Advertising with Instagram: Getting Started
Instagram has quickly proven itself as a valuable asset to startups and small businesses alike. As users of the platform would know, it doesn’t matter how small your audience is; if you use the right hashtags, you’re likely to receive at least a few likes and comments on each post. Furthermore, with a whopping 500 million daily active users, Instagram is an attractive marketing channel for a range of firms in an array of industries.
Still, there are some downsides. One of the major challenges with marketing on Instagram is getting your fans from Instagram to your website. Since posts can’t contain clickable links, brands have to direct their followers to the link in the bio instead. As new products are posted, this link has to keep being updated by the business.
There is, however, a workaround for this. If you advertise on Instagram, it is now possible to include links to your website on your sponsored posts. Instagram has opened a partnership with Shopify to take marketing on the channel to the next level, by offering product tagging and a “shop” tab directly within the app’s interface. Here’s how to create your Instagram ad.
Link Instagram to Facebook
Visit the settings for your Facebook page and click on “Instagram Ads.” Log in and fill in your Instagram credentials. Ta-da!
Create an Instagram Ad Campaign
After you’ve linked your Instagram account to your Facebook page, head over to the Ads Manager and create your first campaign.
Here, you will have to select your campaign objectives: brand awareness, reach, traffic, app installs, engagement, video views, lead generation, and conversions.
Create an Ad Set
On the Ad Set page, you have the option of selecting “Purchase” as the type of conversion you want Instagram to optimize for. You can also choose to add an “Offer”, which is a great way of driving even more conversions on your ad.
Next, define who you want to see your ads and how much budget you are willing to allocate. All the targeting options available for Facebook ads are the same ones available for Instagram ads. If you have any custom audiences already created, you can select them for targeting with your Instagram ad.
When it comes to setting your advertising budget, it’s good practice to start low. You can always increase your budget later based on the performance of your ad.
Next, select your Placements. Here, you have the option to run your campaign on Instagram, as well as Facebook and Messenger. You also have a range of ad formats to choose from; note that the Canvas format is not Instagram compatible.
From here, upload your visuals and write your text. Be sure to use the preview function to see how your ad will look when released to the world!
Analyze and Optimize
The job isn’t over when you hit that launch button. Once your campaign is up and running, be sure to monitor its performance and test ideas to find the most effective messaging, creative content and audience targeting.
