screens
  • Add animations and motion graphics to videos to quickly engage viewers
  • Keep videos short (15 seconds or less)

Keep branding and messaging upfront

The first few seconds of your ad will determine whether a viewer will stop scrolling and watch the whole thing. That’s why it’s important to start your ad with the key message and showcase your branding within the first 3 seconds.

Use sound to delight

40% of users consume social media with sound off. As such, it’s important to design your ads for sound-off consumption, and to use sound to delight users who do have sound on. Here’s how to do that:

  • Use visual elements to tell your story and deliver your key message without sound
  • Add captions for any voiceover or scripted audio
  • Use text overlay to deliver your key message without sound

Pitch, play, plunge

Facebook recommends designing a combination of creative types that work together to grab attention and reward interest:

  • Pitch: Short assets that get the campaign idea across immediately and grab attention
  • Play: Assets that allow light exploration and interactivity for interested audiences
  • Plunge: Immersive assets that allow people to go in-depth into your campaign idea

Looking for more inspiration? Here are 53 examples of amazing Instagram ads.

Get the most out of your Instagram advertising budget with AdEspresso by Hootsuite. Easily create, manage, and optimize all your Instagram ad campaigns in one place. Try it free today.

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Bonus: Get the Instagram advertising cheat sheet for 2022. The free resource includes key audience insights, recommended ad types, and tips for success.

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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?

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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.

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Want to Learn More?

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How to add a photo to Instagram from your phone

There are 3 main ways to add a photo to Instagram* from your phone: upload via the Instagram* mobile app, from your phone gallery, or via third-party apps. We will analyze separately how to publish a photo in a post and a story.

How to publish a post in the feed

Method 1: through the Instagram app*

Download the Instagram app* from the AppStore or Google Play. After registering or logging into your account, you will see the [+] icon in the upper right corner, click on it, and then in the menu that appears, click on the "Publish" button.

Interface for adding a new post to the feed

Next, you will open the interface for adding a post, you need to go through several steps:

  1. select media files;
  2. file editing: filters, light and color correction;
  3. adding text, geotagging, etc.;
  4. publication.

Let's take a closer look at how to post photos on Instagram* from your phone.

Select media files. After pressing the "Publish" button, you will be taken to the gallery on your phone. Select the photos or videos you want to post. At this stage, you can also change the resolution or select multiple files for one post.

Basic buttons for setting up a future publication

Editing files. After selecting all the settings, click the "Next" button in the upper right corner and go to the editing interface - here you can apply filters, adjust contrast, add sharpness, level the horizon, and so on.

Photo and video editing tools

Add text and labels. Once you've finished editing your media, click the Next button again and the last settings will open: select other social networks for publication, add text, geotag, user tags. Read more in our article “Instagram tags*: how and why to use”.

Final settings for posting to the feed

Big text cannot be posted on Instagram*, the limit is 2200 characters. But if you really need it, we have an article with recommendations for the design of such publications.

Publication . When you're done with the settings, click "Share" in the upper right corner and the post will appear in your account feed and in the news feed of your followers. Hooray!

The process of loading a post and its display in the news feed

Method 2: through the phone gallery

This is a quick way when you just need to post one file with a caption, because this way you can not customize the display format, add multiple files to one post, edit media files, add geotags and tag other users.

How to post photos on Instagram* from your phone using the gallery:

  1. open the gallery on your phone;
  2. click on the desired photo;
  3. select "Share" from the menu;
  4. click on the Instagram icon*;
  5. click on the "Publish" button;
  6. write the text for the post and click "OK" in the upper right corner;
  7. then click "Share" in the same place.

That's it - the publication has been uploaded to your profile!

Step-by-step process of publishing a photo in the feed through the phone gallery

If you do not know what, why, why to publish and how to design, I recommend our free course "7 Steps of Content Marketing". In the course, we tell you what content marketing is, how to create, design and promote content on the Internet. All this will help you understand how content works, why publish posts and how to make them beautiful and interesting.

Method 3: Through other apps

You can upload photos to Instagram* from photo and video editing apps, feed maker, and so on. Almost all of these applications have the ability to automatically add media files to Instagram*.

For example, the Canva photo and video editor app has a Share button in the top right corner. In the additional menu, the Instagram icon appears *, when clicked, it transfers to the social network application with the option to select a placement: Stories or feed. After clicking on the "Feed" button, the standard Instagram interface * opens to add a post to the feed.

Algorithm for publishing a post in the feed from the Canva application

How to post a Story

You can upload a photo to Instagram stories* from your phone both directly from the Instagram application* and through third-party applications.

There are 3 ways to post a Story via the Instagram app*:

  • click on the blue [+] icon on your avatar in your feed or profile;
  • click on the [+] button in the upper right corner and select the "History" item;
  • in the news feed, swipe from left to right across the screen.
Ways to add a new Story: icon next to the avatar and icon on the right

After clicking, the interface for creating Stories will open. By default, the camera opens, and you can immediately take a picture or video for stories. If you want to add files from your phone's gallery, tap the button in the bottom left corner of the screen or swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

Stories interface when first opened with camera enabled

The story editing interface also has many useful features:

  • Text. Different fonts, colors, ways of writing, animation. To add, click once on the screen or on the “Aa” icon at the top right of the screen, the interface for adding text will appear with additional settings at the top of the screen.
  • Drawing. Brushes for painting on photo or video. Click on the ellipsis in the upper right corner and on the "Draw" button. The color and brush settings will also appear at the top of the screen.
  • Interactive Instagram stickers*. Questions, tests, polls, mentions, geolocation, music, hashtags and so on. To select stickers, click on the sticker icon in the upper right corner or swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Read more about them in our article with an overview of new stickers.
  • Masks. Filters and AR masks to decorate stories. There are masks both from Instagram* itself and from users. To get as many creative masks as possible, subscribe to major bloggers who create such masks. For example, bloggers ya.molli or georska.
Stories editing interface

Once you're done with your stories, select the publish option at the bottom of the screen:

  • Your Story. Stories are immediately published on your profile, and all users can see it.
  • Close friends. Stories will only be seen by users that you have added to your Close Friends list.
  • Right arrow. An additional menu will open, which has the function of sending stories in a private message.
Selecting a publishing location Stories

Stories, like posts, can be posted from other applications, only when choosing a placement, you need to click "Stories".

Check out the Instagram Stories* section of our blog for inspiration on how to use Stories on both your personal blog and brand account.

If you feel uncomfortable publishing posts and stories from your phone, use services for publishing from your computer, such as SMMplanner. With it, you can design and post posts and stories from your computer and specify the time at which they will be automatically published.

Scheduling a new post on Instagram* from a computer via SMMplanner

What is the convenience of delayed posting and how to post on Instagram* from SMMplanner, read in our article "Delayed posting services on Instagram*: why they are needed and how they work".

Briefly about the main

Universal algorithm of actions for posting photos on Instagram* from the phone:

  • download the Instagram application*, register or enter your profile;
  • click on [+] in the upper right corner and select "Publication" or "History";
  • edit media file, add interactive elements or labels;
  • click the "Publish" button.

Done! Your first story or post is already in the feed.

How to add a photo to 📸Instagram from a computer or phone

We continue the series of articles “Instagram for a teapot”. Simple instructions on how to properly use the functionality and much more. Next topic: “How to add a photo to Instagram”.

Content

  1. How to add a photo or story to Instagram from a computer
  2. How to add a photo to instagram from phone
  3. How to add several photos to Instagram at once
  4. How to post a photo on Instagram in full size
  5. How many photos can be added to Instagram per day
  6. Is it possible to add a photo to a published post
  7. Test! How well did you understand the topic

How to add a photo to Instagram?

Instagram itself is designed to share experiences. You can use the social network from a PC or smartphone. But adding a photo to Instagram through the latter is much easier - apart from the application itself, nothing else is needed for this.

Can I add a photo or story to Instagram from a computer?

The topic of publishing photos on Instagram from a computer has always been relevant. The Internet is full of different ways, most of which involve installing additional applications. But it is long, and sometimes even difficult. Therefore, we suggest using the following method:0003

  1. We go to Instagram through the browser, press the key combination Ctrl + Shift + I or hover over any empty space, press the right mouse button and select View code. This menu will appear on the side:

2. In the upper left corner of this menu, there is an icon with a phone and a tablet. We press.

3. After clicking, the Instagram view will change. Now press F5 or round arrow in the upper left corner of the browser to refresh the page. On Instagram, the bottom menu will appear, as in the mobile version.

4. Now, if you need to publish a photo, close the menu by clicking on the gray cross in the upper right corner and use instagram like on your phone.

5. If you want to add a story, then leave the menu open and click on the camera icon to the left of the inscription "Instagram" . This function only works when the menu is open.

Add a photo from your phone to Instagram in 4 steps

Posting and sharing your photo from your mobile device is very simple.

1. Enter the profile and look for "+" at the bottom of the screen.

2. Click on it and get access to the gallery and camera. In the first case, we select a ready-made picture from the library, in the second we make a new one online directly in the Instagram account. It looks like this:

If you want to take a photo or shoot a video, go to the corresponding inscription. After selecting or taking a picture, click "next" at the top right.

3. Get into the photo editor. Here you can adjust the brightness of the image. Scroll the ribbon with tools to the left - there are enough filters to get the desired quality. To align it, add or remove brightness, sharpness, contrast, etc. go to the "edit" tab (also at the bottom of the screen). At the end of the correction, we look up and send the “Next” frame.

4. Everything is ready! You can sign - your comment is added right next to in the same window. A little lower is the "tag people" option. Now you can share by clicking the blue button of the same name in the upper right.

Your Instagram photo! The same is done with video.

How to add several photos to Instagram at once?

Posting multiple photos is possible in two ways:

  • Several different posts. Each photo has a separate post.
  • Carousel. Multiple photos in one post.

Consider the second option in detail. To do this, in step No. 2 of the previous instruction, before clicking "Next", we activate the inscription "select several" at the bottom.

We get into the general gallery with the ability to select frames:

Mark the ones you need and only after that go up and click "Next". It turns out a carousel of several pictures.
On the web, such a collage looks like this:

Below, in the line with a heart, there is a quadruple. It says that there are several frames in the post. This is also evidenced by the counter in the upper right corner - 2/4. That is, we have the 2nd of 4. Flipping through them is simple - with a light touch on the screen with a shift to the left. In total, you can add up to 10 photos or videos to the carousel.

How do I post full size photos on Instagram?

Until recently, all frames for an Instagram profile had to be cut. The network accepted only square images. Now the restrictions on the dimensions and orientation of the image have been removed. Vertical or horizontal, it doesn't matter.

So, choose a photo through the gallery or take a new camera. Before uploading to the profile, adjust the size. To prevent the picture from looking cropped, use the double brackets in the lower left
corner - . Full size without cropping guaranteed.

You can trim as follows. After selecting it, touch the center and stretch your fingers in different directions - a grid will appear. Move until only the desired image remains in it and click "Next".
Then filter and edit as in the instructions above, and you can publish.

How many photos can you add to Instagram in a day?

Instagram does not have a hard limit on the number of daily posts.

There is a possibility that your account will be blocked if you post more than 100 photos per day. But only if they look like spam.

Can I add a photo to a published post?

You can't edit anything in an already published material - change the size, add effects, adjust the lighting, etc.

Learn more