A powerful tool that can complement your existing forms of marketing, using paid advertising on Instagram is something that can benefit just about any kind of business.

Offering powerful targeting and audience customisation, if your customers fit the Instagram demographic, then using Instagram ads can be a great way to get your brand message out there.

 

Why is Instagram good for business?

First, let’s take a look at why Instagram is good for business and why you should definitely get an Instagram account if you haven’t already. 

With over 1 billion users, Instagram is said to be the most rapidly evolving social media platform and shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.

• Research suggests that 46% of the UK population have an Instagram account. 
• 54% of these users check Instagram several times a day, spending an average of 32 minutes browsing Instagram daily.
• 80% of Instagram users use the app to find inspiration from the businesses and brands that they follow.

Not only has Instagram become synonymous with modern photography, but its popularity also makes it a great place for getting your products in front of your Instagram followers at just the right time in their buying journey. For example, the Instagram app was in the top five of the most downloaded apps in 2020 and is the fourth largest social media site commanding a market share of 1.78%.

In fact, Instagram is such a great place to find and connect with new customers, that smartly.io has found nearly 30% of marketers in the US spend the majority of their advertising budget on Instagram. 

 

 

Why should you use Instagram ads?

Even if you’re not a regular user of Instagram, you’ll almost certainly have heard of the Instagram algorithm and the constant scramble for brands to stay one step ahead of the changes.

Following Instagram’s move to a curated content feed in 2016, organic engagement has fallen which makes it much harder for brands to connect with their Instagram followers. 

Happily, there are ways you can optimise your content in order to counteract the effect of lower reach. For example, recent studies suggest that carousel posts get the highest engagement rates with 1.94%, followed by images at 1.74%, and video posts at 1.45%. However, it can take time to get people to really engage with your brand by relying solely on organic reach, especially if you don’t have many Instagram followers, to begin with.

An effective way to speed up the process of getting followers and growing your audience is to invest in Instagram ads. 

Advertising on this platform can be incredibly effective, especially as you can use Instagram Ads Manager to specifically target your audience by location, demographic, interests, and behaviours. 

You can even customise your audience to include those you already have email addresses or phone numbers for, and can also use Ads Manager to find new ‘lookalike audiences’ who are similar to your existing customers.

 

 

What are the different types of Instagram ads?

There are a few different ways you can use paid advertising on Instagram:

 

• Instagram Story Ads: Given that more than 500 million Instagram story ads are watched every day, this is a must when planning your Instagram marketing spend. If you’re wondering what Instagram story ads are, it simply means that your ad will play as a story whilst users are watching other people’s stories.

 

• Sponsored Posts: These can be presented as individual photos, videos, or carousels and will appear in people’s news feeds.

 

• Explore Ads: An effective way of increasing your Instagram followers, these ads will show up when people are looking through their Explore feed.

 

• Affiliate Marketing: You sign someone up to promote your products or services and pay them an agreed fee for every sale they make.

 

 

How much do Instagram ads cost?

If you’ve committed to Instagram ads cost as part of your marketing budget, you’re going to want to make sure they’re driving sales.

One handy way to check up on the metrics for individual campaigns is to use Instagram Ads Manager. As well as enabling you to create, manage, and monitor your Instagram ads, Instagram Ads Manager (or actually Facebook Ads Manager) is free to use and is an essential tool if you want to use Instagram ads to benefit your business. 

As to how much Instagram ads cost, well, that can depend on a lot of factors. Whilst the average Instagram ads cost around £1 per click, more competitive industries can cost up to £3.50 per click.

If you’re looking to get an idea of how much Instagram ads cost before getting started, there are some basic Instagram pricing calculators available on the internet.