With Instagram being one of the largest social media platforms it is an excellent way to promote your account. Instagram was only launched in 2010 and has already amassed over 700 million active users with 400+ million of them being active daily users. At the top of the list is Facebook with nearly 1.9 billion active users who acquired Instagram in 2012. They combine the user data of both services to make it easier to target individuals that are more likely to react positively to the ad campaign. Facebook capitalises on this advantage by tightly integrating the advertising capabilities of both services into a single advertising platform. This means that advertisements you run on Instagram can also be run on Facebook.
Who is on Instagram?
- Under 18: 23%
- 18-29 years old: 55%
- 30-49 years old: 28%
- 50-64 years old: 4%
Advertisers have four different types of ads on Instagram:
- Photo ads: your standard Instagram post format
- Video ads: the same as above but with a video in place of a photo
- Carousel ads: a slideshow ad, which allows for multiple images
- Stories ads: these are Instagram's version of Snapchat ads seen at the top of the feed.
Why should you invest in advertising on Instagram?
1. Build Your Ads Around Your Overall Marketing Strategy
If you do not have a marketing strategy then prior to starting advertising I would highly suggest you create one. It will help in creating content for your target audience to engage with. To give you an idea of how to create a marketing plan you can check out Entrepreneur. The ads you run should support your brand image and show a call to action that feels natural and right for the brand.
Take into consideration how Instagram ads can work with or enhance your other social media campaigns. A great example of this is Mercedes-Benz launched a joint Instagram and Facebook campaign to advertise it's new SUV. By using both Instagram and Facebook it had a 580% increase in site visits thanks to the dual-channel approach.
2. Make The Images Central To The Campaign
Instagram ads that are effective rely solely on a single image to entice viewers to respond. The image that is used is central to the call to action and using a standout image will get more view attention. You should try using images that are specifically taken for Instagram campaigns. The images should be close crops, tight product shots and unusual angles that generate curiosity which is satisfied by one click.
3. Use Keywords And Hashtags
Hashtags are the keyword phrases that come after the # sign that assists users in sorting content according to their interests.
Instagram's users and advertisers can add hashtags to make their content appear in specific searches. They can tap the hashtag to bring themselves to a page showing all the images that have been tagged with the same hashtag. You should think carefully about what hashtags to use on your content to ensure that you are engaging with users who would have interest in your account.
You can add hashtags to both new and existing content on Instagram. If you haven't used hashtags on past content you can go back and edit the pictures to use them. You should consider using relevant keywords for your brand, product categories and user interests when adding hashtags to your content.
4. Use Your Social Media Statistics
You can see data on the ads you run to see what performs best for you as well as the days and times when your posts receive the most engagement. You can then use this data to build your Instagram ad campaign around the days and times when people are responding most favourably to your organic posts. You can also use these statistics to figure out what content is the most appealing to your audience on Instagram. You may find when comparing advertising statistics across your social media platforms that the best type of content may vary between platforms.
5. Test Your Ad Campaigns
You can learn a lot from the ads by testing. After establishing a benchmark ad, run the test ads against the benchmark then evaluate the results. See whether the offer, timing (day, hour, month), audience or content changes the engagement rate.
To keep it simple when testing you can test one advertisement against the other. You can use one ad with a known response rate as the benchmark and a new ad testing an element against it. You can then use the data to refresh the campaign and continue to test it until the engagement rate does not reach any higher.
No comments:
Post a Comment