A Beginner’s Guide To Instagram Ads: Creating & Running Your Ad
If you’re a beginner to the world of Instagram ads, this is a great way to promote your content, reach a target audience, and increase your brand awareness and visibility! We’ve previously covered the Instagram ad basics, which include potential costs, the kind of ads available, and which one is best for your business.
Your next course of action is to start creating and running your own ads- something we’ve broken down into five easy steps for you! There are two ways to create your next Instagram ad; post promotion and using Ads Manager. Read on to learn more about both methods.
In-app post promotion
If you’re interested in promoting an existing post from your Instagram feed, this can easily be done in-app! In order to use this feature, you’ll need to have a business or creator account on Instagram and a Facebook business account connected to your Instagram.
Once you’ve connected your Facebook and swapped to a business or creator account on Instagram, click ‘Promote’ on any post you’d like to make an ad. From here you’ll be able to tailor your audience, set a budget and length for your ad. Once you hit ‘Create Promotion’ your ad will be approved and reviewed by Facebook, and you’re all set!
Tip: well-performing posts are a great option to promote in-app. Find your most popular posts and use the app to boost their visibility and reach an even greater audience!
Using Facebook ads manager to create Instagram ads
Step 1: Find your objective
To start creating your ad using Facebook, visit the Ads Manager page and click the ‘Create’ button. Your first step is to select an objective for running your ad; this should be the purpose or goal you have for running your ad. You’ll then choose an objective from a list of options. Once this is done you’ll be able to create your campaign name!
Tip: choose a campaign name that aligns with your objective. If you’re running multiple ads, you’ll easily be able to differentiate between them and easily track their individual success!
Step 2: Choose your schedule & budget
You’re now ready to start budgeting and scheduling your campaign! Begin by turning on Facebook’s campaign budget optimization and choose between two budget options. The first is a daily budget; this is where you can set a maximum daily spend. The second option is a lifetime budget; this allows you to set a maximum spend for your entire campaign. Once you’ve selected a budget, you’re ready to start scheduling your ad! Click on the ‘Ad Scheduling’ section and choose between continuously running your ad or only at specific points in the day.
Tip: curious about which budget option to choose? A lifetime budget is a better option for ad campaigns with a clear end date, while a daily budget is most useful for ads you want running at your discretion!
Step 3: Choose your audience
Your next step is to choose your desired audience! You can choose from the ‘saved audiences’ option or the ‘create a new audience’ option. Here you’ll be able to map out the demographics and details of the audience you want to reach with your ad. Saved audiences help you if you’d like to store and re-use the demographic data from a previous campaign that performed well. If not, you’re free to click the ‘create a new audience’ option and start fresh!
Tip: Are you a mortgage or real estate agent? Select your target audience to match the demographics of your client base! This will help you generate new leads for your business, grow your social following, and build awareness around your services.
Step 4: Choose your ad placement
You’ll now want to head over to the ‘placements’ section of your ads manager account to choose where you’d like your ads to appear online. Your two options are automatic placements and manual placements. Automatic placements mean ads will appear where they’re most likely to perform well (i.e: feed, stories, reels). Manual placements allow you to manually decide where you’d like your ads to appear on the Instagram app.
Tip: make sure you’re sizing your ads to match the location you want your ads to appear in! For example, a video ad in reels will crop differently than an ad displayed in your scrolling feed. The ads manager will tell you the technical dimensions for each location when you preview each placement.
Step 5: Create your ad
It’s go-time! The final step is to create your actual ad and choose your format style. You’ll then fill in additional details under the ‘ad creative’ section. This will include pictures and videos, inserting your ad copy, choosing a payment option, reviewing your ad, and confirming it for post-approval! During this step, you can also create your own call-to-action button and link where you want your ad to send those that click on it. When you’re happy with the details selected, press ‘confirm’ to launch your ad for approval!
Tip: the link you choose to send ad viewers to should be directly related to your call-to-action button. For example, if your call to action says ‘Get pre-approved today’, make sure you’re linking a page on your website where clients can submit their documents for approval. This makes your ad easier to use and most effective when generating new leads!
Next steps
Are you a busy agent interested in running your own Instagram ads but can’t find the time or resources to create high-quality promotional content tailored to your industry and audience? OpenHouse Marketing should be your next point of reference for marketing success!
We offer a monthly subscription with done-for-you social media posts and additional marketing resources to take your business to the next level. Are you interested in signing up? Click here to learn more!
