Opportunities to profit from advertising on Instagram have increased exponentially in the past few years. As Instagram has gathered users and expanded its platform offerings, advertisers have flocked to the social media app in hopes of reaching even a small portion of Instagram's 1 billion active monthly users. In this article, we discuss ten reasons why you need to start advertising your business and products on Instagram.
What Are Instagram Ads?
Instagram ads are posts that businesses pay to publish and distribute to Instagram users. These ads appear throughout the Instagram app in a variety of forms including photos, videos, and carousels. Read on to learn more about the different types of Instagram ads.
Instagram Photo Ads
Instagram is a visual platform in which users post images along with captions for their followers to see and interact with. As a result, many Instagram users naturally gravitate to posts with captivating images and engaging text. Photo ads look very similar to regular posts on Instagram, but often contain a sponsored tag to indicate the post is an ad. This tag usually appears towards the bottom of the post above below the photo and above the caption.
Instagram Video Ads
When Instagram introduced video to its platform in 2013, advertising opportunities abounded. Recent increases in video popularity have indicated the video is the social media mode of the future. Studies have shown that users find video content more interactive and attractive.
Instagram video ads are full-screen, customizable posts that show videos to users browsing the Instagram platform. When a user scrolls down and comes across a video ad, the ad will automatically begin playing from the beginning. Unlike Instagram stories, video ads do not disappear after 24 hours and can be set to run for any length of time.
Instagram Shopping Ads
Instagram shopping ads display products and services to users within their Instagram feed. Users can then click on these ads and redirect to the product page of the advertised item.
An Instagram user who is viewing the shopping ad featured above could click on the image to visit the advertising account's store. The small icon at the bottom left of the image indicates that the post is linked to the company's shop. Instagram shopping ads can only be created in the Meta Ads Manager.
Instagram Collection Ads
Collection ads contain a carousel of images that users can swipe through to browse. They are often used to promote multiple products within a specific brand, or multiple versions of a single product.
The images and videos that appear within the carousel can then be linked back to the advertising company's site or social media page.
How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost?
The cost of Instagram ads is highly dependent on the type of ad you create and your chosen budget. Instagram ad budgets follow a cost-per-click model in which advertisers bid on ad space and clicks. You can learn more about how to set up your Instagram ad budget in our comprehensive Instagram and FaceBook ad guide.
10 Reasons To Advertise On Instagram
Advertising on Instagram gives businesses access to millions of users, increased visibility, and users who spend large chunks of time watching ads.
From increasing brand awareness and engagement to taking full advantage of Instagram's countless advertising tools, here are ten reasons for which marketing professionals consistently return to Instagram ads when looking to build brand awareness and engagement.
1. Build Your Brand's Following
According to statistics from Instagram, more than 200 million profiles on their platform visit at least one business account every day. More than 80% of Instagram users also use the platform to find new brands and products.
2. Instagram Is Mobile-Friendly
Of all social media platforms, Instagram has the highest mobile engagement rate. With more users turning to mobile to browse products and make sales, optimizing your content for mobile is more important than ever. Instagram's traffic has always been mobile, meaning the site has seen an advantage over other platforms in its ability to continuously improve its mobile experience.
While other sites such as FaceBook have been forced to transition from desktop to mobile in the past decade, Instagram has been able to create an advertising platform designed specifically for mobile users and their preferences.
3. Instagram Ads Are Straightforward To Create
If you've used FaceBook ads in the past, Instagram ads are a fairly logical next step. With Instagram ads recent integration into the FaceBook Ad Manager, creating Instagram ads is as simple as creating FaceBook ads and then selecting Instagram as a preferred search platform during the final steps.
4. Take Advantage Of High Engagement Rates
Instagram engagement rates average between 1 and 3%, with a 5% or higher engagement rate indicating exceptionally high loyalty among an account's followers. Reports from Instagram have shown that engagement rates are highest for photo posts, followed by carousel posts, and videos.
Other studies have shown that Instagram dwarfs its competitors when it comes to user engagement rate. According to Yotpo, Instagram users are 58 more times to engage with branded ads that FaceBook users, and 120 more likely to click on ads than Twitter users.
5. Showcase Your Brand With Stories
Snapchat may be the pioneer of social media stories, but Instagram has caught up fairly quickly. Instagram introduced stories to their platform in 2017, allowing users to create smaller posts. These stories appear in a row towards the top of a user's Instagram app.
Instagram estimates that more than a half billion users watch stories on their platform everyday. More than half of all Instagram users also say that they become more interested in a product after seeing it appear in their stories.
6. You Can Set Up Your Own Instagram Ad Campaign
Curious to learn more about the process behind creating Instagram ads. Check out our detailed guide on how to set up Instagram and FaceBook ads.
Looking to set up your own Instagram Ad campaign? Here at Zeke SEO, we create and monitor Instagram ad campaigns for your brand or company. Feel free to reach out to our fantastic customer support and we would be happy to assist you.
7. Direct-Response Instagram Ads
When Instagram ads first began to populate the platform in 2014, they were fairly limited. Early Instagram ads were designed primarily for increasing brand awareness, and most were not friendly to user interaction. The introduction of video and carousel ads changed the marketing landscape for Instagram, allowing companies to create more engaging marketing
8. Craft A Story For Your Brand
At the heart of every successful advertising campaign is an emotional call to action. Every day, customers are bombarded with hundreds of companies looking to grab their attention and hard-earned dollars. A relatable, personal story gives viewers and customers a reason to engage with a brand and purchase its products.
9. Flexibility And Creativity
Most creative advertisers seek diverse platforms they can use to blend their unique creativity with their industry expertise. Instagram certainly falls into this category, especially in how it allows advertisers to tailor ads to attract a specific audience or exude a certain tone. Instagram advertisers who know and understand their target audience can mold their ads to fit their customers' search terms and interests.
10. Instagram Reaches A Global Audience
Part of Instagram's power and influence comes from its wide reach which spans continents and generations. What was once a photography platform marketed towards teenagers has exploded in popularity to become a multifarious social network connecting users of all age ranges, demographics, and interests. The following bar graph shows the number of instagram users per country in millions as of 2022. Instagram is most popular in India, the United States, and Brazil, but has become a truly global platform.
Advertisers take advantage of Instagram's unique diversity by targeting their ads towards specific audiences and users. An ad that may be popular in one country might see less visibility in another. Instagram allows advertisers to target their ads to show up most in the locations where users are most likely to enjoy and interact with them.
Summary
Advertising on Instagram has become increasingly popular in the last few years. Every type of businesses can see sharp increases in customer engagement, revenue, and brand awareness by establishing an Instagram presence.
