Instagram Advertising Mistakes
4 Instagram Advertising Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Since starting in 2010, Instagram has become one of the most popular social platforms in the world, even shaping an entire industry: the Influencer Marketing industry. Its value as a marketing channel can’t be contested, considering its 1 billion monthly active users.
However, many marketers are still making mistakes with their Instagram marketing campaigns. In this week’s blog, we’ll discuss what those mistakes are and how to avoid making them.
Why use Instagram as part of your marketing strategy?
Everyone is praising Instagram as a marketing channel. However, you have to stop and think whether Instagram is the right fit for you brand. Naturally, the companies that find the most success on Instagram are in general B2C companies, especially in the beauty and fashion industry. And we’re not only talking about the popular influencer marketing method, we mean ads.There’s no need to despair though. If you are a B2B business, you can find unrivalled success on Instagram too. Just look at HubSpot or HootSuite.Another B2B company that found success on Instagram was Apsee. They used Instagram specifically for their Stories placement and saw a 3.4x higher CTR and 2x lower CPC with ads in Stories.They all have one thing in common though.
Compared with other social ad platforms which have more flexibility in terms of the type of content, Instagram’s focus is visual. Even Instagram’s Business website say so! Think about it, what is Instagram used for? Sharing beautiful holiday pictures that will make all your friends jealous or browsing for inspiration through your feed.It makes sense then that ads should be in line with what users expect to see when they scroll on the platform.People expect that posts on Instagram will bring them some type of emotional reaction. Be it an “aw” at the occasional dog picture or “wow” at that amazing picture your favourite influencer just posted. So, if your product or company is bound to get some type of reaction from costumers, then Instagram is the perfect platform for you!
Now, we’re not saying you HAVE to comply to this. However, if you take a pause and ask yourself – as a consumer and not a marketer – what are the Instagram ads that get you to click through? It’s the quirky, bold, or simply the ones with beautiful design that get you isn’t it? Well, there’s your answer!
What to do when advertising on Instagram
Done correctly, Instagram ads have the power to boost brand awareness, engage and inform users, generate new traffic, leads and ultimately, sales. Ads did incorrectly, however, can result in a waste of marketing budget and, ultimately, damage your brand image. Don’t worry, we’ll run through the top tips to get you the desired results and ensure your Instagram campaigns are of the highest quality.
1. Branch out: Use more than just a single image.
A common mistake we’ve seen even with our clients before they started working with us was that whenever Instagram Ads formats came up, their first choice would be single image. Now, we get it, single image is easy. Doesn’t take your design team too much time to do compared to a video and it can be repurposed for the Stories placement – however we’d recommend not doing that (we’ll get into the why’s in a bit).
Pro-tip: If you do decide to use only single image, try and use a square format for your creatives as this is the native format of Instagram pictures and it will make your ads blend in better!
Just in case, we’ll run through the other ad formats available for Instagram and all the reasons why you SHOULD use them!
Instagram Video Ads
Instagram has seen an 80% increase in time spent watching videos on Instagram. Probably one of the reasons that IGTV was launched for.This tendency for Instagram’s users to spend more time watching videos, makes it a prime time to start using more video ads.Think about it! Using video ads will enable you to appeal to your audience more easily, grab their attention (and keep it for longer) and get them to know your brand better than through a single image ad!A great example of companies making use of video ads was Reebook, for their #BeMoreHuman campaign. The brand used a simple video ad to showcase all the ways their running shoes can help you.
Instagram Carousel Ads
Do you remember our blog on Facebook carousel ads? If not go and have a read here.Instagram’s Carousel Ads format is not much different than Facebook’s. However, in true Instagram style, the focus is on the visuals here as well. They can be used in feed or in stories as instant experience!Carousel Ads allow your audience to swipe to view additional photos or videos, giving them a good opportunity to get to know you. Plus, by adding extra visuals, you can build on the theme or message of your campaign.The carousel ad format is very effective for selling products because it allows displaying a range of items. GAP, for example, have made great use of this format using a combination of image and video to showcase their products .
Instagram Stories Ads
If you’ve already read our Instagram Stories blog, then you know how good this placement is in terms of engagement and ROI.Considering 300 million people use Instagram stories every day, and more than a third of the most viewed stories come from businesses, making use of this Instagram ad placement is a must.The thing with Instagram Stories is that they use a full screen, vertical format, immersing viewers in the content. A cool new brand that’s been making great use of Instagram’s Stories placement for their ads is Centr. They REALLY listened to all the best practices for this placement.
Have a look:
Their copy is natively integrated into the video, it is created with sound off in mind (after all, 85% of social media users watch videos with sound off), if the people have sound on, the melody is catchy and ads to the total experience and the video is designed with vertical in mind! Now, this point brings us to mistake number 2 in Instagram Advertising.
2. When using the Stories placement, think VERTICAL.
Let us tell you something here, 70% of Instagram users are under 35 (that adds up to roughly 800 million active users). People under 35 are part of this infamous generation called Millennials, which businesses have been struggling to understand for years. The fact that this generation is incredibly unpredictable compared to previous ones doesn’t make it any easier either. However, one thing studies have managed to figure out is this: Millennials HATE to have their user experience when browsing an app be disrupted. 64% of Millennials surveyed in a study by Native Advertising said they felt ads were disruptive to their experience and they are more likely to ignore an ad completely when that happens.Now, with this in mind, which of the following ad examples do you think Instagram users are most likely to ignore?
Well, the first one is guaranteed to have a higher CVR than the second one as it abides to all the Instagram Stories ads best practices (and it has a bigger budget, but that we can work around!)If you don’t have a big budget, there’s no need to despair. You can reach the same level as the big companies with their fancy ads by using some online tools that have surely made our lives easier in the past!
Our favourite one is Biteable! This is an online platform where you can create custom videos in any format you need (vertical, square, landscape, you name it!). Even greater? It’s cheap and it has a lot of cool templates!
Instagram Stories Best Practices:
- Make the first half-second visually appealing: Be it video or single image, you want that initial image to be attention-grabbing. You need to catch the attention of those who speed tap when watching stories (we’re guilty of doing that sometimes, are you?).
- Make sure the brand name is visible: Being subtle doesn’t go hand in hand with Instagram Stories (unless you’re Ray-Ban or Converse). Put your logo somewhere where the user will notice it and make sure the image (or video) is popping!
- If you’re using video, begin by focusing on your product: With Instagram users, you’ll have around had a second (most times) before they tap next to go back to their friend’s stories. Make sure that half-second counts and make your product shine then!
- Use influencers: We all know Instagram gave start to the influencer marketing industry. So, why not make use of its home platform and use influencers as part of your stories ads? They’re sure to grab attention!
- Make sure your CTA matches your objective: Don’t forget about the CTA in your Instagram stories. This shows up at the bottom of the story. The most commonly used one for the story ads format is “Swipe Up”. However, you can also use all the other CTAs available on Facebook.
As a side-note to our CTA pointer, you should always aim to have your CTA show up in your Instagram Story creative. Why? Well, the native CTA on stories is quite inconspicuous and can easily go unnoticed.
3. Make sure you get your content right for Instagram
We’ve said it before, but it is important we reiterate: visuals are the center of Instagram. They pretty much make up the whole platform one way or another.Instagram’s users expect eye-catching imagery or video when scrolling through their feed or swiping through their stories. They only slow down and stop when something catches their eye (if you use Instagram, you know that is true). So, since first impressions matter most, follow these tips to ensure you are in line with Instagram’s user’s expectations:
- Use quality tools: If you want quality outcomes, you have to invest in quality equipment. Visual design is highly important on Instagram, so do Invest time and money into that!
- Spice it up: Try different angles for your images and videos, different text placements, different colours.
- Think about the bigger picture: Yes, having your product all nice and pretty is important, but your background matters just as much. Make sure there is nothing around your focus object that can act as a distraction.
4. Make sure your advertising objective is correct!
The fundamental principle of any effective advertising campaign is to identify your goals – what do you want?
Do you want to grow your Instagram page engagement? Then use the Post Engagement objective and Past Posts as your ads! Do you want to raise brand awareness for your business? Then Brand Awareness is your desired objective! Do you want to drive traffic to your website? Simple, use Traffic under Consideration in Facebook Ads Manager. Do you want to get people to purchase your shiny new product? Use the Conversions objective! Or Catalogue Sales if you have a Product Catalogue.
Note: A little pro-tip here. When first starting a Conversions campaign, it’s better to optimize for the goal before your actual goal. Because that was confusing, let us give you an example: If your ultimate goal is Purchase, then at the beginning you should optimize for Add to Cart.
Final Thoughts
We’ve gone through the most common mistakes marketers make when advertising on Instagram and all the ways you can avoid or fix them. However, if you still want to get an extra advantage, why not book a demo with your truly and try out our Artificial Intelligence optimisation features for Instagram Advertising?
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