Instagram Ads Basics

by | Feb 9, 2017 | Instagram, Social Marketing

Instagram Ads Basics

What’s Instagram and Why Use It for Your Business?

Most of the successful businesses today are leveraging the advantages of social media as a marketing strategy due to the increasing popularity of visual content.

Social media marketing has become an important asset that helps brands create their presence in the online market.

With the different social media platforms today, it is now easier to communicate visually with customers, followers, and fans.

One of the most popular and widely used social media platforms today is Instagram.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a social networking application that is designed for sharing videos and photos using smartphones and other devices. As with Twitter and Facebook, Instagram users also have their own account, with their profile and newsfeed.

The app was created by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, and was released on October 10, 2010. It instantly became popular and gained more than 100 million users in April 2012, and more than 300 million in December 2014.

Photos and videos posted by users on Instagram are automatically displayed in their profiles. Instagram users can follow each other and see each other’s posts on their newsfeed. Instagram is actually Facebook’s simplified version, the only difference is that its emphasis is on video and photo sharing only.

It’s a social media app, and therefore it is very simple to interact with other Instagram users by just following them, liking, tagging, and commenting on their videos and photos, as well as private messaging them.

Instagram Benefits for Businesses

Using Instagram as a social media platform for your business gives you a lot of perks and opportunities for generating more profit. Here’s a closer look at the major benefits of using Instagram for your business.

Increase Customer Engagement

Most of the time, brand posts and updates on Twitter and Facebook are overlooked by users. This is not true for the users of Instagram, because if your Instagram account is active and posts relevant and interesting content, you will gain higher engagement from followers (customers and potential customers).

The latest study of Instagram has found that its content is 58 times more engaging compared to Facebook, and generates 120 times more engagement than Twitter.

Build Identity and Trust

As your brand becomes more popular on Instagram due to engaging content, iteventually helps your business gain the trust of your target audience. With the nature of online marketing, Instagram can significantly help you build an emotional connectional with your customers.

Using Instagram allows you to keep your customers updated with your business’ daily experiences in a casual way—giving your business a personal appeal.

Photos are also helpful to make your business look more trustworthy and attractive.

Increase Traffic

Although there are no options for you to include links to your Instagram updates, it is still very powerful for increase traffic.

If you have a high percentage of engagement and traffic on Twitter and Facebook, you also maintain a strong profile on Instagram to increase your business’ visibility.

Gain a Competitive Advantage

There is far lesser competition for your business on Instagram compared to Twitter or Facebook. Surveys show that only 2% of small-scale businesses are currently leveraging the benefits of Instagram.

This means that if you start using Instagram actively today, you can gain a relative advantage over your competitors. Businesses that use Instagram as a marketing strategy are more likely to reach their audience easier than on Twitter or Facebook where competition is higher.

Reach Your Target Market Faster

If your target audience is people who are born in the 1980s through the 1990s (Millenials), you’ll find that 37% of the people in this age bracket are on Instagram.

If you want to reach out and connect with a crowd that is under the age of 30, you definitely need to have an Instagram account for your business.

Free Advertising

Yes, you read it right. Advertising is absolutely FREE on Instagram. You should not miss this great opportunity to promote your products or services.

Actively updating your Instagram profile with your product or service line generates massive exposure for your business. It allows you to show your audience more of the things you offer.

With these significant benefits, you probably know by now that it is a powerful tool for you to create relevant visual content for your audience.

With the fact that almost all people are now using smartphones and other devices, it is impossible for your business not to gain more presence online.

Instagram Shocking Facts

Do you know how popular Instagram is today? Ever since its release in 2010, it has drastically gained its own spotlight in the digital world. People prefer using it, because it is more direct, with real-time video and a photo sharing platform. Below are shocking facts about Instagram that you might want to know.

  • Instagram now has 600 million active users (source)
  • 75% of Instagram users are outside the US (source)
  • Over 60% of users log in daily, making it the second most engaged network after Facebook (source)
  • 30% of internet users are now on Instagram (source)
  • 90% of Instagram users are younger than 35 (source)
  • When Instagram introduced videos, more than 5 million were shared in 24 hours (source)
  • Instagram clocks up to 5 billion likes every day (source)
  • Pizza is the most popular food on Instagram, behind sushi and steak (source)
  • On an average day, 80 million photos are shared (source)
  • Instagram usage has doubled in the last two years (source)
  • 8% of brands are on Instagram. By 2017, this is predicted to rise to 70.7% (source)
  • If we only look at the top 100 brands in the world, 90% have an Instagram account (source)
  • 96% of US fashion brands are on Instagram (source)
  • Outside China, almost 50% of Instagram users conduct product research on social media (source)
  • Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than with Facebook, 54 times higher than on Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter (source)
  • Over a third of Instagram users have used their mobile device to purchase a product online– making them 70% more likely to do so than non-users (source)
  • 50% of Instagrammers follow brands, making them the social networkers who are most likely to do so (source)
  • Posts that include another handle gain 56% more engagement (source)
  • Posts with at least one hashtag gain 12.6% more engagement (source)
  • And posts with a location receive 79% more engagement (source)
  • Photos see more engagement than videos on Instagram (source)
  • The average engagement per post has grown by 416% compared to two years ago (source)
  • 70% of the most used hashtags are branded (source)

There are many reasons why you should start using Instagram for your business. With Instagram, you can now improve your marketing strategy by engaging your audience with your brand in a visual way. Grab this unique marketing opportunity and see how it can help your business succeed.

What Are Instagram Ads All About?

Social media plays an important role in the daily life of millions of people all over the world. There are several online applications that most people commonly use as a powerful tool of communication. One example of this is Instagram.

What are Instagram Ads?

This form of advertisement started in the United States way back in November of 2013. Most aspiring business enthusiasts are now using Instagram Ads to reach a high degree of sales and profits for their specific business.

Instagram ads can be powerful to grow your business if you use it in an efficient and professional way. Instagram has become one of the world’s largest mobile ad platforms.

Since Instagram has been one of the most popular social platform in today’s digital age, many people prefer to use it to promote their business.

Several researchers revealed that in the Middle East, Instagram has been the leading social platform compared to other social media channels. In connection to this, people also use Instagram Ads to make the most out of their businesses.

Instagram Ads Benefits for Businesses

In the very competitive world of business, only a few remain on top. Therefore, you must develop a new and more innovative strategy to reach the goals and missions of your company in the best and fastest possible way.

You can do that by simply engaging with Instagram ads. The tool can serve as a powerful technique to gain more potential customers for your products and services.

To mention a few, the following are some of the advantages of using Instagram Ads for your business.

Provides you various ad formats

It is a fact that people buy items that are well represented in the public. Based on this, with the different ad formats that Instagram can provide you, you’ll have the chance to choose a professional format that perfectly suits the high standards of customers. Additionally, you can have an attractive promotional campaign that can help you to boost your business’ profits.

High amount of public audience

Since Instagram is a very powerful online communications tool, it is now easier for you to reach a greater public audience that could soon be your potential customers. In addition to this, you can have unlimited promotion for your business for almost no cost.

The good thing about that is you can share your Instagram ads with your friends, and they can serve as your live advertisers by sharing it with their friends.

Competitive ad targeting

Through the help of Instagram ads, a specific business advertiser can target a specific audience based on age, gender and location. It is a unique and more efficient promotional strategy to gain a high level of sales and income from your business.

With just a click on your website, visitors can now experience great financial stability without spending much time and effort.

Less competition

When you choose Instagram advertising, you’ll have more chances to win for your business. It is believed that Facebook has almost two million advertisers which reflects very tough competition in the market.

Meanwhile, it would be a wise move to choose Instagram ads, the competition is very limited.

You’ll build a community that comes back from time to time. By simply establishing a more efficient and professional Instagram ad, you have the chance to gain more regular customers that will support your product and services for a long period of time.

As a result, you can also build a solid reputation in the industry.

Instagram Ads Shocking Facts

  • In 2015, Instagram was forecasted to bring in $595M in mobile ad revenue (source)
  • By 2017, Instagram’s global mobile ad revenues will reach $2.8 billion (source)
  • Instagram will be the next big thing for your business’ success. Scientific studies show that Instagram ads will be the next gold rush in the coming 6 to 12 months. Most business analysts say that Instagram ads are more efficient and more profitable and less saturated compared to Facebook ads. (source)
  • It is said that 61% of Instagram users like at least 1 media/day and more than 30% like over 10 media/day. With this numerical fact, the aspiring advertiser can now have the chance to get more potential customers in just a very short period of time. Additionally, more people will be aware of your specific products and automatically help you grow your business. (source)
  • Your Instagram ad posts can get 308% more engagement compared to Facebook, and 1313% more than on Twitter. This Instagram ads fact is a reflection that it can be the most effective tool for promotion when it comes to attaining the goals and missions of your business. (source)
  • Statistics show that the average post on Instagram gets 2.12% engagement, which is 308% higher than the total page likes (0.52%) for the average Facebook post, and 1313% higher than the total followers (0.15%) that engage with the average tweet. (source)
  • According to studies, Instagram is increasingly the go-to social network for people under 35. With this fact, your Instagram ads can reach a high level of potential customers of all ages. It is believed that about 90% of Instagram users are below the age of 35. Statistics show that 32% of US teens use Instagram as their basic platform. (source)

What Ad Solutions Is Actually Instagram Offering?

Are you ready to engage with the newest online advertising solution wave? Instagram is giving everyone the chance to become photographers through its unique features for photo editing.

Many brand owners are now taking advantage of the great opportunity to give their customers behind-the-scenes looks at their offered products and services.

Whether you have a small or big business, global advertising on Instagram is now possible. Therefore, you can share your story with a vastly engaged audience through an artistic, profound environment and get responsive action to your ads.

It is time for you to take advantage of a wide ranging audience with the latest effective advertising solution for your business which will bring you real time advertisement results.

Through this ad solution, you are increasing the awareness of Instagram users for your products and services. Exposing your brand will help make your audience aware of your brand, especially if you have a creative promotion.

Your audience will be more interested if your advertisement has a catchy caption and appealing look. As you already know, Instagram can significantly help boost your advertisement strategy by turning your brand into a sought after topic in the online world.

Instagram Ad Formats

If you want your brand to have a profound and higher range of ad solutions, then Instagram will show you what great advertisement is all about.

Through their photo, video and carousel ads, your advertisement ideas and strategies will not limit your creativity.

These three advertisement formats will support all of your desired results, and give you the opportunity to leverage your online presence, where everything seems boundless.

Inventive Photo Ads

Bring out your creative prowess with photo ads. You can freely put your soul into your images and tell the stories behind them. Your audience will be more interested to have your products or services if you have an attractive, yet simple piece in your post.

This is your chance to give your brand a new look, and Instagram will help you achieve an inspiring, interesting, beautiful and effective canvas.

High Quality Video Ads

If you wanted your advertisement to be more visually attention grabbing, then video ads will show you how. With the similar insightful quality of photo ads, your advertisement through video will be more alive.

Feed your audience’s spirit with engaging views, sounds and motion of video advertisements, where you can share up to 60 seconds of video in a landscape format.

Videos will now be one of your important ingredients to create successful promo ads.

Efficient Carousel Ads

Give your ads multiple opportunities for more traffic on your website. Carousel ads will introduce you to a better means of advancing your brand. There will be notable audience engagement for your ads, as compared to static posts.

Carousel ads will bring your photo ads to a higher level of advertisement range, so your viewers can swipe left or right to see additional images.

Then, the call to action button will lead them to your website to learn more about your offers.

Now, it is clear that Instagram will provide you with ad solutions for an enjoyable, attractive and effective photo and video advertisement medium.

Also, Instagram will help you locate which of your ads will appropriately be placed, so you can be confident that your target audience will be reached accordingly.

Through this, your effort will not be wasted and your advertisement will be on the right track.

Instagram Advertisement Objectives

Of course, whenever you create an advertisement, you are always expecting great results, but how can Instagram ad solutions help you achieve your expected results?

It’s simple. Through the following objectives, you are ensured that your brand will experience a different level of success and popularity.

I will show you those objectives in where you can set up every one of those campaigns. And that is inside the Facebook Ads Creation Dashboard, but all of these campaigns will be run as Instagram Ads.

Boosting your posts

With the “Page post engagement” Objective, you will be able to get more people to see and engage with your Page posts.

Increasing brand awareness

With the “Brand awareness” Objective, you will be able to reach people more likely to pay attention to your ads and increase awareness for your brand.

Increasing your reach

With the “Reach” Objective, you will be able to show your ad to the maximum number of people. Choose this objective if you’d like to show your ad to the largest audience for your budget.

Sending people to a destination on or off Facebook

With the “Link clicks” Objective, you will be able to send people to the store where they can purchase your app.

Getting installs of your app

With the “App installs” Objective, you will be able to get more people to see and engage with your Page posts.

Getting video views

With the “Video views” Objective, you will be able to promote videos that show behind-the-scenes footage, product launches or customer stories to raise awareness about your brand.

Increasing conversions on your website

With the “Website conversions” Objective, you will be able to get people to take valuable actions on your website, such as watching a demo or purchasing a product. Use the Facebook pixel feature to measure and optimize ads for conversions.

Promoting a product catalog

With the “Product catalog sales” Objective, you will be able to create ads that automatically show products from your product catalog based on your target audience.

There you have it. As you can see, only 8 of 14 Advertising Objectives Facebook actually offers, are optimized for Instagram, and we’ll show you how to set every one of them, step by step.

What You Should Do Right Before Creating Instagram Ads

Now, Instagram Ads are finally within your reach.

Businesses of all sizes can officially have the ability to create advertisements that can reach different places around the globe. This will be your chance to be one of those advertisers and business owners who are enjoying

running campaigns in the most popular photo-sharing sites and hashtag loving communities.

It would be great for you to choose Instagram Ads as your advertising partner to grow your business, and you can boost your expected results for your ads.

Moreover, this will be a great opportunity to align your brand with the big brands on Instagram.

Knowing that your products or services will be one of the hot topics in the online world through Instagram ad solutions will give you the chance to lead the ever competitive business arena.

Through Instagram Ads, you are now getting closer to your target audience. Aside from the fact that you are ensured that your campaigns will reach the appropriate audience, you’ll also have the power to build online and local awareness for your brand which will serve as an amazing chance to realize your business goals.

If your business is ready to discover what great business opportunities Instagram Ads can offer to you, there are some important things you need to know.

Before creating any Instagram Ads, you need to have a website, images, videos, a Facebook Ads account, an Instagram account, a mobile app, Facebook pages and Facebook product catalogs.

Website

Before engaging in Instagram Ads, you need create your own business website which will contain all the necessary details about your venture. First, you have to choose which website building platform you are going to use.

You may use www.Bluehost.com after you create your domain name. After following the steps to create a domain name for your site, you may now set up, create the design and do some tweaks to your website.

Images

Of course, innovative and creative images are some of the important factors you’ll need for a successful advertisement. You have to choose effective photo design tools which will allow you to create customized images for Instagram Ads.

For an easy platform, you can go to www.canva.com for your photo editingprocess.

Videos

It is well known that Instagram is a perfect place to share visual storytelling for different brands. For you to easily design, shoot and edit videos, you need to have a video app.

PicPlayPost will be ideal for you if you plan to combine multiple videos in a collage and create static content for your videos with motion. You may go to www.mixcord.co/partners/picplaypost.html to create videos for your Instagram ads.

Facebook Ad Account

A Facebook Ad will be an effective platform to boost your advertisement, but you’ll need to set up your Facebook Ads account first. You need to have an Ad Manager Page to manage all the activities on your Facebook Ads. You’ll find it at www.facebook.com/ads.

Instagram Account

To create an Instagram account, you may use your smartphone or tablet through the Instagram mobile app. Also, you can use other tools to run an Android version Instagram on your MAC or PC. Go to www.instagram.com to register with the use of your email address or Facebook account.

Mobile Apps

Another essential factor you need to consider before starting Instagram ads is to create your mobile app.

www.infinitemonkeys.mobi offers you easy steps to create your very own mobile app which will greatly help you create a better means of offering your products or services to customers.

A mobile app will serve as the easiest way of updating customers about your offerings and allowing them to keep in touch with your advertisements and website.

Facebook Pages

By creating a Facebook page, you will increase your exposure to possible customers, boost SEO, lessen your marketing expenses, create more leads and reach your target audience.

All you have to do is visit www.facebook.com/pages/create. Then, you may start creating more possibilities for your advertisement on Instagram.

If you have a large audience or followers on your Facebook page, there is no doubt you can have better access to a wider range of profitability.

Facebook product catalog

If you have a Facebook product catalog, you’ll have a well organized list of products that you want to be advertised.

When people see that you have a catalog for your product or service offerings, it will be easier for them to choose the product or service they want.

You’ll just simply create it through www.facebook.com/products with a couple of easy steps. A product catalog is quite important. After you advertised your brand on Instagram, you’ll have something for your audience to use to conduct a wider search of your offerings.

Moreover, your Facebook product catalog will also serve as a clearer view of your products or service descriptions, so you’ll need to make it attractive and organized as not mislead your audience.

Before deciding the concept for your Instagram Ads, it is ideal for you to first learn the important things to have a smooth and organized advertisement strategy.

You need to first be aware of the things you need to prepare, before taking an action to ensure that you get the desired results.

Truly, Instagram ads will introduce you into a higher level of marketing for your business and lead you to an advertisement solution with achievable results.

Video Tips for Instagram Ads

In today’s digital generation, competition is getting tougher in the business world. With this, you must develop a well laid out plan of action to keep ahead of the competition.

The best way to support this is to engage in creating Instagram ads that can help grow your specific business.

Boosting Your Posts

 

First of all, go to www.facebook.com/ads/manager/creation

In the awareness list, click on “boost your posts”. With this objective, you’ll get more people to see and engage with your post or Page, which in this case is your Instagram account. Engagement can include comments, shares, likes, event responses and offer claims.

Give your campaign a name and click on “continue”.

In the Ad set, you have to define your audience, budget and schedule.

The audience is who you want to target to see your ads. Use a saved audience, or if you don’t have it, create a new audience.

Add the locations. You can select from “everyone in this location”, people who live in this location, people recently in this location or people traveling in this location. Add their age, gender and languages.

Use detailed targeting to include or exclude people from this audience. Use connections if you want to add different connection types; this can be Facebook pages, apps and events.

Placements is where you choose where your ad will be shown. Click on “edit placement” in platforms and select only Instagram. In advanced options, you can specify Mobile Devices & Operating Systems.

In budget and schedule, define how much you’d like to spend, and when you’d like your ads to appear.

In budget, select if you want to use a daily budget or a lifetime budget and the amount. In schedule, select if you will run your ad set continuously starting today, or set a start and end date.

Click on “show advanced options” and customize the optimization for ad delivery. Select from post engagement, impressions or daily unique reach. Also, edit your bid amount, when you get charged, ad scheduling and delivery type.

On the right, you’ll see the audience definition and estimated daily reach. Once you finish, give your ad set a name and click on “continue”.

Now, you have to create your ad. Select from media, text, or links to create one or multiple ads.

For format, you have 4 options: Single image, single video, slideshow, and canvas. Read the description of each one and use what you want.

I’ll choose “single image”. You can create up to 6 ads at once by uploading multiple images using the recommended image specs.

You can also add an Instagram account if you want, but is not necessary in order to run Instagram Ads. You can connect a Facebook Page to represent your sponsored advertising instead.

Here you can also ad some text related to your ad. On your right, you’ll see the ad preview.

Finally, click on “Place Order”.

To Make Your Instagram Shoppable

Using the right tools, you can transform your Instagram feed into a shoppable experience, letting your customers purchase anything they see and help them get a better idea of how your products look.

It’s become very beneficial to promote your brand easily, and share your content links of your website to Instagram, which is one of the best ways to market your brand.

Top Instagram Ads Resources

Instagram Videos

Instagram Training Courses

Instagram Blogs

Instagram Forums

Instagram Affiliate Programs

  • http://healthywealthyaffiliate.com/instagram-for-affiliate-marketing/
  • http://instarevealed.com/affiliate-program/

Instagram Webinars

Instagram Infographics

Instagram Case Studies

Instagram Facts

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