Instagram advertisements are the quickest way of increasing your brand awareness. Major thanks for this go to the way Instagram displays your advertisements. There are no pop-ups to annoy the audience. Instead, these advertisements appear in the form of sponsored posts and stories in the middle of people’s feeds. This ensures visibility. Thus, these ads are the perfect option if you want to gain buy Instagram followers. And that is not all they can do. Using these ads, you can have the user visit a webpage, install an app, open your channel, and perform various other actions. You may even use them to get Instagram likes by promoting your posts. Alternatively you may just buy Instagram followers to get an instant reach.
One factor I am particularly fond of while advertising on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, is their pricing option. This is what Facebook has to say about this:
“You tell Facebook how much you want to spend on advertising. Then we’ll try to get you as many results as possible for that amount. If you want to spend $5 a week, you can. If you want to spend $50,000 a week, you can do that too.”
What this essentially means is that you can choose a budget and Instagram will try to get you the best results possible for that amount. All this can sound confusing for first-time users. Fear not though since you are in luck! We have got 5 simple steps to get you started.
A quick preliminary checklist: Create a Facebook page. Then connect this page and your Instagram account to the Facebook business manager. Visit this page to find out how. Now visit the Instagram ads manager, click on the create button, and follow the steps below.
Choose an objective
All your Instagram ads must have an objective or goal. This is what you want to achieve through the ads. Do you want to increase your brand awareness? Do you want them to visit your webpage? Browse your catalog? Or direct them to your physical store? Whatever your aim is, Instagram likely has you covered.
Once you have identified your objective, name your campaign. What you name it is entirely up to you and the option’s there just to make sure you do not get confused if you have multiple campaigns running side by side. It defaults to your objective. Go ahead and personalize it.
Choose your target audience
Facebook is a data-driven company. And it owns Instagram. Thus, Instagram advertisements provide you with extremely powerful targeting tools. Firstly, it allows you to filter your audience using age, languages, location, and gender among other factors.
Further, it goes a step beyond by helping you create a message that is most suitable for your customer. This way, you are certain to receive maximum engagement. Through tracking a user’s activity and previous interactions, Instagram automatically displays your ads to people most likely to interact with it.
Choose where you want your ads to display
Instagram ads are visible in four major places: People’s feed, the explore section, the IGTV section, and between stories.
You can toggle visibility for one or more of these places as per your needs. Stick with automatic placement for your first try to explore what works. You can customize it for your next campaign.
Select the budget and schedule of your advertisements
As previously mentioned, ads on most social media platforms have a very clever pricing strategy. In Instagram’s case, you get the option to choose a daily budget or a total budget depending on the type of ad. Further, you can select when to run your ad. This option allows you to select a time range within which to display your ad.
There are various other optimization options available and I recommend you explore them to suit your fancy. Instagram automatically displays the expected daily reach of your advertisement depending upon the factors you choose.
Finally, launch your ad
A couple of final steps you will need to take before the ad is up and running are as follow: First, select the format of the ad. That is, choose between displaying a single image, a carousel of images, a video, a collection, or “an instant experience”.
A quick tip: If you are unsure about the format of images you want, visit HootSuite’s post on social media image sizes.
Once the format is selected, it is all smooth sailing:
- Choose the image or media you would like to display.
- Craft your ad copy: This is the text users will see below your ad. Keep it catchy and creative.
- Pick a payment option.
- Review all the options you have selected and make any changes if necessary.
- Now, click on the Confirm button and your ad will be posted.
Sit back, relax, and watch as it slowly spreads across Instagram and brings you the engagement you need.
Conclusion
Facebook’s immensely powerful data collection and artificial intelligence systems provide for very robust ad targeting systems. Thus, your social media marketing campaign can get a significant boost through advertisements on Instagram and Facebook.
Have you got some tricks of the trade you would like to share? Drop them in the comments below.