No doubt. 2020 definitively consecrates online advertising, especially that applied to social networks, such as Instagram and Facebook. Today I want to give you all the information you need to advertise on Instagram with concrete and measurable results.
I will start from scratch and leave nothing to chance. This will be your guide to your first advertising campaign Instagram with all the aspects to consider and the step-by-step process to follow to launch it successfully.
I can imagine the questions ringing in your head, I've also reviewed them. For example, What goal should I aim for?? Thing I have to write in the message to promote? Which image to use?
Not to mention the technicalities like conversion tracking.
Don't worry. We will see everything together in all the phases that we will have to face during the first one advertising campaign on Instagram.
What you will find in this guide
►Lee: How to know if you are blocked on Instagram - steps and tricks!◄
You'll find what you hope to find (I wish it were that easy)
In reality, it is a specific guide aimed at all those who want to start advertising on Instagram. The procedure is meticulously explained and touches on all the most important aspects:
it is the first action that must be carried out to obtain concrete results. I'm referring to finding your competitors (people and companies) who are leaders in the industry you want to "do well".
The goal of the campaign is what you want to advertise on Instagram. What is the main purpose of the campaign and what is the result you want to achieve?
The target is the selection of a specific audience to show your ad to in order to achieve the predetermined goal.
The creativity it is the aesthetic part of the promotional post, which can be an image or a video with a call to action.
Analytics is the single most important action taken during and/or after an advertising campaign. Analysing, measuring and comparing the results obtained in order to optimize the next campaigns is essential to get ever closer to the declared objective.
Why advertise on Instagram
Instagram has reached the figure of over 700 million of active users in the world, a figure that has been confirmed by the same Mark Zuckerberg on his Facebook profile and reported by the accredited statistics portal.
The number of users, as impressive as it is, is not the most interesting figure. According to a recent analysis by Locowise, Instagram has a 70% higher engagement rate than Facebook.
By interactions we mean any action that the user performs with a post: like, comment, buy, visit the site, etc.
This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why it is worth promoting your products/services on this Social Network.
Provided that the product/service and the type of advertising campaign are in line with the target users on Instagram.
Find your competitors
Before proceeding with any other action, it is important to do a thorough research on your competitors.
Look for the industry leaders you want to "attack" and analyze their Ads campaigns, which calls to action they use and how many interactions they can generate.
Actually, it's easier than you think. Many, if not all, use the Facebook pixel for remarketing.
In short, it's a way to track users who have been to a particular site and then repurpose sponsored posts for them.
Practical example
Go to the IkeaItalia profile and click on the link in bio. You log into the site with a promotion in full view, click on any product, and then you're back on Instagram.
Now scroll through your posts Home and you'll have a much better chance of finding an Ikea-sponsored post.
Note: If you don't see any of the Ikea-sponsored posts, it could simply mean that they're not promoting anything at the moment or are using the remarketing pixel code.
You can start experimenting with competitor accounts to study their ads and measure their results.
Set your campaign goal
Now that you know a little more about how your competition does on Instagram, it's time to define the main objective of your Instagram advertising campaign.
What do you want people to do when they see your sponsored post?
Instagram ADS uses the same platform as Facebook and there are many objectives that can be chosen:
Not all lenses can be leveraged for Instagram, only the following:
Self Consciousness Branding: Increase awareness of your brand
Coverage: Show your ad to the maximum number of people
Traffic: Increase clicks on your site or app on the App Store or Google Play
Involvement: Engage users as much as possible to take an action on your post, such as likes, shares, events, comments or purchases.
App installs: guide users to the store where your app is located and encourage them to download it
Video Views: promote videos and get more views
Conversions: drive people to take actions on a site or app, like making a purchase.
If you want to promote a product to sell it to a specific target audience, we recommend choosing the Conversions objective. It's also important to create and configure a Facebook pixel for detailed tracking.
Set a specific goal
Here is the crux of the Instagram and Facebook advertising campaign. One of the most evident strengths of this type of advertising is precisely the targeting of the audience, since it can be elaborated on the basis of various aspects, including the behavioral one.
Instagram ads offer a wide variety of targeting options, like Facebook ads, including location, gender, interests, and behavioral targeting.
Of course, he immediately got to the heart of the matter. Let's take an example:
Selling wooden iPhone cases (handmade) in Italy. So you'll need to reach an audience that's interested in the iPhone and, of course, they have one.
You can set the audience like this:
- Location: Italy (all regions)
- Age: 20-40
- Gender: both
- Italian language
- Hobby: iPhone/keeping
- Edit placements: Set your ad campaign to mobile-only and filter it for iOS devices.
Safe. The last part is the most important, as it limits the viewing of the sponsored post ONLY and exclusively to iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod touch).
Your product, in this case, is aimed exclusively at those who own an iPhone or other iOS device.
Bingo.
Basically, the closer you get to your actual target audience, the better chance you have of achieving your campaign goal. As in this case, given that we are talking about conversions, or rather the sale of the covers.
Note: you can also save your audience so you don't have to set it up again for each ad campaign.
similar audience
In the target sector of Instagram and Facebook ads, it is necessary to mention the lookalike audience, also known by the English term Lookalike Audience.
An effective tool that manages to create a super specific audience for your sponsored post. These audiences tend to convert more because people have a real interest in that specific industry/product/service.
Facebook analyzes the characteristics of people who already follow you (from a custom audience or from your Facebook Page) to reach other people who have the same interests and similar characteristics.
Go to the Audience page, click Create Audience in the drop-down menu, and finally click Lookalike Audience.
Create the creative to advertise
It's time to unleash your creativity. In fact, to create a sponsored post that works on Instagram, you need to unleash your skills as an artist and a scientist at the same time. Yes, I'm kidding, but not too much.
Before starting, try to think about your goal, what is the audience you are trying to communicate with and above all what is the message you want to convey.
There are several creative types for Instagram ads:
Carousel Ad: a post with 2 or more images to scroll through
Single image: a simple post with an image
Single video: a post with video
Slide show: a continuous loop video post (max 10 images)
Collection : a post where you can tell a story by combining images and videos
The choice is dictated by the message you want to convey and the goal you want to achieve.
From my experience, I can say that video has given me more encouraging results, but that could just be because it was the best format for the type of campaign I was running.
Reflect, experiment and analyze the results.
Try again.
How to create sponsored posts on Instagram
1. Connect your Instagram account to your Facebook page
This is the first step to start creating a sponsored post on Instagram. Go to Facebook Page Settings and click Instagram Ads in the left menu.
At this point you can click on Add an account and then enter your credentials to confirm everything.
2. Create a campaign
Go to the Manage Ads page and click the Create Campaign button:
target
The screen will appear where you will have to choose your marketing objective. For example, you can choose conversions. Finally click Continue.
Public
Now you have to select the target, i.e. the audience you want to reach. If you've chosen to convert, you'll first need to indicate which website or app to use with the Facebook pixel.
Fill in all the details of the new audience or set one that you have previously saved.
positions
In this section you can choose where to display your sponsored posts. In this case, since we are talking about Instagram ads only, you can select the Edit placements option and disable both Facebook and Audience Network in the platforms part:
Budget and planning
At this point you will need to configure your daily or total budget according to your needs. You can also decide to program the duration or activate it continuously.
There are other options on this screen for optimizing campaign costs as well, but if you're just starting out, I recommend leaving the options as they are.
List: format and link pages
We're almost there, but this is probably the most important part too. I mean creativity. Choose your ad format from the ones we reviewed earlier in this guide.
Insert one or more images depending on the format or a video. Enter your message paying attention to the character limit. Next, you will need to connect the Facebook page and verify that the Instagram account is the correct one from the left column:
Check the thumbnail list on the right side of the screen. If everything is correct, click the green Sort button:
At this point you just have to wait for the post sponsored by Facebook to be approved. Confirmation usually arrives within minutes, don't worry.
Analyze the data: engagement and conversions
I really hope you are lucky enough to be successful with your Instagram ad campaign from day one, but if not, you will need to make some tweaks and optimizations along the way.
Return to the Facebook Ads Manager page and click on your current campaign. You will be able to access the graph and metrics relating to the performance of the sponsored post.
If you need advanced options, consider accessing its Power Editor. Either way, analyze the data and adjust your ad based on the results you get.
Suggestion: if your campaign works well, you should increase your daily budget every 3 days. In case it goes wrong, consider changing your goal and budget or even stopping it.
Create a new one.
Experiment with other formats, other creativity and another message.
►You may also be interested in: How to create an Instagram account from my phone with simple steps!◄
Conclusion
These are the essential steps to advertise on Instagram if you follow these tips well you will get a successful advertising campaign. We hope you enjoy our article if you think something was missing, leave your comment.
