Instagram is now so much more than a place for selfies and pretty sunset pics. With over 2 billion active users, it’s a massive hotspot for anyone who wants to present products, services, or concepts. If done properly, Instagram can seriously increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or even push your sales through the roof. I’ve seen small boutiques go from nothing to crazy demand overnight by running well-placed advertisements that actually connected with their consumer.
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Why Advertise on Instagram
To be honest, Instagram is visual only, so it’s ideal if you’re looking to grab someone’s attention before they scroll by. Insta people are also willing to learn about new stuff, so good ads don’t come across as pushy. If you’re introducing a new product, Instagram’s where people are like, “Oh, that’s cool—I might need this.” I have a friend who started a line of handmade jewelry once and did her first 50 sales in a single Instagram campaign!
Advantages for Brand Awareness, Leads, and Sales
If brand awareness is your main goal, you can leverage compelling visuals or short videos to tell a quick story. For sign-ups, a swipe-up in Stories or a link to your landing page directly will get you sign-ups easily. And for purchases, you’re able to tag products in the ad so that people can purchase them basically on the spot.
I remember working with a fitness client that used a carousel ad to present different exercises, and it effectively quadrupled their return on ad spend in a matter of weeks.
Understanding Instagram’s Ad Formats
There are numerous different formats you can use, and the best one is going to depend on what you are trying to do. Photo ads are extremely straightforward and perfect if you have one hero image. Video advertisements allow you to feature product demonstrations or behind-the-scenes footage. Carousel advertisements are ideal if you have several various angles of a single product or various products side by side. Stories advertisements occupy the entire screen and have a highly “in the moment” feel, and Reels advertisements are ideal for shorter, more entertaining videos.
Discovery advertisements reach individuals who are actively searching for new content, so that is a goldmine if discovery is what you are after.
Establishing a Business Profile on Instagram
You need to have an Instagram Business Account to run ads. The flip is simple—get into your settings and flip the switch. You’ll also need to connect it to your Facebook Business Manager so you can use all the advanced features in Ads Manager. I personally used to forget to fill in proper billing information, so double-check that section so you don’t go bald later.
Determining Your Campaign Goals
Before you make any ads, think carefully: do you need awareness, engagement, or direct sales? If you’re launching something entirely new, you may wish to start with an awareness campaign to warm up your audience. Going directly to a conversion campaign can sometimes be a waste of money if people have no idea who you are.
Trust me, I did that with an online course I was selling, and the cost per signup was awful until I initially ran a quick awareness campaign.
Target Audience and Audience Insights
Instagram targeting is incredibly granular, courtesy of Meta data. You can target based on age, gender, location, and interest.
You can build a lookalike audience that resembles your best customers or retarget people who visited your site but failed to convert. I once merely adjusted the age range of my audience by some 10 years, and my click-through rate literally doubled overnight. Sometimes tiny changes can have an enormous impact.
Ad Creative and Design Ideal Practices
Your imagination is the limit. If your photo or video isn’t visually appealing, people will just keep scrolling by. Ensure your photos are nice to look at (no blurry material, please) and that your copy is straightforward. A clear call-to-action is essential—something like “Shop Now” or “Get Yours Today” so that people clearly know what to do next.
Also, I used to experiment with two similar videos: one where a person is speaking and the other with only text, and the one with the actual person received much more engagement. It’s crazy how small things can do wonders.
Budgeting and Bidding Strategies
Budgeting can be overwhelming, particularly if you have not done it before.
It’s generally a good practice to keep your daily budget low (such as 5 or 10 dollars) so that you can gauge performance without spending your money too quickly. Automatic bidding is okay for a beginner, but after you have a sense of your numbers, you may wish to try manual bidding to have more control. You may also wish to pause your ads during periods that your audience is not very active. I once accidentally ran 24/7 ads for a local shop and realized that the budget was being half spent when people were sleeping. Oops.
Designing and Running the Ad
You’ll be doing this within Facebook Ads Manager, which is somewhat disorienting to begin. Select your objective, target your audience, select your placements (if you wish only Instagram, uncheck Facebook and others), set your budget and schedule, then add your ad creative. Always preview what your ad will look like on various device screens. Trust me, I’ve had ads where the text got truncated on mobile, and I wasn’t aware of it until after I went live. Not good.
Monitoring and Measuring Performance
Once your ad is live, monitor statistics such as reach, impressions, click-through rate, and conversions. But don’t panic if it’s not immediately perfect. Ads have a “learning phase,” and it can take several days for the performance to stabilize. Don’t over-tinker too quickly. If it’s an absolute failure, pause it and invest in better-performing ads.
Optimizing and Scaling
Once you’ve got a performing ad, that’s your permission to test. Run subtle variations—perhaps an alternate headline or new images. Allow data, not your intuition, to determine your next step. If you need to scale, scale gradually. Going from a 10-dollar-a-day budget to 100 in a single leap can perplex the algorithm and occasionally ruin your performance. Do it one step at a time so you don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Ad Policy and Compliance
Instagram advertisements are subject to Meta’s general policies, so listen for what is acceptable. Do not make unrealistic claims, use hype language, or show unrealistic results (particularly in health or financial areas). If your advertisement is rejected, look at the feedback and adjust. I had an ad rejected once for saying “lose weight instantly,” which was too spammy. Rewording that to something slightly more realistic got it approved immediately.
Tips for Ongoing Success
Watch for updates, since Instagram regularly introduces new features and mixes things up. Update your creative regularly if your campaigns last more than a few weeks, since individuals tire of viewing the identical advertisement repeatedly. And make everything on brand—utilize the identical overall aesthetic in your advertisements, posts, and Stories so that individuals know you wherever. If you want help keeping everything consistent and efficient, tools like Top Tier SMM can help you improve your stats across multiple platforms.
FAQs
How much should I invest in my first Instagram ad?
Even a small budget like $5 or $10 a day is enough for initial testing. Start small to understand what works before scaling up.
Can I run Instagram ads without a Facebook account?
No, you’ll need a Facebook Business Manager account to access all Instagram ad functionalities and run ads effectively.
What’s the Ideal Instagram ad type for beginners?
Simple photo ads or carousel ads are great starting points. They’re easy to create and often yield solid results.