All about Instagram Promotion
Since 2016, Instagram has launched their business profiles. These have dedicated features like contact buttons and call-to-actions buttons just for company profiles. But more importantly, they allow you to advertise. Instagram Promotions are newer than ads, and way less of a commitment than an entire campaign. But are they worth it? Well let’s see what they are and learn from those who have actually launched one.
What are Instagram Promotions?
If you’re familiar with Instagram ads, you’ve probably at least heard of Instagram Promotions. What’s the difference?
INSTAGRAM PROMOTION DEFINITION WHAT IS INSTAGRAM PROMOTION?
Instagram Promotions are regular, non-advertisement posts that a user would want to convert to a sponsored post, with elevated reach.
The ‘Sponsored’ tag may appear in the same place, but Instagram treats these posts differently with their algorithm. Every user will have a different motivation and so the algorithm will do its best to correspond to those nuances.
Both ads and promotions are there to increase engagement and visibility. But an ad is best for conversion as it offers way more preferences for targeting.
A promotion takes a high performing post and turns it up a notch. It takes it to the next level regarding engagement — ramping up likes, views, shares, and more.
Instagram ads are great tools to convert potential customers to repeat ones. Sometimes, your goals may not demand a full blown ad campaign.
Instagram Promotion, a guide.
If you’re more in need of brand awareness, launching an entire campaign may turn out to be a waste of time and money. This is where Instagram Promotion comes in.
Use them to turn a previous post into a sponsored one to extend your reach. If your objective is high visibility, promotions are your answer.
Keep in mind, the algorithms of most social media platforms work on a virality factor. So the faster your posts get off the ground, the higher the ranking the algorithm puts you in the feed.
And it makes sense. About 95 million photos and videos are posted on Instagram per day. The competition for visibility is insane.
Why is Instagram Good for Promotion?
If you want to zero in on uplifting brand awareness, Instagram promotion is a must-have for your business. This social network accumulates over 1 billion active users every month, and 90% of them follow at least one business account.
Another reason to make use of Instagram promotion is the opportunity to build close relationships with your customers. Instagram users actively engage with brands online – the average engagement rate on this social network is 1.6% per post. For comparison, on Facebook and Twitter, these rates are 0.09% and 0.048%.
Better yet, Instagram promotion can stimulate sales growth. 77% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand if they follow it on social media — 65% buy from a brand after seeing it on Instagram.
According to this data, paid promotion on Instagram is worth investing in, especially if your goal is to increase brand awareness and your engagement rate. Your brand’s sales and ROI may benefit from your Instagram presence, as well.
Why Should You Use Instagram for Your Business?
Well, the answer is quite easy to grasp. In addition to the billions of users on Instagram which means that you can get a huge lot of customers, promoting your business on Instagram does not need a lot of budget in comparison to other marketing methods.
You do not have to pay in order to sell your products and services on Instagram unless you choose to advertise on Instagram. Paid advertisement on Instagram can be either done through Instagram paid ads or influencers. The advantage of paid advertisement on Instagram is that you choose the budget you want to spend. Therefore, Instagram is not only cost-efficient but also profitable for your business.
Instagram Promotion, a guide.
Moreover, more than 25 million global companies use Instagram for business and more than 200 million users visit at least one business profile every day. Therefore, the chances are that you get your business high up on Instagram if you have a large follower base using Instagram growth services and learn how to promote it regarding Instagram guidelines and rules.
Instagram Promotions vs Instagram Ads
While both features are used to increase brand visibility and engagement, here are the key differences between Instagram Promotions and Instagram Ads.
#1 – Post creative
Instagram Promotions can only be used to boost the visibility of an existing post or story on your feed via the Instagram app. This is similar to the “Boost Post” feature on Facebook.
Instagram Ads must be created and posted from Facebook Ad Manager.
#2 – Audience targeting
Instagram Promotions allows you to select your target audience based on age, location and broad interests.
Instagram Ads offer more detailed options to refine your target audience, with multiple sub-categories under behaviours, interests and other demographics.
How Much Does Instagram Promotion Cost?
To start discussing your Instagram promotion budget, let’s take a once-over of the network’s terms and conditions. According to the rules, you need to choose the total sum you want to spend on post promotion. Then you set a promotion duration, and the social network automatically decides how much money it can write off every day. You can never go out of the limits of your total budget.
The process is clear-cut, but you may still struggle to figure out the budget you need for leveraging your Instagram promotion goals. To clarify this issue, consider addressing the cost-per-click (CPC) indicator.
According to AdEspresso, the average CPC for Instagram ads hovers between $0.50 and $1.00. For highly competitive industries, such as apparel, the cost can reach up to $3.00 per click.
To broaden the perspective, take a look at the landscape photographer’s experience. The person spent $50 on promoting an Instagram post and reached over 32,500 people, and got 43 profile visits. Thus, the cost per click was a little over $1, which more or less matches the indicator provided by AdEspresso.
Instagram Promotion, a guide.
Instagram promotion is a great way to make your brand more visible online and get new leads. To make full use of it, take care of your lead-nurturing process, and employ various marketing channels. Email marketing, chatbots, push notifications, and SMS can come in handy to convert your prospects into paying customers. Register with SendPulse to implement these channels into your marketing strategy at an easy rate.
Monetising Instagram
Back in 2009, monetizing Instagram wasn’t a clear path for the photo app. In fact, while the idea was definitely on the table, the brand had to evolve into something with a stronger value proposition and product.
Today, Instagram’s caught up to the rest. 80 per cent of accounts follow a business on Instagram. This means more people are interacting with brand pages and this level of engagement is just what Instagram needed to be able to broaden it’s advertising offerings.
The photo-sharing app offers four advertising options in addition to promotion options. These include:
Photos:
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How do Instagram Promotions work?
In this section, we’ll cover exactly how to promote an Instagram post and an Instagram story. Before we begin, keep in mind the Instagram promotions feature is only available to business accounts. So, if you don’t already have a business account, create one before proceeding.
You can also convert your existing Instagram account into a business account with the following steps:
Step 1: Log onto the Instagram app and go to your profile by tapping on the profile icon on the bottom right.
Step 2: Click on the three bars on the top right. Next, click on “Settings”.
Step 3: Click on “Account” and scroll to the bottom of the page. Then click “Switch to professional account” and follow the prompts to finish setting up your business account.\
Instagram Promotion, a guide.
A. How to promote an Instagram post
You can select any post from your feed to promote, but the best strategy is to choose from among your top performing posts. Then, follow the steps below:
Step 1
Log onto the Instagram app and go to your Instagram profile by tapping on the profile icon on the bottom right. Then tap on “Promotions”.
Step 2
The app will automatically suggest one of your top performing posts to promote. You can go with this suggestion, or tap “Choose a post” to select a post of your choice from your feed. Once
you’ve chosen the post you wish to promote, click the ➔ icon (Android) or “Next” (iOS) at the top right corner to proceed.
Step 3
Select your goal from the options listed.
If you want people to see more of your content and follow you, select “More Profile Visits”.
If you wish to direct people to your website, select “More Website Visits”. You will then be given the option to add your website URL and an appropriate call to action to your post.
If your business provides a service and you wish to generate more enquiries from potential customers through direct messages, select “More Messages”.
Then, click the ➔ icon (Android) or “Next” (iOS) at the top right corner to proceed to the next step.
Step 4
Next, select your target audience for your promoted post. If you choose “Automatic”, your post will be targeted at people who match the profiles of your current followers.
Alternatively, you can customise your target audience based on location, age, gender and interests by selecting the “Create Your Own” option. When you’re done, click the ➔ icon (Android) or “Next” (iOS) at the top right corner to proceed.
Step 5
Toggle the sliders to choose the amount of money you wish to spend to promote your post (Budget) and the length of time the promotion will run (Duration). Click the ➔ icon (Android) or “Next” (iOS) at the top right corner to proceed.
Step 6
In this final step, you will be able to review your post. If your business account has not been linked to a Facebook business page, you will have to add a payment method in the “Payment” section before you’re able to proceed. Next, select “Create Promotion” and you’re done!
Once you’ve created a promotion, your post will be labelled as “Under review”. You will receive a notification in your Activity Feed once your promotion has been approved by Instagram. Once the promotion begins running, you can use the Promotions button on your post to view insights into how it is performing.
B. How to promote an Instagram Story
You can promote active stories and stories that have been featured in your highlights or archived. However, keep in mind that you can use only certain tappable elements such as hashtags, mentions, polls and location tags. Stories with GIFs, emojis, music and other such elements are not eligible for Instagram promotions.
Follow the steps below: Step 1
Log onto the Instagram app. Tap on your profile picture to access your story. Then tap on the three dots on the bottom right and select “Promote”.
Instagram Promotion, a guide.
If you wish to promote an older or archived Instagram story, go to your profile and tap on the three bars on the top right. Select “Archive” from the drop down menu to access your archived stories.
Step 2
Select your goal from the options listed. You can choose whether you’d like to generate more profile visits, direct people to your website or encourage more enquiries from potential customers through direct messages. Click the ➔ icon (Android) or “Next” (iOS) at the top right corner to proceed to the next step.
Step 3
Next, select your target audience for your promoted story. If you choose “Automatic”, your post will be targeted at people who match the profiles of your current followers. You can also customise your target audience based on location, age, gender and interests by selecting “Create Your Own”. When you’re done, click the ➔ icon (Android) or “Next” (iOS) in the top right corner to proceed.
Step 4
Toggle the sliders to select the amount of money you wish to spend to promote your Instagram story(Budget) and the length of time the promotion will run (Duration). Next, click the ➔ icon (Android) or “Next” (iOS) in the top right corner.
Step 5
In this final step, you will be able to review your Instagram Story promotion. If your business account has not been linked to a Facebook business page, you will have to add a payment method in the “Payment” section before you’re able to proceed. Next, select “Create Promotion” to complete the process.
Instagram Promotion, a guide.
Your Instagram Story promotion will run once it has been reviewed and approved by Instagram. The active story on your profile will disappear after 24 hours. However, it will still run as a promoted story for the duration that you have set.
Promotions button on your profile
This way of promoting your content on Instagram has a huge benefit compared with previous ones. It allows you to streamline the process by offering top-performing posts for promotion. This option is a way out when you are puzzled over which piece of content to promote.
We’ve unveiled the mechanics and facilities of Instagram promotion. Now it’s time to learn how to implement it into your marketing strategy. Read on to learn more about the best practices, tips, and ideas to adopt.
Instagram promotion is a simple yet powerful tool that can take your social media marketing to the next level. However, allocating your budget is not enough to reach your goals with sponsored content. To make it do the trick, you need to use smart tactics. We’ve picked several tips and ideas that you can stick to and achieve your business objectives.
1. Combine paid promotion with unpaid tricks
To achieve sustainable results, promoting specific posts is not enough. Take a complex approach and employ paid and organic tactics. Start by creating an Instagram promotion plan – follow our guide on crafting an Instagram marketing strategy.
Instagram Promotion, a guide.
Couple paid promotional activities with influencer marketing. This move will bump up your outreach, engagement, and ROI – on average, brands earn $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.
Another point to consider is adding locations to your promoted posts and tag other accounts. According to Adweek, simply tagging users in your posts can boost engagement by 56%. Adding locations can drive a 79% increase for this indicator.
2. Promote your top-performing content
The number one best practice to adopt is making use of your best-performing content. You may want to bring out a completely new promotional campaign and create fresh content for it. However, reusing your current pieces of content may save you tons of time and effort.
To optimize Instagram promotion, brush through the organic posts on your page, and find the most engaging ones. Paid advertising can inject new life into these publications and provide a great response from a wider audience.
3. Employ Stories and Highlights
Instagram’s promotion feature allows adding calls to action to regular posts. This peculiarity can make Stories and Highlights the first thing to go out of the window as they vanish 24 hours after publication. However, it’s better to employ the power of this format.
Stories are a rapidly growing type of content – they are growing 15x faster than feed-based sharing. Better yet, they work well for promoting businesses as 62% of people said they’ve become more interested in brands or products after seeing it in Stories.
4. Choose content carefully
Instagram Promotion, a guide.
Instagram users are fastidious when it comes to the content they consume. There are thousands of tips and tricks for promoting content on Instagram. Here are the main tactics you can stick to:
- Make your promoted content look organic. Ad-like creatives with huge logos or calls to action repel Instagram users. 78% of followers unfollow brands if they post too much promotional content. Posts you promote should blend perfectly with other content in a viewers’ newsfeed. To express your brand personality, use recognizable traits, such as your signature color.
- Post faces to drive engagement. According to Georgia Tech, Instagram posts with faces get 38% more likes and 32% more comments. So, change the game and use photos with a model or brand representative.
- Make the most of UGC. User-generated content can work wonders for your Instagram marketing. It drives a 4.5% higher conversion rate, boosts engagement, and improves cost-per-click metrics. Play around with using UGC for your promotional posts. Remember to tag the authors – Instagram requires you to respect intellectual property rights.
5. Use Instagram Insights to know which posts to promote
When selecting an Instagram post from your feed to promote, choose one that is already doing well with your audience. Such posts have a greater chance of benefiting from a wider reach and grabbing the attention of more users. The Instagram Insights feature, which is accessible from your business profile, can help you identify past posts that have got the most engagement, and give you an understanding of what kind of content works for your audience demographics. Sponsored posts similar to content that has performed well in the past are more likely to do well
6. Share relatable content
On social media, you’re competing against a barrage of content for a user’s attention. You have only a few seconds to grab a customer’s attention—if they cannot relate to your content, they will just scroll past your post without a second thought. This is why it’s vital for your Instagram feed to be relevant to both your brand and your target customers. Etsy is a great example of how to tailor your content to your buyer’s persona. The brand appeals to crafters, those interested in home decor, and DIY-ers by showcasing a mix of art, craft and home improvement tutorials, eye-catching items purchasable from its website, and interviews with Etsy sellers that create a personal connection with the audience.
7. Include a CTA
When promoting a post, include a CTA directing users to take a particular action such as purchasing your products, visiting your website, or sending in queries via direct message. This can increase conversions from the post.
Instagram Promotion, a guide.
8. Set up targeting manually
Instagram offers an automatic audience targeting function that promotes a post to users who fit the demographics of your current followers. However, customising each metric manually allows greater control over who will see your post. You can determine your target audience based on location, age, gender and interests by selecting the “Create Your Own” option. This is also useful when you wish to reach a new audience whose demographics may differ from that of your followers.
9. Make sure your content is mobile-friendly
If you drive audiences from promotional posts to your website, this tip is for you. Optimizing your landing pages seems obvious, as 91% of users access social networks from mobile devices. However, websites that work incorrectly on mobile devices are common.
Make sure your ad and landing page have the same design, address the same audience, use the same call to action and copywriting style. The harmonized landing page and ad lead to a 39% increase in conversion. To get even better results, follow our guide on increasing your landing page conversion rate.
10. Post consistently
Instagram’s algorithm favours accounts that post consistently—at least once each day. The more consistently you update your feed, the more likely you are to gain organic reach, which will also help your sponsored posts perform well. As you post more content, it’s also important to analyse their performance to determine what kind of content works best with your followers. You can also experiment with publishing posts at different times to figure out the ideal time to post for maximum engagement.
Summary
The tips and tactics listed above will help you make the most of your Instagram promotion. Using Instagram, you can increase the sales of your business and enhance your brand image. Knowing the latest Instagram promotion guidelines and rules can help you to better get to your goals and adopt a much efficient Instagram strategy.
Wish you the best of luck!
