There are many Facebook Ad destinations and post types you can advertise. For example, you can promote a photo on Facebook or direct people to your website or other app on Facebook.
These simple ad models have been around for Facebook users for a long time. But recently, Facebook has also allowed Facebook users to advertise on Instagram. To advertise on Instagram, all you need is a Facebook account, a Facebook Page, and an Instagram account.
If you have all these accounts, you can reach a certain goal by advertising on Instagram, among more than 400 million active users.
So how do you advertise on Instagram?
In this article, we will explain step by step what you need to do to create your first Instagram ad campaign.
How to Advertise on Instagram?
Before you get started, there is some important information you should know: You don’t need an Instagram account to advertise on Instagram. You can also be visible on Instagram by linking your ads to a Facebook Page. But having an Instagram account gives your business even more benefits. This allows users to become your followers and discover more about your business.
Yes, as we mentioned, you can skip the first step and go straight to the second, but we recommend opening an Instagram page first.
Advertising on Instagram Using Facebook Ads Manager
There are two ways to use Instagram advertising: through the Instagram app or with the Facebook Ads Manager.
Although slightly more complex, Facebook Ads Manager has more built-in advertising tools compared to the Instagram app. It gives you additional control over your target demographic, ad formats, budget and campaign length.
1. Open Facebook Ads Manager
To get started, make sure your Facebook page is linked to your Instagram profile .
Then sign in to Facebook Business Manager with your business account credentials. Scroll down and click Add Ad Account.
You can integrate an existing ad account or create one if you don’t have one.
Having this account allows you to edit your Instagram ad campaigns, view their performance and control their ad settings.
After creating an ad account, go to Ads Manager from the three-line menu in the top left . Select +Create to start creating ads.
2. Identify your primary goal
Your marketing goal affects how Instagram delivers each ad across the platform. Therefore, you need to choose your destination carefully.
There are eight destinations you can choose from for Instagram ads:
Brand awareness — Let your target market know about your brand.
Reach — Announce to the maximum number of users regardless of preferences.
Traffic — Drive users to your website or app store.
Engagement — Drive people to engage with your page or posts.
App installs — Encourage users to download your app.
Video views — Promote video content
Finding potential customers — Get information about people who are interested in your brand.
Conversions — Drive people to take certain actions on your site or app.
After choosing a goal, give your Instagram ad campaign a name and activate the split test to evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising strategies.
Afterwards, we recommend that you also enable Campaign Budget Optimization (Campaign Bid Strategy):
This feature allows you to allocate a daily or timed budget for the ad campaign.
With a daily budget, Instagram spends daily up to a limit set by you. This option is ideal for brands with a fluctuating budget that determines the duration of the campaign.
On the other hand, a timed budget allows you to set the end date of the campaign. It only allows Instagram to spend money during this period.
You can also modify the “Campaign Bidding Strategy” to determine how Instagram will get the most out of your budget.
First-time advertisers may choose the “Least Cost” option, after all, you don’t have any data to develop your bid strategy yet.
Leave the Ad Scheduling and Delivery Type settings as they are, customize them in the next steps.
Once everything is set, click on Set Up Ad Account and set the ad campaign’s country, currency and time zone.
Then the app will direct you to the Ad Set section where you can proceed to the next step.
3. Define your target audience
Ads Manager allows you to create a new audience group based on the following targeting options:
Location — Include or exclude people who live in certain countries, cities, or addresses from your ad’s target market.
Age — Select an age demographic of 18-65 or older.
Detailed targeting — Narrow the audience further based on demographic group, interests, and user behavior.
Connections — Search for people connected to your brand
When you change the settings, Facebook notifies you if your target audience is too specific or too broad for successful brand awareness.
When you find the right balance after your adjustments, select Save This Audience for future use.
As your brand grows, you may want to consider using Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audience features.
Custom Audiences help you target people who have already interacted with your business, while Lookalike Audiences are useful for finding users who are similar to your existing customers.
4. Configure ad placement
If you want to advertise on both Instagram and Facebook, select Automatic Placements and let Ads Manager configure the settings for you.
However, if you only want to run an ad campaign on Instagram, select Edit Placements and uncheck the other platform.
You can also choose whether to show your ads on the Instagram Feed, Discover page, and Stories.
5. Check your budget and schedule
Next, it’s time to decide how Instagram spends your money and how it displays your Instagram ads.
The advanced settings you can change are as follows:
Optimization for Ad Delivery — Define how the platform serves your ads. For example, Estimated Ad Recall Lift allows Ads Manager to show your ad to users who are likely to remember seeing your ad two days later.
Cost Control — Depending on the selected campaign bid strategy, you can set a maximum bid for each auction or control the average cost of the ad. However, choosing the Least Cost strategy from step two will disable this setting.
Schedule — Select the date and time range to publish your ad.
Ad Set Spending Limits — Use this feature if you have specific budget requirements for that ad campaign.
Pricing — Depending on your goals, the app may charge you based on CPC or CPM pricing models
Some targets have additional settings that you can customize for better ad performance.
For example, selecting the Reach target allows you to change the Frequency Cap and prevents the app from playing your ad to the same user more than necessary in a given time frame.
When you’re done, click Continue and go to the Advertising section to complete your ad creation.
6. Create Instagram ads
This is the most fun part where you can start creating your featured Instagram ad.
First, decide whether you want to boost an existing post or a new post.
If you want to use an existing post for promotion, select one from your feed and preview the ad and make sure to add an appropriate call-to-action button.
Choose a format to create a completely new Instagram ad; You can choose from carousel ads, Single image or video, or Collection.
If you’re not sure which ad format to choose, take a look at the next section on this topic.
If you want to show the ad in both Instagram Feed and Stories, you can upload a media file for each placement. After adding the files, click Edit to customize the look of the image or video.
In the Text and Links section, you can fill in the ad text and links.
Type catchy text in the Primary Text box, as it will appear in all layouts. Remember to choose an appropriate call-to-action button.
If necessary, you can also include a translation of your Instagram ad campaign in the Languages text box. This is a great accessibility feature for brands with global ambitions.