•   Instagram has 928.5 million monthly users
•  There are 2 million advertisers on Instagram per month
•  The average CPC on Instagram is $2.40 per country

October 6, 2010 was a fateful day for social media. It was the day Instagram was released to the world. After taking just eight weeks to complete it was launched as an app on Apple's app store and racked up 25,000 users in one day. 

Instagram is an inherently visual medium and needs to be treated as such. Whenever you consider brand strategy for Instagram keep in mind your graphics are going to be front and centre and your copy second. 

Let's explore the ways you can advertise your business on Instagram!

Regardless of any industry you are in, Instagram is a great idea to have in your business profile.  Let's look at what to do when you are setting up an account for your business. 

How can I set up a business account on Instagram?

1. First things first, select that you want a business account and make sure its a public profile. A private account is literally not helpful at all. 
2. If you have a Facebook, Twitter or TikTok account connect those to your Instagram account as well. This can save a lot of time when posting as you can post on multiple accounts at once. 
3. Once you've created your account follow accounts that align with your business. 

Now that you are all set up let's look at strategy for your posts on Instagram. 

1. Invest in a quality logo and create templates for posts with your logo front and center.
2. Have a schedule and post at least once a week 
3. Make sure all of your photos contain high quality images
4. Make use of colours, bright colours are great
5. Short videos are great at capturing attention
6. Hashtags are crucial on this platform if you want your post to be easily discoverable. Research hashtags aligned with your brand and use them. Many users follow hashtags they are interested in so your post could be seen by many more people. 
7. Tags are also a great tool for Instagram posts if you collaborate with other businesses. 
8. Occasionally sharing content that is not yours but is aligned with your brand and values is a great idea

What are the benefits of Instagram advertising?

Instagram ads do give a great ROI. They are also easy to use and improve your ads visibility. Even better is that Facebook and Instagram ads can all be switched on and off through your Facebook Ads Manager. 

Like Facebook, the Instagram feed is cluttered. If you want to raise brand awareness of your product Instagram ads are a great tool. And like Facebook, their ads platform has a high granularity for targeting options. 

Your Instagram ads will be seen as sponsored posts. It’s a great way to increase website traffic, build awareness and create new leads. It’s best to ensure that your ads are visually dominant. The way to do this is create a carousel or video of your product. 

Your text will still need to be on point and explain how your product or service can help your audience. Finish with an enticing call to action and you’ll be in business. 

Source: Shutterstock

Does paid Instagram advertising work?

Yes, it does. According to Wordstream in 2017 over 120 million users visited a website or contacted the business directly to find out more. Instagram itself says over 60% of people surveyed have taken action thanks to paid Instagram ads. 

What are some downsides to advertising on Instagram?

Instagram does have a smaller audience than other social media platforms but don’t let that fool you. 928 million users is a huge audience. It’s platform is geared towards younger users but that doesn’t mean that older demographics don’t use it. 

My mother who is 64 prefers Instagram over other social media. Many new users are turning to Instagram due to it’s inherently visual platform. It’s also great for foodies and booklovers to name a few niches. 

As you will find out throughout this article, Instagram has more limited options with its advertising objectives. However, they are still quite comprehensive and offer great granularity. 

What information about my business should I share on Instagram?

Unless your occupation relies on confidentiality or is restricted in another way, the more information you share about your business the better. Include a link to your website, have stories that show your business’s day to day running. 

Have video interviews or employee of the month posts. All of these increase your brand's authenticity. Also, geo tag your posts to increase your posts reach in your local area.

How can I make sure my photos and images stand out on Instagram?

As previously mentioned, your images are the primary focus on Instagram. Don’t just cater to the Instagram feed, make sure you post photos and videos onto your story and onto Instagram Reels. 

Reels are a newcomer to the platform but are fantastic for raising your business profile and getting more views. 

Make use of the fantastic quality of filters to give your pics a little more oomph. There's a reason why food bloggers are so prevalent on Instagram. Their hard work can look so amazing thanks to the filters that the platform provides. 

The basic rule of thumb for images is high resolution is best, no grainy or hard to make out photos unless you are aiming for intrigue. 

How much does Instagram advertising cost?

Instagram ads do have higher engagement but that does cost. The graphics and videos need to be of a high quality and that means more time and effort in your assets. Some less scrupulous companies use influencer videos using a similar product in their ad, usually without permission. 

It’s never a good idea to do this as these influencers have a huge following and you can tick off the influencer. 

According to Wordstream a highly targeted ad on Instagram usually commands a $5 CPC. That is more expensive than Facebook but there are ways to reduce your ad spend. 

Ways to reduce ad spend on Instagram

1. Schedule ads to run for a certain time of day not 24 hrs a day. 
2. Choose an ad delivery method that is in line with your strategy. If you want customers or leads, set it for link clinks, if you want awareness you’ll want an ad impressions strategy. 
3. Manually set the bid amount you want to spend, rather than have automatic spend. This puts you in the driver's seat in regards to how much you spend. 

By implementing these strategies you may find your CPC is more in line with the average of $2.40 USD. 

How do I set up ads on Instagram?

Good news! If you are familiar with Facebook Ads Manager, this will be a very easy transition. It’s literally a placement option in your ads manager. 

To set an Instagram ad you need to go through Facebook Ads Manager, there is no option just for Instagram. 

Source: Shutterstock

Now that we've covered how you get to the ad platform, let's get to the nitty gritty. 

1. Go to Facebook Ads 

2. Set your marketing objective

Now this consists of a few options which are listed below:

• Brand awareness
• Reach
• Traffic (for boosting traffic to website or facilitating app installs)
• App Installs
• Engagement (engagement of the paid ad)
• Video Views 
• Conversions

Got it so far?

I’ll explain in more detail. 

Brand awareness is when the algorithm posts the advertisement to people who are likely to be interested in the product due to similar accounts they are following. 

Reach increases the amount of people that will see your ad. It’s important for companies just starting out. Many governments and not for profits use this objective for public awareness. You can also use some A/B testing with this objective. (You can also A/B test for Traffic, App installs, Lead Generation, Video Views and Conversion). 

Traffic is about wanting to entice your viewer to click on your ad and head to your website. A great CTA is a MUST here, but it's really a must anywhere. 

Engagement is the objective or wanting to create more shares and conversation about your product of services. Post engagement is the only option on Instagram at this stage. Facebook ads have more options but at this stage Instagram only allows post engagement. 

App installs are fairly self explanatory. You’ve invested in the development of an app, now it’s time for people to use it! 

Video Views you've come to the right platform for video views! It’s a very popular way of advertising on Instagram. Also it’s a great way of getting a large audience to retarget at a later date! 

Lead generation may seem like an obvious strategy but Instagram lead generation is more limited than Facebook's options. On Instragram your lead gen ads will support email, full name, phone number and gender. 

Another thing is on Instagram the lead generation objective requires the user to fill out the form, whereas on Facebook the users information is prefilled. This is an example of Instagram options being more limited than Facebook. 

3. Select your location

Location is great for dark posts or geolocated sales. Facebook's geolocation technology is used here for pinpoint accuracy. You can literally drop pins on the location you want to advertise to! Or you can go state or country wide. The targeting options are: Age, Gender, Language and Location. You can go further and target by interest or occupation. 

4. Decide your placements

If you want to keep costs down, editing placements is a good idea. Automatic placement can cause you to burn through your ad budget more quickly. 

This is also where you tick the box saying Instagram and decide if you want to place your ad in just the feed or in stories. The feed only will reduce costs. 

5. Set your budget and ad scale

The good news is your budget can be completely determined by you. Make sure you select a daily or monthly budget accordingly. Then enter the amount you want to spend per day or per month. 

Be careful not to enter the monthly amount as the daily amount. It happens and it's not a great feeling. I would recommend a daily amount to be set. 

In this step you also select your delivery method. In this step you select when you want your ad to run. It will depend on your demographic and budget but if you want to save money, having them run before work and after work seems to be a sweet spot. And you can run ads on the viewers time zones, not your own!

6. Upload your image assets

There are 6 ad formats to choose from so some A/B testing isn’t a bad idea. The options are:

Image feed formats the most common ad used. This is a sponsored post that pops in a user's feed.

Image story ads the same as a feed ad but pops up as a sponsored post on your Stories. 

Video Feed ads if you have a video ad, here is the place to advertise it. It’s also worth advertising on the feed as well but videos are high performing on this platform. 

Video story ads your videos show up as sponsored posts in the viewers stories. This is becoming more popular. 

Carousel Feed ads are fantastic for ads with a dominant visual campaign and do have a high engagement rate. 

Canvas Story ads this last option is not for tech averse advertisers. This is a new option that is shown in Stories and is an immersive 360 VR experience that is mobile only. 

What are some best practices for advertising on Instagram?

1. Personality and brand voice is key. Keep your brand voice in everything you do. This way you also entertain your audience. 
2. Keep it relevant to your audience and products. 
3. Hashtags, hashtags, hashtags. Need I say more? Do your research on which hashtags are best for your business or demographic. Use at least 6 to ten hashtags for best SEO. 
4. Post at the best times for your demographic. It might need a bit of trial and error but you will work it out. 

Final takeaway

Advertising on Instagram is effective, easy to use and on Facebook Ad’s to make multitasking a dream.

It is a ‘younger’ demographic but that shouldn't stop you. More middle aged users are using Instagram due to its easy use and visual emphasis. 

If you decide to start advertising on this great platform it won’t be long until you're using filters and hashtags with the best of them!

First things first select that you want a business account and make sure its a public profile. A private account is literally not helpful at all. 

Next steps

If you want to start advertising on Instagram, here's what you need to do:

1. First things first, select that you want a business account and make sure its a public profile. A private account is literally not helpful at all.
2. If you have a Facebook, Twitter or TikTok account connect those to your Instagram account as well. This can save a lot of time when posting as you can post on multiple accounts at once. 
3. Once you've created your account follow accounts that align with your business. 
4. Then create or use your Facebook ads manager account, connect your Instagram account to it and start advertising!
5. Do some online reading, Facebook has a plethora of reading material on how to use their Ads manager account or if you don’t want the bother of setting up a paid campaign on Instagram, many service providers can help you. 
6. Enjoy your new leads!