Since 50% of users discover new products on Instagram, and more than 150 million users visit a business profile at least once a day, so you need to be focusing on this platform.In this blog, we’re going to include tutorials on how to create sponsored ads on Instagram and how should you integrate them.
How to create Sponsored ads?
You need first to connect your Facebook Business manager with Instagram account, as Facebook acquired Instagram a while back. Then head to Facebook’s Create an Ad page & select the objective of the sponsored post from the list, such as brand awareness, reach, traffic, app installs video view, engagement, conversions(for conversions on your website or app). Once you’ve done that, you need to name the campaign.
Define your audience and Budget of your Instagram ad campaign.
Open the Audience tab & select the pool of people who will see your sponsored ads. There are many characteristics by which you can limit your audience, such as by their behavior, age, gender, location, etc.
After selecting your audience, open the Budget & Schedule section. The budget section offers you two options: “Daily” & “Lifetime”, so make sure you choose the right choice as per your needs. You can also manually select the bid amount.
You can also run an ad schedule to target a specific time of a day or a week when you know your audience is most active on the platform. But this feature is only available if you are opt-in for using a lifetime budget.
Instagram provides you with six ad formats to choose from. Four of those are for Instagram feed, which is more commonly used by advertisers. The other two designs are for Instagram stories.
1) Image Feed Ads
This format is the one you see most often scrolling through your feed. The most important thing about these ads is that they don’t feel like ads, especially when done rightly.
Things you need to pay attention to :
Technical Requirements before you post :
-File type: jpg or png
-Maximum file size: 30MB
-Minimum Image Width: 600 pixels
-Image Ratio: 4:5 minimum, 16:9 maximum
-Text length: 2,200 maximum (*although Instagram recommends staying below 90 for optimal delivery)
-Hashtag Number: 30 maximum (*you can add additional in the comments)
2) Image Story Ads
This ad format is likely the one you see between switching from one story to the other.
Technical Requirements
-Image Ratio: 9:16 recommended
-Minimum Image Width: 600 pixels
3) Video feed Ads
A format supported by Instagram to bring your ad to life! If you’ve put the efforts in to make a quality video, then you should obviously promote it through your feed.
Technical Requirements
-Video Resolution: 1080 x 1080 pixels (at least)
-Maximum file size: 4GB
-Video Ratio: 4:5 minimum,16:9 maximum
-Video Duration: 60 seconds maximum
-Video Captions: optional
-Image Ratio: 4:5 minimum, 16:9 maximum
-Text length: 125 characters maximum recommended
-Hashtag Number: 30 maximum (*you can add additional in the comments)
4) Video Story Ads
This is another way to run video ads because stories are the place users often expect to see videos. The supported video specs for uploading are the same mentioned above. But there are some additional details to be noted!
Technical Requirements
Video Resolution: 1080 x 1920 pixels (at least)
Maximum file size: 4GB
Video Ratio: 9:16 maximum
Video Duration: 15 seconds maximum
Video Captions: not available
5) Carousel Feed Ads
Instagram came up with a whole new different way to add a series of scrollable images rather than just one single image.
This feature allows you to promote a series of 10 images within a single ad; each picture/video can have it’s own link & description.
Technical Requirements
-File type: jpg or png
-Maximum file size: 30MB
-Minimum Image Width: 600 pixels
-Image Ratio: 4:5 minimum, 16:9 maximum
-Text length: 2,200 maximum (*although Instagram recommends staying below 90 for optimal delivery)
-Video Duration: 60 seconds maximum
-Hashtag Number: 30 maximum (*you can add additional in the comments)
6) Canvas Story Ads
And last but not least, Instagram has the newest addition to the ad format family, Canvas ads. This is a great way to enhance your brand-building efforts. They allow your audience to open a full-screen, mobile-optimized experience straight from your ad.
Canvas Story Ads supports with image, video & carousel.
Technical Requirements
-Minimum Image Width: 400 pixels
-Minimum Image Height: 150 pixels
If you use the right use cases at the right time, Instagram sponsored posts can be a huge asset for your brand.
What do you think? When do you use sponsored posts? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below!