Using Instagram Ads

In our previous lessons, we had talked about steps to create a massive Instagram following. So far in this course, you have learned about how to set up your business profile, grow your followers and increase your sales.

In the last lesson of this course, we shall give an introduction to Instagram ads, the types of Instagram ads, why businesses use it to run their ads and how you can use the ads to grow your business. Through multiple examples, we shall learn about the marketing strategies of various brands.

Let's get started...

As Instagram becomes insanely popular among social media users with over 500 million daily active users, it is imperative for businesses to use this platform as a marketplace for their products and services. Millions of brands have taken to Instagram to run their business and are making a really good fortune out of it.

With such a huge user base across the world, how can a brand grow and make its place among users? How can the brands make their posts stand out in front of millions of users? With so many people different interests and choices, how will you reach out to those people who will use your products?

If you are pondering over these questions and looking for answers, this lesson is just the only thing you need right now.

As so many users begin to join Instagram, it gets competitive for brands to create a pool of loyal customers that would buy their products. Hundreds of brands pitch their products to the same customers in their niche. As a result, a user gets confused among so many choices and their feeds are filled with posts from different brands. Among this cut-throat competition, you need to make your place in people's feeds. Instagram ads will help you make your place in these user's feed in different ways.

However, before you start advertising on Instagram, you need to find the right audience for your products. You need to reach out to a specific audience having similar interests who might be willing to buy your audience. Yes, you can do that and it is much easier than you thought.

Here again Instagram ads come to our rescue. With Instagram ads, you can reach any type of audience for your business. Instagram uses Facebook demographics to target audiences based on gender, location, interests and much more. Hence Instagram ads are reliable and give concrete results.

After Facebook purchased Instagram, it began giving limited ads services. Eventually, Instagram opened all the gates of advertising to the brands and businesses that were looking to expand and multiply their sales in the huge horizon of this vast platform.

According to Instagram, nearly 60% of the users accept that they discovered a new product on Instagram. The very fact that Instagram ads are integrated with Facebook which means that Instagram uses Facebook's demographic data for advertisements. Because of this very reason, advertisers on Instagram believe that they can reach a very specific audience in their niche. Instagram ads are the perfect tool to reach out to a very specific category of people that could be your potential customers.

Running ads on Instagram is not a difficult process. And if you already have experience running Facebook ads manager, running Instagram ads will be a cakewalk for you. As a matter of fact, Instagram ads are already an option for your Facebook business manager.

By now, you must be really aware of the importance of Instagram ads and why they are very beneficial to the brands. To sum up, the following are the key points to motivate you to start advertising on the platform:

• Instagram has over 1 billion users and this figure is only growing every day. Instagram stories are viewed by over 500 millions of users every day
• Instagram uses Facebook data to target its audience. Hence it's easier if you are already acquainted with ads manager on Facebook
• 130 million users tap on Shopping post to learn about products every month
• 60% of users discover new products on Instagram
• Instagram ads are non-intrusive. They look similar to ordinary posts and are less likely to annoy the users. For instance, story ads are a very subtle yet powerful way to advertise. While switching between other people's stories, an ad might pop in transition which is less likely to pester them.
• Engagement rate on Instagram is much higher than that of any other social media platform

You must have already been pumped up about making ads on Instagram to increase your engagement. It would have been getting difficult to contain your excitement. Breathe! We are almost to the main part. There are multiple types of ads that you can post on Instagram. Let us quickly go through these types along with a few examples of each type:

Within the app, you can easily promote your posts. This post could be a photo or a video.

When you have switched to a business account, on every post you make you shall see a Promotions button at the bottom of your video. Click on the button and start advertising. If you need to more about your audience, use Insights tool which will help you analyze your audience and help in planning the ad campaign more strategically.

Example: This is a photo ad from the company moneymax.ph selling insurance for cars.

As you click on Get Quote, you will be directed to a page where you shall need to enter your car info. When you enter the details, you will get the quote for your car. This information can also help car insurance companies get leads from potential customers. It's simple and on your fingertips.

Using these types of ads, you can use a collection of images that people can browse and view the thumbnails of that product. You can tell a story about your products and urge your viewers to purchase your products.

In the above example, you can see that the ad offers a full collection of products that the users can choose from and buy.

With carousel ads, people can browse multiple images in an ad but they can only view one image at a time as they view the ad. They can swipe to view other images in a single ad.

Example: This is an ad from the company Lazada which is confirmed by the word Sponsored written below the username. As you swipe to the right, you will see a series of photos displaying various products on sale.

In this ad, the business is promoting different products that are on sale. When you click on it, you will be directed to an app from where you can purchase these products.

Example: This is an ad for real estate. As you swipe, you will see different locations of the units that they are selling.

When you click on Sign Up, you will be directed to a landing page where you will be asked to input your email address and other contact info. This is a way for real estate brokers to get leads.

When you click on the search icon to browse more content and as you select any photo/video, you will notice that some posts are sponsored. These are the Explore ads.

Example: This is an Explore ad of the company that offers marketing services. This ad's call to action is to Sign Up.

On clicking on the button, you will be directed to their appointment form. Fill in your details to get an appointment while simply browsing on Instagram.

You can grasp the attention of your audience more with videos as compared to single image ads. In Instagram ads, you can share videos up to 60 seconds long.

Example: This is a video ad from a company selling robots. They have provided for a call-for-action Book Now.

When you click on the button, you will be redirected to a page from where you can get a free robot demo. On the next page, you will be asked for your information. This is a way to get customer details for the companies.

Example: This is a video ad from a company that offers video editing services. Businesses use videos to grasp the attention of the user. When you click on Install Now, the play store will open in your phone asking you to download the app.

Example: This is a video ad from a company selling courses. Here the call to action is the Book Now button.

When you click on this button, you will be redirected to a page where you can register for the workshop. Simple and easy!

You must be browsing Instagram stories by now. You may notice some story ads as you browse the stories in your profile. Stories ads are a great way to incorporate ads as it offers a very subtle way of promoting products in people's stories. While viewing other people's stories, as you switch between different people's stories, Instagram will show such story ads.

Example: This is a story ad of A shopping website ad. The call to action here is to Swipe Up to Learn More.

When you swipe up, you will be directed to their website to learn more about them.

Example: This is a story ad from a credit card company. The call to action here is to Swipe Up to Apply Now for a credit card.

When you swipe up, a web page will open showing details about the company. You can directly apply and get the credit-card. These ads facilitate the process and remove the hassle of going to the businesses' website. Moreover, it is an effortless way to find new brands and businesses.

Example: This is a promotion of a commerce website. You can Swipe Up to Shop Now.

On swiping up, you will be directed to the website. Add your products and purchase them directly from here thus saving you time.