6 ADVERTISE STEPS ON INSTAGRAM
It is fascinating. It’s creative. It’s inspiring. And it’s an incredible success story.
Instagram has taken the world by storm. Five years after its launch, Instagram is arguably the fastest growing mobile advertising platform with more than 400 million active users worldwide. In Germany, the photo sharing service is well ahead of Twitter with over 9 million users.
It has been possible for advertisers to use this creative platform for some time. And the great thing is: Everyone can now advertise on Instagram – not just the big brands.
THIS IS WHAT ADS LOOK LIKE ON INSTAGRAM
Ads on Instagram basically look like any other posting on the social network. However, they are marked with a small blue “Sponsored” tag on the top right-hand side.
You can also recognize advertisements on Instagram using the call-to-action button below the photo or video. Normal posts don’t have such a button.
WHAT INSTAGRAM ADVERTISING IS GOOD FOR
At the beginning I would like to clarify something. Instagram is a cool network and promoting it there is a lot of fun. However, it is not the right channel for every application. Before you start, you should definitely be clear about the special features of this platform.
Before you start, just ask yourself the following questions:
Do you know about Instagram?
Do you use it regularly?
Would your advertising messages fit into this visually demanding environment?
Are you aware that Instagram is a mobile only channel?
Yes? Perfect, then you can start now
Instagram advertising is suitable for the following purposes:
- You want to increase the awareness of your company, your product or your brand.
- You want to increase the number of visitors to your website.
- You want to draw attention to your products or increase sales in your online shop.
- You want to generate downloads for your app or increase interaction with it.
- You want to generate video views for a video or trailer.
In the following 6 steps, I’ll show you how to advertise on Instagram.
STEP 1: CHOOSE THE RIGHT CAMPAIGN GOAL
You can currently choose between the following destinations:
- Promote Your Posts: With this type of campaign, you’ll get more people to interact with your posts on the page. This is particularly suitable for promoting photo postings.
- Direct people to your website: With this type of campaign you increase the traffic on your blog, your website or your online shop. But always remember that Instagram is a mobile-only platform. So your site must also be optimized for mobile devices. Here you can easily test whether this is the case.
- Increase conversions on your website: You can also use this type of campaign to direct people to your website. They should not only visit your website, but also carry out an action there – e.g. subscribe to your newsletter. In order to be able to measure conversions, you absolutely need the Facebook pixel on your page .
- Get more installations of your app: This will direct users to the AppStore or Google Play, where they can then download your app.
- Increase the interaction with your app: With this type of campaign you get users to interact with your app.
- Get video views: Video ads are the perfect way to increase awareness of your brand or product. For Instagram, you should use visually challenging content. These can, for example, show a look behind the scenes.
After you have selected the desired campaign type, it is now time to define your target group (s).
STEP 2: DEFINE YOUR TARGET GROUP
In this example I choose the campaign type “Direct people to your website” . After I have inserted my URL, it is time to determine my target group. This procedure is practically identical regardless of the objective.
So you can easily orient yourself on my example here – no matter which campaign type you chose in the first step.
One thing in advance: Targeting on Instagram is just as ingenious as on Facebook. How come? It works exactly the same. You have the same targeting options on Instagram as on Facebook .
You can define your target group based on various characteristics. You can address people based on their location, age, gender or interests, for example. Or you combine different features.
The various options of Custom Audiences are also available to you on Instagram. In this way you can reach people who have visited your website on Instagram, for example. In order to be able to use this cross-device retargeting, you first have to create a website custom audience. I have explained how this works here .
In this example, I determine my target group based on their location, age and interests..
On the right side of the ad manager you will then see the potential reach of your target group.
Attention: This range estimate is divided into the range for Facebook and the range for Instagram. We are only interested in the lower value for Instagram at this point.
The reach for Instagram is displayed under the item “Estimated daily reach” . With the targeting I chose, I could reach around 11,000 people on Instagram.
You can find more information on defining a target group here .
If you are looking forward to spreading brand awareness, for that you can consider guest post options and you can find guest blogging websites searching queries like tech write for us.
STEP 3: ADD INSTAGRAM AS A PLACEMENT
In the next step, we select Instagram as the placement for our ads.
After you have determined your target group, scroll down a little further in the ad manager.
There click on “Choose your placement” and select Instagram. You can remove the remaining placements of the advertising cosmos from Facebook by clicking on the respective tick.
STEP 4: DETERMINE THE CAMPAIGN BUDGET
Next we set the budget for our campaign. Here you can choose between a daily or a term budget.
A daily budget specified here is the maximum amount you would like to spend per day on your campaign. With daily budgets, always keep in mind that such campaigns do not have an end date. They are switched continuously. So keep a close eye on your expenses.
If you choose a term budget, you can set a start and end date. A specified runtime budget is then the maximum amount you want to spend in total on your campaign.
With the “Optimization for the delivery of ads” option, you can determine how your ads should be displayed. This choice affects who your ads are shown to. Basically, this optimization setting should always match your objective from step 1.
With the objective I specified, the appropriate optimization setting would be “Link clicks on your website” . If your goal is to reach as many people as possible, you can also optimize the control of your ads for impressions. Then you will be charged impressions instead of clicks.
You should also set a manual bid value for your campaign. So you can determine how much a click is worth to you, for example.
With ad scheduling you can schedule your ads so that they are only shown at certain hours and days of the week. However, this only works with runtime budgets.
You can also choose a delivery type . The options “Standard” and “Accelerated” are available. I recommend you to choose the standard delivery. Accelerated delivery only makes sense if you want to advertise at the same time as time-dependent events.
Okay, have you defined your target group and set your budget? Then we will now link your Instagram profile with the ad manager. To do this, click on “Next” at the bottom .
Read More: Instagram Peak Posting Time
STEP 5: LINK YOUR INSTAGRAM PROFILE WITH THE AD MANAGER
Note: If you do not have an Instagram profile, you still have the option to advertise on Instagram. Then your Facebook page serves as the sender of your ads. If you choose this variant, you can skip this step. I think it makes sense, however, to link an Instagram profile with the ad manager. For example, you automatically benefit from more interactions on your profile. And your ads fit more seamlessly into the users’ feed.
B we efore take care of the design of the ads, we link your Instagram profile with Ads Manager.
To do this, scroll down a little in your Ads Manager to the option ” Instagram account” .
Click here on “Add Account” . And there give you then the access your Instagram account a. And the link is already established.
STEP 6: DESIGN AND CREATE ENGAGING ADS
Now we come to one of the most important success factors of an Instagram campaign: the design of the ads.
When you run ads on Instagram, it’s extremely important that they are visually appealing . Only in this way do they fit seamlessly into the user’s Instagram feed.
When designing your advertisements, you can choose between advertisements with single or multiple images.
The following ad formats are currently available on Instagram:
- Link ads with a photo
- Carousel ads with up to five photos
- Mobile app ads for downloads with a photo
- Mobile app ads for downloads with up to five photos
- Mobile app ads for interactions with a photo
- Mobile app ads for interactions with up to five photos
- Video Ads with a video (maximum 30 seconds) or as a slideshow
For some time now, Instagram has also allowed postings in portrait or landscape format in addition to square image formats . However, I recommend that you use a square format. Square photos or content are simply Instagram’s trademark.
The images in your ads should be 1,080 x 1,080 pixels. This is how you ensure that they are presented in the best possible way. It is important that images do not contain more than 20% text. To be sure, you can check this out here .
If you want to promote a video on Instagram, this can be a maximum of 30 seconds long.
For all ad formats mentioned, the text should not be longer than 125 characters. Even only 90 characters are better. If your ads contain more text, it may be shortened. It then only appears after a click on “Show more […]”. And that’s not exactly ideal
