Social networking sites, especially Instagram, are among the new marketing methods that, in a relatively short period, were able to gain a large fan base, due to their ability to reach users, regardless of their geographical location. This opened the way for entrepreneurs to target larger segments of users and expand their scope of work, to include groups that would not have been reached, had it not been for the great technological development and the expansion of communication provided by social media.
What is sponsored advertising?
Funded advertising is defined as the process in which the owner of the product or service displays his products through different channels that he has nothing to do with, by paying certain amounts to the owners of these channels to market his products and targets a larger swath of users.
What have funded ads on Instagram?
They are the ads that appear to users while browsing their accounts on Instagram, where product owners pay for displaying their products in publications, which appear to users from all over the world. Ads appear on Instagram accompanied by the phrase sponsored, which indicates that this publication that the individual is following is a publication funded by the owners of the project, and it is displayed in two forms:
- The first: is displayed on the home page of their accounts or what is known as the news feed on Instagram, Newsfeed.
- The second: it appears in the stories that people follow.
What is the importance of creating a funded advertisement on Instagram?
The importance of creating a funded advertisement on Instagram is evident in its great ability to reach different segments of users, in addition to giving entrepreneurs the ability to display their products in an interactive, visual way, far from boring narration and presentation, which ensures that individuals accept offers positively. The number of funded ads on Instagram per month is approximately 2 million ads, which indicates the importance of Instagram in marketing products and services and reaching users from various segments.
In addition, publications and advertisements funded through Instagram achieve record reach rates for users, at a rate of 1.2 billion users per month. In addition to the above, ads funded through the social networking application Instagram contribute to:
First: the strong impact on a large number of users
The Instagram application has a very large fan base, more than 1 billion users, and the number is constantly increasing, which makes it in the ranks of social networking applications, with great influence on wide segments of users. More than 80% of Instagram users reported that they made a decision to purchase a product or service because of the sponsored ads they see on the site.
Second: the ability to personalize ads
Instagram ads are distinguished from other platforms in that they follow the visual method rather than the narrative method in attracting customers to purchase the product or service. This method allows project owners to design publications that reflect their brand, in a way that ensures that they gain customers and attract them to purchase the products and services they offer.
Third: the diversity of advertising methods through Instagram
The Instagram platform is characterized by offering a variety of means to design funded ads, which allows entrepreneurs to choose the best method that suits the products and services that they want to market on the site.
How to display ads on Instagram
1. Paid publications
Paid publications are represented by regular photos and videos, which are similar to those that any individual uploads to Instagram, except that they are funded and directed to certain groups of targeted individuals. Based on their buying habits and interests, in addition to determining the geographical location in case the project owner wants to.
The dimensions of the images and videos that can be posted on Instagram are 1080 x 1080, meaning that most of the images and videos take a square shape, and therefore the owners of products and services should work on creating advertising images that contain all the information that may be of interest to the user, in a manner commensurate with the square frame.
Most users prefer to get all the information contained in the advertisement at first glance, rather than having to read more or go to an electronic link.
2. Stories
Stories are a way to share news and cases for 24 hours only, and therefore it is a quick marketing tool that entrepreneurs can use to promote an offer or discount. Stories are distinguished by showing users the full-screen area, that is, a greater ability to share more details about the product, in addition to the ability to attach a website link, to facilitate individual access to the products offered.
This is done by urging users to “swipe up” to follow more, or view products and services on the website. While for regular publications, it is difficult to go to the electronic link, because the Instagram application does not support the display of electronic links in the description of posts or comments.
3. Ad groups
Instagram allows you to buy a group of products by marketing them in one post, instead of employing several posts to market these products. As a group of offers appears to users as soon as they see a photo or video, instead of just displaying and marketing one product.
These types of sponsored ads on Instagram are often used to market the brand as a whole, not just a few affiliate products.
4. Shopping ads
This method is primarily used to promote products indirectly, as this method is often used when it comes to hiring a personality to promote products. Where people can see more about a product shown in the image or video, by clicking once on it. After that, they can proceed to purchase the product, by clicking again on the product if they want to.
5. Navigator Ads
The Explorer on the Instagram app is the main way for people to discover new brands and content they might like to follow. Therefore, creating funded ads on Instagram through explorer is an opportunity to acquire and attract a new segment of customers, who do not follow the brand and do not know much about it.
The explorer page is prepared according to what the individual follows and interests in addition to the things that he likes, and therefore Instagram seeks to customize the content to the desires of the user and to present the new within the same field that interests him and attracts him.
6. Reels ads
It is one of the new features in which Instagram allows content owners to publish videos of more than 50 seconds, and thus the ability to express more about products and address more details about products.
This ensures that users understand everything they need to know about the products and make the appropriate decision to purchase the products and services offered by the brand owners.
Fourth: Take advantage of the Instagram advertisement feature on Facebook
Users who have accounts on the Facebook Ad Manager app can take advantage of its features to easily create and manage Instagram story ads. All it takes is having an active account on Instagram, in addition to an account on Facebook's ads manager, or what has come to be called meta ads manager. After that, an advertisement can be launched on Instagram by following simple steps:
- Go to the Facebook Ads Manager app.
- Determine the main objective of the advertising campaign, whether it is to promote content, attract customers, or others.
- Choose where ads will appear. Ads can be posted simultaneously to both Facebook and Instagram.
- Clicking on the Create Ad sign, then select a goal commensurate with the nature of the ad campaign to be created.
- Choose the target customer segment for advertising.
- Determining the optimal timing for advertising promotion on Instagram, you should choose the time when the user segment is at its peak activity, to achieve the greatest possible gains.
- Finalizing the details related to the duration of the advertisement and its expected cost.
- Choose the nature of the ad, single image, video, or mixed ad.
Upon completion of the previous steps, the advertisement will appear on Instagram stories immediately. In addition, the advertisement can be managed and statistics related to the success of the advertisement can be monitored, and the willingness of individuals to continue reading about the advertisement from Ads Manager via Facebook itself.
What are the requirements for creating a funded ad on Instagram?
Before starting to create a sponsored advertisement, some requirements should be met, the absence of which does not harm the sponsored advertisement reaching its recipients, but their presence will definitely help in supporting the sponsored advertisement and ensuring that it reaches different segments of users, which further guarantees success for the brand.
1. Have a large fan base on Instagram
Having a large number of followers on Instagram contributes to reducing the expenses required for e-marketing operations through it, in addition to limiting the number of funded ads that the brand owner needs to ensure that his brand reaches the largest possible number of target audiences.
The large fan base on Instagram is also useful in ensuring that new customers are noticed and attracted to view the posts of brand owners and make the appropriate decision to purchase more products and services from them. You can check out the comprehensive guide on how to easily increase the number of Instagram followers.
2. Ensure a strong interaction on Instagram
Having thousands of followers is not enough to ensure the success of advertising campaigns and that sponsored or unfunded ads reach the largest number of individuals. It is spread on Instagram that there are a large number of fake accounts, which in turn are used to build accounts with a large number of followers with almost non-existent interaction.
There are many extensions available that let you know if this account is using fake accounts to increase the number of followers, but the simplest way to find out is by noticing the small interaction on the posts despite the relatively large number of followers. Contrary to belief, having a large number of non-interactive followers will have a very negative impact on the performance of the Instagram account, and will harm people's trust in the brand. Even if its owners used dozens of sponsored advertisements to attract new customers.
Having a strong engagement on Instagram is useful in ensuring the credibility of the brand and expanding its ability to attract a large number of individuals and customers and convert them into loyal customers. Many ways contribute to a strong increase in engagement on Instagram and ensure the success of any account, especially brand accounts. All it takes is to get acquainted with the 15 best golden ways to increase interaction through Instagram.
3. Mastering the rules of Instagram marketing
Instagram-sponsored ads help attract a lot of customers, but it doesn't end there. Brand owners should have the appropriate methods to persuade new customers to purchase products and services and to learn more about the products offered by the brand.
All it takes is learning how to market for an Instagram account, to ensure the success of funded advertising campaigns in reaching their goals and generating profits for brand owners.
4. Having a successful Instagram store
Creating an integrated store on Instagram contributes to ensuring the benefit of advertising campaigns funded through the application, as it can be said that moving from a funded advertisement to an account on Instagram is more acceptable and easier for the target audience, rather than moving to a website or a digital store.
You will need to know several mechanisms that guarantee the success of the online store, to ensure that individuals interact with products and offers and that ads reach the largest possible number of individuals, which contributes to achieving the sales that the brand owners aspire to.
The steps to creating a successful online store on Instagram are to understand how people interact with commercial posts and how to attract more followers for brands. In addition, you can learn more about the means of launching and making an online store successful by browsing the comprehensive guide on how to build an integrated online store.
5. Knowing the purpose of the advertising campaign to be launched
One of the main requirements to ensure the success of funded ads via Instagram is to know the main objective required for this advertising campaign to be launched. There are many objectives related to the promotion of publications. Of which:
- Generate and attract potential customers
- Encouraging individuals to purchase products and services
- Increase engagement and reach
- Get people to message the brand account for more details
- Generate views on brand videos
What are the mechanisms for creating a funded advertisement on Instagram?
Although advertising styles differ across Instagram, the methods of making a funded advertisement on Instagram are characterized by the same template, about creating ads through the application itself. In addition to the above, it is possible to make a funded advertisement through the Facebook Ads Manager application, but many owners of products and services prefer to choose the easiest way to create Instagram ads directly through the application. The steps can be summarized in a few key points:
First: converting the Instagram account into a commercial account
To take advantage of the services of funded advertising via Instagram, entrepreneurs should first convert their personal accounts to commercial accounts, to take advantage of the features offered by the Instagram application, such as studying analytics and insights related to the performance of publications. In addition to accurately defining the target groups for publications, and choosing the demographic groups most affected by the content of the publication.
Second: Creating the post to be promoted and publishing it on the page
After converting a personal account into a business account on Instagram, the main task for content owners is to accurately choose the publication to be marketed. The promotion process through Instagram is based on increasing the number of people that the post reaches.
As for the content of the publication and the mechanisms of attracting customers, it is the responsibility of the content owners. You can create a successful post for promotion through funded Instagram ads, by following these steps:
1. Choose the nature of the publication
Choose whether the post to be promoted is an image, video, story, or an ad group primarily to promote the brand rather than promote the products.
2. Designing the flyer in a way that reflects the visual identity of the brand
Attention should be paid to the content of the post to be marketed on Instagram, in addition to working to make it include all the basic information that reflects the identity of the brand, as the post will reach individuals who hardly know anything about the brand. Here, it is the responsibility of the content owners to educate the public about what they offer and to provide appropriate offers so that they can attract potential customers and convert them into permanent customers.
3. Pay attention to CTA methods to attract potential customers
Call-to-action techniques (CTAs) help make posts more attractive to people browsing the Instagram app, as well as prompting them to take appropriate action and purchase the brand's products and services.
Third: Click on the Promote button at the bottom right of the post
When converting a personal account into a business account, owners of published content will see a button at the bottom right of the page, indicating that their content is being promoted. Simply pressing the button takes them to the post-promotion configuration page and choose all the details related to post-promotion.
For example, choosing the geographical area targeted by the publication, in addition to choosing the demographic groups to which the publication is to be delivered, as well as determining the budget for the promotion process through funded ads on Instagram. As shown in the following pictures:
- On the main Instagram Ads page, one can choose the intent of the ad.
- So is the path people will go to, whether it's another Instagram account or an external website.
- Advertising campaign owners can customize the target audience of the advertising campaign.
- In addition to choosing a specific geographical location, in which ads will appear only.
- Choose the advertising campaign budget and the duration of its display on the site.
- After launching the sponsored ad, you can follow the statistics on the number of visits and monitor the performance of paid ads.
Is there an alternative to making a funded advertisement on Instagram?
Yes, some brand owners choose to go to other ways of creating ads on Instagram, moving away from sponsored ads for several reasons, most notably the lack of the ability to accurately determine the extent of the impact of the sponsored advertisement on the individuals who receive it. In addition, they do not want to incur a lot of costs to promote only one or several products.
Owners of products and services sometimes choose to benefit from creating advertisements on Instagram, with the help of influencers who have influence and great interaction on the platform, by cooperating with an influencer to promote products, which ensures that they persuade the individuals who follow him to purchase the products and services they provide.
In addition to the above, some brand owners with strong Instagram accounts, with a large number of followers, reach, and strong engagement, are trying to create ads without incurring a lot of costs. This is done by launching offers, discounts, and competitions that motivate individuals to participate for the sake of profit, thus increasing the reach of products to new customers and urging them to participate.
What is the price of a funded advertisement on Instagram?
Before starting to talk about the costs of advertising campaigns funded through the Instagram application, it should be known that most of the Instagram users are young people, as it is estimated that most of the application’s users are between the ages of 24 and 34, which makes it an important platform to attract, influence and urge young people. To acquire products and services, however, reaching young people means incurring more advertising costs.
The Instagram application relies on the principle of cost per click (CPC), to calculate the costs for various funded ads, as the approximate value of most funded ads ranges between $0.50 per click and $1, but this value varies according to the category and geographical area targeted by the ads.
For example, the cost increases to about $3 when it comes to highly competitive markets and relatively young demographic groups, so knowing the target group and its demographic and geographical distribution is essential, to determine the cost of ads funded through Instagram.
Tips for getting started with Instagram marketing and advertising
Before starting to promote a post, paying attention to several details helps ensure the success of the promotion process, in addition to ensuring that the post reaches the target groups of the advertisement.
1. Determine the target group and study its geographical distribution accurately
This contributes to accurately determining the budget for the marketing process to be launched, in addition to knowing how to communicate and urging customers to make the most appropriate decision related to the acquisition of the product or service.
2. Choose posts with high interaction to be promoted
Although sponsored ads are important to increase engagement and reach posts, any brand owner should choose posts with high reach in the first place, to get new customers to read more, and see what this ad has to offer.
3. The use of influencers is essential even when using sponsored ads on Instagram
Influencers can be used without hiring funded Instagram ads. But when using funded Instagram ads, it is definitely useful to hire influencers and influencers through the application to contribute to increasing interaction and reaching promoted posts, which in turn ensures maximum benefit from funded advertising campaigns on Instagram, attracting as many potential customers as possible and converting them to regular customers.
4. Determine the motive for promoting posts on Instagram
Before starting to take advantage of the funded advertising services on Instagram, it is very important to know the main objective of the campaign to be launched, because it is important to know how to formulate the content, and to choose appropriate call-to-action phrases for the main objective of the process.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the process of creating a funded ad on Instagram is a necessity, to attract a broader spectrum of young audiences, and an imperative task for brand owners looking to expand their business operations. Working in ads in general and Instagram ads may not be your field of expertise, especially if you are a project owner who seeks to focus on developing his products.