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How to Advertise on Instagram: A Step-by-Step Guide

Whether you’re interested in selling products or driving traffic to your blog, Instagram makes these goals possible with targeted ad campaigns. With over one billion active users each month and the recent addition of a shopping tab, this social media platform is easily one of the best places to boost sales or drive conversions.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to advertise on Instagram.

What Kind of Ads Can You Create on Instagram?

To begin, think about the kind of ad you’d like to create. There are several ways you can advertise on Instagram. After setting up your Instagram business account, you can easily create:

  • Image Ads: An image ad looks like a standard Instagram post and appears as the user scrolls through their photo feed.

  • Reels Ads: This ad is a short video that shows up as users scroll through their Reels page.

  • Story Ads: This option is an image or bite-sized video ad that appears while a user watches Instagram Stories.

  • Carousel Ads: Carousel ads are a collection of up to 10 images or videos that users can swipe left and right to view.

  • Collection Ads: These ads are a mixture of carousel and shopping ads that appear in a user’s photo feed.

  • IGTV Ads: An Instagram TV (IGTV) ad is a longer video that shows up in your audience’s Reels tab.

  • Video Ads: These ads are videos that populate in a user’s post feed.

  • Explore Page Ads: Explore ads are videos or images that appear on the Explore page.

  • Shopping Ads: These ads pop up in Instagram’s shopping tab, where users can navigate specifically to view product advertisements and purchase items directly from the app.

What Kind of Ad Should You Create?

The type of ad you should create depends on your goals. Here are some helpful questions to consider:

  • Where does my target audience hang out on the app?
  • What is my goal for my ad campaign?
  • What kind of products or services do I offer?

For example, let’s say you run an ecommerce website. If your goal is to drive more sales, collection ads are a great way to showcase a line of products. Scrollers can easily swipe through the images and then buy your product directly through Instagram.

How to Advertise on Instagram?

Now for the fun part — designing your Instagram ad campaign. Before you get started, create a Facebook Ads Manager account if you don’t have one already. Facebook is linked with Instagram, so users must create both their Facebook and Instagram ads in the Ads Manager.

From there, follow these steps:

  1. Create a New Campaign
    Select the green “+Create” button on the left side of your Ads Manager.

  2. Choose an Objective
    Select a campaign objective. The Ads Manager categorizes your objective options into Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion sections.

    • Awareness

      • Brand awareness: Get your brand, business, or products in front of new eyes.
      • Reach: Impact as many people who fit your target audience as possible.

    • Consideration

      • Traffic: Drive traffic to your website, social media, or another URL.
      • Lead generation: Inspire leads to sign up for your email list or share their contact information.
      • Engagement: Get people to comment, like, or share your posts or ad.
      • Video views: Inspire viewers to watch your IGTV, YouTube, or other videos.
      • App installs: Get your viewers to download an app you created.
      • Messages: Prompt users to contact you.

    • Conversion

      • Conversions: Convert ad views into email sign-ups, sales, or website clicks.
      • Catalog sales: Boost sales from your online catalog.
      • Store traffic: Invite users to visit your brick-and-mortar shop.

  3. Set a Budget
    Establish a budget for your campaign. It’s recommended to toggle on the Campaign Budget Optimization option. With this feature turned on, Facebook will automatically distribute your budget across multiple ads within the same campaign based on performance.

    Now select either:

    • Daily Budget: The maximum amount you will spend on your ad per day.
    • Lifetime Budget: The total amount you will spend on your entire ad campaign.

  4. Schedule Your Campaign
    Select a start and end date for your campaign. You can also leave the end date blank if you want it to run indefinitely.

  5. Pick an Audience
    Choose or create an audience for your ad. Facebook’s Audience Definition feature will indicate potential audience reach and whether this target is too broad based on the criteria you enter. To design an audience:

    • Select the left tab labeled “Create a New Audience.”
    • Choose your advertising location.
    • Select an age group and gender.
    • Include any demographics, interests, or behaviors that might interest your target audience.

  6. Select Your Ad Placement
    Pick where your post will appear within Instagram or Facebook. You can choose automatic or manual placements:

    • Automatic Placements: Facebook predicts where your ads might perform well.
    • Manual Placements: You choose where your ads appear.

    To advertise on Instagram, select Manual Placements and check the Instagram box. Then pick the specific feeds where you want your ad to appear. Facebook will specify the formatting and dimensions required for your ad.

  7. Create and Launch the Ad
    It’s finally time to create and launch your Instagram ad by following these steps:

    • Under the Identity section, select the Instagram account from which your ad will launch.
    • Pick your ad’s format in the Ad Setup section.
    • Under Ad Creative, upload your ad’s image or video from your computer.
    • Fill out the ad’s headline and primary copy text, then add any external URLs.
    • Hit “Confirm” to publish your new ad.

Now you have an optimized Instagram ad ready to reach new audiences! As long as you have set up your Facebook Pixel correctly, you can refine future ad campaigns based on performance data.