With more than 600 million active users, Instagram is one of the world’s most popular social networking platforms. People come together to share photos of their food, their families and their everyday activities – and slap a filter on the top to keep things looking pretty.
For businesses, Instagram is a powerful marketing platform. But as well as producing original content that connects to your audience, you could consider Instagram Ads to extend your reach. Below, we round up everything you need to know about using the advertising platform.
Start your campaign
Following Facebook’s takeover of Instagram back in 2012, advertising on the social networking platform has been simple. Instagram adverts can be tailored and created using Facebook’s platform, so sign in to your company’s Facebook Page profile and click on Ads.
Ads Manager
Once you’ve found your way to the Ads Manager, choose an objective. Facebook makes it easy for you – you can choose between boosting posts, sending people to your website, getting installs, getting video views or increasing engagement levels. As soon as you’ve decided, select your audience (and take advantage of the platform’s built-in targeting) and set a placement.
Choosing a budget
The next option is to set your budget and schedule for a post. You can opt for a daily budget, which means you’ll spend X amount on promotion every day, or a lifetime budget, where you’ll pay a one-time amount and let Facebook decide when and where to spend it.
Set an optimisation
When you set up your ads, you can choose between Link Clicks, which means your advert will be delivered to the most people at the lowest cost; Impressions, which means your ads will be shown to people as many times as possible; and Daily Unique Reach, which means your ad will appear on user’s timelines at most once per day. Each optimisation is useful in a particular circumstance, so decide how you want your brand to be delivered.
Set a bid amount
A bid amount is the amount of money you’re prepared to spend for promotion and reach. When you set an ad on Instagram or any other social network, you’re competing with other brands who want that advertising space. Select Manual or Automatic – the former allows you to set a cost per click, while the latter lets Facebook do what it think’s best.
Design your ad
When it comes to social media marketing, appearance is everything. Create high-quality videos and videos, and remember that Instagram is all about stunning photography. The more attractive you can make your ad, the better it’ll be. Do not forget to add a caption, a call to action and then place your order.
Monitor your performance
You can keep up to speed with the performance of your advert using the Facebook Ads Manager. There, you’ll find a dashboard of performance and engagement analytics which you can use to determine whether or not your campaign has been successful.
There you have it – everything you need to know about Instagram Ads. Before you start, make sure that you start with a well-designed website. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with Webahead to arrange a free web design quote today.
