How to pay advertising on instagram
8-Step Guide to Using Instagram Ads [2023 Edition]
What are Instagram ads?
How much do Instagram ads cost?
Types of Instagram ads
How to advertise on Instagram: setting up an ad step-by-step
6 Instagram ad tips
Instagram ad examples
If you have a budget for paid social, you should strongly consider running Instagram ads. Why?
Ads on Instagram reach 96.6% of Instagram’s active user base every month. That’s a total of almost 2 billion potential customers! And the target group is still gowing — data from Meta shows that Instagram’s ad reach has jumped by 21% in the last year, despite changes in its ad reporting.
This guide will walk you through how to advertise on Instagram, including an easy 8-step guide to creating your first Instagram ad.
Bonus: Claim your free pack of 15 Instagram ad templates created by Hootsuite’s professional graphic designers. Easily customize them in Canva, and start stopping thumbs and selling more today.
What are Instagram ads?
Instagram ads are posts businesses can pay to serve to specific target groups on Instagram.
These ads appear in users’ feeds, Stories, and explore pages in the same format as organic content from other Instagram accounts.
Instagram ads can contain images, videos, carousels (multiple images), or collections (dynamic product galleries).
Instagram ads 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 tags.
Source: Instagram (@tedbaker)
How much do Instagram ads cost?
The cost of Instagram ads depends on the total budget, duration, and objectives you’ve set for your ad or campaign. You can set a daily or lifetime budget for your Instagram ads, so it’s up to you how much you want to spend.
Note that there is no best practice for how much to spend, but Meta recommends starting with at least $5.00 per day.
While there is no average or benchmark price, some cost factors can include:
- Your specific audience targeting
- The competitiveness of your industry
- The time of year (costs often go up during holiday shopping periods in Q4 such as Black Friday)
- Your chosen placement (costs can differ between ads shown on Facebook vs Instagram)
Advertisers can set their maximum bids for each auction or let Instagram optimize them automatically. So, if you’re new to advertising through Instagram, it’s best to start with a low maximum bid to gain some experience.
Once you have gained more insight into the competitive landscape for your chosen industry and demographics, you can decide if raising your maximum bid is necessary. We’ll explain this in more detail in our 8-step guide below.
The best way to evaluate your budget is to set up a draft campaign in the Instagram Ad 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 campaign duration.
Types of Instagram ads
There are many different types of advertising formats on Instagram, including:
- Image ads
- Story ads
- Video ads
- Carousel ads
- Collection ads
- Explore ads
- Shopping ads
- Reels ads
The wide range means that you can choose the best ad type that matches your specific business goals. Instagram ads now support six simplified campaign objectives. Call-to-action options will vary based on the ad type and objective you choose, see more on that below.
Image ads
Instagram image ads allow businesses to use single images to advertise their brand, products, and services.
Source: Instagram (@thursdays)
Instagram 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 accessibility and best results.
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability | |
| Donate Now |
Video ads
Instagram video ads are a great way to showcase your product or service in an engaging, eye-catching way.
You can use video ads to demonstrate how products work, highlight unique features, or simply tell your brand story.
In-feed video ads can be up to 60 minutes long, but shorter videos are usually more effective. Read more about Instagram ad specs in our best practices for designing Instagram video ads blog.
Source: Instagram (@the_oodie)
Story ads
Instagram Story 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 mobile screen and feels much more immersive than in-feed ads.
The best Instagram Stories ads 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 (@campbellscanada)
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.
Source: Instagram (@woodscanada)
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability | |
| Donate Now |
Carousel ads
Instagram 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 leads 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 (@bashparis)
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability | |
| Donate Now |
Collection ads
Instagram 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)
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Not all calls to action may be available to you, depending on your industry. |
| Traffic | |
| Engagement | |
| Leads | |
| Sales |
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.
Source: Instagram (@halara_official)
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 Instagram ad assets.
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App Promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability |
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 60 seconds. They should include sound or music to be well-integrated with organic Reels. All Instagram Reels ads will show a Sponsored mark underneath the account name.
Source: Instagram (@redbull)
Note that Instagram Reels ads will loop infinitely unless stopped. As well, users can like, share, comment, and save your Reels ads.
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Shop Now |
| Traffic | Read More |
| Engagement | Sign Up |
| Leads | Click Here |
| App promoton | |
| Sales |
Shopping ads
With 44% of Instagram users shopping on the platform every week, 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 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.
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
| Supported objectives | Call-to-action (CTA) buttons |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Apply Now |
| Traffic | Book Now |
| Engagement | Contact Us |
| Leads | Buy Tickets |
| App promotion | Contact Us |
| Sales | Download |
| Call Now | |
| Get Offer | |
| Get Quote | |
| Get Showtimes | |
| Get Directions | |
| Learn More | |
| Listen Now | |
| Order Now | |
| Play Game | |
| Request Time | |
| See Menu | |
| Shop Now | |
| Sign Up | |
| Subscribe | |
| Watch More | |
| Use App | |
| Install Now | |
| Remind Me | |
| Send Message | |
| Send WhatsApp Message | |
| View Event | |
| Try in Camera | |
| Check Availability | |
| Find Your Groups | |
| Dial Code |
How to advertise on Instagram: setting up an ad step-by-step
There are two routes for creating Instagram ads campaigns: boosting an existing post and creating a new ad in the Meta Ads Manager (f.
k.a. Facebook 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 Instagram Ads Manager.
Below, we’ll walk you through both methods.
Method 1: Using Instagram Boost
The easiest way to start advertising on Instagram is to promote one of your existing posts. This is similar to Facebook’s Boost Post option.
If you have a post that is 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 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 Boost post on the post you wish to turn into an ad.
Next, choose your goal. You’ll have three options: more profile visits, more website visits, or more messages (this includes more WhatsApp messages).
Then, define your audience. You can either choose to let Instagram automatically determine your audience (based on your follower data). Or, you can create your own audience by manually entering your targeting options.
You can also choose to run the boosted post on Facebook, if you want.
Now choose your daily budget and the duration of time you want the ad to run. You can either choose a set number of days or let it run infinitely until you manually pause it.
Finally, review your ad and click Boost post when you’re ready to go live.
That’s it! Your ad will be reviewed and approved by Facebook. Once it goes live, monitor your ad’s results in the Promotions tab of your Instagram profile.
Method 2: Using Ads Manager
To get the most out of Instagram’s extensive ad targeting, creative, and reporting abilities, you can use the Meta Ads Manager to create ad campaigns (remember that Meta owns Instagram).
Although it requires a bit more work, our 8-step guide will guide you through the process.
Step 1: Create a new Instagram ad campaign
To start, go to Meta Ads Manager and click +Create.
Step 2: Choose your objective
You can choose to pair your ad with an existing campaign, or start a new one from scratch. To start a new campaign, you’ll need to choose your objective first.
There are six campaign objectives available for Instagram ads. Those are:
- Awareness: Reach the largest number of people who are most likely to remember your ad.
- Traffic: Send people directly to your website, Instagram Shop, or app.
- Engagement: Increase views, likes, comments and shares on your Instagram posts.
- Leads: Collect leads for your business via Instagram ads. Or, encourage them to share information in exchange for content.
- App promotion: Promote app engagement and Installs.
- Sales: Find people likely to purchase your goods or services and drive more sales.
Choose the objective that best matches your goals, and click Continue.
Step 3: Name your campaign
After selecting your objective, you’ll be prompted to name your campaign.
Pro Tip: Give it a specific name based on the campaign objective to help you keep track of your campaigns.
Once you’ve chosen a name, click Next.
Step 4: Choose your budget and schedule
Once you know what you want your ad to look like, choose New [your ad goal here] Ad Set from the left-hand menu.
Here, you can 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 your budget’s expected reach.
Pro tip: Try to make your ad set fall in the middle of the green range.
Step 5: Identify your audience
Now it’s time to choose your audience.
You can either use a previously saved audience or create a new 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.
If you choose to create a new audience, you’ll have the option to target by location, age range, gender, demographics, interests, behaviours, and languages.
Step 6: Choose your Instagram ad placements
In the Placements section, you can decide where your ads will appear.
There are two options:
- Advantage+ 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 these using Manual Placements.
If you’re new to Instagram advertising, we recommend going with Advantage+ placements.
If you choose manual placements, the 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 7: Create a new Instagram ad
Finally, it’s time to create your new Instagram ad. Choose New [your goal here] Ad from the left-hand menu. This will open up a screen where you can customize your new Instagram ad.
Here, you can edit your ad name, choose from different Instagram ad types, and add creative elements like images, videos, headlines, and CTAs.
You can also add any copy, website links, and tracking parameters on this screen.
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.
Step 8: Publish your Instagram ad
Once you’ve filled out all the necessary fields, click Publish in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.
Your Instagram ads will now run on the chosen budget and timeline. Be sure to check your Instagram Analytics regularly to see how your ads perform.
6 Instagram ad tips
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.
1. Design mobile-first ads
More than 4.08 billion 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 for designing 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)
2.
Keep branding and messaging upfrontThe 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.
3. Use sound to delight
Data suggests that 69% 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
4. 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
5.
Use a variety of ad typesWith so many Instagram ad types to choose from, you can experiment to find the right combination of visuals and messaging that resonates best with your target audience. Consider incorporating video ads, Story ads, carousel posts, collections, shoppable posts, and more into your advertising approach.
Similarly, get creative with your creative! Why not test out some meme ads, or create custom illustrations, or GIFs to get your message out? Remember, Instagram ads should reflect your brand’s overall aesthetic and style. But that said, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t switch things up to keep your audience engaged.
6. Leverage analytics to see where you stand
The best way to know if your Instagram ads are performing well is to measure their effectiveness with analytics. Instagram’s native reporting tool offers insights into key metrics such as impressions, clicks, engagement rate, and ROI.
You can also use third-party tools to track your campaign performance in more detail and make data-driven decisions on improving future ad campaigns.
Instagram ad examples
To get inspired, let’s look at some successful Instagram ad campaigns from other brands. As you browse these Instagram ad examples, consider the types of visuals used, where ads are placed within stories, and how businesses use copy to engage their target audiences.
Skip puts its offer front and centre
Skip the dishes knows it only has a few seconds to grab its viewer’s attention–so they don’t waste any time telling you what they’re selling. In one simple and effective graphic, they give you the what, why, and where.
Source: Instagram (@skipthedishes)
The Bay leverages VR/AR capabilities
Today’s online shoppers expect interactive experiences–and The Bay delivers. By combining Instagram story ads with its VR/AR capabilities, the retailer creates a unique shopping experience that takes users out of their phone, and into the store.
Source: Instagram (@hudsonsbay)
Birdies speaks to the stomach
Marketing is all about emotion, right? And what’s more emotional than food? Birdies does a great job of connecting with its audience on Instagram by showcasing mouth-watering images of its most drool-worthy dishes.
Source: Instagram (@birdiesyvr)
Vessi shows its product in action
Instagram Reels, Story, and video ads are a great way to showcase how your product works–especially when it’s a technical item like Vessi’s new waterproof gloves. Here, Vessi uses an Instagram Reels ad to show the product in action.
Source: Instagram (@vessi)
Cider keeps it simple
You don’t need to break the bank every time you create an Instagram ad. Clothing brand Cider’s in-feed image ad is simple but effective. They show you the product and tell you why you should buy it. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.
Source: Instagram (@cidergang)
Dank Mart uses collab posts to build hype
Instagram now allows brands to create collab posts. These posts will show two account names–the brand and their partner–and link to both accounts. Canadian specialty snack store Dank Mart used this feature to advertise a new product with its upcoming collaborator, Nemesis Coffee.
Source: Instagram (@dankmart)
Storyworth turns customer testimonials into ads
Social proof is the idea that seeing other customers use and recommend a product will make you more likely to buy it. a company that helps you record your family history in a book, leveraged this idea by using customer videos in their ads. By showing grandparents opening this gift for the first time, they created a personalized, emotional Instagram ad that customers could relate to.
Source: Instagram (@storyworth)
Looking for more inspiration? Check out the Facebook ads library to see how other companies advertise on Instagram. You can search for Instagram ads by keyword and better understand how different brands approach the platform. From there, you can confidently test your campaigns, knowing what’s already worked for others in your industry.
Manage Instagram alongside your other social channels and save time using Hootsuite.
From a single dashboard, you can schedule, publish, and boost posts, engage your audience, and measure performance. Try it free today.
Get Started
Want your content to be seen by more people? Boost Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn posts in one place with Hootsuite.
Free 30-Day Trial (risk-free!)
Bonus: Get the Instagram advertising cheat sheet for 2022. The free resource includes key audience insights, recommended ad types, and tips for success.
Get the free cheat sheet now!
How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost in 2022? (+ How to Save)
While Facebook and Instagram advertising work using the same Ads Manager, their respective advertising costs vary. With Facebook being around longer, having more data, and more ad placements compared to its younger adopted sibling platform, we do find that more often than not, Instagram is slightly more expensive than Facebook in some instances.
While that is the case, don’t let it deter you from exploring this lucrative and effective visual counterpart in the Facebook ecosystem. With fewer ad placements, increased competition for impression share, you may pay slightly more to use Instagram, but you may also pleasantly see it being much more cost-effective than the results you’re getting with Facebook.
Paid advertising is a powerful marketing tool on Instagram and complements what brands are able to do in their Feeds, Stories, and Explore tabs. While Reels and IGTV don’t yet have ad placements, we may very well see them added as placement as the platform continues to scale and the need for more impressions comes about. Like Facebook ads, Instagram ads offer advanced targeting and flexibility so as to be accessible for just about any business. If this visual platform is a popular channel for your target audience, you may want to advertise on Instagram. To help you understand the cost, we’re going to cover:
- How Instagram ads work.
- What makes Instagram advertising worth the price.
- Factors that influence Instagram ad costs.
- Average cost per click, cost per engagement, and cost per thousand impressions on Instagram.
- Ways to keep your Instagram ad costs down
Read on to learn about the workings, advantages, and cost of advertising on Instagram this year.
How do Instagram ads work?
Depending on your campaign objective, ads appearing on Instagram can have up to 18 call-to-action button options, can link to your website, and give users options to download applications or shop online stores.
You don’t actually even need an Instagram account to advertise on Instagram. Since Facebook is its parent company, all you need a Facebook Business Page. However, it is best to have an Instagram account so you can familiarize yourself with content that resonates best with your target audience and complement and amplify your organic Instagram marketing efforts.
To set up Instagram Ads, use Facebook’s Ads Manager to set up campaigns, ad sets where you select your budget, target audience, ad placements, and optimization options.
Similar to Facebook Ads, your ads will run within the selected time frame, budget parameters, audience selection, and optimization goals.
What makes Instagram advertising worth the price?
Advertising on social media brings many benefits, and there are some particular benefits of paying for ad impressions on Instagram rather than simply running campaigns and promotions directly from your business’s account.
Advanced targeting
With over 1 billion monthly users, Instagram ranks second after Facebook. These platforms have an incredibly robust arsenal of targeting data and since Facebook owns Instagram, Instagram advertising utilizes the same comprehensive demographic and geographic data. This advanced targeting is what makes Facebook Ads work so well, as you can be incredibly prescriptive when targeting various audiences. Whether you are utilizing Facebook’s native audiences based on interests, behaviors, or other demographics, or utilizing your own custom audiences that utilize your Pixel or SDK, email lists, or other sources, you can find success in reaching the right people in your prospecting and retargeting campaigns.
Higher engagement rates
Instagram is known for its high engagement rates—organically and through paid ads. Images on Instagram receive an average of 23% more engagement than when shared on Facebook. When it comes to organic engagement, brands on Instagram say that they have about 4% of their followers seeing their content compared to the nearly non-existent organic reach that Facebook has today. While it’s better, it’s still wise to pay to play in order to expand your reach and visibility with paid ads. While any form of visual content can perform well, brands typically see more engagement on video ads—about 38% more. As a visual platform, images and videos are powerful in driving more engagement than on other more text-based social platforms.
External links
Instagram does not currently allow clickable links in organic posts. You can include a link in your caption or message, but the recipient has to copy and paste it into their browser or visit the link in your Instagram bio.
With Instagram advertising, you can include outside links, which enables you to designate a destination URL to your website or another external URL. To be able to better track website traffic from your Instagram Ads, it’s recommended to use your own domain as you should have your Pixel implemented there, whereas you may not have it on other website URLs that you don’t control.
Longer videos
Instagram Feed and Explore video can be up to 60 seconds in duration and while Stories are typically up to 15 seconds in duration, if you run ads in these three ad placements, you can have up to 2 minutes of video content. This gives you more opportunity to convey both your brand and the features and benefits of your offer through your products and/or services.
How much do Instagram ads cost?
Let’s take a look at the average cost per click, cost per engagement, and cost per thousand impressions on Instagram.
Instagram cost per click (CPC)
For all metrics, Instagram cost per click in 2021 ranges from $0.
40-$0.70. This takes into account all clicks that happen on an ad, which includes not only link clicks, but likes/reactions, comments, and shares.
For ads that have a destination URL, Instagram cost per click in 2021 ranges from $0.50-$0.95.
Instagram cost per engagement (CPE)
Instagram cost per engagement in 2021 ranges from $0.01-0.05.
Instagram cost per thousand impressions (CPM)
Instagram cost per one thousand impressions in 2021 ranges between $2.50-$3.50 for better-performing campaigns and their respective ad sets.
When it comes to CPMs, our findings show that Facebook tends to be higher than Instagram, by nearly 2x but CPCs tend to be lower by nearly half on Facebook compared to Instagram.
Image via AdEspresso
Facebook vs Instagram advertising costs
While Facebook and Instagram advertising work using the same Ads Manager, their respective advertising costs vary (see how much it costs to advertise on Facebook in 2021 here).
With Facebook being around longer, having more data, and more ad placements compared to its younger adopted sibling platform, we do find that more often than not, Instagram is slightly more expensive than Facebook in some instances.
While that is the case, don’t let it deter you from exploring this lucrative and effective visual counterpart in the Facebook ecosystem. With fewer ad placements and increased competition for impression share, you may pay slightly more to use Instagram, but you may also pleasantly see it being much more cost-effective than the results you’re getting with Facebook.
Factors that influence Instagram ads costs
Similar to other platforms, Instagram ad pricing is influenced by a number of variables.
Campaign objective
Campaign objectives can cause your advertising costs to be automatically higher or lower, depending on which you choose and how it relates to where your target audience is in the funnel.
For example, if you select a brand awareness campaign objective, it will be lower in cost than something lower down the funnel and that has a higher value objective, such as conversions.
Having broader, colder audiences see your ad to drive brand awareness is a lower-value action compared to targeting a user further down funnel—who are more familiar with your brand and offerings, and ready to open their wallet or take a higher-value action.
Audience size
If you are targeting broader audiences, they are typically lower in cost as there is less competition for a group of people. As you narrow your audiences, perhaps by reducing their geotargeting or age ranges, you may see the price go up as competition for those eyeballs increases in parallel. Retargeting audiences are typically smaller as well, hence why we often see higher costs in retargeting campaigns.
Budget
Budget also influences Instagram ad costs because if you have a small budget, it may take longer to get out of the Learning Phase if your campaign or ad set is starting anew. Costs may be more expensive at first before the system learns and understands your campaign type and optimization goals, and how your audience engages with your ads.
If your ads are well engaged with, Facebook and Instagram will reward you with lower costs over time.
Click-through rate
If CTR is low, then we may see higher costs as the system thinks there may be some disconnect between your target audience and what you’re messaging in your ads. You want your ads to resonate with your target audience and CTR Is a strong indicator of that. Aim for a healthy CTR which is about 2%. If you have a healthy CTR, you should see your costs decrease.
How to lower your Instagram ads costs
Make the most of your budget by selecting funnel-appropriate campaign objectives to start. If you are targeting colder, broader, prospecting audiences, test less expensive campaigns to introduce your brand to audiences with an awareness, engagement, or better yet, a website traffic campaign so that these users leave Instagram and get to your website and tagged with the Pixel so you can later retarget them if they don’t convert on that first click. If you’re new to Instagram Ads, you can drive sales from the first interaction and click, but more often than not, users will need to have several interactions with your brands in order to develop trust, perhaps do some shopping and comparing, and then come back to you through retargeting or other means to open up their wallets.
If you have a low-cost product that doesn’t need much research, impulse buys can be successful from Instagram.
Another way to lower your Instagram costs is to use automatic placements in the ad set level and serve across both Facebook and Instagram. By having more placement liquidity, the system can use its algorithm to determine where to best serve your ads, thus giving them more options across both platforms and more ad placements, thus, lowering competition on Instagram’s three current ad placements, thus lowering your costs.
You will also want to test audiences with different ad variations by testing the different lines of ad copy and creatives – images and videos. By running tests, you can learn what resonates with your audiences and it can help improve your engagement rates and CTR, thus, also helping lower your costs and making your budget go further.
How much do Instagram ads cost? [recap]
Instagram continues to grow and the advertising options only become more robust.
It’s not yet saturated and it’s safe to assume that more ad placements will come our way.
Give Instagram Ads a test and see how it fairs in comparison to Facebook Ads and other advertising platforms you may be running on. It may end up being an important part of your funnel by driving more brand awareness and engagement or it may end up bringing a primary source of revenue.
- Instagram ads cost per click: $0.40-$0.70 (link clicks, likes, reactions, comments, shares)
- Instagram ads cost per click to destination URL: $0.50-$0.95.
- Instagram ads cost per engagement: $0.01-0.05.
- Instagram ads cost per thousand impressions: $2.50-$3.50
Want more cost information? Check out similar posts:
- How Much Does Google Ads Cost?
- How Much Do Facebook Ads Cost?
|
Many do not know how to pay for advertising on Instagram. 
Simply put, the post is launched first, and then the money is debited. 
The card data (first and last name) must match the Facebook profile data, otherwise the blocking of Ads Manager is inevitable. 
After that, the payment details will be added to the FB advertising account for payment for displaying ads (at the end of each month). How to pay for advertising on Instagram - 2 ways
If you want to promote your Instagram account with official advertising, but don't know how to pay for it, then this article will be extremely useful for you. In it, I will tell you how to pay for advertising on Instagram in two ways (via Facebook and through the Instagram app itself).
Article content:
Instagram advertising options
Today, there are 2 paid advertising options on Instagram: advertising, because it is on it that questions arise. With payment for advertising from bloggers or in public, everything is extremely simple, so we will not focus on this. In the second option, all you need is to agree with the blogger or the owner of the public about advertising, and they themselves will tell you how to pay for it.
Useful: Course "Promotion on Instagram from 0 to the first sales"
In the case of the first option, you will need to do everything yourself, and for this you must have at least a minimal understanding of targeting.
Targeted advertising is set up and paid either through facebook or through the Instagram app itself. And let's first deal with payment through Facebook.
How to pay for advertising on Instagram through Facebook
To pay for targeted advertising, you need to add a payment method in your facebook advertising account.
To do this, go to your Facebook profile and click on the triangle icon in the upper right corner. From the drop-down list, select "Create an advertisement"
You will be taken to your advertising account. Next, open the menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
Select "Billing" from the drop-down list.
Next, go to the payment settings by clicking on the appropriate button in the upper right corner of the screen.
Then click the "Add Payment Method" button.
Choose the payment method that suits you. Facebook suggests adding either a bank card or a PayPal account.
For those who don't know what PayPal is, it is a payment system through which you can pay for your purchases on the Internet. It is quite common in the West, but it also finds its customers here. You can learn more about this system on their website
paypal.com
. You can also register your account there, if you want, of course. By the way, registration is quite simple and does not take much time.
Most often, bank cards are used to pay for advertising. Everyone has them and everyone knows how to use them. By and large, in paypal you also link your card to this payment system. The only difference is that when paying directly with a bank card, the money is debited directly from it.
When paying via PayPal, you are first billed to this payment system, and then you confirm the payment in your account. After that, the money is also debited from your card linked to paypal.
After selecting the desired payment method, click the "Continue" button. Your details will be added to the Facebook advertising account and the amount spent on advertising will be deducted from them.
Important! Keep in mind that money is not debited immediately, but at the end of each month. That is, Instagram gives you the opportunity to run ads "in installments".
In other words, your advertisements are displayed first and only then money is debited for them. Therefore, you should not be very happy when you see that your advertising works, and the money for it does not go away. They will leave, but only a little later 😊
And if you see that the money is still not leaving, then check the correctness of the details that you set as a payment method or bank card balance. Perhaps you simply do not have enough funds to write off. In this case, your ads will stop and Facebook won't let you run any more ads until you pay the previous bill.
To be on the safe side, you can set a spending limit for your facebook account. Upon reaching this threshold, your ads will be paused and you will not be charged more than the specified amount. If you want to resume showing, it will be enough just to increase the spending limit or remove it altogether.
It's worth noting that you don't have to add your payment details first and only then create advertisements. When setting up targeting for the first time, at the end facebook will ask you to select the desired payment method and automatically add it to your billing ad account. In the future, if necessary, you can change the payment method in the same Billing.
How to pay for Instagram ads through the app
To pay for ads directly through the Instagram app itself, you first need to create a so-called "Promotion". In fact, this is the same targeted advertising, only it is called a little differently and is configured from your Instagram profile. But this option is only available for business accounts.
I described how to create a promotion in the article about targeting on Instagram, the link to which I gave at the very beginning of the article. Therefore, in order not to repeat myself here, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with it.
In a nutshell, during the promotion setup process, you will also be asked to add the desired payment method. Add it and your ad starts working. And at the end of the month, the spent amount will be deducted from you.
Learn more about advertising and promotions on Instagram in the course “Instagram promotion from scratch”. On the course, you will literally be led by the hand from scratch to the result.
Conclusion
I hope I was able to explain to you how to pay for ads on Instagram. Basically, all you need to do is add a payment method to your ad and run it.
