Advertising on Instagram is a great way to increase your audience, engage your readers, and educate them about your brand.
Let’s start with this…According to Hootsuite, “there are 800 million monthly active users on Instagram, 60 percent of whom are under 30,” so including this mega platform in your digital marketing strategy just makes good business sense.
How to Advertise on Instagram
Creating ads on Instagram requires using Facebook Ads Manager, so you must have a Facebook Business page to connect to. This will allow you to customize ads that can run on both Instagram and Facebook. If you are familiar with the Facebook Ads Manager tool, then creating ads for Instagram will be a no-brainer.
Another way to create ads on Instagram is within its mobile app. There are not as many customization options with this method, but if you have a post that’s doing well, you can boost it to reach an even wider audience.
Types of Instagram Ads
The Instagram platform offers five different types of ads, each containing supported call-to-action buttons: photos, videos, carousels, Story ads, and canvas Story ads. Here’s a quick look at each:
- Photo Ads allow businesses to showcase their services and/or products through effective and telling photos, which works great for eCommerce websites.
- Video Ads are taking the internet by storm and time spent watching videos online have increased 80 percent year over year. Video ads can run anywhere from 15 to 60 seconds and to increase audience recall, be sure to state your brand within the first few seconds.
- Carousel Ads give users the opportunity to cycle through a series of up to 10 photos or videos, allowing for a longer storytelling option to highlight specific products or educate your audience about your brand.
- Story Ads appear between Stories that viewers are already watching and are another way of capturing a wider audience. Story ads expire after 24 hours which makes them a perfect option to promote limited-time promotions and offers.
- Canvas Story Ads uses Facebook Canvas to create engaging videos that are optimized for quick loading and mobile viewing; especially valuable since so many readers use their phones and other mobile devices.
Best Practices for Instagram Ads
To create winning ads for Instagram, be sure you know your target market, use text wisely, use hashtags, keep it fresh and more importantly, create an experience your audience will enjoy!
Learn more about Advertising on Instagram or request professional assistance from our digital marketing team, Request a consult!
