The Small Business Guide to Advertising on Instagram

On 29th October 2022 | 0 Comments | Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing |

When it comes to generating traffic for purchases and engagement, Instagram takes the cake. It features some of the best advertising and the most effective influencers. It’s a beautiful platform that plays to our sense of sight and gives small businesses a competitive advantage.

But you already know this if you use Instagram.

You might be surprised to learn that the Instagram platform gives businesses of every size the chance to compete in the vast digital marketplace. They can present to larger crowds and experience unprecedented levels of participation. We’ll talk about using Instagram ads for small business growth in this article.

What Is Instagram Advertising?

Instagram advertising entails paying the massive social media platform to post sponsored material on your behalf in order to enhance brand awareness, engagement, sales, and even follower count. The idea is to bring your material in front of a larger and more targeted audience than you would normally have with your profile or page.

Why Should Small Businesses Advertise on Instagram?

As a small business owner, one of your goals is to be on top of your audience’s minds as much as possible, making Instagram a perfect place to showcase your brand.

Precise Audience Targeting

With their great targeting capabilities, Instagram advertisements allow you to reach a specific target audience segment. Ad audiences can be targeted based on demographics, location, habits, interests, previous customers, and those who have interacted with your company.

Socially Innovative

With features such as stories, hashtags, and marketing options such as influencer marketing and sponsored ads, the platform is always rolling out useful features that assist small business owners in gaining the brand recognition they require.

Aside from sponsored ads, you may advertise your brand organically while improving engagement by using regular feed updates, stories, reels, and IG live. You can also pay influencers with millions of followers to promote your business and increase your chances.

User-Friendly Interface

The search option offers various filtering options, letting users get precise results for their searches. This and the easy-to-use and user-friendly interface of the platform keep users flocking to the platform.

Organic Website Traffic

When you create your business page on Instagram, you can include your website’s URL as part of your bio. As you engage users on the platform and your following grows, you inadvertently get organic traffic to your website without having to pay for it (except if you choose to).

Boost Sales

Due to the platform’s large user base and increased engagement, running ads helps you get the eyes that matter to your products and services. With increased traffic being sent to high-priority product pages, you can boost your sales of those products and services effectively.

The Lowdown on Instagram Ads

Posting pictures and videos give your audience a glimpse into your work culture, the way your products work, or the faces behind your brand. But if you want to attract new leads, creating Instagram ads is how you’ll drive conversions. But, the social app offers a variety of different ads you can run to achieve specific objectives, so you must know your options.

1. Single Image

The simplest type of ad, a single image (either landscape or square) is used. It’s best to avoid any stock images with these. Authentic photos score best.

2. Single Video

This is a video or GIF that can also contain text and/or links. Video performs higher than still images and is considered dynamic content. The best way to get users to click through is by adding a CTA (call-to-action) button that redirects to your site.

3. Carousel

If you have two or more images/videos, you can create an ad carousel. Users can then scroll through each one. These are best used when creating a “step-by-step” guide or showing a variety of different products.

4. Collection

This Instagram ad is a browsable combination of image, video, or slideshow. Deep links can be added for third-party tracking through integrations.

5. Slideshow

These ads are looped and scroll automatically. You can add up to 10 images. Use the Ads Manager for detailed targeting. This enables you to show slides to older devices and remote locations.

6. Instant Experience

This type of Instagram advertising is mobile-only. It’s a post-click experience that can bring a product/service to life. These types of ads can also encourage clicks by using gamification. “Get the ball in the hoop to win a prize.” The idea is you are creating an experience for the consumer outside of a simple ad.

7. Instagram Stories Ads

Most people are familiar with Instagram Stories, but you can also run ads on them. These appear between users’ Instagram Stories in the form of a single image or video.

Instagram Ad Campaign Objectives

Before you create your first Instagram campaign, consider your reasons for doing so. There are many objectives and goals when going this route. The Ads Manager allows you to choose the focus of your ads, so you target the right people. Here are the objectives of the different campaign for Instagram:

- Brand Awareness: This displays the ad to people who might be interested in your business but are unaware of the brand.
- Reach: Choose this objective when you want to maximize your reach. This includes the number of people who see your ads. It focuses on location over interest.
- Traffic: This is the objective that helps bring more people to your website or landing page. You are driving traffic with these ads.
- Lead Generation: This improves marketing possibilities by collecting important customer information like email addresses or social accounts.
- Engagement: These types of ads help to promote offers and increase audience interaction with your account and posts.
- Conversions: This objective gets people to take a specific action on your app or website by following your CTA.
- Video Views: These ads help increase video awareness and viewership.
- App Installs: Choose this objective if you are promoting a downloadable app.

Tips For a Successful Instagram Ad

When it comes to marketing your brand on Instagram, there are a few rules to follow. Here are seven go-to tips for running a successful ad:

Use high-quality content with clear visuals.
Include a CTA button.
Keep text to a minimum. Let the pics do the talking.
Consider the proper dimensions and orientation.
Use short captions that are to the point.
Hashtag effectively and appropriately.
Always include your branding.

How to Create Instagram Ads

While you can promote your profile posts through Instagram, you have to actually create your Instagram ads in the Facebook Ads Manager platform. Here are a few steps to help you develop and customize a quick Instagram ad:

In Facebook Ads Manager, click “Create” and choose “Guided Creation.”
Choose your ad objective (see above).
Name your campaigns and set up an ad account.
Check details and click continue.
Choose your audience.
Under “Placements” choose “Edit Placements” and select Instagram.
Set the budget and schedule your ad.

If you select a lifetime budget, you can set a limit. That way, your ads never go over a certain amount.

When it comes to social media advertising, Instagram is a great tool. But don’t forget to neglect other channels in your social media marketing strategy. Here are some broad tips to follow when it comes to using social media in your marketing:

Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Have a budget set aside for SMM and plan your marketing expenditure.
Research your audience, and know their preferences, likes, and dislikes to create content that resonates with them. That way, you widen your reach and increase engagement.
Decide on metrics to measure for success and track these metrics using analytics for better performance.
Use automated response and scheduling to free up time and scale your marketing efforts.
Don’t neglect your captions. Make sure your Instagram captions are creative and explanatory when necessary.
Decide which social media platforms are important for your business to have a presence on and concentrate on establishing your brand on the platforms. Not every social media platform will be a fit for your business.
Pay attention to trends to stay up to date on what people are interested in, and create content that resonates with your audience using trends they will be interested in.
Use different content formats for your posts and advertisements: Images, videos, reels, stories, etc.
Have a consistent posting schedule to encourage engagement, boost visibility, and improve brand awareness.
Use polls, contests, and giveaways to spotlight your audience and customers.
Be aware of platform updates, especially new updates from Instagram, as they tend to happen frequently. Being on top of new platform features will ensure you’re able to take advantage of them for your small business.
Tap into Instagram Insights so you can understand your audience better and double down on posts and content that have high engagement.

Instagram advertising takes some testing. Pay attention to your metrics and adjust campaigns accordingly. If an ad isn’t working, don’t be afraid to yank it. However, never shy away from paid social advertising. It’s how a small business levels the playing field. Let us help you further with your small business marketing and visit our services page or book a Free 30 Minute Discovery Call today!