Instagram Advertising Strategies That Work

In today’s saturated digital environment, there’s no shortage of potential advertising platforms for your business. However, the fact that there are nearly countless digital platforms doesn’t mean you can take an advertisement that works on one network and place it on another. All digital networks demand their own strategies, and advertising on Instagram is very different from advertising on other social networks.

If you want to succeed on Instagram, you need an Instagram advertising strategy that fits your needs and helps you persuade your target audience. Instagram marketing requires understanding your brand, the platform’s strengths, and how to develop a customized strategy that works for you and resonates with your audience.

The Demographics of Instagram

A successful Instagram ads strategy requires understanding who your customers are and how they use Instagram. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also owns Instagram. As such, there is heavy integration between these two platforms. However, both have vastly different use patterns and users.

First, consider the ages of users on Instagram. Users here are relatively young, with 77% being 13-44. However, Generation Xers are the fastest-growing age group on the app, so you should be cautious of completely discounting Instagram’s appeal to them.

Instagram tends to be evenly distributed between genders, with slightly more male users (50.7%) than female ones (49.3%). Male users tend to be younger, and female users tend to be older.

Finally, if you decide to use Instagram for marketing purposes, consider the raw statistics: Instagram has over 2 billion monthly active users, is the 8th most visited website in the world, and is the 4th most-used social media platform. In other words: The platform has power and continues adding users.

The Different Types of Instagram Ads

When creating your Instagram advertising strategy, remember that all advertisements on the platform aren’t created equal. There are numerous types of Instagram ads, including:

1. Image ads: Ads that appear on someone’s timeline as a sponsored post.
2. Video ads: The same as image ads, but with video.
3. Story ads: Ads that appear on the story page and are inserted seamlessly between the stories a user views.
4. Carousel ads: Users can scroll through picture ads, allowing for multiple images.
5. Collection ads: Like carousel ads, but used to display multiple products that are usually straight from a website.
6. Explore ads: Ads in the “explore” section of a user’s feed, enabling them to organically stumble across your product or services.
7. Reels ads: Ads that appear within the reels platform of Instagram, giving you another video opportunity.
8. Shopping ads: Ads that populate directly within the Shopping feature of Instagram.

Tailoring your advertising strategy to align with your target audience’s preferences and the type of content that resonates with them is essential to achieving your advertising goals on Instagram. You can effectively leverage the appropriate ad type to amplify your message by customizing your approach based on these factors. A video may be great to show the functionality of your product, while a carousel would be great to show the variety of products you offer. Another thing to consider is where your ad will show up. Video and reel ads appear in different areas, so you must differentiate between the content in these ads.

Instagram Ads Best Practices

While Instagram marketing strategies vary from business to business, some Instagram ad best practices apply to all companies, regardless of whether you’re in a business-to-consumer (B2C) or a business-to-business (B2B) organization.

Use what has already worked for you. If you’ve had a post that has worked well, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel: Consider turning a high-performing post into a stand-alone advertisement. Track its performance and reevaluate from there.

Remember, Instagram charges per click, not by the number of ads you create. As such, you can engage in extensive A/B testing to determine what is working and what is not and test the performance of videos and static images. Make sure to track the success of your advertisements by the data tools that Instagram provides and use what you have learned in future campaigns.

Don’t make audiences wait: consumers want information quickly. Show off your product, service, or brand within the first three seconds. Otherwise, you risk losing your audience.

Enable closed captions: Your users may be hard of hearing or simply prefer to read text.

Finally, ensure you are consistent in your style and build a recognizable brand across all of your advertisements.

Final Thoughts

Before advertising on Instagram, you should ensure your target demographic uses the platform. You should also determine what type of advertisement fits best with your product. From there, you’ll need to use Instagram’s best practices to make the most of your advertising dollars.

Getting advertising on Instagram right means many things. Your business may see more benefits from partnering with Madison Taylor Marketing to help you create an Instagram ads strategy that works for your business. At Madison Taylor Marketing, we work with companies nationwide to develop sharp and customized Instagram ads.