Instagram advertising – You want people on Instagram? Then Instagram is the easiest and fastest way to get attention! Learn insights from our Instagram agency, with information on Insta Ads, the strategy behind the ads, the various ad formats, costs and key performanceindicators (KPI). Social ads on Instagram, briefly explained for beginners and options for expanding existing Instagram channels with numerous cases from various industries.
Questions? Talk to us or write to our Instgram Ad experts: Contact
Without ads, you only reach 2% – 5% of your followers! Instagram Ads ensure that you can expand your reach faster.
Advantage Instagram – Instagram reaches an affluent target group, currently around 20 to 35 years old, young and middle-aged people. A perfect target group for pretty much everything! Travel from hotels to cruises, furnishings, cars, insurance, the big question is, how do you get a wide reach for your ideas?
Because the fact is, no matter how “good” your content is, you are subject to certain algorithm limits. On the one hand, your company channel is in competition with millions of private channels that are constantly publishing new content, even at night and at weekends, completely free of charge. On the other hand: Instagram lives from the sale of reach.
More precisely, advertising. A real disadvantage. But also a big advantage if done right! Because you can use user data (age, place of residence, interests, …) for your advertisements.
Even if your Instagram channel already has 100,000 followers, you usually only reach 3-8%.
Organic reach (average): 3-8% of the community.
* Depending on the activity of the channel
Conversely, this means that 92-97% of the community did not see the post (too much content competition on Instagram).
Booster! Advertised posts for + X reach
The ideal mix is therefore a combination of organic reach and paid reach. This means that good content is additionally promoted and thus reaches more users on Instagram.
Such a promoted post (Boost) reaches 1) a large part of your community and 2) even more real, additional users in TikTok. People who may have already been in contact with your brand, but also people who have never been in contact with your brand. This is how you can build your community! Or use the reach and sell directly in the online store. It’s up to you!
Advertising placement on Instagram: Simplified
Ads in the Instagram feed or as an Instagram Story. Tip! Also in connection with social selling and your Instagram store.
The “what” is defined: Objectives. The next question, how is it possible to achieve these goals? Here we come to the Instagram ad strategy.
Reach alone does not guarantee conversion (sales, etc.)
How do Instagram Ads work? There are posts and there are “promoted posts”. An advertised post is provided with media budget X and you get reach Y in return.
The more efficient the strategy, the more profit
But …. if it’s “only” about reach, you could also advertise like you used to, with posters or flyer distribution. What Instagram is all about (the big advantage):
Targeting = reaching users according to interests, age, etc.
So if you combine 1) reach and 2) targeting, you have extremely low wastage. Even better, well-performing campaigns (individual ads) can be given more budget and thus benefit from scaling effects.
Advertised posts: Targeting with user data
To make ads or individual campaigns (specific ads for specific target groups) even more effective, Instagram (or meta) uses user data that it has about its users. Very simple parameters are, for example, place of residence, age or interests. Of course, Instagram knows a great deal about its users, after all, data is collected and collated! Day and night. Naturally DSVGO compliant.
By the way, how much does an ad on Instagram cost? How much does 1,000 impressions cost? Calculate your Instagram Ads media budget here as an example.
With such advertised contributions, new ideas can reach millions of people overnight.
Content first: competition and attention
But as I said, reach isn’t everything, once you’ve reached a person, it’s all about attention and quick persuasion. After all, the next video from your favorite influencer or friend is just a single swipe away.
Content first! Content is king. For users, but also for Instagram’s algorithm. As you may see for yourself every day on Instagram, there are hundreds of possibilities in content creation, from animated gifs created in the agency to extensive photo shoots or even entire documentaries, e.g. for YouTube (with Amazon Music).
Whether it’s eye-catching photo production, video production or creative output in texts, you can only catch users with the right “bait”. In terms of strategy development and production, this is about videos and photos, but also descriptions, the use of emoji, text in images or videos.
Attention in seconds: Example clickbait
Speaking of bait, have you ever heard of “clickbait”? In simple terms, it’s about generating attention quickly through lurid headlines. Clickbait attracts attention with just a few words. For example:
“This product has changed lives!” (holding a product) – many users now want to know what it’s all about
“Awesome! 14kg in 2 weeks with …..” – with what? More users are already clicking on the advertised post
With such small tools, the click rate is of course extremely increased. Especially in relation to boring image and video descriptions.
Optimization: Example A/B tests
Another tool that brings many advantages: Optimization of advertisements. Another simple example for you: You advertise a photo (e.g. a product from an online store) and after months you wonder why the sales figures are not right. The first questions:
Have you ever tested a different product photo?
Have you ever tested a video?
Have you ever played the ad only to a certain age group?
Have you tested female and male target groups against each other?
…
This is how we get into optimization and A/B testing.
A/B test to increase efficiency
A/B tests contribute to the continuous optimization of advertisements. This is because parameters are constantly changing and content becomes “known”. To ensure that advertising always remains attractive and efficient, different media content on Instagram is tested against each other, as are different target groups, times and other parameters.
A/B tests therefore compare parameters to increase efficiency.
For example:
Compare target groups
Age groups
Interests
Places such as place of residence, whereabouts, frequent places, …
…
Compare media content
Photo
Galleries
Videos such as short videos to documentaries
Testing emotions
Visual mood
Clickbait
…
Compare texts
In-Photo, In-Video
Descriptions
Emojis
…
Compare periods
…
…
There are so many testing possibilities within the target group alone, just think of the combination of age, place of residence and interest.
In case you’re wondering, do I have to post hundreds of photos and videos on my Instagram channel? No, so-called dark posts do this job. These special media and posts are only visible to the target group of the ad. They are not published on your own Instagram channel.
Local ads to global campaign
Simply put, ideal for you! Even for an insurance brokerage office (which would otherwise not be trusted with Insta Ads), with a local connection, within a radius of 1 or 2 kilometers in the district, such information and methods can be used perfectly for ads.
You can reach families (e.g. via the interest “first baby”), but you can also narrow down age and place of residence. A target group could be set up accordingly:
Age: 20 to 26 years
Place of residence: Hamburg
Interests: Babies, first baby
Here we come straight back to the beginning, the possibilities are so diverse, media budgets are quickly burnt up. Accordingly, it is important to achieve the right mix of optimization and performance. In the end, only the most effective ads remain.
And already, the sales deals through ads on Instagram are right.
Strategy, reach, content and optimization are followed by monitoring to measure the results of the individual campaigns.
Reporting and analytics: monitoring
Social media monitoring looks at various key performance indicators (KPIs, performance targets). Ultimately, however, it is always about conversion (achieving certain business goals [followers to sales in the store]), or the conversion rate in %. Added to this are CPM (cost per 1,000 ads) and CPC (cost per click).
These and other key figures are also important for the efficiency of your Instagram advertising.
KPIs (performance targets) for Instagram include:
Conversion rate (goals achieved)
Engagement rate (interaction)
Mentions (marking)
Impressions (page views)
CPM (cost per 1,000 ads)
CPC (cost per click).
Our social media consultants will keep you up to date at all times.
Tracking in e-commerce: tracking sales
Targets can even be “linked” to your e-commerce(pixels) so that all results can be tracked exactly. Yet another advantage!
The pixel, more precisely Facebook Pixel, which you have installed on your website or in your online store, allows you to register visitors if they are also users of the Instagram app. Accordingly, you can send ads extremely accurately, even to individual people who have already visited your store via an Instagram ad.
Embed pixels in e-commerce (landing pages, etc.)
Tracking sellers (including those who have started)
Abandoned sale in the shopping cart: example of re-targeting
Let’s say someone has looked at a Prada bag in the online store, even put it in the shopping cart, but then abandoned it. This individual user can now be approached again with exactly the same Prada bag. Thanks to an ad, directly in the Instagram app feed.
Again, just one of the advantages!
Technical term: Re-targeting – addressing users individually, specifically with content, again > Increase sales rate
But other key figures such as the engagement rate(interaction) in likes, comments or direct messages, mentions (tagging), impressions (page views) for clicks in the online store are also among the typical KPIs that are important for advertisements on Instagram.
Key figures such as CPM (cost per 1000 views) are decisive. However, the CPC (cost per click), which you have already learned about in monitoring, is also important. When it comes to reach and brand awareness, many people use the simple formula:
For how much money do I get what range?
However, this price is never the same. There are various parameters, a major one being the competition. The more competitors place ads on a certain topic, the more expensive the advertising space becomes. The more is earned, the more is paid. Accordingly, click prices vary from a few cents to double-digit amounts in euros.
As a rule, however, click prices range between ~ 0.20 euros and 20 euros (purely in terms of media budget), to put it very simply. At the same time, a click price is not always what matters. Especially when it comes to brand awareness.
The range between beauty products, luxury travel, electric cars and insurance is huge
It is best to seek advice directly before you waste a lot of energy, time and media budget.
Speaking of which, do you know why many companies ask? “We’ve been doing Instagram ourselves so far, but there’s been no success” – a shame when large sums of money have already been invested.
Media budget: costs but no conversion?
A huge advantage: in theory, anyone can advertise on Instagram. All you need is an Instagram account and a corresponding Facebook account. But where there is light, there is also shadow.
Risk: Making ads yourself
The barrier to running ads on Instagram is so low that you can easily and quickly spend money on ads. Everything looks easy, but after a few weeks or months, many ad projects are canceled if the performance is not right.
This is where you quickly realize that the work has to be done by a professional.
Functions, A/B testing, pixels and targeting
The possibilities for advertising on Instagram are so diverse that I can burn through a lot of media budget very quickly. In addition, new features are constantly being added and even new social networks to which young target groups are migrating, such as Twitch (gaming focus) or TitTok (general).
In particular, targeted reach building, using the methods you are about to learn, is so important for a successful strategy – which pays off at the end of the month (costs for acquisition, in relation to profit per customer).
Get the most out of your profile with our Instagram agency. From content planning to community interaction – we maximize your results and help you use Instagram successfully for your business.”
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