Instagram Ads: The Complete Guide

We’re all looking for the best tools to get ahead in the online marketing world, and instagram ads is just one of those tools. These ads offer incredible boost to businesses looking to expand their reach online.

Afraid it’s not for your business? Not to worry, the ads are designed in such a way to accommodate all business types easily

Its been documented that around 400 million people use instagram everyday, we don’t know about you but that is an opportunity in our eyes.

So we thought, why not share that optimism?

Welcome to our Instagram Ads Complete Guide where we will address any and all questions related to these ads and so much more.

Let’s get started shall we?

CHAPTER 1:

Why Instagram Ads?

It’s estimated that since the introduction of these ads in 2015, there have been nearly a billion users on the app.

Can you imagine? A BILLION. That’s basically China….excuse us….

We also put together the above infographic to help you digest some really cool Instagram Stats to take on board. Its one of the most diverse and growing platforms out there and you aren’t taking advantage.

So Why are Instagram ads so popular?

• Easy Results
• Brand Growth
• Larger Audience
• Easy to Use

But you can’t just put up an ad about your lawn mowing business and suddenly expect customers begging you to trim theirs. There needs to be a strategy involved in how you tackle them.

Before Starting Read This (PLEASE)

You have to figure out what kind of product you’ll be advertising and if it fits with what the audience on instagram is looking for.

Recently Facebook conducted a survey where they were asked to name some of the most Popular Topics on Instagram. The following were the results

• Fashion
• Music
• TV
• Beauty
• Hobbies
• Food

If you fall in this category, then setting up these ads is in your best interest. Not only will it help you increase your brand awareness, but if done right this may propel you towards potential new customers.

Test the waters, post regularly, gather up a few thousand followers before you chase bigger dreams. Not only does this help in making sure you’re ready to take the next step, but also helps you stop burning your money.

Seriously, dont do it.

CHAPTER: 2

How to Create Instagram Ads

There are many different ways to create Instagram Ads, with there being plenty of easier ways to do so as well. In this chapter we’re going go through a step by step process on how to create these ads.

Identify your Audience:

When starting up ads you have to be able to identify who your audience is. Who is it that you want to target, what do you want to achieve after you target them?

Use analytics or Google’s own search query to figure out which audience fits into your business.

For example: Female, UK, 16 to 40 can be a starting point for those looking to target audiences for their fashion brand.

Create Instagram Ads Using Facebook

The Facebook ads manager is a great tool to easily create Instagram ads for your page, you need the following three to essentials to begin creating.

• Advertising Account for your Page
• Facebook Page
• Instagram Page

In your business manager, go to Accounts > Instagram Accounts. Make sure to have your facebook page connected to your instagram account to make this work. This is where it begins for us.

For the purpose of this tutorial we can assume that you’ve already set up Facebook Pixel and Custom Convrsions for your ads to give you the best chance of tracking them.

Remember when we told you that you need to figure out what you wanted your ad to do? That comes handy here. Select the marketing objective of your ad as you normally would.

Make sure your Placements are set up in regards to Instagram rather than Facebook so when you click on Edit Placements you’ll see that its selected everything for your ad campaign.

After clicking on Edit Placements you’re going to want to click and allow your ad to be placed on the placements that we’ve defined for you. This will allow your ad to feature on instagram stream and stories easily.

Easy Right?

CHAPTER:3

Different Formats of Instagram Ads

To make your business ‘pop’ you got to know which type of ads help them stand out the most. But how to know which ads suit you the most?

To understand that, you need to understand your business. If you have a business that sells clothing, your ads have to focus on templates like Photo Carousel. If you’re a business that has a B2B approach, then providing substantial benefits to your clients is the way to go

Above is an example of us providing a benefit to our client. We’ll provide our client with a report of their business website with them providing us with an email list, and them with a report of their website.

Kinda like you scratch our back we scratch yours, give them incentive to click.

General Instagram Ads Requirements

Below are some of the requirements we recommend you keep in mind before we define ad types for you

• Max Ad image Size = 30 MB
• Image file format = PNG or JPG
• Recommended Instagram Video format = MP4
• Max Video file Size = 4GB
• Image shouldn’t contain text covering 20% of it
• Ad Caption should be between 135-150 Characters

Instagram Newsfeed Ads

There are basically three different types of Newsfeed Ads provided to you…

• Landscape
• Square
• Vertical

Landscape Image should have an Aspect Ratio of 1.9:1 with a Resolution of 1200 x 628 pixels.

For Square Images the Aspect Ratio is 1:1 with a Resolution of 1080 x 1080 pixels.

For Vertical Images the Aspect Ratio is 4:5 with a Resolution of 600 x 750 pixels.

Carousel Ads Instagram

Remember how we mentioned that a Carousel Ads is a huge advantage when it comes to marketing a brand. Specifically if the brand is centered around clothing.

For these ad types an Aspect Ratio of 1:1 with a Resolution of 1080 x 1080 pixels. These ads have a higher chance of conversion since they can show off amazing products and gives people a higher opportunity to click.

Collection Ads Instagram

These ad formats will help form a base for brands that have multiple products they want to show. It’s really useful in providing brands with a platform to showcase their products.

Plus you can get a lovely video going at the top, since those grab the most attention nowadays.

Carousel ads use square images or videos, so you’ll use the 1:1 Aspect Ratios here, which translates to a resolution of 1080 x 1080 pixels.

Instagram Story Ads

These ad formats are really handy as they cover the entire screen and draws the complete attention of users. Here these ads have to be set up extremely carefully and the following points need to be kept in mind.

• Video ads should be 15 seconds long.
• Images will appear for 5 seconds.
• Aspect Ratio 9:16.
• Resolutions 1080 x 1920 pixels.

Its really important to keep the resolution and the aspect ratio in mind as that will be the only way Instagram allows you to display the ad itself.

The above image showcases they key aspects of the instagram story ads being the CTA (Call to Action). These buttons will take up the lower and upper left portion of the ad allowing you to create around them.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The following is our attempt at answering some of the questions related to advertisement on Instagram.