Now that your business is using Instagram (you are, right?), you’re having fun posting pictures and interacting with the other 700 million daily users!
Well, maybe you aren’t engaging with ALL 700 million, but you are building your audience of followers and regularly adding to the photo gallery.
Now it’s time to use Instagram to market your business using it’s fullest capabilities. We are going to do this with Instagram ads!
Get ready… you’re going to love it!
How to Use Instagram Ads to Generate More Business
Generating business is the name of the Instagram game. Instagram is a fantastic place to advertise, and it’s not hard to do at all (you’ll see).
We’ll take you through 4 easy steps!
SIDENOTE: Before we begin, it’s important to understand that Facebook owns Instagram. You will access advertising on Instagram through your Facebook Ads Manager or Business Manager account. Instagram is a “Placement” option.
Step 1 – What and Who
Decide the goal of your ad first. Think about who needs to see it. You will want to choose your audience wisely.
Example of goals:
- Video views
- Link clicks
- Brand awareness (reaching the most people)
Example of audiences:
- Selected interests
- A lookalike of an existing audience
- Custom audience based on data you already have (past ticket buyer list)
Work this out in advance and the rest of your ad set-up will go smoothly!
Step 2 – Content
Content means what the picture or video is and what the caption says about it. Some things to consider when selecting your content –
- Be clear – does the image convey the purpose of your goal
- Use an eye-catching visual image or video
- Be relevant to your business and the audience (will they care?)
- Is it educational?
Make sure your caption is formatted for Instagram. Feel free to use emojis and hashtags, both of which are commonly used on the platform. Include a call-to-action so that your selected audience knows what you want them to do.
SIDENOTE (Yes, another one!): There is such a thing as “banned hashtags“. Using banned hashtags could block or penalize your Instagram account, so check your hashtags first to be safe.
Step 3 – Where to Place Your Ad
You have two options for where to put your content and run the ad. One is the Instagram newsfeed, and the other is Instagram Stories (see image above).
Selecting “Feed” puts the ad in the regular Instagram feed of your selected audience.
Selecting “Stories” will put the ad into the Stories of your chosen audience. So while they’re viewing the stories of their friends, your ad will come up too.
There IS a way to boost an Instagram post that you’ve already created. There is a blue “promote” button on your Instagram posts that you can use. If you select it, you are bounced over to Facebook to complete the ad set up… just like boosting a Facebook post.
Step 4 – Analyze Results
You took the time to set goals in Step 1, now take the time to see if you reached your goals. If you wanted people to click a link back to your website, did your ad results show that you received link clicks? If you wanted engagement, did people heart and comment on the ad?
Weigh the results against how much money you spent on the ads to gain an understanding of whether your goal results were worth the money you spent.
If you are running any social media ads, or want to, Instagram is worth a try. We’ll leave you with this final quote from the Aggregate Blog –
“Another benefit of Instagram marketing is that the users are all highly engaged and in most cases, positively minded towards the brands advertising there.”