How to Advertise on Instagram: Complete Instagram Ads Guide 2023

Did you know that 50% of users build a stronger interest in a brand when they see its ad on Instagram? This tells us about the power Instagram advertising holds for your brand. And it’s not enough! Instagram brings you a great opportunity to grab your audience with an average CPC of $3.56 which is higher than other platforms.  

In our easy-to-follow Instagram Ads guide, we will dive deep into the strategies and plans required to rule this platform.  

So, are you ready to enter this big world of visuals and get successful? 

Fret not, we have the right plan for you. Let’s get started.

What are Instagram Ads?  

Let us dive deep into the realm of Instagram Ads. We know the term Instagram ads as it’s the game-changer when you want to promote your products or services. And you won’t believe this, it’s in your range only. You can place these ads on your mobile for free by installing the app. 

So, Instagram Ads are seen as the prime section of advertising where you can use videos, images, carousels, or collection ads to drive sales, followers, traffic, and conversions. These ads are eye-catching and innovative that you can make to target your audience groups on the platform.  

By using your creative skills, you can simply reach the hearts and minds of your targeted audience. Be it getting good engagement via shares, likes, and comments, or getting high traffic on your page, you get the best results from an Instagram app that you crave.  

The process is pretty simple. You need to initially set your budget, define who your target audience is, and examine your performance, track impressions, clicks, and conversions. These ads resemble your normal post but come with a Sponsored label that depicts they are an ad. Moreover, it has some extra features than a normal post, like CTA buttons, links, and product tags.

Why use Instagram Advertising?

Instagram opens a new world of opportunities to promote your brand and sell your products.  

If you want to learn how to advertise on Instagram, you must know the “Why” of this before you enter the “How” world.  

Now, let’s walk through the reasons why you can use Instagram ads. 

1. Brand Awareness 

Instagram gives you a plethora of opportunities to make people know what your brand is. This can be done if you engage in publishing content on the platform via posting reels, stories, or feed posts. But, don’t forget to be consistent all around. With Instagram ads, your content can be seen by potential followers. Investing in ads will eventually help you build your brand reputation and product offerings. There are different types of ads, some emphasize more on building brand recognition than bringing sales, which makes an image of your brand in your audience’s mind.  

2. Visual Appeal 

Instagram is a world of visuals. Just check your Instagram feed and you will see many attractive stories, aesthetic filters, and eye-catching reels. Everything depends on if your brand can offer that visual allure. Don’t limit yourself and let the creativity flow through your visuals. While creating Instagram videos and images, keep a check on the appealing and eye-catching aspects so that people buy your product. However, if people don’t instantly buy your offering, it will stay in their minds due to the visual appeal it leaves. 

3. Brand Targeting 

When advertising is the story, targeting is its main character. We all know that Facebook owns Instagram and it gives you amazing targeting options so that you can ensure your ad targets the right audience. The ball is in your court as you get the flexibility to adjust your target audience based on the factors like age, behavior, gender, demographics, location, interests, preferences, and many more. And the perks are not over yet. You get to target people who are already interested in your offerings as you can track them through website traffic and transferring the data to your Instagram. These detailed targeting perks can let your ads pop up in the people’s feeds who have a possibility of converting into customers.  

Let’s head toward knowing the Instagram Ads cost. 

How much do Instagram Ads cost? 

When you estimate the Instagram Ads cost, it all boils down to your budget, campaign timing, objectives, industry competitiveness, and the target audience you aim for. Your daily or lifetime budget is very flexible as it’s completely based on your preferences. For that, you need to be clear about your audience demographics for wise spending. Well, there’s no fixed rule on how much it exactly costs you, Meta has a suggestion of beginning with at least $5.00 per day.  

As the actual cost differs, you can plan to set your maximum bids yourself or let Instagram do the optimizing job for you. However, if you are a newbie, go for a lower bid at the start to gain experience.  

It’s a must to evaluate your budget. For that, you need to set up a draft campaign in your Instagram ads manager and look for the audience definition and estimated daily results modules there. You will get to know if your budget aligns with the audience you want to target within your ad duration. So, after a deep check, you are all set to make the most out of your Instagram ad investments.

Types of Instagram Ads 

Instagram gives you a great advertising reach of more than 849 million users to grab your audience. As this is indeed a powerful tool, you may have a question regarding the different ad types. Let’s check these 7 Instagram ad types that will have you boosting your campaigns: 

1. Image Ads 

When we go back to the era when Instagram started, there were photos all around. Image Ads are the primary ads that give you a simple and clear format. You can post your image in landscape or portrait mode. However, posting these images with a creative caption and relevant hashtags is a plus-plus. The icing on the cake is adding a call to action.  

These image ads serve a purpose. You can use these for better engagement, conversion, traffic, brand awareness, and generating leads.

2. Video Ads 

Lights, camera, action!  

Yes, we are talking about the videos here. If you love to make engaging videos, then video ads can be your revenue generator. You can add motion, graphics, sound, and effects that grab your audience’s attention immediately. As we know the attention span is dropping gradually, so video ads work to keep your audience hooked. This help if you want to tell about your brand, and the work of your product, boost engagement, and bring traffic to your feed.  

You can create video ads up to 60 seconds and max file size of 4GB. Start adding the huge flames at the beginning of the video only i.e. 3 seconds. Again, the attention span!

3. Carousel Ads 

Swipe left or Swipe right? 

Here come the carousel ads with which you can present multiple images or eye-catching videos in just a single post. For this, the count is 2-10 images or videos. Voila, you get the option to swipe through every one of them.  

But, what’s the use of these carousel ads? 

Are you planning to educate your audience about the stuff you deal in? Step-by-step Instagram ads guides should be your go-to option here. These can be arranged in the form of a carousel. Also, any sort of content that can move the user to conversions can be embedded in a carousel.

4. Reel Ads 

Reel ads are videos that come in a full-screen format, just like story ads. These are seen between individual reels. The functioning of these reels is similar to the normal reels, thereby enabling people to view, comment, like, save, and share the ads. If you want to create attractive reels, we suggest using subtitles, audio, and text for user-friendly content.  

Subtitles let our message communicate effectively even when the user has not connected their audio. You get the engaging format with reels and you can present the lighter side of your brand and explore new ways to show your brand identity.

5. Collection Ads 

When you have collection ads by your side, you don’t need to worry about your direct sales. They let you feature several products in a one-ad experience. This way, users can search and buy directly from there.  

If your purpose is to present all of your product ranges in a single story form, these ads are your savior. You get the catalog sales. traffic to your store, conversions, and hefty leads. 

6. Ads in Explore 

Explore section is the foremost thing for a newbie who wants to make Instagram ads. This section has the content of the pages that you search but not the ones that you already follow. If you run your ad in this section, you will support goals like engagement, awareness, and traffic. Explore section is the fresh section – something that piques your interest.  

If we talk of the content posted here, you need to be creative and clear as the users must understand. Don’t miss out on putting the steps in your ads and tell them to check your page. Always, remember, minimal is powerful.

7. Story Ads 

Around 500 million people use stories daily, now that’s a shocking fact. Be that the case, promoting your business via story ads can be a game changer. You have to grab the attention of your audience, so running story ads is beneficial if you consider using attractive features like effects, filters, text, etc.  

You must be thinking, where have you seen these ads? 

When you slide through the stories of people on your feed, you see an ad in between. These ads have a swipe-up feature via which you can enter their website and know about them. To spice things up, try adding music, voice, and unique element.

How to run IG Ads: Step-by-step Guide 

You can create Instagram ad campaigns by two methods. One way is to boost your existing post and the other is to make a new ad in the Meta Ads Manager or Facebook Ads Manager. If you plan to promote your existing post, it won’t take you much time and can be easily done via the Instagram app. However, you will have a little difficulty as there will be no customization options available that you get in Instagram Ads Manager.  

Let’s dive in to know how to run IG Ads through both of these methods. 

Method 1:

Using Instagram Boost 

When we talk about boosting your existing post, it is surely a straightforward and instant way, to begin with advertising. With this option, you can simply promote your post which is doing good on the platform already in terms of engagement, and expand further to a fresh audience.  

So, let’s understand how this works: 

1. First, you need to create a business or creator account on Instagram and a linked Facebook Business Page. These can be connected with the help of Facebook Business Manager. 

2. Now, open the Instagram app on your device and navigate further to the post you wish to turn into an ad.  

3. Press the “Boost Post” button present on that post.

4. Select your ad campaign goal: Among the three options available i.e. more messages, more profile visits, more website visits, choose one that suits you. 

5. Define your target audience: There is one way where Instagram automatically decides your audience based on your follower data, or you can manually mention your targeting options to form a custom audience.

4. Also, you can select to run the boosted post on your Facebook as well.  

5. Finalize your daily budget and choose the ad campaign duration. Besides, you can select a particular number of days your ad will be available to your audience or permit it to run indefinitely until you want to stop it.

6. Now check your details again and the settings. If you feel it’s good to go, click on the “Boost Post” button to make it live. 

As you have now made your ad live, it will be reviewed and approved by Facebook. When it’s live, you can examine its performance and check the results in the promotions tab of your feed.  

However, this boost feature offers you a convenient way to instantly advertise on Instagram and reach a new audience with an existing post on your feed with good engagement.

Method 2:

Using Ads Manager 

Boosting your existing Instagram post doesn’t do wonders, especially, when you want more control over your campaigns and access to advanced features, detailed reporting, and more targeting options. Hence, Ads Manager or Facebook Ads Manager can make all this work for you. However, you may need to put more effort into this.  

Let’s understand the process in detail. 

Step 1: Create a new Instagram ad campaign 

For this, you need to first navigate to the Ads Manager Instagram and tap on the “+Create” button. You will be able to begin a new ad campaign mainly for your Instagram.

Step 2: Choose your campaign objective 

Once you are ready to create an Instagram ad campaign, you will get an option to pair your Instagram ad with an existing campaign or begin a new ad from scratch. After clicking on the new campaign, you will be able to choose your objective. There are 6 objectives from which you have to decide i.e. promoting app engagement or sales, raising awareness, increasing engagement, driving traffic to your platform, generating leads, etc. Analyze your goals and then choose the one that fits.

Step 3: Give a name to your campaign  

Once you are sure about your ad goal, you can now research a name that aligns with your goals and add it there. By this, you can simply recognize and manage your ad campaigns as you will add more in the future.

Step 4: Set your budget and schedule accordingly 

After choosing a name and defining goals, you can check and strategize how much can you spend on the ad. An option is to set a daily budget, which sets a maximum amount spent per day, or a lifetime budget, which sets a maximum amount for the whole campaign. Besides, you can look for the right schedule for your ads whether you want to run them constantly or at specific times.

Step 5: Define your audience 

We know your money is valuable and needs to be allocated in the right place. So ensuring that the right audience sees your ad is a must. There are two ways in which you can define your audience. One is choosing a previously saved audience including custom audience data or great audience segments from old campaigns or you can create a fresh audience from scratch. However, define your desired languages, demographics, location, interest, age range, gender, and behaviors to filter your target audience.

Step 6: Select your ad placements 

Here, you need to choose the place where your ads will be visible. You get two ad placement options on Instagram. One is Advantage+ placements and the other is manual placements. In Advantage+ placements, your ads get displayed where they may perform the best and hence be visible to a massive audience.

Whereas, manual placements permit you to decide on some sort of placements and remove others. If you are a newbie, just go with the Advantage+ placements.

Step 7: Create your new Instagram ad 

We have set up the basic parts and now it’s time to create our ad. Here comes the role of the Instagram ad type which is based on the goal of your campaign. You get the option to put CTAs, images, catchy titles, and engaging videos in your ads. To get good engagement, you have to write persuasive copy and add your website links and tracking parameters. Now you must be thinking about how to track your ad conversions, for this, you need to choose the Facebook pixel in the tracking section. By this, you can receive detailed insights into the interaction of your audience with your business after clicking your ad.

Step 8: Go live 

After filling out the main details and rechecking everything and making adjustments, you may go live by clicking on the “Publish” button in the bottom right corner. Voila! Your will function as per your budget and schedule. Furthermore, you can monitor your ad’s performance with analytics to check how they are growing.

Examples of Inspirational Instagram Ads 

1. Adobe 

What do you think makes this ad the best and most effective? Here, you can understand how this product works as they have highlighted a single feature of their editing software. This way, you may feel a deep interest in this product and would want to research about this product.

2. McDonalds 

What’s so new about this ad? They have tried to emphasize more on promoting some particular products. With this, they have shown true storytelling by making positive feelings about the brand to the customers.

3. Sony

Look at this ad! It has something different that captivates the user’s mind. Sony has tried to use collaborative Instagram ads. The focus here is Suki, the traveling cat who has a massive follower count. Besides, the FAQ is highlighted that relates to the product Sony is promoting in this ad i.e. “Does the Sony Eye AF autofocus work on animal eyes?” No, you don’t have to answer this question. The picture itself did by highlighting one of the camera’s prime features.

4. Uber 

Impressed with this ad? Who would not be? Uber has used irony and user-generated content. When you create content that makes people do not think twice to share with their peers or they can easily relate to is a great strategy for increasing engagement.

Why use Meta Business Suite to run ads? 

1. Convenience 

We know it gets really frustrating to manage your ad campaigns on multiple platforms. But, don’t worry, Meta business suite solves this problem for you. It is a platform where you can easily optimize and streamline your Instagram ad campaigns. No, you don’t need many tools for this, it has everything aligned on a single platform.

2. Customized Ad Formats 

Want to hook your audience with well-structured ad formats? Meta business suite lets you avail options like carousel ads, photo ads, video ads, and story ads. Just click on the one that fits you and your goals and budget to shine bright. 

3. Advanced Targeting Options 

Be precise! That’s all we can say. With the Meta business suite, you get to target specific users or groups based on behaviors, demographics, interests, etc. This way, you can increase your engagement by reaching those who can convert. 

4. User-friendly Interface 

You don’t need to be tech-savvy for this. Meta business suite makes everything easy to use for you doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or an experienced advertiser. Just visit the platform and access its tracking and analysis features.  

5. Advanced Analytics and Reporting 

You can access this feature to track your ad campaign performance. Just look for the areas where you can improve and make informed decisions to perform better.  

Final Words 

With a plethora of digital opportunities, Instagram ads stand tall for both people and businesses. There is no limit to perks as you get many Instagram ad formats and targeting options to choose from. You also get the best canvas to form eye-catching campaigns that attract your audience and converts.  

But, don’t you think this is just the basics? You are meant for more.  

In order to make people aware of your brand and shine on Instagram, you can leverage the power of Gleexa’s Instagram Advertising Services. We help you in increasing organic growth, reach, and you will see your brand’s presence grow like never before.  

So, are you ready to tap into the world of endless opportunities? 

Enter the world of Instagram advertising, and don’t forget to contact Gleexa! 

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