How To Use Instagram Ads Like A Pro

Instagram advertising is an effective way to reach your wider target audience on the platform.

There are many reasons why businesses or influencers decide to advertise on Instagram. The most common reasons are: to build brand awareness, push website traffic, generate new leads, and close sales.

Instagram advertising is quite an extensive topic. Below, we will discuss if Instagram advertising is suitable for your business and the step-by-step process of using it.

Should I Use Instagram Advertising?

Just like any form of media, the first thing to consider before advertising is your target audience. Is your target audience on Instagram?

Instagram tends to cater to younger audiences. As of July 2021, the most number of Instagram users are between ages 18- 34 years old. The least age demographics are ages 65+.

Take a look at this statistical graph from Statista for further reference.

If your target audience falls under the grandparent demographic, Instagram might not be the best option for you.

If not, then we highly recommend you give Instagram ads a try.

Instagram now has over 1 Billion users worldwide. Even more interesting is that Instagram also uses Facebook’s extensive demographic data, which works wonders in reaching your target audience. It would be a shame not to take advantage of its advertising feature to reach your target market.

How To Advertise On Instagram

There are two options to post Ads on Instagram. The first one is to use Facebook’s Ad Manager. The second is through the Instagram app itself by promoting an existing post.

Promoting an existing post is faster, but it lacks the customization options available in Ads Manager. We will cover both Instagram advertising methods in this article.

Advertising Through Facebook’s Ad Manager.

Below is the step-by-step guide on creating an Instagram Advertisement Using Facebook’s Ad Manager.

1. Go to Facebook’s Ad Manager

Click this link to get to the Facebook Ad manager. Make sure you logged in to the appropriate accounts. Click “+Create”.

2. Choose Your Marketing Objective

What are you trying to achieve on this campaign? This is the part where you have to define your campaign goal. Instagram ads only work with seven goals: Brand Awareness, Reach, Traffic, App installs, Engagement, Video Views, and Conversions.

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Brand Awareness

Choose this if your goal is to display your post to potential people who might be interested.

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Reach

If you want to maximize how many people see your ads, you can choose the Reach option. Don’t forget to choose your Instagram account when creating the ad.

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Conversions

This marketing objective is the right goal to choose if you want your leads to take action and complete the desired goal (conversion).

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Traffic

If you want to drive people to your website or app store to download your app, this is the marketing objective you should choose. After selecting, provide the link to your website or app and watch the visits/ downloads grow.

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Engagement

This is the right option if you need more likes, shares, comments, or overall engagements on your post. Unfortunately, you can only pay to increase post engagements when advertising on Instagram. Increasing page engagement and event responses are only available on Facebook.

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App Installs

If you want people to download your app, you should choose this goal. You will be required to select your app from the app store during setup.

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Video Views

Choosing Video Views as your marketing goal will increase views on your Instagram video. This option is pretty simple and does not require further steps.

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Lead Generation

This option connects you with people who might be interested in your products and services and allows you to collect their contact information.

3. Select Your Target Audience

Now that you finished setting your marketing objective, it’s time to choose your target audience. Facebook has extensive options to help you reach the right people. As mentioned, Instagram uses Facebook’s demographic data to reach your target audience.

This tool allows you to target the audience of your ads based on their: Location, Age, Gender, Languages, Demographics, Interests, Behaviors, Connections, Custom Audience, and Lookalike Audience.

4. Edit Your Placements

This option allows you to choose where to post your ad. If you skip this option, your ad will appear both on Facebook and Instagram. Select “Edit Placements” if you want your ad to appear specifically on Instagram only.

5. Set Your Budget And Advertisement Schedule

The cost of Instagram ads is not constant. The prices are determined based on Instagram’s ad auction. Your daily reach may vary even if you spend the same amount of money on ads daily.

You can choose whether to set a daily or lifetime budget. Choosing a daily budget can help you make sure that you do not deplete your money too fast. Lifetime budgets are the total cost of your campaign cycle. If you choose lifetime budgets, you have the option to schedule your ad delivery. Choose which alternative works best for you and try to navigate the advanced options for more configurations.

You can also specify what time to run your ads. This option can maximize results if you know the timeframe when your audience is most active. If not, just select “Run ads all the time.”

6. Create Your Instagram Ad

Finally, we are down to the highlight of this tutorial: creating your Instagram Ad! Start by selecting your corresponding Facebook and Instagram page. Then, choose your ad format.

Fill out the following details under Ad Creative:

Select the pictures or videos for your ads (unless you are using an existing post)
Enter your ad copy/ caption
Pick a payment option
Review your ad
Confirm

After this, you can put a call-to-action button and enter the URL where you want to transfer people who clicked on your ad.

You can track your conversions by selecting Facebook Pixel in the Tracking section. Tap on “Confirm” to verify your options and launch the ad.

Promoting Existing Instagram Post

In-App

Now that we have thoroughly discussed how to create ads on Facebook Ad’s Manager, it’s time to talk about the second option: promoting an existing post on Instagram.

Promoting an existing Instagram post using the app itself is similar to Facebook’s Boost Post option. It’s better to promote an Instagram post that is already receiving plenty of engagements. The high engagement rate tells you that the post is doing well, and others will likely respond positively to it after promoting. You do not want to spend money to promote boring content.

You have to switch to a business/ creator account on Instagram to promote a post. You will also need to connect your Facebook Business page to your Instagram account. If they are already connected, you can select the post you want to promote and click the “Promote” button.

You will then have to choose your target audience, destination, budget, and duration (how long your ad will run).

Once done, click on “Create Promotion.”

Facebook will review your ad. Once approved, your ad should go live. You can monitor the results of your ad in the Promotions tab of your Instagram profile.

Conclusion

Those are the steps in creating your Instagram advertisements. Remember, paying Instagram will only help you reach the right people. If your ads are not relevant or powerful enough, they might not generate your desired results. We will discuss how to create powerful Instagram ads in a separate article.

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