How to Create One in Minutes + 3 Best Practices
Instagram marketing can be a hit or a miss. Especially once you start implementing your social media strategy, it can take a while for your posts to perform well.
If so, your first instinct is to find out what worked well and repeat it in future posts – a great move. What you can also do is increase your contribution to double its performance with a wider audience.
Find out how Instagram promotions work, how to set them up, and what best practices to follow when running them.
How does Instagram advertising work?
Instagram promotions convert posts, stories, highlights and story archives into sponsored posts. They enable users to expand their reach, increase their brand awareness and provide conversion-friendly content with calls to action.
How is Instagram advertising different from ads?
Promotions give a second life to posts that have already been viewed and likely performed well. Ads, on the other hand, have new content and are used as part of a campaign.
The aim of a promotion is to reach a wider audience for more brand awareness and engagement. Or maybe you want higher conversions for a specific post.
However, with an ad, you are likely targeting a specific audience with a specific message.
Whether it’s an ad or a promotion, it will appear the same way on Instagram with the label “sponsored” under the account name.
Instagram advertising goals
There are three main goals that you can pursue when conducting an Instagram advertisement:
- More profile visits
- More direct messages
- More website visits
The destination you choose determines where users will be directed after they click the CTA. While the first two goals keep users on the social platform, the third leads users to your landing page (LP).
Knowing your goal ahead of time is key to preparing your assets and creating a plan for traffic influx, be it on your profile, DMs, or LP.
The first thing you need to know about running an Instagram ad is that you have a business account. However, you may not need to link your Instagram account to a Facebook account to run the ad, a prior requirement until June 2020 if this is your first promotion.
1. Find the post you want to promote and click the Promote button.
Access your archive for stories or highlights, select the post and choose “Boost”.
2. Select a destination.
If you select “More Website Visits” you will need to select a target for your users as well as your action button, i.e. your CTA. Here are the six button options:
- Learn more
- Shopping now
- See more
- Contact us
- book now
- Sign up
3. Define your audience.
If you select “Automatic”, Instagram will simply target users who match the interests and demographics of your current followers, especially those who have previously studied your content. The “Create Your Own” option allows you to filter your audience by location, interest, age, and gender.
4. Set a daily budget and a duration of the campaign.
Your daily budget ranges from $ 1 to $ 1,000, and the promotion can last anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days. Instagram recommends starting with at least $ 5 to get a good pool of users.
5. Review your promotion and click “Create Promotion”.
Note that Instagram will run your advertising in feeds, stories, and the Explore tab, regardless of where it was originally posted. Based on the initial data, it determines if it will run where it works best.
Once you’ve submitted your ad, it goes through an approval process that typically takes 24 hours.
Best Practices for Building a Good Instagram Ad
1. Promote high-performing content.
Even though you might be tempted to promote posts that need a little love, resist the urge. You can end up wasting money on a post that doesn’t have great potential.
If your brand is considering reinforcing a one-off post, focus on posts that are already highly engaged instead.
Why? Well, these posts have already proven themselves well with your followers. This is a good indication that you can perform well with the audience you haven’t reached yet.
2. Make sure your landing page is optimized for mobile devices.
Instagram is a mobile-first application.
Therefore, when you redirect users to a website, make sure that it has a good user experience for mobile users. Otherwise you will get a high bounce rate and a low return on ad spend (ROAS).
There are a few things to keep in mind when designing for mobile devices:
- Have a single column layout – This makes scanning and navigating the page a lot easier.
- Avoid taking too many pictures and videos – They can take up too much space and clutter the website. And they can cause slower loading speeds.
- Keep your copy short – What looks like perfectly arranged paragraphs on a desktop can easily get overwhelming on mobile.
3. Know that your goal is ahead of time.
It is important that you prepare your Instagram profile and / or your landing page prior to your promotion.
You want to make sure that you are ready to convert these users after they click your ad. What else is the point?
If your goal was to get more profile visits, make sure you have a visually appealing grid, descriptive bio, and updated contact information.
If you’re hoping for more news, consider adding a question to your ad to help spark the conversation.
The sooner you start preparing, the more ideas you can come up with to attract and convert your target audience.
