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How to sell ads on instagram


Unleash the Power of Instagram Ads: A Complete Guide (2022)

The business case for learning how to make money on Instagram is strong. Not only does Instagram’s engagement demolish Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, but, for brands, it even outperforms Facebook by a factor of 10. It kind of makes you wonder why more brands aren’t on Instagram, right? In this guide you're going to learn how to sell on Instagram and setup Instagram ads.

If you’ve ever posted anything on social media as a small brand, you know how often it feels like you’re talking into a void. Too often, no one responds. No likes, comments, retweets—you get the idea.

Not so with Instagram. No matter how small your audience, your posts probably still receive at least a few likes and comments—especially if you use the best Instagram hashtags. And with more than a billion users worldwide, it’s an enticing marketing channel. To leverage this massive audience, check out our guide on how to get followers on Instagram.

Start advertising and selling on Instagram today 📈

  • How do Instagram ads work?
  • How much do Instagram ads cost?
  • Types of Instagram ads
  • Instagram ad campaign objectives
  • How to create Instagram ads
  • Instagram ad tips
  • Getting the most from your Instagram marketing strategy
  • Instagram ads FAQ

Shopping on Instagram

Instagram is now partnering with Shopify to take things a step further and offering product tagging and a Shop tab directly inside the Instagram interface.

Shopping on Instagram provides a seamless customer checkout experience for anyone who discovers your products in their Instagram feed.

Add products to your Instagram posts and stories

Start tagging products in your posts and turning engagement into purchases with the shopping on Instagram sales channel.

Learn more

How do Instagram ads work?

Since 2015, anyone has been able to learn how to create Instagram ads through Facebook’s self-serve advertising platform. With it, you have total control over your ads, how they appear, and who sees them. And unlike sponsored posts and paid partnerships, your ads get posted directly from your own account.

The advantages to this method of Instagram advertising include:

  • Scalable pricing
  • Easy to use, self serve ad platform
  • Robust reporting so you’re in control
  • Highly refined audience targeting

There are two options to create Instagram ads. You can turn any post into an ad with Promote, which is similar to Facebook’s Boost button. You only have to decide where to send people when they click your ad, who should see it, and how much you want to spend.

Or you can create campaigns with Facebook Ads Manager, which is an all-in-one tool for launching ads across Instagram, Facebook, and more.

Instagram ads can have a significant impact on people’s buying behavior. It’s shown that Instagram helps 80% of users decide whether to buy a product or service. So whether you are a big or small business, you can create an affordable campaign that finds new customers and increases sales for your business.

Read more: From Likes to Dollars: Learn How to Sell Your Products on Instagram in 2021

How much do Instagram ads cost?

Research by Revealbot shows the average cost of Instagram ads are:

  • $1.17 cost per click (CPC)
  • $7.01 cost per one thousand impressions (CPM)
Source: Revealbot

But average cost-per-click also differs by campaign objective. As you can see below, Instagram ad CPC can range between $.50 and $7.50, depending on your objective.

Source: Revealbot

Average CPM also changes depending on your campaign objective. The study by Revealbot shows that CPM can range between $2.50 and upward of $35 per thousand impressions.

Source: Revealbot

Overall, good results depend on who you are targeting, your industry, and the ads you use. There’s no one true benchmark. It’s also important to note that Instagram ad costs can depend on how expensive your product is. Chances are, if you are selling a $50 product, it’ll be less expensive to acquire a customer than if you are selling a $1,500 product.

Consider two things about your Instagram ads: how much you want to spend on a campaign overall, and how much you want to spend for a result. This way, you won’t be surprised by unexpected costs and can test campaigns to get the best results.

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Types of Instagram ads

Some common types of Instagram ad you can run are:

  • Photo ads
  • Video ads
  • Carousel ads
  • Collection ads
  • Stories ads
  • Reels ads

1.

Photo ads

A photo ad is one simple photo in landscape or square format. These are the simplest in terms of visual asset needs, since you just need a single image. Here’s an example of a photo ad from jewelry brand Clocks and Colours that takes Instagram users to a landing page to claim their military discount for use in-store.

Source: Facebook

2. Video ads

Instagram used to have a 15-second limit for videos, but it has since lifted that rule. Now, videos can be up to 60 seconds long and shot in landscape or square format. Pura Vida uses the video ad format in its Instagram advertising to promote its new Jewelry Club.

Source: Facebook

3. Carousel ads

An Instagram carousel ad can have anywhere from two to 10 images and/or videos that users can view by swiping through.

Source: Facebook

4. Collection ads

Collection ads are similar to video ads in that they appear as a video in a user’s feeds. These ads, however, are made up of a series of still images that play as a video, much like a slideshow. You can add text and audio to your slideshow ads.

Source: Facebook

5. Stories ads

Instagram Stories ads are one of the newest kinds of ads available to businesses on the platform. Instagram Stories are similar to Snapchat in that they allow users, and brands, to share self-destructing photos and videos.

Brands can also advertise on Instagram Stories with photo or video content. Online jewelry brand Pura Vida has used Instagram Stories ads with much success to build brand awareness and ad recall.

Source: Facebook

Learn more: How to Advertise on Snapchat: A Complete Guide

6. Reels ads

Instagram recently expanded its Reel ads beta to Canada, France, the UK, and the US. Reel ads are a full-screen, vertical experience, similar to Stories ads. They appear in between a user’s Reels and last up to 30 seconds. Instagrammers can like, comment, save, share, skip, and view them.

Source: Adweek

Instagram ad campaign objectives

When advertising on Instagram, you can choose from several campaign objectives. These are potential goals for your Instagram ad campaign that you select from a list. Don’t neglect this choice; it will influence how your Instagram ads are optimized and how you pay for them. For example, if your goal is to get people to watch your video, you probably don’t care how many users click on your link.

You may already be familiar with campaign objectives from creating Facebook ads. Options include:

  1. Brand awareness
  2. Reach
  3. Traffic
  4. App installs
  5. Engagement
  6. Video views
  7. Lead generation
  8. Conversions

1. Brand awareness

This objective is for when you want to drive awareness of your business, product, app, or service when advertising on Instagram. The objective formerly called awareness is now a part of this objective. The brand awareness objective supports image ads, video ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads, and Stories ads.

2. Reach

With a reach objective, you can also drive awareness of your business, product, app, or service. The objectives formerly called local awareness and reach & frequency are now parts of this objective. The reach objective supports all Instagram ad types. Reach is different from brand awareness in that it allows you to reach a larger audience, whereas brand awareness is a bit more targeted to users who are more likely to recall your ad or brand.

3. Traffic

You can use the traffic objective to drive visitors to your website. If you have a mobile app, this is also effective for driving app engagement. The objective formerly called website clicks is now a part of traffic. You can also use this objective to create an offer for your audience. The traffic objective supports all Instagram ad types. The Mountain Collective, which sells ski passes and packages, has used photo ads to drive users directly to its online store.

4. App installs

Unsurprisingly, the app installs objective is ideal if you’re trying to get users to download your app. You can use any Instagram ad type with the app installs objective. Here’s a carousel ad example from Poshmark that drives users directly to its respective app store to download its mobile app:

5. Engagement

Engagement is another objective you can use to promote offers. It’s also effective at promoting your Instagram account and posts. Image ads, video ads, and slideshow ads are your options under the engagement objective.

6. Video views

If you’re running a video ad, carousel ad, slideshow ad, or Stories ad, you can use the video views objective to promote the video. This is an effective objective to drive awareness for your brand and products.

7. Lead generation

Instagram ads with a lead generation objective are great for collecting information from users, like their email addresses, so you can market to them in the future. This objective supports all Instagram ad types.

8. Conversions

The conversions objective is a great choice for ecommerce businesses that want to drive sales. The objectives formerly called website conversions and dynamic ads both are a part of the current conversions objective. If you want to optimize for people completing a specific action in your app and you have the Facebook SDK installed, you should use conversions as your objective.

💡 Note: In order to use this objective, you need to have the Facebook pixel installed on your website. If you don’t have one installed yet, you’ll get a message letting you know.

How to create Instagram ads

  1. Link your Instagram business profile to your Facebook page
  2. Create an Instagram ad campaign
  3. Create an Instagram ad set
  4. Analyze and optimize your Instagram ads

Let’s dive into exactly how you can create your first ad on Instagram.

Step 1: Link your Instagram business profile to your Facebook page

The first step to creating an Instagram ad is to link your Instagram account to your Facebook page. You only need to do this once.

Visit the Page Settings for your Facebook Business page and click on Instagram in the left column.

Next, click Connect Account. Toggle “Allow access to Instagram messages in Inbox” on or off. When turned on, it will allow you and anyone else who manages your page to respond to Instagram messages. Click on Continue.

Fill in your Instagram login credentials or click on “Login with Facebook.”

Keep in mind that if you are connecting a personal Instagram account to a Facebook page managed in Business Manager, you will need to switch your Instagram account to a business or creator account.

Step 2: Create an Instagram ad campaign

After you’ve linked your Instagram account to your Facebook page, it’s time to head over to the Ads Manager and create your first campaign. If you already create Facebook ads, much of this process will be familiar to you.

In the Ads Manager, click on the Campaigns tab and then the + Create button near the top left corner of the screen.

Next, choose your campaign objective. Remember, only brand awareness, reach, video views, conversions, app installs, lead generation and traffic objectives are compatible with Instagram Stories ads.

Step 3: Create your Instagram ad set

On the Ad Set page, you’ll be able to choose Purchase as the type of conversion you want to optimize for under the Conversion Event breakdown.

You can also choose to add an offer, which will help drive even more conversions on your ad.

When figuring out how much you want to spend when you advertise on Instagram, start low. You can always increase the daily or lifetime budget later if your ad is performing well.

Next, define who you want to see your ads. All the same targeting options are available for Instagram ads as for Facebook ads.

If you have any Custom Audiences already created, you can select them for targeting with your Instagram ad at this point.

Next, select your ad placements. You’ll see the option to run your campaign on Facebook and Instagram, as well as on Audience Network and Messenger. Deselect everything except Instagram.

When you’re finished choosing what to optimize for, how much to spend, who to target, and which placements to show your ads on, click New Ad in the breakdown on the left or Next on the bottom right of the screen if this is the first campaign you are creating.

On the next screen you’ll see an option to choose your Instagram ad format. Once you’ve decided, scroll down to upload your images or videos.

After you’ve uploaded your visuals, scroll down further and you’ll see an option on the left to add text and a call to action to your ad.

Finally, to the right of the text editor, you’ll be able to preview how your ad will look on Instagram. Here’s how an example ad would look on Instagram feeds and Stories.

Once everything looks good, click Publish on the bottom right. Otherwise, go back and make changes.

Step 4: Analyze and optimize your Instagram ads

Your work isn’t complete after you’ve launched your first Instagram ad campaign. Once it’s running, you’ll want to monitor its performance and test ideas to find the most effective messaging, creative, and targeting.

Within Ads Manager, you can edit your Instagram ad to incorporate split testing, change the targeting parameters, and view analytics for the performance of your ads.

The first Instagram ad is always the hardest. Once you’ve conquered it, it’ll be much easier the second time around!

Instagram ad and selling tips

Use advanced targeting techniques

Instagram ads have all the same targeting options as Facebook ads. These include targeting based on location, demographics, interests, behavior, lookalike audiences, and automated targeting (i.e., let Facebook decide).

Even better, if you have Custom Audiences, you can target them on Instagram. Custom Audiences are groups of people who have already connected with your brand in some way. This could be by visiting your website, engaging with your posts on Facebook, using your app, or sharing their contact info with you.

Test different ad formats

Testing different ad formats helps you uncover what ads work best for your audience. For example, if your target audience responds better to Stories ads than regular image ads, you’ll want to put more money into Stories ads. This will help you generate more business and get better results for less money.

Optimize your budget

Use Facebook’s campaign budget optimization to optimize the distribution of your budget across a campaign’s ad sets. This option lets Facebook continuously find the best opportunities for results across your sets, and moves your budget automatically to get those results.

It’s a tactic that Trilce Jirón Garro, CEO of TBS Marketing, uses when running Instagram ads for her clients.

Run several ads within one campaign to see which performs better. Then nuke the expensive variations so that way there’s no guessing which creative performs best. Try several variations and stop running ads that underperform.

Trilce Jirón Garro, CEO of TBS Marketing

When setting up your Instagram ads, toggle Budget Optimization on in your campaign budget.

Try Instagram automation

Sometimes when ecommerce brands or influencers run ads on Instagram, they get a ton of comments or messages in their inbox. Often, they don’t have time to respond to all these people manually.

In response, brands are using Instagram automation to save time and turn comments into customers. With a tool like ManyChat, you can create Instagram Stories ads that engage users automatically with keyword automation.

Source: ManyChat

 All someone needs to do is type in a pre-designated keyword from your Story and you’ll start an automated conversation inside Instagram Messenger. From there, you can collect viewers' contact information, deliver a coupon code or lead magnet, or do anything else that will help you meet your business goals.

Getting the most from your Instagram marketing strategy

“Link in bio” tools, which allow you to create custom landing pages and URLs, are one way to help promote your products and online store from your Instagram bio profile. There's also no doubt that Instagram ads can help marketers and business owners get great results. Using Ads Manager, it’s easy to create ads that match your brand style and find your target people in the Instagram app. You can also choose your daily budget and control ad spend so you’re never caught off guard by ad costs.

Start today by running a small campaign for your business. By selling on Instagram you'll be leveling up your sales in no time. Take the time to get comfortable advertising on this social network and build your skills. You’ll soon see how Instagram marketing can find relevant, targeted customers and impact your bottom line.

Illustration by Rachel Tunstall

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Instagram Ads FAQ

Are Instagram ads worth it?

Instagram ads have a potential reach of over one billion people. Instagram has advanced targeting options, and the platform influences customers’ buying decisions. At an average cost of $1.17 per click, Instagram ads are worth it if you want to advertise on social media.

What’s the difference between an Instagram ad and an Instagram Story ad?

An Instagram feed ad looks much like a Facebook ad. It has the brand's Instagram handle, an image or video, a call to action, and a text box to explain what you’re advertising. An Instagram Stories ad happens inside a viewer’s Stories and is a more immersive experience. Viewers can swipe up on the screen to act on the ad.

How to advertise on Instagram?

  1. Link your Instagram account to your Facebook page.
  2. Create an ad campaign in Facebook Ads Manager.
  3. Create your ad set.
  4. Analyze and optimize your Instagram ads.

How to Sell on Instagram in 5 Steps

Instagram hit one billion monthly users—almost an eighth of the world’s population—in June. It is a wildly popular platform, and its growth trajectory is showing no signs of plateauing. Unfortunately for advertisers, the same can be said about the amount of money businesses are currently spending to promote their products and services in the name of selling on Instagram. Ad spend jumped 177 percent year-over-year in Q2 of this year. Impressions grew by 209 percent, and CPMs (average cost per thousand impressions) fell by 10 percent. Advertisers are spending more money than ever in the photo-sharing app, and they’re getting better at doing so. Competition is high.

That said, about two million advertisers use Instagram every month—this is still a very small percentage of one billion. And even though not all of Instagram’s user base is in the market for new products and services, let alone your particular product or service, there is still an abundance of opportunity to leverage the platform to sell your pretty things.

I’m here to tell you how to do it right! Follow these five steps to make money and move units on Instagram, and you’ll soon be selling on Instagram like a wily veteran.

Step 1: Convert to a business profile

Nothing novel here, but a shocking number of small business owners I talk to want to start selling on Instagram without first completing this simple step. Converting your standard Instagram profile to a business profile gives you access to a number of indispensable selling and reporting options. Before we get into those, here’s how to make the switch.

  1. Log into your account and tap the cheesburger-looking button at the top right of your dashboard.
  2. Tap Settings at the bottom right.
  3. Scroll down to “Switch to Business Profile.”

Boom! You’re done. If you ever want to switch back (you won’t), just head back to the same spot and tap “Switch Back to Personal Account.”

Now! Some highlights of the features available after you’ve made the switch:

  • Instagram Insights. It’s not as easy on Instagram as it is, say, on Facebook, to look up a follower’s personal and demographic information. It’s even more difficult to compile that data in aggregate. Instagram Insights does the hard work for you.

There’s no shortage of useful data here, and when you switch to a business profile, it’s all conveniently accessible through the app on your smartphone. Under the Activity tab, you’ll find metrics like profile visits, website clicks, reach, and impressions. In the Content tab, you can take a more granular look at the performance of each post or story, including the profile visits and engagements of each. In the Audience tab, you can track the locations, ages, and genders of your followers, as well as the days and times of days they’re most active—all super useful information when we get to Step 3 on this list.

  • CTA button. This appears at the top of your profile under your bio, and it gives people the option to call, email, or get directions to your business.
  • Story links. As you may know, Instagram doesn’t allow users to link within posts. It also only allows one website link within a given bio. Being able to add links in your Instagram stories gives you the opportunity to direct your audience to various products and landing pages on your website. Stories are highly visible and steadily becoming a force, so this is a huge plus. Check out this post on Instagram story hacks for more great tips.
  • Facebook alignment. You can now connect to your Facebook business page and start running ads through Business Manager/Ads Manager! This is Step 3. Don’t worry, we’ll get there.

Step 2: Buoy your organic campaigns with hashtag research

Another thing that happens whenever I take over a business’s Instagram account: business owners are desperate to reach more people, and they have no idea how. If you’re a serious business owner you might look at a hashtag and think, That’s a frivolous thing I want nothing to do with. But the fact is, hashtags are the biggest way to make an impact with your organic Instagram campaigns. Switching to a business profile gives you the ability to see, on a post-by-post basis, how many impressions come via hashtags, and how many of the accounts that you reached weren’t following you when they saw your post. When you get smart with hashtags, both of those numbers will skyrocket.

“Hashtag research” is a bit of an ostentatious thing to say, but it sure does sound good to a client, and it sure is effective in practice. The actual process is quite simple. Head to Discover > Search >Tags and search for terms related to your niche. You’ll then see how many posts have used that hashtag. When you use that hashtag in your post, you add your post to the Discover queue.

You want to use a combination of hashtags that have both high posting volume and comparatively lower posting volume. The reason is that the “comparatively less” variety can often be just as, if not more, relevant and using them gives your post a good chance to be seen and engaged with by a high-intent crowd.

Settle on a unique messaging flavor (one that is distinct from your other platforms) and use a tool like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to set your organic social schedule weeks in advance, leveraging Instagram Insights to schedule posts at peak hours. Instagram is a great place to be playful and highlight the personality behind your brand while showcasing thumb-stopping product creative. Include “link in bio” CTAs in your copy and make sure to change that link frequently to match specific promotions and areas of focus.

Step 3: Start running ads

Another thing I hear a lot of: I have a very slim budget and want to make the most of it. A lot of business owners think having a small budget takes them out of the running for Instagram ads, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you execute effectively, you will get more for your money running low-budget paid Instagram campaigns than you will creating and running organic campaigns. And I know what you’re thinking—Unless I’m paying someone to do it for me, aren’t organic campaigns free? Yes. But Instagram ads represent the potential for insane ROI, so if you do it right, you’re going to get your money back with plenty of interest.

To really get the most bang for your buck, you’re going to want to resist the urge to just tap “Promote” within the Instagram app. Your interest and demographic targeting is going to be super limited, and you won’t have access to Custom Audiences, with which you can remarket to Instagram users who have taken specific actions on your website and get them to buy that widget they never bought.

Run your ads in concert with Facebook ads, or edit your placements to only run them on Instagram. But take the time to set up your campaigns in Ads Manager.

Doing so means you’ll have access to Facebook’s sophisticated suite of targeting options, as well as the Reach and Brand Awareness campaign types, both of which allow you to get your ads in front of a monster number of users on the cheap. You can use the traffic and engagement you accrue from these campaigns in concert with RLSAs to convert prospects in Search later on; or, as I mentioned, you can use them to create remarketing lists within Ads Manager and run conversion campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.

Step 4: Use Instagram shopping if you’re moving physical products

Instagram shopping is dope. The only caveat is you can’t use it if you’re selling services. If you are, feel free to skip to the next step. But if you’re an e-comm vendor, Instagram shopping is your best friend.

A brief explanation of how it works, and how to get set up. Shopping posts look like organic posts, with the exception that when users “tap to view products,” product names and prices are revealed.

And when they click on the tags that pop up, they’re taken to a product details page containing a description of the product and a CTA. From there, they click through to a landing page.

Set up is a matter of making sure you have a product catalogue ready to go in Facebook and enabling product tagging. For an in-depth rundown on that process, check out our post on using shopping in Instagram stories.

When you run Instagram shopping posts as ads, you’re equipping yourself with both the intent-wrangling capacity of Google Shopping and the sophisticated audience targeting of Facebook. Manual targeting (Demographic, Behavior, Interest) lets you reach a very broad base of net new prospects; and the ability, through product tagging in Instagram shopping, to show those prospects all the relevant details of your product—mainly, what it looks like and how much it costs—ensures that anyone who engages with your ad is highly qualified once they land on your website.

As an added bonus, your Instagram shopping posts reach even more users on the newly-created Shopping channel in Instagram Explore.

Step 5: Partner with influencers

Influencer marketing has been on the rise for a while now, but it’s especially prominent on Instagram, and it’s especially prominent as a means of promoting physical goods. Why? Because putting your product in the hands, or draped on the shoulder, or in the stomach (if, say, you’re selling a juice) of an influencer lends it credibility with an expansive and wholly new audience.

There is a glut of millennial Instagram influencers right now who grew up using the app and have an inherent understanding of how to leverage it to accrue and maintain a loyal following. There are thousands of these tiny pockets of stardom on the app, and for a very reasonable price—most influencers charge by the follower, at $5-$10 per 1,000 followers—you can leverage them to put your product in the limelight.

That means that, say, if you only wanted to spend $100 on an influencer campaign, you could afford an influencer with about 10,000 followers. That’s 10,000 people that didn’t know about your product before. And again, because your paying for credibility as well as reach, this can be a more effective strategy than, say, spending $100 on an Instagram ad campaign that reaches 10,000 people.

Selling on Instagram is all about buy in

To really reap the rewards Instagram offers—to get users to buy what you’re trying to sell—you first have to buy into the platform at large and commit to it as a profitable channel. Do not let a small budget deter you committing the up-front spend to run ads, buy influencer posts, or even pay for organic campaign management. Used in concert, these five steps can help make you some serious money via Instagram sales. Get to it!

How to write an offer to a blogger about advertising

Advertising with popular bloggers is a marketing trend of recent years. Native influencer advertising is much more effective than traditional promotion channels. But not everyone has appreciated the benefits of working with bloggers. Many consider popular influencers out of reach or simply do not know how to write a proposal to a blogger. Let's take a step-by-step look at how to propose cooperation and build an effective communication strategy with a blogger.

How to choose a blogger to collaborate with

The key to working with influencers is choosing the right blogger for you. The topic of the blog should be relevant to the USP of the brand, and its audience should correspond to the portrait of a potential client. Here are a few more basic criteria to evaluate the influencer you like:

  • Geolocation - make sure that the geolocation of blog subscribers suits you. Owners of local businesses or national companies should pay particular attention to this parameter.
  • Number of followers - A distinction is made between macro, micro, and nano influencers. The former can boast of higher reach, but bloggers with a small audience look more natural.
  • Engagement - there is no point in ordering ads from bloggers with a “dead” audience that does not show interest in publications or even does not see them.
  • The presence of promotional posts - the blog should have an optimal ratio of promotional posts to personal content, and should not contain advertising from similar brands. Otherwise, subscribers will perceive the next advertisement as SPAM and will not trust the blogger.
  • Sincerity - it is desirable that the blogger himself uses the products of the advertised brand and shares its values. Pretense and pretense “for money” is always felt. How to offer cooperation to a blogger? Influencers have a certain amount of trust in their followers, and when they promote a service or product, the ad is perceived more as a friend's advice. Naturally, under such circumstances, no good blogger will cooperate with dubious brands and advertise a product that he is not sure about.

    Therefore, when working with a blogger, it is important to correctly formulate a proposal and show the benefits of cooperation. By clearly defining the conditions at the outset, you can avoid uncertainties and disagreements in the future.

    Step 1: Prepare an account

    An influencer who respects himself and his audience will never risk his reputation and advertise low-quality accounts. Therefore, if you want as many good bloggers as possible to agree to recommend your account, and advertising gives the maximum return, you should carefully prepare your page before cooperation.

    Your account must meet the following criteria:

    • Your account is filled with quality content.
    • The BIO clearly defines the field of activity.
    • There are at least 30-40 quality posts.
    • 1-2 thousand users have subscribed to the account.
    • Posts have likes and comments.
    • You communicate with subscribers, answer their questions and comments.
    • We have feedback about your company's activities.

    Recent posts encourage you to introduce your product so that the influencer can immediately assess whether they can advertise your product or service.

    Step 2: Determine the type of cooperation

    There are several options for how a blogger can advertise you:

    • publishing an advertising post in your account with a photo or video of your product;
    • joint competition;
    • guest posting in your account;
    • joint live broadcasts and events;
    • ambassadorship.

    Blogger remuneration options are also different. Most prefer to cooperate on a commercial basis, but it is also possible to cooperate on a barter basis, renting out goods or providing unique promotional codes for a discount or an affiliate program.

    We have already written about the types of cooperation. Be sure to determine in what scheme you plan to cooperate in order to make the most clear proposal.

    Step 3: Make a list of bloggers

    Next, select the bloggers you plan to collaborate with. You can find suitable bloggers by hashtags, geolocation, description in the profile, through blogger databases.

    It is recommended to make a list of several bloggers suitable for collaboration. First, you need to be prepared for the fact that some bloggers may refuse to cooperate without explanation. Secondly, an advertising account that is attractive at first glance, with a detailed analysis of statistics, may turn out to be with cheated or inactive subscribers.

    Carefully study the blogger's content before you offer him a partnership. If the blogger has never shown interest in your company's products, or if the blog topic is too different, then the chances of success are slim.

    Do not offer cooperation to those who have a negative attitude towards products. For example, if a blogger is an active environmentalist, he will not advertise natural fur coats, even if they are of the best quality.

    Step 4: Check the quality and engagement of the blogger audience

    Before you offer cooperation to a blogger, be sure to check the quality and engagement of his audience. The trendHERO service will help with this. With it, you can check the blogger account for more than 90 metrics.

    It is recommended to pay close attention to the following key indicators:

    • ER account engagement indicator;
    • number of subscribers;
    • spread of likes and comments;
    • ratio of active and suspicious subscribers;
    • subscriber demographics.

    Only after a detailed analysis of the blogger's account, you can choose a promising blog with the most suitable audience, and not pay for air by placing ads on a “dead” audience.

    Step 5: Write a Welcome Letter

    Once you've selected the bloggers you'd like to partner with, you can move on to the key step of writing the letter.

    Regardless of the topic of the blog, the proposal should be written in a polite tone, with an appeal to “you”, but the style may be slightly different. If you are writing to a teenage blogger, then you can write in simple language without overloading the text with unnecessary formalities. When communicating with other influencers, choose a reserved, formal tone.

    Sample sentence structure for a blogger:

    1. A polite greeting. Greet the recipient of the letter and introduce yourself by name.
    2. Anchor. Try to make the introduction of your letter stand out from a dozen others. Give a compliment, briefly describe why you admire the blog and would like to collaborate with its author.
    3. Brief description of the brand and product. Without too much time abusing, briefly describe what brand you represent, what products you produce, what value it can bring to the blogger and his audience.
    4. The essence of the offer. Now tell us how you see cooperation, what you want from a blogger and what you are ready to offer on loan. Specify that you are ready to take into account the wishes of the blogger and make adjustments.
    5. CTA (Call To Action). At the end of the letter, ask a question or place a call to action. You can clarify that it is important for you to get an answer no matter what it is.

    Be sure to check the message for errors. It always causes negativity, and creates a feeling of unprofessionalism.

    Step 6: Send a message to

    You can write to private messages, instant messengers or email if your account contains contacts for cooperation.

    If possible, organize the mailing list on behalf of a high-ranking person in the company. Letters from a PR manager can be ignored by a blogger, while messages from an ART director or manager look more weighty.

    Step 7: Negotiate

    If the blogger answered the first letter and became interested in cooperation, now you need to negotiate, discuss in more detail the remuneration, the format of cooperation. Try to discuss all the nuances in as much detail as possible, clearly describe what post and when you want to see what goals you set for the advertising campaign. Discuss the procedure for approval of the publication.

    The clearer the terms of reference are, the less likely you are to be disappointed with the advertising campaign.

    What's next?

    If the blogger is satisfied with the proposed format of cooperation, the only thing left is the implementation. The first thing to do is to conclude a cooperation agreement. Of course, you can do without it, but when working with influencers, you need to understand that you will work with different people, and overlaps happen. Therefore, it is better to protect yourself in advance and draw up an agreement that would provide certain guarantees to both the brand and the blogger, and would clearly define the rights and obligations of the parties.

    The following must be indicated in the contract:

    • date of placement of the advertising post;
    • publication format;
    • approval procedure and deadline;
    • purpose of the advertising campaign;
    • blogger reward.

    You don't even need to meet the opinion leader in person to conclude an agreement. All you have to do is sign it electronically.

    After conducting an advertising campaign, be sure to evaluate its effectiveness. If the partnership has brought a positive result, thank the blogger for cooperation. You can also save his contacts for re-contact, because as practice shows, influencer marketing works best with constant cooperation.

    Tips and tricks

    Many people write to bloggers and make a number of the same repeated mistakes. Below we offer some recommendations on how to make your offer to the blogger as correct as possible:

    • You don't need to write just a greeting. Tell us about your offer right away.
    • Offer options to the blogger. If you have a large range of products, invite the blogger to choose what they would like to advertise or what products they can barter.
    • If your budget is limited, but you want to cooperate with a major blogger, then it would be best to present the product to him as a non-binding gift, but warn that you would be grateful for the publication of a review and a photo with the product.
    • Do not add a blogger as a friend from a commercial account. Many who monitor account engagement rates ban commercial accounts and mass followers.
    • Do not set strict requirements for content. A blogger knows better than anyone what publications his subscribers like and what formats they will appreciate. No need to try to impose an open advertising format with direct references to the product. Influencer marketing is valuable precisely because of its naivety.
    • Try to get the blogger interested first, and only then tell them what you want in return. Cooperation proposals, where you describe for a long time what the blogger should do, and only then casually indicate what you are ready to offer in return, look at least incorrect.
    • Be prepared for the fact that you may not be answered. This does not mean that you urgently need to write again again, or to other contacts. Perhaps your proposal was simply not interested, or due to certain circumstances, the blogger is now unable to take on your project. Don't waste your time and just find a replacement.

    Given a number of obvious points, you can easily create an attractive blogger offer and run a successful advertising campaign. And over time, you will be able to recruit your base of opinion leaders, cooperation with which brings the greatest profit. The main thing to remember is that bloggers are the same ordinary people and do not forget about the rules of good manners.

    How to make money on Instagram: all the ways

    How to make money on Instagram* from scratch? You can become an SMM specialist and set up Instagram ads for your clients*. Or maintain their profiles so that they receive new orders - money is paid for all this. But it is much more interesting to maintain your profile and earn income.

    Yes, someone keeps an account "for fun", and someone - to earn money. We tell you exactly how you can earn money on Instagram * on your profile, how much you can receive and what you need for this.

    Ways to make money on Instagram*

    Selling Ads

    The most obvious and common way to make money from your Instagram profile* is to sell ad integrations. You can do this in different ways:

    • mention the account in the next post or story;
    • talk about the product, just show it or mention that you use it yourself;
    • place a link to the advertiser's website in the profile description or stories;
    • to agitate to do something or express "one's" opinion in publications, and so on.

    Advertising can be anything. For example, many bloggers said that they would go to the polls themselves and called on the audience to do so. Some campaigned for amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and also received money for this.

    Usually an ad on Instagram* looks something like this: a blogger shows a product and links to a profile where you can learn more about it

    Advertisers will pay you not for the number of people who came from you, but simply for the fact itself advertising placement. But at the same time, they will track the results, and if they don’t like them, they are unlikely to contact you again.

    And to tell advertisers that you are ready to place ad integrations, you can create a second account on Instagram* and leave a link to it in your profile description. Or indicate there a phone number or email address where you can be contacted.

    An example of how you can leave contacts for communication about advertising integrations

    And if there are not many subscribers yet, but you want to earn money right now, it is better to additionally register on the blogger exchanges: on Epicstars, LabelUp and others. Advertisers can look for bloggers with a small audience there, and you can get clients from both your Instagram profile* and exchanges.

    Traffic arbitrage

    It's like advertising integration - you also have to promote some product or product. But the earnings scheme is arranged a little differently:

    • traffic (people) will have to be directed directly to the advertiser's website, and for this - place a link in the description of the main profile or create an additional account and first promote it;
    • you will be paid not for the very fact of placing an advertisement, but for the targeted actions of users who clicked on it: for example, 2% of the order of all those who came from you.

    The more loyal the audience is and the more purchases (orders, registrations) it makes, the more you earn.

    Traffic arbitrage may look like this: a person offers to get a card with a favorable service, and he is charged money for each card issued

    To be able to earn money in this way, you need to look for advertisers who are willing to pay according to a similar scheme. This can be done in CPA networks: this is the name of the "catalogues" of affiliate programs. The largest CPA network in Russia is Admitad: M.Video, Lamoda, OZON and other brands offer their programs there.

    Optimum Instagram* is suitable for making money on the following products:

    • Products for beauty, fitness, weight loss.
    • Gadgets, fashion novelties, accessories, various wow-goods. Everything from which it is easy to make a beautiful picture and is designed for an impulse purchase.
    • Offers for training or employment of students and recent graduates.

    Accepting donations

    In practice, this way of making money on Instagram* is rarely used. The bottom line is that you simply accept donations (voluntary money transfers) from subscribers. They can throw off money for different purposes: buying a new computer, overexposure of a sick animal, restoring a passport.

    People are more willing to donate to people who really need help: those who find themselves in a difficult situation, get sick or organize a pet shelter

    at DonationAlerts. If you make a link, people will be able to transfer money to you in different ways: from a card, from a mobile account or from electronic wallets.

    Selling services

    One of the most popular ways to make money on Instagram* is to sell your services. Many manicurists, SMM specialists, psychologists, cosmetologists and other specialists promote their profile in order to receive orders from there. Tarologists, business coaches, English teachers are not far behind - the list can be long.

    This is what the profile of a specialist who sells his services on Instagram looks like*

    In order to sell services and make money from it, you need to be able to create high-quality interesting content, communicate with the audience, work out objections.

    Sale of information products

    Another opportunity to make money, which famous bloggers often resort to, is the sale of their own information courses. You can teach your audience something you know yourself: promote your Instagram profile*, bake delicious cakes, sew handmade soft toys, and so on.

    Elena Blinovskaya, for example, is running a wish-fulfillment marathon and has already sold an information product to more than 150,000 people time. Despite the fact that in an interview Sobchak did not show Elena Blinovskaya in the most favorable light, the subscribers of the information businesswoman supported her.

    To make money selling information products, you need a loyal audience that will trust you. And for this, pumping a personal brand is important - it is it that allows you to create an image of an expert in the eyes of users and increase loyalty to you.

    Sale of merchandise

    Merch is a product with the symbols of a certain brand, person, team, and so on. You can sell merch immediately if you are engaged in the production of some goods. In this case, you will first create a profile, then you will recruit an audience.

    Designer Olga, for example, sells her dresses all over the world, and additionally offers a franchise.

    You can do the opposite - gain an audience, and then offer them to buy a hoodie or dress with a pattern that you personally made. Your fans will certainly want to get some kind of product that will help them "join" you. True, you will have to look for someone who can produce these goods.

    An example of how a blogger first got subscribers and then created his own merch

    Many bloggers release something of their own: they create production from scratch or negotiate with factories to release goods with certain symbols. Media personalities sell clothes, accessories and even cosmetics and perfumes under their own name.

    Oksana Samoilova sells a whole line of various cosmetics

    Draining traffic to other sites

    Another indirect way to make money on Instagram* is to attract followers to other sites. Where direct monetization is available or where you also earn by selling services, goods or accepting donations.

    For example, you can leave a link in your Instagram profile* to a YouTube channel. Some users will subscribe to you there and watch the video, and you will be able to connect to the YouTube affiliate program and get paid for showing ads in your videos to users.

    Artists often do this: for example, Alexei Vorobyov also drives traffic on YouTube

    Shop on Instagram*

    Instagram Shopping is the integration of an e-commerce store into your Instagram profile*. This is the only way to sell directly to subscribers through posts, stories, the Browse tab, and the Store tab. Shoppers can check the price of an item on the app and then go to the store with the click of a button.

    Let's say you represent a clothing store on Instagram* and want to promote your brand. Simply upload a photo of the model in your outfit and Instagram* will allow you to tag up to five products per post or up to 20 products per carousel. You can also use stories and videos.

    For example, Clever publishing house sells children's books on Instagram*

    Read more about the nuances of work and settings in the article "Instagram* Shopping - how to set it up in 2021".

    Photos for sale

    Instagram* is basically a photo-sharing app. And photos are assets that can be licensed, printed, and sold in a variety of ways.

    If you have cool photos, you can put them on marketplaces where brands and publishers can license them. For example, 500px or Twenty20.

    Another option is to sell your photos as prints on other products such as posters, phone cases, pillows. All you need is to find a suitable service that will not only make the desired print, but also take care of the delivery. You will only have sales. There are such organizations in almost every more or less large city.

    Daniel Arnold, a Brooklyn-based photographer, went from $90 to $15,000 in one day, according to Forbes. At that time, Arnold had a little over 20,000 subscribers. Now there are 329,000 of them.

    One of Arnold's popular photos

    Brand Ambassador

    Unlike a blogger who sells many one-time ad integrations, an ambassador works with the same brand for a long time.

    Most companies benefit from establishing a long-term relationship with an influencer who regularly promotes the company in a positive way. The fact is that most often an opinion leader who becomes a brand ambassador already uses the company's product or a similar one, or broadcasts in a certain niche. He has an interested target audience who will not be surprised that a blogger supports and recommends a particular cosmetics or coffee variety.

    What brand ambassadors do:

    • Give away free products in experimental campaigns.
    • Broadcast speeches at conferences or stores to promote the brand.
    • Interaction with consumers on your page.
    • Increase brand awareness. For example, a blogger wears branded T-shirts, caps, suits.
    • Post quality content to increase user engagement.

    Sale of AR masks

    Augmented reality (AR) filters are various effects that are superimposed on what your camera shows.

    Facebook's* Spark AR Studio platform allows users to create their own interactive augmented reality filters. They can be used in Instagram* and Facebook* Stories, as well as in Facebook* Messenger and Video Chat Portal with Friends.

    Such masks can be sold to various brands, because AR masks are useful because:

    • They help to emphasize the individuality of the brand, stand out from the competition.
    • Communicate with the audience. Interactive elements in Stories increased 3-second views 9 out of 10 times, says Facebook*, and 60% of businesses use them to increase monthly engagement.
    • Allows users to "try on" a product before buying or "wear" branded clothing.
    • Increase brand awareness. An AR mask can be a company logo or mascot. And if the filter is not advertising, it will be displayed in the effects gallery, where it is available to anyone. In addition, when users take a selfie with a brand's AR mask, their followers will learn about the company.
    Mercedes logically uses cars in AR filters. But there are also masks from designer @ johwska . She added a nice glossy face effect

    Instagram augmented reality filtering skills* can make good money.

    It's all about making money on Instagram* from your account. I will not consider the option of how to make money without investments on likes, subscribers and views - it takes a lot of time and brings very little money, and this type of income is not pleasant to me. Most often, it harms business, spoils statistics, helps scammers advance, and algorithms do not like it.

    How much you can earn on Instagram*

    Everything will depend on the quantity and quality of your audience. The more people follow you, the more you can charge for one ad integration or the more donations you can get. In the case of advertising integrations, you set the prices yourself.

    A blogger with just over 500,000 subscribers charges 25,000 ₽ for one advertising integration

    Those with more than 1 million subscribers can charge from 100,000 ₽ for one advertising post. And media personalities like Olga Buzova, Natalya Rudova, Nastasya Samburskaya can charge 200-300 thousand rubles for one post.

    If you make money by selling information products, merchandise or services, everything will depend on how many people buy your product. But with a large audience, the amounts are impressive. For example, let's calculate the earnings of Elena Blinovskaya.

    She herself says that she received more than 150,000 reviews, which means that there were no less sales. The cost of the marathon is changing: let's take 3,000 ₽ - the amount that is most often mentioned in reviews. It turns out that Elena earned about 450 million rubles for the entire time the marathon was sold. Yes, she spent time creating it and is now spending money on supporting the information product (hiring employees), but the amount itself is impressive.

    In general, more than 2.6 million people subscribed to the marathon page - sales can be much higher

    How much money you earn on Instagram * depends only on how you invest in the development of your account, and how many audiences you gain. The more loyal subscribers you get, the more income you can get from one way of earning. And you can use several - for example, advertise someone's services and sell your information product at the same time.

    How to get your first sales in social networks, we tell on the online course for beginners "First Orders on Instagram*". The course is suitable for anyone who wants to earn money by promoting their services or product on an online platform.

    What to do to earn a lot

    Promote your profile and get a lot of followers: the more the better. There are two ways to go:

    • gain an audience quickly with the help of advertising from bloggers;
    • make interesting and high-quality content and gain subscribers slowly.

    Content is needed even if you want to use paid promotion: after all, people will follow you only if they like your account. It's just that with the help of advertising you will get followers much faster than with organic promotion.

    You will find all the necessary tools for content production in one application, which will save a lot of time to promote your business. Auto-posting, photo and video editor, story builder, post analytics, teamwork opportunities - this and much more is in SMMplanner.

    You will be able to work faster and more efficiently - get more done in the same amount of time. Register using the link and you will have 14 days of access to the professional tariff "Initial" instead of the standard week. Explore the possibilities, then choose the appropriate tariff or use the free version of the service - it depends on your needs.

    There is another way - a quick and free recruitment of a new audience through hype. So Diana Shurygina, Ekaterina Didenko and Daria Zoteeva (Instasamka) became popular. The only question is what is the price of their popularity: hype will bring subscribers, but not a loyal audience. Because of black PR, subscribers, advertisers and those with whom the blogger did joint projects may turn away. This was the case with Daria Zoteeva, when, due to another scandalous trick, Klava Koka refused to cooperate with her, and her voice was replaced with another one in the cartoon “100% Wolf”.

    Promoting your profile on Instagram* requires a lot of time, effort and nerves. We have collected materials that can help attract loyal followers:

    • 9 ways to promote on Instagram for free*
    • 8 free social media contest services
    • Post idea generator

    Decide for yourself which promotion method to use.

    Learn more