The advertising landscape has shifted drastically over the past number of years. With more and more people turning away from traditional forms of media like newspapers and cable TV and using social media instead, businesses and advertisers have had to adapt. One of the more popular advertising platforms currently is Instagram. If you’re unfamiliar with Instagram or Instagram Ads it can seem quite daunting, but with this guide, you’ll learn all you need to know about Instagram Ads.

What Is Instagram?

Instagram is a social media platform that is owned by social media giant Facebook. On this platform people and businesses can create an account to share photos, videos and stories. Once you have an account you can follow other accounts that are of interest to you. Users can “like” and comment on photos and videos. Instagram also has a messaging service where people can chat with each other. To open an Instagram account you need to be 13 years old or over, have an email address and then select a username for your profile.

Why Does Instagram Have Ads?

Instagram is free to use. However, Instagram also needs to make money to develop its app, host its servers and pay its staff. As the saying goes “If something is free, you’re the product”. In this instance, the user is the product as they are being shown ads. Businesses or people who run ads on Instagram pay the social media platform to show their ads to users. This is how Instagram makes money and remains a free-to-use service.

How Does Instagram Ads Work?

To make an ad on Instagram you first need an account. Once you’re all set up, head over to Facebook Ads Manager. Instagram does not have its own dedicated ad manager yet, so ads must be managed through its parent company.

You then need to decide on the objective of your campaign. Some campaigns are designed to grow brand awareness and some aim to increase reach. While other campaigns can help increase app downloads, engagement or lead generation. Once you’ve set the goals for your campaign, you then need to choose who you want to see your ad.

How Targeted Can Instagram Ads Be?

Within Facebook Ad Manager you have incredible customization over who you want to see your ad. If you’re a business selling dentures, it’s probably not wise to spend money on advertising that teenagers will see. You can specifically target the following areas:

Location - You can include, or exclude, accounts based on their location. Anything from the country right down to postcode can be targeted.

Age - There is a wide range of age of Instagram users. The app allows you to tailor your ad to specific age ranges.

Gender - Ads can specifically target all genders, men, or women.

Other Demographics - Your ads can even take a persons’ job, family and lifestyle details into account.

Interests - Based on a persons’ likes and interests on Facebook you can specifically target them, or exclude them.

Behaviours - Facebook Ad Manager even lets you target very small details like what device they use, travel behaviour and purchasing behaviour.

How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost?

Your ad budget is entirely up to you. Ad budgets work in one of two ways. You can either set a daily or lifetime budget. The daily budget is the average that you’ll spend on a daily basis, while the lifetime budget is the total cost of the campaign. Once you run a campaign you can look at your analytics and see what was successful and what wasn’t. You can then use this data in future campaigns to improve your return on investment.

How Create Instagram Ads?

There are a number of ways to make Instagram ads. Ideally, if you have the budget a great graphic designer is the way to go. Unfortunately, not everybody has the budget for this, but there are free online tools available like Canva to help us out. Canva has a whole host of ready-to-use templates specifically for Instagram. You can add your own text, brand colours and even photos to the posts. Canva is very user-friendly and can really make your posts pop!

Instagram ads can really help boost your business. With a little bit of research and creativity, you can have a campaign that really stands out from the crowd. If you need help from experienced digital marketers, get in touch with us today and let us help!

Filed in // Social Media Marketing, Strategy