Instagram has attracted a significant user base ever since it was first introduced in 2010, and as of March 2018, it was projected to have more than 800 million active users. The bulk of the platform’s users are under 35 years old, making it a very young demographic.
Advertising was released at the end of 2013, and numerous business tools were released over the course of the subsequent several years. By 2017, more than one million businesses were using the platform to advertise their products and services. It is projected that Instagram advertisements have been responsible for more than one billion users taking some sort of action. Those are some truly staggering numbers!
Should I join the craze and get an Instagram account?
There is no question about it; the world we live in today is one that is glued to social networking sites and buying online. According to the data presented above, using Instagram isn’t only about keeping up with the lives of your friends and favourite celebrities; it’s also a place where companies and brands have carved out a profitable niche for themselves. Which is excellent news for smaller companies who are operating with a limited advertising budget.
Because Instagram is a visual network, you should ensure that you are capable of producing high-quality visual material before you commit to advertising on the platform.
It is important to consider the audience as well. Instagram’s audience is generally involved with material that focuses on fashion, sport, beauty, food, music, TV, and cinema. A small business that promotes stylish hand-made jewellery or artisan food would dovetail well with Instagram’s audience because these topics are all relevant to these topics. It might be more difficult to use it to sell supplies for central heating systems.
Which form of advertising are you going to go with?
There are four different types of advertising formats available on Instagram:
Ads with photographs
This is the most fundamental format, and it is a really straightforward method for getting started with advertising on Instagram. You just need to utilise a single image – either in portrait or landscape orientation, either would do the trick – and then add a call to action banner and explanation.
Ads on a carousel
You can upload up to ten photos to a carousel ad, and they will spin during the ad. If you are familiar with multi-page magazine advertising, in which a company would spread advertisements across a number of pages in order to build their message, the carousel ad format on Instagram does basically the same function.
You are not required to simply post photographs; instead, you can intersperse the slideshow with written and video content that drives home the point. You can also add music to play in the background while the sequence is playing.
Do give some thought to how each image functions; you want to achieve a unified appearance rather than a chaotic mishmash that dilutes the value of your brand or the standard of your goods.
Video adverts
You have up to sixty seconds to play with, so you’ll want to make sure that the video material you create gets people’s attention as quickly as possible. Keep in mind that the average attention span of people is getting shorter and shorter; according to studies, the opening 30 seconds of a video are the most crucial.
To give you an idea of how much time you have to pique your audience’s interest before they go on to the next topic, I’d guess you have approximately ten to fifteen seconds.
Stories adverts
The most recent addition to Instagram’s advertising possibilities, advertisements within Instagram Stories take up the entire screen. They only have a 24-hour lifespan before they disappear from your feed and profile, so it’s quite an excellent alternative if you want to advertise a time-sensitive offer. If you want to learn more about this option, go here.
Make a decision regarding your required next step
When you have determined the purpose of your Instagram advertisement, you will be able to select the call-to-action banner that best serves that purpose. You can choose to “learn more,” “shop now,” “book now,” or “sign up,” all of which are direct actions that will drive people to your website and, hopefully, translate into sales.
You may reach an audience that is likely to be responsive to your brand or product by targeting them according to their age, gender, interests, and locations. This allows you to maximise the likelihood of success in promoting your business or product.
What are the costs associated with advertising on Instagram?
Due to the fact that Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, you will have no trouble understanding the pricing structure for advertising on Instagram if you have ever advertised on Facebook. In practise, you decide how much money you want to spend on various things on a daily basis or over a specified amount of time in order to stay under a set financial limit.
After your advertising campaign has begun, it is critical to evaluate how well it is performing. Using the analytics at your disposal, you can figure out whether or not your advertisement is providing a satisfactory return on investment.
It is possible that it will take more than one attempt to get it just right, but advertising on Instagram is definitely worth a shot and won’t break the money.