Instagram is one of the most popular social networks of the decade.

According to Shopify, ‘The business case for Instagram e-commerce is strong. Not only does Instagram’s engagement demolish Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and LinkedIn, but, for brands, it even outperforms Facebook by a factor of ten.

It kind of makes you wonder why more brands aren’t on Instagram, right?’

If you missed our article on Instagram For Business You can find it HERE.

Because Instagram is now under the Facebook Banner there are currently three ways to run Ads on Instagram.

You can run, Instagram ads straight from Facebooks Ad Manager, you can also run Ads straight from your Facebook Business Page that you have connected to your account or you can promote a post that you have created right from the Instagram application itself.

You can run five different types of Instagram ads:

1. Photo Ads

These are simple Ads in the form of a picture either in landscape or portrait format. This is the cheapest ad type to create as all you need is a simple and clean picture to use.

2. Video Ads

This ad type is a video that is under one minute and is also shot in landscape or portrait format

3. Carousel Ads

A carousel Ad can have anywhere between 1-10 pictures and/or videos that a user can swipe through on their timeline.

4. Slideshow Ads

This ad type is similar to a video ad in that the ad is shown to the user in the form of a video but a slideshow is made up of a collection of images and you can add text or audio to your slide show.

5. Stories Ads

Stories are a big part of the Instagram Platform and businesses can create their own story ads in the form of either image or video and the sponsored Story will be shown in the user’s story feed.

Instagram Ads come with a variety of Call to Action (CTA) buttons including Apply Now, Book Now, Contact Us, Learn More, Sign Up, Get Directions, Call Now (video only), Download.

And more recently Shopify has partnered with Instagram to include a Purchase, CTA that allows users to purchase and shop straight from the Instagram app.

Just like with Facebook Ads, Instagram offers you Campaign objectives which influence who your Ads are shown to (Your Audience) and what action you are trying to get your audience to act on (Your Goal).

This is important to note because it also influences how you pay for your Ads.

These campaign objectives include:
* Brand awareness
* Reach
* Traffic
* App installs
* Engagement
* Video views
* Lead generation
* Conversions

Instagram also uses the same targeting as Facebook but you can also use your own Custom Audiences.

Custom Audiences are groups of people who have already connected with your brand in some way. This could be by visiting your website, engaging with your posts on Facebook, using your app, or sharing their contact info with you.

The last and most important step is to pay attention to your Instagram insights and analyze them for Ad Performance.

This is an important tool to gauge how well your Ads are performing and how well users are engaging with your Ads and what your average ROI (Return on Investment) is.

Within Ads Manager, you can edit your Instagram ad to incorporate split testing, change the targeting parameters, and view analytics for the performance of your ads.

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