Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms that is used today to share one's video and photos allowing another user to share, like, and comment. It is ranked 6th for the most used social media platforms worldwide with 1000 active users. Knowing that there are that many users on Instagram, doing advertising through Instagram would bring benefits to a business. Instagram users are not only teenagers but from the ages of 18 to 49. But, even digital marketing, like on social media platforms, needs to be paid for.
What Does An Instagram Ad Look Like?
Instagram ads can usually be seen as a story or a post that appears on a user's feeds. They look just like a regular Instagram post but can be differentiated by identifying a 'Sponsored' label with a call-to-action button.
How Much Does It Cost To Advertise On Instagram?
Just like most other social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram advertising is based on cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impressions (CPM) to know the cost of the ads with the business's auctioning model. The average cost of advertising on Instagram is around $0.50- $1.00 per click and $6.70 per 1000 impressions.
Instagram Vs Facebook
Instagram is usually compared with Facebook because these two are the top 2 biggest media platforms for advertising. Which offers better for your business and while it best reaches out to your audience?
From the table above, Facebook offers a cheaper price for both CPC and CPM. Do not just look at the cost, but also look at the demographics of both platforms. Facebook goes on for any age range while Instagram does too, but it is more focused on the age group of 20-29. Whichever platform it is, your business should go for the one that can give a great result for your ad campaign.
How To Use Instagram Ad?
There are two ways in using Instagram ads. One way is to promote using your professional existing account and the other way is to use Facebook Ads Manager, which gives you more choices to customize how you want your ads to look. Let’s start with the first way.
Advertise With Existing Professional Account
The “professional” account on Instagram is a Business Page for your Instagram. If your Instagram account is not set as “professional”, you could do it now.
Once you have done your business Instagram page, click on any of the posts that you have posted. Here you will see something like this:
You will see the ‘Promote’ button and that’s all you need to do. Click on it. And if you didn’t connect your Instagram to the Facebook Business Page, it’s highly recommended to do so now. You could create a new Facebook Page if you don't have one. Upon clicking on the 'Promote' button, you will see options of who gets to see your ads, where do you want it to be sent at, how much you want to spend, and how long you want your ad to fun; all these options you get to choose.
Then, finally, you can click on the 'Create Promotion' button and monitor your results on the Promotions tab on your profile.
Advertise Using Facebook’s Ads Manager
The reason why we could use Facebook to advertise on Instagram is that Facebook owns Instagram in 2012. This second method is very similar to the first one, but it just takes a little longer.
For this, you need to have a Facebook Page. If you already have them, that's great! But, if you don't, here's how.
First, login to your Facebook account and go to ‘Menu’/ ‘More’. On the left side of Facebook, you can see the ‘Pages’ button. Click on it.
Then, click on ‘Create New Page’ where you can customize everything accordingly to your suit and style of your business. Once we’re done creating a Facebook page, we can start on the ads.
The first step is to go to your Ads Manager and click on + Create.
When you click on the button, you can choose either Guided Creation or Quick Creation. Guided Creation is very useful for new marketers as it teaches you step-by-step to create an Instagram campaign. Quick Creation, you have more control over creating your Instagram ad. If you're already an expert, you can go ahead with the Quick Creation, but if you're not, go with the Guided Creation.
Guided Creation Version
1. Objectives
Creating an ad campaign needs an objective(s) and here you are given choices on which you can select.
2. Identifying Your Audience
Here, you are also given two options. One with creating a new audience and the other one using your saved audience. If you don't have a saved audience, you will have to fill in the information.
3. Ad Placements
The Placements section also provides you with two options, whether you want an automatic placement or a manual placement.
The Manual Placements section is where you have the options to put your ads in Instagram.
4. Budget and Schedule
The next step is to input your budget and how long you want your ad to run for (date and time).
5. Layouts
From here, it's quite straightforward. You choose how you want the layout of the ad, picture or video, payment options, adding a call-to-action button (optional), and reviewing your ads.
Once you have finalized everything, just tap on Confirm, and you are done!
Does Instagram Advertising work for Small Businesses?
Doing an ad on Instagram may be a dilemma to some small businesses, but it is a great opportunity because it's very affordable and you, yourself are technically controlling your marketing in social media. Putting authentic photos would grab people's attention as they are scrolling through their Instagram. This also helps bring brand awareness, increase traffic, and have engagements.
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