Should you be using Instagram advertising for your small business? It's a question a lot of people have so I was thrilled to have Jordon Meyer join me on the show this week to talk about Instagram advertising, why it's a good idea, and how to get started.
Jordon is the Founder and President of Granular, a leading PPC agency based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jordon and the team at Granular have managed over $50 million in pay per click ad spend, ranging from startups to leading companies like Best Buy, Master Lock and Summerfest. He is frequently asked to write and speak on the topic of search marketing. His most memorable moment in PPC is spending over $300,000 in a single day, during Cyber Monday at Best Buy. He also initiated the implementation of Shopping Ads at Best Buy; before he joined the team they were not using PLAs.
Instagram advertising is your opportunity to get in front of specific audiences. Instagram uses the same audience data as Facebook, which lets you get REALLY specific.
Where do you start with Instagram Advertising?
You need to go to the Facebook advertising platform to advertise on Instagram.
You create an ad as you would for a regular Facebook campaign and then select Instagram from the choice of options for where it should be displayed (newsfeed, sidebar, mobile, Instagram, etc.).
When you create the ad however, make sure to create it with Instagram in mind and run it only to Instagram. This will give you better data and probably better results compared to just pushing an ad to Instagram that was planned for Facebook.
Setting up targeting strategies is really important: Who do you want to have see the ad? Geographic area? Age? Gender?
Make sure you have the Facebook ad pixel installed on your website. This will allow you to target ads to people who have already been on your website (called warm leads).
Are Instagram Ads Effective?
Instagram ads are the only clickable things in your Instagram newsfeed which gives them a huge advantage (though they now require two clicks instead of just one, to confirm you are looking to leave the Instagram app and that you didn't click accidentally).
Questions to ask yourself when advertising on Instagram:
1) What's your goal?
- Are you hoping to have people click through to your site?
- Watch a video?
- Download an app?
Think about what you're looking to have happen before you start advertising.
2) What is your budget?
You can start fairly low: $50 - $100
3) How long do you want to advertise?
Pick a start date and end date - two weeks is a good test length. By having a start and end date you have clear data afterwards to measure how your ad did.
4) What's your end goal?
Write down what you want to have happen in the end: More page likes? More downloads? More sales?
5) Who are you targeting?
Sometimes people think if you're using Instagram you have to target who they think are on Instagram. With the power of the targeting with Facebook and Instagram ads you can target so specifically that even though your audience may not make up a huge percentage of the people on Instagram, you can find them and advertise specifically to them.