Instagram Ads
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Instagram may be younger, with fewer users, than its parent company, Facebook, but it’s the colossal breakout megastar of the decade. With almost 800 million active users, and with the rate of both growth and ROI growing year-on-year, Instagram ads are certainly not to be ignored.
If you’re already using multiple platforms, even one’s which have a stake in Instagram’s success, then maybe it’s time to consider taking advantage of our expert PPC Management services and using Instagram ads as a way of boosting your brands’ awareness and yielding an increased ROI.
Will your company be our next happy Instagram Ads client
What Are Instagram Ads?
Instagram ads enable you to pay to post sponsored content on the platform in order to reach a larger, more defined audience. Often used to grow business exposure and generate leads and clicks, Instagram is mainly a visual platform perfect for building a brand and refining your image whilst yielding more money.
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Your Free Instagram Ads Audit are typically 40+ Pages and will give you actionable insight on how to get better results from your Instagram Ads spend! Just some of the areas we will report on are:
- Account Structure & Settings
- Conversion Tracking
- Target Audiences
- Deep Dives into The Highest Spending Areas
- Main KPIs Overview
- And Much More!
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If You Are Not Running Instagram Ads, Read On To Find Out If Instagram Ads Right For Your Brand?
This question can only be answered when you know what type of audience you want to target. Are they mostly teenagers? 20-somethings looking for interior design tips? Maybe even older generations sharing pictures of their grandkids.
That said, there’s no denying that Instagram’s average user is more youthful and lives in a mainly urban area and so, if this is your target audience, then Instagram ads are absolutely for you. Even if you’re not trying to capture the youth vote, Instagram can be useful nevertheless - you just need to know how.
How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost?
Based on a cost-per-click and cost-per-impressions model, Instagram ad prices are mostly determined according to the platform’s ad auction.
Ranging from 0.60-0.80p per click, Instagram ads are proven to yield significant levels of engagement, and you can even control the majority of your spend meaning you can dictate whether you want to get more link clicks, impressions, comments or likes.
How Are Your Instagram Ads Doing?
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Instagram Ads: When Did They Start?
Founded as recently as 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instargam was the first photo-only social media platform and has continued to grow over time:
- 2010-2012 - Instagram has 1 million users and is bought by Facebook for £1 billion pounds two years after its inception.
- 2013-2016 - In 2013, Instagram announced its sponsored posts and videos platform. This continued to evolve over the years, introducing the likes of carousel sponsored posts and arge and SME campaign strategies respectively.
In 2016, Instagram added videos to its carousel platform and, simultaneously, announced that 200,000 advertisers were using the platform.
- 2016-2018 - One of Instagram’s biggest and best features, Stories, was introduced in 2016, enabling businesses to start using them to promote products, sales and content.
Within a year, Instagram announced an increase of 300,000 monthly active advertisers.
In 2017, Instagram hit a number of landmarks including 1,000,000,000 active advertisers, paid story advertising and the ability to monitor reach, impressions, replies and exits.
2018-2021 - Most recently, Instagram have announced various new features and insights including threaded comments, live video and CTAs click throughs.
As you can imagine, Instagram is expected to continue to grow and prosper in the next few years, planning to rival the likes of Google and it’s parent platform, Facebook, in terms of advertising.
The Statistics Behind Instagram Ads
Be it engagement, paid advertising or usage, there are a number of statistics that show just how amazing Instagram ads can be to your business:
- 1 billion+ people use Instagram every month
- 51% of Instagram users are female
- 81% of people use Instagram to research products before buying them
- 500 million+ people use Instagram Stories every day
And, taking into account marketing metrics, the stats continue to impress:
- 81% of people use Instagram to research products and services
- 130 million users tap on shopping posts every month
- 50% of people have visited a website to make a purchase after seeing a product on Instagram
- Instagram saw 17.0% user growth in 2020
But there’s more:
- 90% of Instagram users follow a business page
- 36.2% of B2B decision makers use Instagram to research new products
- Instagram earned 18.16 billion in ad revenue in 2020
There’s no denying how incredible some of these stats are, be it in regard to usage, paid ads or demographic, Instagram has positioned itself as a serious contender in terms of advertising. However, what are the reasons why you shouldn’t use Amazon ads?
Why Shouldn’t You Use Instagram Ads
Instagram ads are great and can have serious benefits for your businees, but they do have their faults; particularly if your product is hard to convey through such a visual medium. This may seem over simplistic and obvious, though it is the main reason why you shouldn’t use Instagram ads, but if your product isn’t tangible, aestetically pleasing or more geared towards an older audience, then you shouldn’t use Instagram.
Indeed, if your product is more of a service rather than something physical, then Instagram ads, although good to boost your image and highlight less tangible aspects such as company culture, for example, may not have the desired impact in terms of lead generation.
The Most Effective Instagram Ad Formats
From two variations of Instagram stories to three other formats designed for the grid, Instagram has numerous ad formats to choose from, all of which have their own unique benefits.
1. Image Feed Ads
Image Feed Ads are your most standard ad format, and the one you often see most on your Instagram feed. These ads are single images that look native to your account, immersing themselves within your feed. Paired with a CTA button such as ‘Apply Now,’ ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Learn More,’ these ads work best when they don’t feel like ads.
2. Image Story Ads
Exactly the same as Image Feed Ads, Image Story Ads blend seamlessly into your various Instagram stories. Perfect for lead generation and reaching a wide audience, Image Story Ads can be just as impactful as feed ads.
3. Video Feed Ads
Videos always have a more significant impact than images; and Video Feeds Ads are no different.
Perfect for boosting brand awareness in particular, if you’ve put the time in to make a quality video, then you should absolutely be promoting it through your Instagram feed.
Furthermore, it’s always worth bearing in mind that Instagram recommends using H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame format with stereo AAC audio.
4. Video Story Ads
Again, just like Video Feed Ads, Video Story Ads are great simply because users often expect to see videos on peoples’ stories anyway, therefore the ‘advertising’ part feels more organic.
And, if you have 10,000 followers or more, you can add a swipe up CTA function which has proven to be a massive hit with users and advertisers alike.
5. Carousel Feeds Ads
Carousel Feed Ads allow you to show a series of scrollable images and is perfect for very visual brands such as those in the hospitality, retail or travel industry. With the choice of up to ten images or videos for one ad, each with its own specific link, Carousel Feed Ads do everything from boost your brand awareness to generate sales.
That said, not only are all five Instagram Ad formats great in their own right, but they also supplement one another perfectly, meaning that you can hit consumers from all angles without coming across pushy or intrusive.
How Are Your Instagram Ads Doing?
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How to Make Your Instagram Ad Content Standout
A mind boggling 95 million photos and videos are posted on Instagram every single day, that’s around 990 posts per second. So, it’s safe to say that standing out on Instagram is somewhat important.
Here are a number of ways you can create really good content perfect for your Instagram ads.
1. Inject Personality Into Your Ads
Whether it’s a tear-jerking video, a meme nobody’s seen, or a post that perfectly sums up your company’s culture, if your Instagram post doesn’t feel human or real, then you will not reach a big enough audience.
Always remember, people buy from people. And people use Instagram to be amused, amazed and motivated. So, when designing your ads, make sure to appeal to some facet of human emotion.
2. Make Sure Your Cotent is Relevant to Instagram
What works on Facebook may not necessarily work on Instagram; and the same goes for TicTok, Snapchat, Twitter and any other social media platform. That’s why it’s hugely important to tailor your content specifically to your Instagram audience.
Ensure your ads are not overtly sales-driven, keep the short and snappy and inject some personality into them and you should see an improvement in everything from engagement to reach.
3. Use Hashtags… Properly
Don’t just hashtag #food, #books or #love - you’ll get nowhere.
Instead, be more creative with your hashtags and some research to see what your audience is actually searching. That said, don’t overdo it with hashtags either, 9-10 seems to be the ideal number for high post engagement, while longer words and phrases perform better.
4. Run Contests and Giveaways Whenever Possible
Promoting a contest or giveaway is by far one of the best ways to reach your objectives fast. Why? Because you’re essentially bribing people to interact with your account; plus, people love free stuff.
There’s no better way to get people excited about your brand than a giveaway. And, once you’ve correlated the data, you can use that to target people in the future.
5. Post at Optimal Times
If you understand your audiences’ and, let’s be honest, your own habits enough, then it shouldn’t be too difficult to determine when’s the best time to post and reach them.
Just think of the times you’re most on your phone and schedule your ads accordingly. Maybe you’re always on your phone during your daily commute; maybe you scroll through Instagram more after work, or even just on Sundays. Whatever time or day it is, always schedule with your audience in mind.
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There’s no time like the present to invest in Instagram ads, especially with the platform at the very peak of its power. In essence, if your business is centred around a physical product that is visually pleasing and viable, then you absolutely must consider investing both time and money into Instagram paid advertising.
With an exciting present and an even more exciting future ahead, there couldn’t be a more ideal time to start advertising your brand and its products on Instagram. So, get ‘gramming, it could just revolutionise your output and take your brand to the next level you’ve always dreamed of.
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