With over 800 million users, Instagram has solid ecommerce potential. Marketers set foot in Instagram marketing to connect with potential customers and promote their products. Since the recent change in Instagram’s algorithm, it’s getting harder to reach out to customers without paying for Instagram ads. No wonder that according to data from Klear, the number of ads has doubled over the last year, proving that Instagram is a valuable advertising avenue.

While many marketers believe it costs big bucks to run ads, you don’t have to waste ad dollars to run effective campaigns. If you know how to optimize your Instagram ads, you can get better results and keep your spend down.

So, wouldn’t it be great if you could rock your Instagram ad campaign?

Here’s the list of ways to grab your potential customers’ attention with ads, and make the most out of your promotion.

 

Choose the right imagery

Here comes the ugly truth: you only have 2.7 seconds to grab attention. People are bombarded with online ads every day. So you need to be creative to make them want to know more about your brand and product.

When it comes to Instagram ad campaigns, the trick is to choose high-quality visuals. In fact, visual perception plays a great role in our lives, and 65% of us are visual learners.

 

But what makes an outstanding ad photo?

• It’s high-quality.
• It stirs up emotions.
• It sells an image and identity (not a product.)
• It’s memorable.
• It refers to the same idea as the ad copy.

 

The Levi’s jeans brand makes the most out of Instagram ads while reaching out to their target audience. They focus on lifestyle photos, selling emotions or attitudes rather than products. This builds an authentic brand story, and evokes trust.

 

 

When you can capture your audience’s attention with the right image, you spend less time and money to get better results.

 

Focus on the right goal

To run successful Instagram ad campaigns and reach your target audience, you need to know your advertising goals. And keeping a focus on the right advertising objective is a proven way to save your budget.

Running campaigns on Instagram, you have three objective types to choose from:

 

• Awareness: help customers get interested in your brand.

Choose it if you want to increase your potential customer base. It helps to drive awareness and attract more followers who might be interested in your product.

 

 

• Consideration: make people start thinking about the potential of using your brand.

When you want to gain quality followers, you need to hook them first and make them want to read more about your brand and product.

 

 

• Conversion: turn your fans into customers.

To increase sales, include a call to action to encourage followers to visit your store and buy what they might need.

 

 

Spending an advertising budget without a chosen objective is wasting your money. When you know what you want your promotion to do, focus on your goal and make sure you spend your money on what really works.

 

Show details in one ad

If you want to get better results, you need to prove that your product is worth buying. And there’s no better way to do that than showcasing the details.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could show all the details in one ad without spending the budget on several campaigns?

Well, now you can select the carousel format that allows you to show up to 10 images within a single ad. In fact, carousel ads lead to 20% increase in click-through conversion (CTC) rates. So, letadditional photos and get more info about your product.

For example, Splendid Spoon, a healthy food delivery service, offers to supply customers with five meals a week, and they advertise their service with carousel ads to show it off:

 

 

Carousel ads help to give a more in-depth look at your brand and keep the user focused a little longer.

Another option to showcase your product or service is to use video ads. You can upload videos up to 60 seconds long in landscape or square format.

 

 

There’s no need to do crazy math calculations to understand that both formats are cost-effective.

 

Encourage to take action

Who else wants to increase the conversion rate?

As a marketer, you must know the power of a call-to-action (CTA). When you encourage your followers to take action, you tell them what they should do next, and it makes the process easier for them.

When you include a CTA, you provide directions and guide your leads through your marketing funnel, which means getting better results.

 

 

Depending on your business goal, you can choose a CTA button that suits your needs more: learn more/shop now/watch more/contact us/book now/sign up.

Need proof? Fashion marketplace Poshmark ran a campaign with a CTA that gave them a 28% reduction in ad cost.

 

Seek out alternative ways for promotion

Have you ever heard that thinking outside the box pays off?

If you want to save money on your brand promotion, you can find alternative ways to enter an already-established community and spread the word about your product. More and more companies work with influencers, as they can add authenticity and promote their product without charging much.

 

 

Also, Instagram has rolled out many features to optimize the purchase process and help customers make their buying decisions faster. For instance, you can collaborate with an influencer and ask him to share a post with shoppable tags where he can add some information about your product and prices. It significantly helps to save time on deciding whether a customer needs this item or not.

 

 

Although a limited number of US accounts can use shoppable tags, we’re waiting for a wider rollout.

 

Bonus tips

Do you want more tips?

• Boost engagement on Instagram: you need to start getting noticed on Instagram if you want to get your posts seen.
• Optimize your Instagram for ecommerce: help your prospects spend less time on the shopping process. Do your best to sell directly on the platform.
• Give UGC a try: people don’t always trust branded content, so you need to include user-generated content (UGC) to your marketing tactic to add authenticity.
• Bring some Instagram love to your email marketing campaigns.

 

The bottom line

No matter what your ad budget is, spending extra bucks doesn’t mean achieving better results. If you know your target audience and what these people expect from your brand, you can deliver your message at a lower cost.

 

Do you have any other tips for running Instagram ad campaigns on a budget? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

 

 

The post How to Run Instagram Ad Campaigns on a Budget appeared first on GetResponse Blog – Online Marketing Tips.

Source: getresponse