Targeted advertising on Instagram

4 April 2019
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Reading: 5 min

Some time ago, we saw a boom of targeted ads on VK, and then – on Odnoklassniki and Facebook. Now the same is happening on Instagram. This is truly explicable if we take into account that Instagram attracts active purchasing users. Engagement rates are over-the-top compared to other similar resources.

It would be completely silly not to engage this huge audience in commercial purposes. One of the customer acquisition methods is exactly targeted advertising. Plus, you can launch it quickly and easily. Potential customers will see it in their newsfeed.

Targeted advertising on Instagram

Targeted ads on Instagram have become very popular in 2015. We cannot say that this was warmly welcomed. Many users were irritated and criticized this novelty, and they reported companies which used this kind of advertising. However, the number of complaints reduced with time – moreover, users began to positively comment on these ads mentioning their pros instead of cons.

Those companies exploiting this type of promotion have quickly acknowledged its advantages: the number of store and site visits increased, sales and profits increased accordingly. Currently, targeted ads are a convenient and useful tool which allows setting up advertisements so that potential buyers of the promoted product can see them on Instagram.

Targeted advertising on Instagram

How to set up targeted advertisements

All owners of business accounts can launch targeted campaigns on Instagram. Business accounts only. You can switch your account to a business one in settings if necessary. To launch targeted ads, you can promote Instagram posts or adjust more precise settings in your advertising account on Facebook. Developers have envisages the easiest method of promotion for beginner advertisers as well as the advanced one for large advertising campaigns. In the first case, it will suffice to press the “Promote the post” button and specify the required parameters. After that, the campaign is launched. However, this approach has reduced functionality. On the other hand, setting up ads via advertising account on Facebook is a serious tool which ideally suits various advertising purposes. You will need to pass eight stages to set up and launch your campaign.

So, after you select the required post for advertising in the “Advertising” section, you will make the following stages to set up your advertisements.

Targeted advertising on Instagram

Choosing the goal of advertising

You can find out more in the help section on Facebook itself. You can choose between “Traffic” or “Audience reach”.

Defining ads budget and schedule

As for the budget, it is better to specify it for the whole term of the campaign or choose daily limits. You can edit it at any time. You also need to specify the start and finish dates of the advertising campaign.

Targeted advertising on Instagram

Setting up the target audience

This stage implies choosing a country, city or a particular location of users who will see your advertisements. You can also specify age ranges, gender, the native language of your audience (Russian is available, of course). The most important parameter is targeting settings. There is no need to rush at this stage, we suggest to consider and weigh all options. For instance, the following parameters are available for setting up ads demonstration:

  • user interests towards particular subjects of Instagram posts;
  • field of occupation or education;
  • marital status;
  • whether your users have kids, etc.

The system can find users according to your targets if, for example, you choose the most relevant ones and then press the “Recommendations” button. If you plan on receiving feedback from your followers, you can set up the “Feedback” section.

Targeted advertising on Instagram

Choosing an advertising placement

By default, advertisements are shown on Facebook, Instagram, and on the Facebook advertising network if not specified otherwise. Therefore, you need to flag or remove flags from settings suggested by the system.

Setting up optimization and ads impressions

You can leave default settings if you haven’t decided whether you need optimization and how it works.

Creating an advertisement

At this stage, you need to choose a page on behalf of which you are planning to run ads on Instagram. First, you need to choose a Facebook page which is linked to an Instagram account. Then, you will need an Instagram account. After that, you need an advertising format: an image, video clip, carousel, etc. It is worth experimenting with different parameters. Firstly, you can diversify advertisements and protect your audience from getting bored. Secondly, you can find out which advertising format is the most interesting to users.

Targeted advertising on Instagram

Uploading necessary files

After you add all the necessary images and video clips, you can launch advertising. Ads need to be moderated and will shop in several minutes or hours depending on the speed of moderation. You can go to “Ads status” to make sure your ads are running. There should be “Active” status.

Targeted advertising on Instagram

Of course, we cannot cover all details of setting up targeted ads on Instagram. But the abovementioned information is enough to make the first steps, and you can begin to reach maximum targeted users with your advertisements.

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