How to purchase instagram ads
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.
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:
- Choose your pictures or videos (unless you’re using an existing post)
- Input your ad copy
- Select a payment option
- Review your ad
- 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 attention-grabbing Instagram ad design.
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.
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How to Advertise on Instagram in 2023: A Complete Guide
Advertising on Instagram is a big, fat topic right now. No wonder many people try to learn how to advertise on Instagram.
With more than 1 billion active monthly users, Instagram is the leading visual content social network that offers a tremendous opportunity for digital marketers to tap into their target audience.
It has already changed the way we eat – #picturesFirst – and it’s on the cusp of changing how we go about advertising our business through visual content.
If you’ve already exhausted your Instagram influencer marketing opportunities or simply want to try a new marketing channel, but don’t really know where to start, here’s a quick step-by-step guide to advertising on Instagram.
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Why Advertise on Instagram?Since they’re both visually driven and built around the needs of a short attention span audience, Instagram and ecommerce go hand in hand. Most online shops rely heavily on high-quality product imagery to convert visitors into buyers. Repurposing these well-converting images and learning how to advertise on Instagram on a photo-sharing platform feels like a no-brainer move.
Instagram advertising also lets you control where your ads appear and who sees them. Compared to paid partnerships, your ads are published from your own account. You only have to decide how much you want to spend on ads, where to send people who click them, and who they should reach.
The benefits of using Instagram ads for your business include:
- Easy to use platform
- Scalable pricing
- Robust reporting so you’re constantly improving
One of the most prominent advantages of advertising on Instagram is the opportunity to reach thousands of engaged users without interrupting their browsing experience. Instagram ads appear almost identical to regular posts shared by the platform’s users. Mobile Marketing Association found that users tend to spend 40% more time interacting with native ads than traditional display ads. It’s an eye-opening stat for those looking to invest in new advertising channels.
How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Instagram?
A lot of businesses want to know how much Instagram ads cost before they take the leap. According to research by Revealbot, the average cost of running Instagram ad campaigns are:
- $8.83 CPM (cost per one thousand impressions)
- $1.28 CPC (cost per click)
That site also claims that average CPC and CPM could vary by campaign objective. The graph below indicates that Instagram ad CPC could range between $.25 and $7.96, based on your objective.
This means a good CPC on Instagram will be different from one business to another. The results will depend on your industry, the product you sell, and the ads you use.
It’s also worth mentioning that your Instagram ads cost could vary based on the competition in your industry. Chances are, if you are in a highly competitive industry, it’ll be more expensive to acquire a customer than if you are in a less competitive business sector.
Types of Instagram AdsHere are some types of Instagram ads you can use for your campaigns:
- Video ads
- Photo ads
- Carousel ads
- Stories ads
- Collection ads
![](/800/600/http/cdn.dribbble.com/users/3112187/screenshots/11498556/media/81266af8ed131fc3f8cb085ac6e6bd1b.jpg)
Instagram videos can be 60 seconds long, with the footage shot in square or landscape format. This gives you much more leeway to introduce and promote your business than the previous 15-second limit.
2. Photo adsA photo ad contains a single image in square or landscape format. These are the easiest to create in terms of visual assets, as you just need one image.
3. Carousel adsThese can include 2-10 videos and/or images that people can see by swiping through.
4. Stories adsInstagram Stories work like Snapchat in that they allow businesses to share self-destructing visual content. You can advertise on Insta Stories using videos or images.
5. Collection adsCollection ads function like video ads, appearing as a video on a user’s feed. However, they’re created using a series of still images that play like a video slideshow. You can add audio and text to your Instagram collection ads.
How to Advertise Your Business on Instagram: 8 Steps
To set up Instagram ad campaigns, you’ll need to have a company Facebook page, and all the budgeting, scheduling, and creation is done through the Facebook Ads Manager. There’s no separate Instagram manager, so you don’t need to create a new ad account. If you’ve run Facebook ads in the past, you’re pretty much up to speed with the process.
But let’s look at it step by step.
5 things before we begin…To succeed on Instagram you will need 5 things.
- Brand and product. Instagram works for distinct brands and products that can capture the browser’s eye — brand awareness campaigns don’t yield fantastic results.
- Visuals. As mentioned earlier, high-quality visuals will be the driving factor behind your ad’s success. Make sure you have some eye-popping stuff to show before you begin advertising on Instagram.
- Facebook page.
Funnily enough, to run ads on Instagram, you need to set up a Facebook business page. Can’t escape this one.
- Landing page. Where are you going to drive all the traffic? Have a landing page ready to get the best out of that call to action button. Your homepage works too if it’s optimised for conversions.
- Instagram account. You could still run ads on Instagram even if you didn’t have one, but to better understand the platform and its vibe, it’s a good idea to check it out before pouring money into it.
Okay, now we’re good to go.
1. Selecting the Right ToolThere are a few different Facebook tools you could use to set up Instagram ads (Ads Manager, Power Editor, Facebook Marketing API). But for simplicity reasons, we’ll go with Ads Manager, which is the most popular one and should easily meet your needs. The first step is to simply create a new ad campaign.
2. Choosing Your ObjectiveWhen you click to create a new ad, you should land on this page.
As with any other advertising campaign, determining what you want to achieve is crucial. If you’re trying Instagram ads for the first time, my advice would be to choose a simple objective, like Traffic (aka. sending people to your website).”.
Although you may be tempted to jump straight to lead generation, bear in mind that the process of setting such ads is a bit longer and more complicated.
Not all the objectives on the list work with Instagram ads. If your campaign runs on both Facebook and Instagram, you can choose any of the proposed objectives. If, however, it only targets Instagram users, then you must choose from the following list:
- Reach
- Traffic
- Brand awareness
- App installs
- Engagement
- Video views
- Conversions
- Lead generation
- Messages
- Store traffic
- Catalog sales
I’m going to stick to my own advice and select “Traffic”.
After selecting the objective, you should be automatically promoted to give your campaign a name. Be sure to include such attributes as date, offer, and content to make it easier to identify the campaigns in the future.
3. Choosing Your Audience
If you’re just starting to learn how to advertise on Instagram, choosing the right audience might be complicated. Practice is the best teacher, so don’t worry about this too much right now. The most important thing you should keep in mind is what kind of audience would be most in sync with the objective you have selected in the previous step.
If you went with “Traffic”, use your standard buyer personas to define the audience. Who could be keen on learning more about your products or services? Alternatively, you can create a Custom Audience to show the ad to a particular group of people.
Alternatively, you can create a Custom Audience to show the ad to a particular group of people.
As the screenshot suggests, you have four different ways of defining a custom audience.
- You can upload a file with customer data (name, surname, email, phone number, zip/postcode, country, year of birth, gender, age, etc) and create a Custom Audience on Facebook that matches the same criteria.
- By inserting a piece of JavaScript for your website, you can create a list of people who have already visited your site or specific pages and have taken some kind of action in the past and target them on Instagram.
- If you have an app, you can create a Custom Audience to reach people who take specific actions in your app, such as reach a certain game level, add items to their cart or rate your app.
- You can use the data you have on your Facebook followers to create a Custom Audience for Instagram. Create a list of people who: a) watched your videos, b) opened or completed a lead form in your Lead adverts on Facebook, c) opened your Canvas on Facebook.
Detailed Targeting is a great option too if you know your ideal customer’s demographics, interests or behaviours.
When you complete this step, be sure to save the Audience so you don’t have to go through the same process next time and can monitor how different audiences respond to your ads.
Scroll down to continue.
4. Selecting The PlacementThe next step is where you get to choose the place where your ads will be shown. Simply uncheck all the boxes except “Instagram” and scroll down.
5. Setting up Your Budget and Schedule
This one’s pretty straightforward. How much do you want to spend? The two available options are Daily Budget and Lifetime Budget. What’s the difference?
A daily budget is the average you’ll spend every day of your advertising period. A lifetime budget is the maximum that you’ll spend over the period your ad is set to run.
Next, define the schedule by selecting one of the two options. Unless you have a very clear idea on which days and hours your ad will perform best, go with the “Run my advert set continuously starting today” option.
Next on the list is setting optimization for your ad. You’ll be given three different options in the “Optimisation for advert delivery” drop-down menu. Here’s what they mean:
- Link clicks are the recommended option. The adverts are optimized for link clicks to bring the right people to your website at the lowest cost.
- Impressions. The ads are not optimized for clicks but they will be delivered to people as many times as possible. If you ever noticed the same ad on your feed multiple times throughout the day, that’s the one.
- Daily unique reach. Your ad will be shown to people once a day.
- Landing page views. Your ads will be delivered to those most likely to click on your ad’s link and load your website.
How should you bid?
The bid option will determine how effectively your ad is delivered. The truth is rather simple. If you value the link clicks highly, you can manually set a price you’re prepared to pay for each link click and try to outbid other ads competing for the same audience’s attention. If you haven’t got a clue, go with the Automatic option and leave it up to Facebook’s algorithm to get you the most clicks at the lowest price.
We’re finally reaching the most exciting part of the campaign! It’s time to select the most appropriate format for your ad.
The objective you set for this ad campaign should be the main factor determining the format of the ad. You can visit Facebook’s Ads Guide for more information on the available formats.
7. Setting Your Facebook Page and Links
We’re almost there… Connect your Facebook Page and Instagram account. If your business doesn’t have an Instagram account yet, you can still run ads on Instagram as your Facebook Page will be used to represent your brand within your ad.
Then simply follow the steps and enter your ad’s content. A few simple tips to keep in mind…
- Text: keep the copy sharp and succinct. 125 is the recommended limit — to see anything after the 125 characters, users will need to expand the ad by clicking “More”.
- Website URL: this is the URL of a page where you’re driving all the traffic. Make sure your URL is properly tagged with unique UTM parameters to be able to track how the ad is performing.
- Call to action (CTA): your CTA should be directly linked to the content you’re offering. If the goal is to get people to visit your website, then “Learn More” is probably the most appropriate option. If you’re advertising a specific product, it’s worth testing something a bit more aggressive — like “Shop Now”. Follow these rules to build killer call to actions for your campaigns.
Give your campaign a good second look by clicking on “Review Order” and then hit “Place Order” to let the ads lose!
That’s it, you did it.
Oh, but wait. Nothing is done until it’s done, and I promised to show you how to advertise on Instagram.
Once your ad is up and running, remember to keep an eye on all the metrics and track its performance. You can go back in and tweak the ad, too — change the image if it’s underperforming, try a new copy, or a different call to action.
To see the full dashboard with data on reach, the total amount spent and cost per click go to your Ads Manager. In the upper right-hand corner, you will see a button that says “Columns: Performance”. If you click on it, a drop-down menu with an extensive list of options will open. You can customize your report to get an insight into everything from the number of click-throughs to page likes.
Summary: How to Advertise on Instagram in 2023Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of how to advertise on Instagram. Take the time to understand the options available to you and build your campaigns. Soon, you’ll see how Instagram marketing can deliver targeted customers that boost your sales.
In summary, here are the 8 steps to creating your first Instagram ad:
- Open Facebook Ads Manager
- Choose your objective
- Select your target audience
- Choose “Instagram” as the placement
- Set up your budget and schedule
- Choose an ad format
- Publish the ad
- Track your performance
Now go, conquer the Instagram crowd!
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Want to Learn More?
- 60 Instagram Tips You Should Know
- How to Do Instagram Influencer Marketing
- Instagram Ads: How to Successfully Sell Your Products
- How to Use Instagram for Your Dropshipping Business
Is there anything else you’d like to know more about and wish was included in this article? Let us know in the comments below!
How to Run Instagram Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide
Instagram is not only one of the most popular social networks, but also an effective advertising platform.
How to get started with targeted ads on Instagram
- If you don't have a Facebook page for your business, create one.
- If you don't have an official Instagram account, you need to create one and link it to Facebook.
- Prepare images or videos to be used in advertising. nine0008
Sign in to Ads Manager and click Create.
How to properly set up Instagram ads through Facebook
1. Choose a promotion objective
Not all Facebook ad objectives are suitable for promoting on Instagram. Among the proposed options, we recommend the “Conversions” goal. In this case, you will be able to optimize ads for a certain cost per conversion.
2. Set up ads
Go to the "Ad group" tab. Choose where you want the ad to go - it's a website, app, Messenger, or WhatsApp. In the case of messengers, the user will go from the advertisement to the correspondence with your account. nine0003
Next, set up the audience.
For users who were on the site
If you already have a Facebook pixel installed on your site and it has collected enough data about visitors, you can use this information to target ads to an existing audience. To do this, click "Create" - "Custom Audience" . You can read more about remarketing on Facebook in the article on ppc.world. Other targetings can be skipped - they will only reduce the already existing “warm” base. nine0003
But this audience can be expanded thanks to a smart Facebook algorithm that selects users with similar behavior. To do this, click Similar Audience .
For new users
Geotargeting . You can select people who live in the selected place, who have recently visited it, or travelers:
Find the area itself through the search (regions, settlements) or specify using a marker. The range is also configurable. Several places can be marked. nine0003
Gender, age, languages . Everything is clear here. To set up targeting, proceed from your knowledge of the target audience of your business.
Demographics and interests . This group of targetings is called "detailed targeting" on Facebook.
Start entering the estimated interest of your target audience in the field. Facebook will immediately offer tips, and also inform you about the hypothetical size of the audience when you hover the cursor:
If you click on the button "Recommendations" , Facebook will offer you several related interests that it thinks you can add to your targetings:
If you want to target more precisely, there are two more settings:
- "Narrow audience" - so you add a strict condition (users have all the specified interests at the same time).
- "Exclude people" - this is how you remove people with a particular interest from the audience.
In menu "Links" you can add people who have interacted with your Facebook page, app, or event invite:
Specify placements and budget . Facebook has a large number of placements for placing your ads. In this case, we are interested in Instagram.
In his case, he will also have to make a choice: show your ads in the social network feed, Stories, on the "Interesting" tab on Instagram, or in several places at once. Stories ads are primarily a visual impact tool. If you need to use a lot of text, opt for the Ribbon. nine0003
Below you can select the type of mobile devices on which ads will be shown. As a rule, this is useful for mobile app sellers on Android or iOS.
Set the budget (daily or for the entire duration of the campaign), as well as the start and end of the campaign, if applicable.
We recommend starting with a small budget, after the test, evaluate the results and make changes.
3.
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- Go to the "Advertising" section on the left. nine0008
- Specify identification data - how your company will be presented in advertising.
- Select a format.
Please note that only Single Image or Video and Carousel options are available for Stories (images are displayed one after the other).
Carousel is good for advertising several products at the same time. "Selection" - for a spectacular and versatile presentation of one product. In many cases, however, a minimalistic solution with a single media file will work. nine0003
Select pictures and videos. Facebook provides stock images and allows you to use them in your ads. However, unique photographs - high-quality and natural, evoking emotions - are now more valued in advertising.
We recommend that you run a split test: choose several options for images, so that later you can choose the most converting one.
Next, fill in the ad with text and other data. Facebook will show you how the ad will look in the preview. nine0003
Done! If you have filled in all the required fields in the settings and deposited money into the balance, the ad will be sent for moderation.
A step-by-step guide to launching advertising on Instagram for beginners
Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, was recognized as an extremist organization by a court decision dated March 21, 2022, and its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Instagram is one of the most popular social networks. As of April 2020, Mediascope estimates its monthly audience in Russia at 61 million people, 28 million of which check the feed daily. This is the fourth most popular social network, users spend an average of 30 minutes a day on it. nine0003
72% of users have an average or higher income level, 10.5% work in managerial positions. Instagram ads are the right tool to tell these people about your products and services.
WEB-Index Mediascope about the audience of Instagram
Instagram belongs to Facebook, so you can run ads here in two ways: through the Facebook advertising account and through the Instagram application itself. If you run ads through the Facebook advertising account, then you will have access to all the features of this tool: retargeting pixel, dynamic creatives, detailed statistics. When launched through the application, there are fewer opportunities, but the interface is simpler and it will be faster to launch ads. In this guide, we'll take a look at both tools. nine0029
Content:
Preparation
How Advertising works on Instagram
Register Account
We Connect the Business Profile
We fill out the Account
Run the advertisement through the Instagram
EXCHOUGE
We will prohibit the history Facebook
Creating a campaign and choosing a goal
Setting up an ad group
Making an ad
Subtleties of advertising on Instagram
We will summarize
Read also:
Promotion on Instagram yourself
Full guide on how promotion on Instagram
Follow |
If you haven't run ads on Facebook yet, first create an account. On any social network page, click on the arrow in the top bar and go to the "Facebook Ads" section. On the new page, click "Create an ad" in the top menu and accept the non-discrimination policy. After that, the "Manage ads" item in which your account is located will become available in your menu.
Click "Create" in your advertising account. During the launch of the first advertising campaign, the social network will ask you to specify additional parameters: your country of residence and time zone, the currency in which you will pay for advertising, and details of your PayPal card or account, QIWI wallet, Yandex. The money from which you will pay. nine0003
Creating a campaign and choosing a goal
The first step to launch an ad is choosing a goal. There are three categories to choose from: Awareness, Considerations, and Conversions.
Awareness is fine if you just want to talk about a new product. For example, Coca-Cola can announce a new flavor of soda in this way: they don’t so much need the user to go to the site, but so that he remembers the new label and remembers about it in the store.
"Consideration" is suitable if you want the user to become interested in the product and somehow interact with the advertisement: watch the video, go to the site, like it, install the application that you are promoting. nine0003
"Conversions" is suitable if you want users to perform a specific action on the site: register for an event, put an item in a cart, leave a request. For ads to work effectively, you will need to set up the transmission of events from your site to your ad account.
The logic of the algorithm depends on the goal you choose — which user it will show ads to. For example, if you select the "Traffic" objective, then the algorithm will show the ad to those users who are more likely to click on a button or link. It works like this: the system will show ads to the first group of users and mark those who take the desired action. And then, according to various parameters, it will look for others who are similar to them in profile and behavior and will also follow the link with a high probability. nine0003
Alexey has an online flower shop with a pickup point on Taganskaya. Instagram for him is a way to attract customers to the site, talk about products. Alex uses the "Traffic" objective to get as many clicks to the site as possible. Let's see what other settings he uses for promotion.
Add the name of the campaign. For campaigns, ad groups, and ads, it's best to use names that you can refer to in the future. If all campaigns are called "Advertising", then to find the right one and fix something in it, you will have to make a lot of clicks. Use a clear description in the title, such as "Outreach campaign in Moscow, August" or "Traffic to the site by interests / Regions". nine0029
Check whether you will conduct an A/B test as part of the campaign. If yes, then you will be prompted to create different ad groups that may differ in design, placements, and audiences.
Specify how you plan to manage the budget: at the level of the entire campaign or each individual ad group in this campaign. That is, set a general limit for all groups at once, or a separate limit for each group. If you choose to optimize the budget of the entire campaign, then specify the daily or total campaign budget and the bidding strategy you want to use. nine0029
If this is your first time setting up ads, click the "Set up ad account" button. Facebook will ask you to enter your country, currency, and time zone. If you have already created advertising campaigns, click "Continue".
Set up the ad group
The next step is to set up the ad group. Ads in the same group will have the same audience and placements. If you want to create ads for a different audience segment, you can create a new ad set within the same campaign. For example, one ad group for school supplies might be for students and another for their parents. nine0003
Enter a name for the ad group. Choose where you plan to send traffic: to a website, to an app page, or to a conversation in Messenger or WhatsApp.
You can check "Dynamic creatives" if you have multiple options for images and accompanying text. The advertising system will show users different options and determine the most effective ones.
Specify the parameters of the audience to which you want to show ads: their geo-, demographic characteristics. Click "Edit" next to "Detailed targeting" to specify additional parameters: interests, education level, marital status, devices used, and others. In the block on the right, the system will show what audience size you can potentially reach. nine0003
Aleksey knows that his main clients are women from Moscow who are already thinking about home comfort and are interested in gardening and interior design. Alex uses this information to set up audience settings.
In the "Placements" section, select the "Manually select placements" item. In the block that opens, uncheck the "Facebook", "Audience Network" and "Messenger" platforms. You can then choose where on Instagram you want your ads to appear: in the main feed, Explore feed, or Stories. nine0131
If you didn't select budget optimization at the campaign level in the previous step, then in the "Budget and Schedule" section, specify a daily or total budget and bid strategy. For some purposes, for example, "Traffic", you can specify a control price - this is your expectation of a price per action: click, install, button click. The final cost may vary, but the system will take into account your expectations when selecting places to display your ad.
Click Continue.
Making an announcement
Enter the name of the announcement. In the "Company identification" block, select on behalf of which page you place ads. If an Instagram account is linked to this page, you can select it in the "Instagram Account" section. If not, then you can promote ads from a Facebook page.
If you have specified an Instagram account, you can select one of the publications existing in it or create a new one. If you create a new post, it will not be reflected in your account - this is convenient if you do not want to show sponsored posts in your profile feed. nine0003
You can use the "Carousel" format, which consists of several objects and captions, or "Single image or video".
Upload media objects: pictures and videos. Click "Add Media" and choose from already uploaded media or add new ones. If you plan to advertise in Stories, upload a separate image with an aspect ratio of 9:16 for this purpose.
Add ad text, provide a link, select a call to action to be displayed in the ad. If you chose the Carousel format, then add them for each card. nine0003
Please note: if there are two or three cards in the gallery, the user will see all of them when advancing in stories. And if there are more cards, then the user will see the first three, and the "Open story" button will appear in the interface. A person will see the rest of the cards only if he clicks on it. The link is invisible, so some users may not see other creatives.
Aleksey uses a gallery for advertising: this way you can show more plants and some of them will surely interest a potential client. He adds a short description to each image: what kind of plant it is, who will like it, what interior it will suit. For example: “Unpretentious, but spectacular: suitable for owners who are not ready to spend a lot of time on care, but want to please the eye every day. It will fit perfectly into a bright, spacious interior. nine0003
If you have an online store on Tilda and a product catalog is connected, you can automatically generate a gallery from it.
Select whether you want to collect information about users who see and interact with ads using the Facebook pixel.
Click Confirm. The ad will be sent for moderation.
Promotion with the help of the Facebook advertising account provides flexible opportunities for experimenting with advertising. We talked about them in a detailed guide to advertising on Facebook, pay attention to:
Pixel. It will help to save information about users who have already seen your ad and interacted with it or performed a certain action on the site.
Catalog. It will be useful if you have an online store and want to promote your products.
Dynamic creatives. The tool will be useful if you have a lot of ideas for advertising design, but you don't know which ones will work best.
The subtleties of advertising on Instagram
Advertising on Instagram must comply with the same rules as on other Facebook sites. Here are a few more recommendations that the social network gives for setting up ads. nine0003
Use a separate image format for Stories ads
Don't use the same media for feed and story ads. Prepare a separate version of the creative with a 9:16 aspect ratio and use it for ads in stories. And for the ribbon, leave the standard rectangular or square image. Please note that if you promote the gallery through the Facebook interface, then the images in the feed can only be square.
Do not overuse text on creatives
Facebook has a negative attitude towards images, more than 20% of which are text. This can lead to the fact that ads will scroll more slowly and fewer users will see them. It is better to put the text in the description, and leave the image clean.
Consider the interface
If the image has text at the very bottom or top of the screen, the interface elements will overlap it: the profile icon on the top, the call to action on the bottom. To prevent this from happening, place them at a distance of 14-15% of the height from the top and bottom edges. If you are using an image that is 1600 pixels tall, back off 220-250 pixels. nine0003
Don't forget that the user can turn off the sound
If you decide to promote the video, don't forget that the user can view it without sound. If you plan to convey important thoughts with your voice, then duplicate them with subtitles so as not to lose such users.
Check your account statistics
See which of your posts get the most engagement: likes, comments, bookmarks. It is probably worth using such recordings for advertising - they resonate most with your audience. nine0003
Promote new products, services, and offers
Instagram promotion is a way to promote an upcoming sale, new product launch, or special offer. Advertising will help convey information about the new product to an audience that may be interested in it.
Don't delay when using video in Stories
A story is only 15 seconds long - don't put off showcasing your product or brand. If you use a long introduction, then some users may simply go to the next publications and not even figure out what you offer them. nine0003
Show, don't tell
Show users the product in action: how other people use it, what are the non-standard uses for it, tell how you work on it. Tell a story, not just describe the benefits of a product.
To summarize
Advertising on Instagram can be launched in two ways: through the Facebook advertising account and directly in the Instagram application.
Prepare your account for launching ads: add an avatar, description, website link, contacts. Post several posts that will help users get to know your offer better. nine0029
Switch your account to a business profile. To do this, you need to link your Instagram profile to a Facebook page. It will take just a few clicks, but additional features will open up: you can view statistics, add information about the company, and run ads through the application.
Only posts and stories that have already been published can be promoted through the app.