What are Instagram Ads?

Instagram Ads are posts that promote your business without directly selling to your target audience. Instagram Ads will appear on the app, including users’ feed, Stories, and Explore, usually carrying a “Sponsored” label. Users can notice whether the feeds, Stories or Explore are ads or not. Instagram Ads contain more features when compared with normal posts such as links to your website or products, and call-to-action (CTA). 

There are different ways for you to run Instagram Ads. You can create ads on Instagram directly by converting your profile into a professional account, and later you can promote posts and stories. You can also create ads from Facebook by linking the Facebook page and Instagram account, indicating that your ads will appear on both Facebook and Instagram. The last one is to create ads campaigns by using Ads Manager which also launches ads on Facebook and Instagram.

In general, the cost of Instagram Ads is depending on different factors, including your targeting audience, the competitiveness in your target industry, the length and locations of your ads, etc. 

What are the formats of Instagram Ads?

When choosing the format of Instagram Ads, you should decide the goals for the ad campaign, and target audience based on their demographics, locations, etc.

• Image ads

Image ads provide a single image to promote your business, products, and services. It is one kind of call-to-action (CTA) that includes different buttons such as “Apply Now”, “Contact Us”, and “Shop Now”. Image ads can drive conversion and engagement with your audience, and boost the traffic of your website.

• Stories ads

Stories ads are full-screen ads with images or videos which will appear irregularly between users’ Stories. You can design the Stories ads with filters, text, images, videos, GIFs, and stickers. Stories ads can last for 1 to 15 seconds. The call-to-action (CTA) button is shown as a swipe-up link, meaning that users can simply swipe up the Stories ads and then browse your website or products.

• Video ads

Video ads are similar to image ads which also present your business, products, and services. The length of in-feed video ads can last for at most 60 seconds, but it is suggested to have shorter videos that are more effective and easier to grab users’ attention at first glance. 

• Carousel ads

Carousel ads include a series of images or videos for users to swipe through. They will appear on both in-feed and Stories with a call-to-action (CTA) button and a swipe-up link. You can provide text to briefly describe your business and products, and also at most 10 images or videos.

• Collection ads

Collection ads promote your products directly on Instagram which combines the features of both carousel ads and shopping ads. Users can purchase your products once they click on the collection ads.

Why do you advertise on Instagram?

• Boost engagement rate

It is found that there are nearly 1 billion monthly active users on Instagram, meaning that the engagement rate is high by comparing to other social media platforms. You can attract potential customers and existing customers for your business by creating Instagram Ads. As a result, you can drive traffic and conversion to your business, leading to increased return on investment (ROI).

• Increase brand awareness and credibility

Instagram Ads contain different formats for you to choose from in order to target your audience which can increase the attractiveness of your business through content and images. In this situation, as the engagement rate increases, you can enhance the relationship with your target audience, leading to boosting brand awareness and credibility. It can help you with remarketing as you are able to maintain the relationship with customers.

How to design effective Instagram Ads?

In these days and years, users focus more on social media platforms including Instagram, which has become one of 1 billion monthly active users. In order to attract more customers for your business, you need to stand out on Instagram in which you have to put effort into Instagram Ads by targeting suitable audiences with demographics, locations, etc. 

• Create mobile-first ads

Most of the users are using mobile devices for browsing social media platforms including Instagram, meaning that you should design Instagram Ads for mobile-first, instead of for desktop. To establish Instagram Ads, for video content, the size should be in vertical or 9:16 aspect ratio as it will be easier to crop and fit in the feeds. Also, you should not put too much content on Instagram Ads and font sizes should be large enough for users to read. The video content must last at most 15 seconds. By following the above criteria, your Instagram Ads will be more attractive and eye-catching.

• Keep your messages short

It is important to provide your brand image and products for the first impression. At this time, the first few seconds of your Instagram Ads have already reflected the users’ interest in your business, products, or services as they may scroll down and browse other feeds, or swipe through for other Stories. As a result, you should put the most vital message in the first 3 seconds for your Instagram Ads so that you can grab the attention of the users at first glance. 

• Provide call-to-action (CTA)

You should insert a call-to-action (CTA) button on your Instagram Ads which can drive users to browse your website, products, or services by swiping up the Stories ads or clicking on the feeds. You can set up some objectives for your Instagram Ads. For example, increase brand awareness, show the ads to your target audience, drive website traffic, increase sales volume, and increase comments, likes, and shares on your ads. After that, you can decide what call-to-action (CTA) button you want. In Instagram, there are several call-to-action (CTA) buttons for you to choose from, for instance, “Apply Now”, “Learn More”, “Open Link”, etc. All these call-to-action (CTA) buttons can induce users to visit your profile and visit your website further.

In this article, we have learned more about the features and formats of Instagram Ads and methods for advertising on Instagram. If you have any more questions about Instagram Ads, you can visit our website or contact us.