Overview | Instagram Advertising
What is Instagram Advertising?
Instagram is one of many social media platforms available. As we covered already with Facebook, we will discuss the various options available, and advantages to each form of advertisement.
Formats
First it is key to know what options are available, Instagram currently offers the following ad formats.
All of these formats have a coinciding writeup on the individual benefits and costs to the format that can be explored further.
Overview
Advertising on Instagram comes with many benefits as well as drawbacks. At one point Instagram was projected to grow to 12.32 billion in ad revenue. That puts it ahead of Facebook, however this was before the pandemic. Why is that? Instagram has a more limited user base, which can be a pro or con depending on your targeting. 67% of Instagram is 18-34. These are the markets with growing purchasing power and are able to spend money. Marketing towards Gen Z? According to Hootsuite 73% of Gen Z think that reaching them on Instagram is the best method of communication. An advantage of utilizing Instagram for advertising is that Instagram advertising gives you access to the Facebook network, which includes platforms such as Whatsapp, Facebook, and Messenger. You can also promote posts from inside the app itself. Utilizing advanced targeting such as location, demographics, interests, behaviours, etc. you can create custom audiences with automated retargeting.
One drawback is that Instagram is constantly tweaking its algorithm. Another drawback to Instagram advertising is that Instagram links are less effective than Facebook links. Instagram only lets you add “Swipe Up” links on stories to accounts with more than 10,000 followers. Instagram is also a very mobile dependent platform, which is slowly changing but may require users to run off of a smartphone from time to time. Sponsored content is usually reliant on imagery that conveys the message visually with little to no text.
Content
I affirm once more that quality content is important for any ad to generate the desired result. Instagram is no exception. The platform offers little room to maneuver with images being limited on the amount of text. Advertisement descriptions must be kept short as to all fit. Basically, the adage of “show, don’t tell” is extremely important in regards to Instagram advertising. Coincidentally we have a blog post discussing this very topic here.
Objectives
Once you have a format selected for the given message one must select the objective. Ad objectives can be boiled down into three categories, awareness, consideration, and conversions.
Awareness
Instagram can drive general awareness of your product and/or business. Selecting objectives around brand awareness, local awareness, reach, and frequency are all various methods to get the word out.
Consideration
Of course once you have the customer’s attention you need to educate them on the product or service. These objectives can include anything from website clicks to video views, along with reach and frequency.
Conversion
Last in the consumer buying process is the conversion. Increasing the sales, downloads, or store visitors are all objectives for Instagram advertising.
Targeting
Targeting your audience effectively is the next important step in the advertising process. Instagram allows you to create an audience profile from location, age, and employment status, to gender, annual income, marital status and hobbies. This level of targeting can allow you to create a targeted ad for each optimal buyer persona.
Expectations and Results
Finally let’s talk results. Results vary from bidding type and amount to the industry the ad is based in however these are some general numbers.
The average cost-per-click on Instagram ads is $.60 and stories are at $.50, however some industries can reach upwards of $6.55. CPM for Instagram feed ads is $1.65, and for Stories around $0.90 as compiled by PEW. Now while these numbers are shown to be rising, and have definitely risen since, Instagram can still be a valuable advertising platform. At certain points in time marketers have made $5.20 for every dollar spent. That is a 5.2 ROI.
Carousel ads can result in 70% fewer likes when compared to single images. Collection ads on average increase conversions by 6%. Photo ads obtain 1 comment per 1k followers. 20% of stories get a DM from a viewer. 60% of stories also are watched with audio on. Video ads also increase engagement by 3x over that of photo ads. 75% of users take action on an Instagram ad.
Instagram does allow for A/B testing, which we will cover in more detail later, however it is recommended that before a campaign is ran that some A/B testing is conducted to see which ad will perform better in the campaign.
