How to Advertise Your Small Business on Instagram

Author: Fit Small Business / Source: Entrepreneur

Instagram advertising is a great way to get your business in front of new prospects.

This story originally appeared on Fit Small Business

Instagram is a rapidly growing social media platform, with the number of U.S. businesses using it for marketing expected to grow to over 70 percent in 2017 (according to eMarketer). It’s also already the second most popular social network — after Facebook — with 600 million monthly users.

This means that it’s time for small businesses to consider Instagram advertising as a way to promote their business. With Instagram’s advanced targeting options, you can inexpensively reach users based on location, age, education level, marital status and more.

Want great results from Instagram, but don’t have the time to manage a campaign yourself? Reach out to the experts at Hibu and they will create a social media campaign specialized for your small business.

Instagram advertising: how it works

When an Instagram user scrolls through the pictures from their friends, they will see sponsored posts interspersed between the photos. Sponsored posts look almost identical to regular posts, with the only tell being the word “Sponsored” on the top left.

A call to action banner will display at the bottom of the image, and you can choose between “Learn More,” “Shop Now,” “Sign Up” and more. When a user clicks on the banner, they are sent to the webpage you designated for the ad.

Advantages of advertising on Instagram

Instagram is not just a fad for teenagers. With 600 million users and growing every day, it is likely that a meaningful percentage of your target market is using the app. Here are some enticing advantages that come with Instagram advertising:

• Targeting capabilities: With Instagram, you can target your ads so they only show to users who mirror your current audience. So if your typical customer is a married woman who just had a kid, or a male college student located in Omaha, you can use Instagram’s audience filters to show your ads specifically to people who fit this criteria.
• High engagement: Since Instagram is strictly a photo sharing app, there is not as much clutter on the newsfeed as there is with Facebook. This leads to much higher engagement with each post. Consumers are 58x more likely to engage with branded content on Instagram compared to Facebook and 120x more likely compared to Twitter.
• Tracking: You can see how many people see, click and convert after seeing your ad all in one dashboard. This gives you measurable data that helps you understand if your ad campaign is working or not.

Types of Instagram advertising

With Instagram advertising, you can choose between four different types of ad formats: carousel, photo, video and slideshow.

You will want to choose your ad type carefully. Each one requires a unique approach — from the photos you choose to your call to action (CTA). Learning the ins and outs will help you get a better return on investment (ROI). Below we will go through examples of each type of ad and point out what the ads did well, and what they could improve on.

Example #1: photo ad

Photo ads include a single image, plus a call to action banner and a description. The ad below is from a fitness class located in New York.

When you click on the “Learn More” banner, you are taken to the landing page below:

What this ad does well:

This ad looks similar to other images that people typically post. This keeps the user interested in the message, instead of instantly dismissing it as an ad.

It also is a well timed and targeted ad. The beginning of the year is typically when people are trying to get back into their workout grind. Plus, as a woman in her 20s, it is easy for me to relate to this ad.

Finally, by sending the user to a landing page with the same image as the post, the brand is creating harmony between the Instagram ad and the web page. This promotes consistency and ensures the user that they were brought to the right place.

What this ad could do better:

This ad would work better if the call to action was to sign up for a free class, and linked to a lead capture page. By offering a value to the user, it increases the chance that the user will click on the ad and take the desired action.

You can easily create specific landing pages for your Instagram ads with an online tool such as Unbounce or LeadPages.

2. Slideshow ads

With slideshow ads, you can upload up to 10 images, choose the image duration, and music to play during the slideshow. The slideshow will play on loop, and can be up to 50 seconds.

Below is an example of a slideshow with four rotating images from a restaurant located in NYC. It goes from a “Breaking News” screen, to a shot of the restaurant, to the offer of free wine and then a shot of how to claim the offer.

When you click on the “Book Now” call to action, you are sent directly to a page where you can book your reservation.

What this ad does well:

This restaurant does a few things well.

• Great offer: Free wine is something that this restaurant’s target customer probably loves. This is a good incentive to get people scrolling through their Instagram news feed to stop and click on the ad.
• Landing page: By linking directly to a landing page where users can book their table, the restaurant is making it extremely easy for the user to complete the desired action. This increases the chance of conversion once someone clicks the link.
• Tag a friend: Including the mention to “tag a friend” in the description gives the Instagram user the idea to tag a friend who they want to share the free bottle of wine with.

What this ad could do better:

Instagram was built to share awesome photographs, and the images used in this ad look sloppily put together. Having a great call to action is not enough, you need to hook the audience’s attention in order for them to pause long enough to see your offer.

There’s also a typo in the third image. Make sure you proofread your advertising material, especially if it’s going to be seen by 80,000+ people.

3. Carousel ads

Carousel ads are similar to slideshow ads, except for instead of the images playing on a loop, you swipe through the images.

This works well for clothing stores, since the user can look at the images that interest them for as long as they like. The downside is that many people aren’t used to swiping through images on Instagram, since only advertisers can create this type of post. So some people might not know that there is more to your ad.

Below is an example of a carousel ad from a boutique travel bag company.

When you click on the “Learn More” button, you are taken to a page where you can purchase the purse.

What this ad does well:

The boutique uses great, professionally shot photographs. It also has a cohesive concept and look. The bag can be worn in four different ways, and the ad captures the model wearing the purse in all four ways. Plus, you can tell that all of the images are part of the same brand aesthetic.

What this ad could do better:

The ad could have a more direct call to action. Right now the button says “Learn More,” but…

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