What is Instagram promotion (a.k.a. Instagram boost)?
How to promote an Instagram post
How to promote an Instagram post or Reel in Hootsuite
What types of Instagram posts can you boost?
Instagram post promotion cost
Benefits of promoting an Instagram post
5 tips for Instagram post promotion
Do you have a great Instagram post or Reel you want more people to see? Are you looking to boost engagement on your existing posts? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then it might be time to promote your posts and Reels. Instagram promotion (a.k.a. Instagram boosting) is a great way to get your content in front of more people and rake in those precious likes, comments, and shares.
In this post, we’ll give you some tips on how to promote Instagram posts for maximum reach and impact. Plus, some top-secret industry tips you won’t get anywhere else.
Let’s get started!
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
What is Instagram promotion (a.k.a. Instagram boost)?Instagram promotion is the act of paying to have your post seen by more people. When you promote or “boost” a post on Instagram, it will appear in the feeds of users who don’t follow you. Promoted posts can also appear in the Stories or the Explore tab.
Instagram boosts and promoted posts are a type of Instagram advertising. You’ll have the ability to target your audience by interest, location, and more.
The benefit of promoting your post is that you can reach a larger audience and get more engagement on your posts, which can lead to more followers.
Promoted Instagram posts also give you insights into how well your content is performing and who is seeing it, beyond just your regular audience.
To promote or boost an Instagram post, you’ll need to have an active Instagram Professional account. Once you have that setup, follow these steps. (And also watch our video, below!)
1. Go to your Instagram Feed and click the post you want to boost. Then, click Boost. Keep in mind, Instagram recommends only boosting posts with images smaller than 8 MB to ensure the best quality.
Not sure which posts to boost? We recommend boosting posts that are already performing well. You might also want to check out our guide to Instagram ad design to find out which types of visuals perform best as ads.
2. Next, fill in details about your ad like the Goal, Audience, Budget, and Duration. The goal is the results you hope to see from this ad while the audience is who you want to reach with your message. The budget is how much you’re willing to spend on this ad per day. The duration is how long you want your ad to run.
3. Once you finish these steps, click Next. If you haven’t already connected your Instagram account to a Facebook Page, you’ll be prompted to do that now. Choose an existing account or click Skip to move on.
4. Complete your boosted post by clicking Boost post under Review.
From there, your ad will be submitted to Instagram for review and begin running once it’s approved!
Want to see the exact process for boosting an Instagram post? Just watch the video below:
Did you know you can also create Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns directly through Hootsuite? Follow this guide to learn more.
If you already use Hootsuite to manage your Instagram ads, you’re in luck! You can boost Instagram feed posts and Reels directly from your Hootsuite dashboard.
To boost an Instagram feed post, follow this step-by-step process:
If you want to customize the audience, select Edit and specify which attributes to target, like location, gender, age, and interests.You can review the performance of your boosted Instagram posts in Hootsuite at any time by going to Advertise, and then selecting Instagram Boost.
You can also boost Instagram posts and Reels from Streams:
And that’s it!
Pro tip: You can also boost Instagram posts from Composer and Planner.
See the detailed instructions in our Helpdesk article.
Start your free trial. You can cancel anytime.
What types of Instagram posts can you boost?You can boost any type of Instagram post, including:
Boosted posts will appear in the Stories or the Explore tab. If you have an Instagram Professional account and Promote is available, you’ll see Boost Post as an option when you upload a post to your Feed.
Bonus: You can also boost Instagram Reels with a few clicks using Hootsuite. Watch our video below where we go over how you can promote your Instagram Reels:
Instagram post promotion costOne of the biggest benefits of IG promotion is that the cost is completely up to you.
Promoted posts can cost as little as $0.50 per click, and you can set a daily budget so you never spend more than you’re comfortable with.
If you’re unsure what kind of budget to use for your promoted post, try setting up a draft campaign in your Instagram Ads Manager. Here, you’ll be able to see Audience Definition and Estimated Daily Results metrics which will give you an idea of whether your budget settings will be sufficient to reach your target audience.
Benefits of promoting an Instagram postInstagram is one of the most popular social media platforms with over 1 billion monthly active users. Of those users, 90% follow business accounts, which gives you an opportunity to reach a highly motivated audience.
On top of that, Instagram has high engagement rates with posts averaging around 1.94%. By contrast, Facebook and Twitter have engagement rates of 0.07% and 0.18%.
Promoting your content on Instagram can help you reach a larger audience, get more engagement, and encourage people to take action on your posts.
There are a few reasons you might want to promote an Instagram post:
5 tips for Instagram post promotion
It’s easy to promote Instagram posts to get your content in front of more people. But as with any paid promotion, there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment.
Here are a few tips for promoting Instagram posts.
1. Use Instagram-specific featuresWhile Instagram made its name as a photo-sharing app, today it’s so much more. Promote Instagram posts using all of the platform’s features, from Stories to Reels to Live.
The more you make use of Instagram’s features, the more chances you have of ranking in its algorithm. Not only will this help you reach more people, but it will also help you build a more engaged following.
One of the benefits of boosting Instagram posts is that you already have a built-in audience. But that doesn’t mean you should take them for granted.
Before you promote your Instagram post, take a step back and think about who you’re trying to reach.
If you don’t know the answer to these questions off the bat, try digging into your Instagram analytics to see how your previous posts were received. If you notice your Reels get the highest engagement or that carousel posts have the most shares, promote those first.
Your Hootsuite dashboard contains all the information you need to tailor your promoted Instagram posts to your audience. Use Hootsuite Analytics to figure out what time of day to promote your post and measure the impact after its live.
3. Promote carousel postsResearch has shown that carousel posts increase engagement rates on Instagram.
Static carousel posts can boost engagement by as much as 5%! Add a video to that carousel, and you’re looking at an almost 17% increase.
To make the most of this format, try creating a carousel post of 8-10 images or video clips. On the first slide, ask your audience a question or include a powerful call to action. This will entice users to swipe left to see the rest of your content.
Don’t forget, you can create Instagram carousel ads quickly and easily with Hootsuite! Plus, track, optimize, and grow your Instagram presence directly from your dashboard.
4. Make use of product tagsIf you’re set up for Instagram Shopping, you can promote Instagram posts that feature product tags. Doing this will drive people directly to a product details page on Instagram, where they can learn more about the product and make a purchase.
This is an especially effective way to promote your products if you’re running a promotion. Promote Instagram posts with product tags to let your audience know that there’s a special deal going on, and make it easy for them to take advantage of it.
Learn how to set up Instagram shopping here.
Source: Instagram
5. Promote your best postsImage and video quality is an important part of the Instagram user experience—and it’s also a major ranking factor in the Instagram algorithm.
That means, if you want your content to be seen by more people, you need to make sure that the images and videos you’re promoting are high quality. Promoting your best posts will ensure that, not only is your audience seeing your best content, but that it’s well-received. (We learned this the hard way after spending $100 to promote a post that didn’t really have anything to do with our usual content)
When you’re looking for posts to promote, consider the following:
Pick your best posts and share them with the world!
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How do Instagram promotions work? And why would you use them instead of ads? Good questions.
In this article, we’ll explore answers to these and other equally important topics related to Instagram promotions. We’ll also show you how to create your very own promotion.
Back in 2009, monetizing Instagram wasn’t a clear path for the photo app.
In fact, while the idea was definitely on the table, the brand had to evolve into something with a stronger value proposition and product.
Today, Instagram’s caught up to the rest. 80 per cent of accounts follow a business on Instagram. This means more people are interacting with brand pages and this level of engagement is just what Instagram needed to be able to broaden it’s advertising offerings.
Source: statista.com
The photo-sharing app offers four advertising options in addition to promotion options.
These include:
Photos:Image: Instagram
Image: Instagram
Carousel:
Image: Instagram
Ad in Instagram Story:
Image: Instagram
Collection Ads:
Image: Instagram
Instagram also offers promotion options.
These are different from photo, video, carousel and story ads. Here’s what you have access to and how they work:
Familiar with boosting a post on Facebook? Promoting a post on Instagram works the same way. If you have a picture or video that’s drummed up a fair amount of likes, comments and shares, you can promote it.
This option is a great way for businesses to get extra awareness for content they publish. The extra awareness is reach that could help feed your marketing funnel.
Promote a Story From your Profile, Highlights, or Stories ArchiveAlso similar to boosting a Facebook post, you can promote stories. While limited to those taken with the Instagram camera or in a vertical format, the option is still very useful.
Some creative elements (filters and stickers) are not accessible when promoting stories, however, this shouldn’t stop you from taking the opportunity to ‘capture authentic moments that speak to your business,’ as Instagram recommends.
If you’re looking for a quick and direct way of generating results, you can do so with a fresh new ad campaign. These can be created from your business profile. In the process, Instagram will recommend which posts they think will do well as advertisements. This option is best if you're unsure which post you'd like to promote.
So, to recap, the major difference between ads and promotions on Instagram is related to the way you use each option to engage your brand.
Promotions are used to generate extra awareness and engagement from already successful posts and stories. Ads are used for unique campaigns and generally feature new content.
While Instagram promotional posts, stories and highlights look similar to their original (organic) forms, they include additional elements.
Post, stories and highlights all include the “Sponsored” label below the account posting the promotion.
Image: Instagram
Image: Instagram
As promotions are intended to generate some result, they also come with calls to action. Here’s a list of the options available:
Promotions appear as posts and can also appear in stories. If you’d like to isolate your promotion to appear in one place, you’ll need to create your promotion in Ads Manager.
Algorithmic updates are generally not the easiest to track. In fact, while there are many digital and social marketing circles that constantly test content to generate the best possible results, much about the intricacies of how AI and machine learning influence ad placement, reach and overall campaign success is largely unknown.
There are, however, a couple of interesting ideas we think you should bear in mind when creating your promotions.
Whether testing to find the higher-converting ad or scaling to generate more of the results you’re after, all spend on paid media should be made to generate results. When it comes to what we know about promotions, Instagram recommends that you use “a post that your followers really enjoyed.”
This means using content that’s received its fair share of likes, comments, and shares.
Why would this matter and how can you use this information?
Ad Revenue and Engagement Fuel InstagramInstagram, like all other social platforms, wants to create products that users constantly access. The more users using their app, the more ad revenue they are able to generate.
Instagram also knows that when users show interest in a certain piece of content, there’s a higher probability of generating even more engagement from it if it’s shared with a larger audience.
Your already successful posts, stories and highlights, therefore, stand a better chance of being more successful with a wider audience.
While we’re not sure about the intricacies of their algorithms, this logic is pretty sound.
There isn’t any conclusive data that shows ads cost more or less than promotions. In a report, AdEspresso found that CPC values range between $.70 and $.80. This average was based on two demographics. Audiences between the ages of 25-34 years can cost as much as $1.23 per click, where a younger group, aged between 13-17 years, came in at $.47.
While we haven’t seen any data on promotion costs, they could be close to these figures considering that you’re still paying to reach the same audience.
Creating your promotion is relatively easy. In fact, most of the heavy lifting is done for you. For example, you don’t need to worry about which post to promote because you’ll have data that shows which post received the most engagement.
To get started (from your phone), open Instagram and visit your business profile. If you haven’t switched to a business page for you your company, you’ll need to make the change.
Instagram business profiles are linked to Facebook pages. To switch to a business account, go to Settings > Switch to Business Profile.
Image: Instagram
Next, add custom buttons to your account. These can include:
Note: if you haven’t added a link to your website and a bio, nows a great opportunity to do so.
With the setup of your business profile taken care of, it’s time to create your promotion post.
Start by accessing the Promotions options via the Promotions button. Next, locate the post you’d like to promote.
Image: Instagram
Note: if that if you’ve never posted any content to your business profile, you’ll first have to publish a post and then start the process over to promote it.
Also, if you already have content posted, Instagram gives you the option of promoting posts directly from your business profile.
Image: Instagram
Select Your PostIf you’re promoting a post from the Promotion button, you’ll then need to select a post to promote.
Choose your post and it will open with the option to View Insights or click on the Promote button. Viewing insights will show you how well your organic post performed. This also helps you determine whether this is the post you should really be promoting.
Image: Instagram
Set Your GoalNext, select your goal.
Do you want more profile visits, more website traffic or more promotional views?
Image: Instagram
Establish Your Target AudienceHaving selected your goals, it’s time to select your target audience. Instagram makes the process of establishing your target audience easy.
Here are the three options available:
Image: Instagram
Set Your Budget and Promotion DurationSetting your budget is just as easy as previous steps. Instagram provides a daily budget option along with a duration (in days).
While setting both, you’re able to get a summary of the estimated profile visits and reach for your promotion.
Image: Instagram
Review Your PromotionThe final step of the promotion creation process is a review. You’ll be able to see the following:
Once reviewed, click on Create Promotion.
It’s a good idea to keep tabs on how your promotion performs. This will help you determine whether to increase spend and duration or terminate the promotion altogether.
To view insights, open Instagram > go to your business profile > select the post you'd like to view insights on > below the post's image, tap View Insights.
Clicking on View Insights will show you:
Instagram Promotions are one of the simplest ways to engage and reach a larger audience. Promotions can be created from posts, stories and highlights. When created, they appear in audience feeds and stories.
While there are creative limitations, using promotions is still valuable.
They help brands connect with audiences using authentic creative content. Instagram’s budget and duration options make it easy to determine the spend and length of a promotion, and insights will give you information on how well your post is performing and how much money has been used.
Promotion in social networks with an emphasis on the profitability of an advertising campaign
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The advertising business has changed a lot in the last ten years. If earlier billboards and publications in glossy magazines were considered the pinnacle of PR, in the modern world everyone is moving to the Internet.
Social networks are no exception. Today, one of the most popular social networks among people of all ages is Instagram. There are more than 500 million users on this site, and each of them spends a lot of time adding personal photos and videos and viewing interesting information. Given such a great demand and interest, the maximum effect is achieved from the advertising campaigns carried out here. What are promotions on Instagram, where you can create a promotion, how to make it, launch it, what does it mean to work with it step by step, how to set up the right statistics and posts on Instagram; why you need to read reviews about setting up and creating promotional posts and how it will be possible to make them under consideration on Insta. In this article we will try to answer this question. We will also explain the features of payment and the interaction of the social network with other similar sites, tell you about secret tricks that increase the effectiveness of promotions several times.
Like any other social network, Instagram has long been used by entrepreneurs as a platform for promoting goods and services.
Initially, the social network was developed specifically so that users could share their photos and videos with each other. Therefore, it is ideal for such campaigns.
The essence of such a marketing ploy lies in the fact that in the news feed of users, publications regularly appear with the image of a brand or service that the organization offers you. At the same time, advertising posts are targeted - that is, they are aimed at a specific audience (gender, age, place of residence, hobbies, and so on).
More videos on our channel - learn internet marketing with SEMANTICA and thus increase the profits of the company. Well-chosen videos or photos with the name of the advertised brand (bright, interesting, catchy) will give a very good effect: users will repost, like, leave comments. Such a live interest will surely lead to getting visitors who will buy the product you sell.
In addition, in just a couple of hours, or even less, a launched publication will “scatter” across the pages of a social network, it will be seen by millions of potential customers, which can be much more effective than live communication. We also note that the targeted nature of impressions guarantees a greater result.
When launching promotional advertising on Instagram, absolutely all the nuances must be taken into account: from the goal to the planned financial expenses.
So, before starting, we carefully study and draw up the following plan:
Finally, consider your budget and decide how much you are willing to spend for each visitor clicking on the link.
After working through these nuances and making a plan, you can start learning how to run a promotion on Instagram.
So, first you need to create a business profile on Facebook - from here all the information will be used when launching an advertising publication. After authorization, you must perform the following steps:
This is exactly what it means to create, set up and promote a promotion on Instagram from a computer or phone. Only 15-20 minutes - and promotional advertising is ready. Now all that's left is to pay.
There are several ways:
A small amount will be debited from the account and in just a couple of minutes it will return to you back. This is required to confirm your ability to pay. After such an operation, payments will be made automatically, depending on the chosen strategy. The program accepts money from VISA and MaserCard cards.
Created and launched PR campaigns on Instagram cannot be edited. Users have the ability to change some points only using a Facebook business account:
You can also change the publication language.
So, if you don't like how the promotion on Instagram looks like, in order to make certain adjustments, you need to do the following step by step:
There is nothing difficult in editing. Such work will take you no more than 5-10 minutes.
As already mentioned, running promotional ads that target a specific group of people can be very successful. In order to increase efficiency, you need to know how to properly create and promote a promotion on Instagram. Here you should follow a few simple rules:
But none of the users will want to read long poems to the end, and the money spent will not bring the expected result. These are the main rules on how to make a promotion on Instagram so that it is really effective. Guided by such a simple instruction, over time you will definitely achieve great success in your business.
At any time you see fit, you can stop the post, or even delete it. To stop the demo, follow these steps step by step:
After completing these steps, the icon should stop glowing green. This will mean that the publication has been stopped.
To delete, go to the "Active" item, then scroll down, where the "Delete promotion" button will be.
To make your PR campaign a success, you need to know how to properly set up and execute a promotion on Instagram. We recommend that you listen to the advice of experts from the world's leading media agencies, who say the following:
Many companies have run successful promotions and taken sales to a whole new level.
A company producing natural cosmetics and essential oils offered to participate in the repost contest of its partner Apteka.ru, guaranteeing the winners a gift in the form of a set of essential oils "Fragrances of the World". Apteka.ru marketers posted a similar post calling for everyone to participate.
These are just a few examples of how the Instagram promotion works and what it does. The organizations did nothing special. But with the help of such simple promotions and offers, they managed to attract new customers and increase their sales.
Let's explain the nuances related to all aspects of working with promotional advertising.
There are only 2 reasons:
To solve this problem, the account creator should grant you administration rights. Before your post appears in the users' news feed, it will be reviewed by company moderators. The maximum verification period can take 24 hours. But usually it happens much faster.
Ad impression funds are deducted after the financial limit you have chosen reaches its maximum. If at the end of the calendar month your declared finances are not used, then the actual amount will be deducted from the account.
You need to wait for the ad to finish. After that, go to your profile and look for inactive Instagram promotions. Next, the "View statistics" button will be available, after clicking on which all the data you are interested in will open.
So now you know what an Instagram promotion means and whether it works on the social network.
If you have any questions during the process of launching ads, you can always contact the support service.
Like if you have been tagged at least once in your life in a comment under the contest post. And what can we hide, for sure, they themselves participated in such a competition. Are there many who have won? Of course not.
15 806 views
In the Giveaway competition, one lucky person wins, the rest are left with nothing and gradually give up on competitions. And what about the organizers? Yes, nothing good either, after the contest, 90% of the participants will unsubscribe from the account and forget your company like a bad dream. And you will again need to somehow attract customers.
I will show examples of successful and interesting draws and promotions that I myself have encountered and received positive emotions.
Discount for everyone!
Do not be greedy, give a discount on your products to everyone for a certain period. This will not be charity, set the conditions for receiving a discount.
Example No. 1:
Cafe of Georgian cuisine Nino & Kote even before the opening started Instagram and launched the action "50% discount on the entire menu".
The conditions are as follows: subscribe to the account, repost the entry in Stories and tag the institution's account. After that, they sent a confirmation message - that is, they checked whether they had done everything correctly. On the opening day and the next day, you could show a message in the cafe and get a 50% discount on the entire menu.
What an effect: cafe became famous even before the opening, because a lot of people reposted in Stories. A huge number of visitors, which means reviews and ratings.
Don't have a hundred friends, find your best friend
An action about friendship and the theory of six handshakes.
A friend tags a friend, his friends tag other friends, and so on until the action ends.
Example No. 2:
Noodle Easy launched the “Give mulled wine to a friend” campaign. They made a picture of the post in the form of a cute postcard with “from” and “to” fields.
The conditions are as follows: repost the entry in Stories, write “from whom” (your account), “to whom” (friend’s account), a friend reposts your Stories to himself, rejoices and goes to drink mulled wine. Well, or marks you, and you go together.
What effect: pleasant impressions of the institution among the participants of the action, dissemination of information about the noodle shop itself, a large flow of people, many of whom come for mulled wine, but also take noodles.
The same campaign is currently being held by the Open Coffee coffee house - cheesecakes are given as gifts.
Please note that establishments do not give away their main product, it will be sold anyway.
After all, syrniki would be washed down with coffee, and noodles with mulled wine.
Everyone likes this action so much that many thank you in Stories for gifts, thereby attracting the attention of their subscribers again.
Sale only one day
Why some kind of competition, make a sale or big discounts for just one day. This is great for those who want to draw attention to themselves and spontaneously attract an audience.
Example No. 3:
The publishing house MIF organized this very well with a garage sale of books.
What they did: announced information about the garage sale in their account and launched a regular Giveaway with a draw for a bag of books. The giveaway here is a way to spread the word about the sale. Those who were tagged in the comments were not so interested in the prize as in the sale itself, and came to it.
What effect: large flow of people, good revenue, loyal brand relations.
