Instagram Ads - Crystal Media

September 30, 2019 By Jess Austin Leave a Comment

5 Tips to Maximize Your Instagram Ads

If you are already running Facebook ads, chances are you’re running Instagram ads as well. Facebook owns Instagram, and Ads Manager is the platform for both. By default, ads created through Ads Manager run to IG. However, as Instagram continues to grow in both users and significance to marketers, now is the time to give your IG ads a little extra TLC.

Understanding the importance of their IG audience, we worked with our ads client Cooper and Binkley to build out their ads with Instagram in mind. Highlighting their example below, here are 5 easy tips to making sure your IG ads go the extra (digital) mile.

Quality images: IG is an image-focused platform so the images and videos you choose should be top-notch. That doesn’t mean they have to be professionally done, but it does mean that they should be clear, eye-catching and easy to interpret. Just think of how your eyes behave when you’re scrolling through the IG feed.
Use a healthy content mix: Yes, IG is image-focused, but that doesn’t mean it should be all pretty product shots. Mix in people, the store (if you’re a physical location), the community, humor and more. Make use of IG’s fun tools like polls and quizzes and, of course, video!
Be on brand: Your visual content should tell the brand story as much as the copy. Be consistent with your brand colors, fonts (if you overlay text), filters, emojis, and tone. Your audience should know it’s you instantly.
Have a clear Call-to-Action: Make sure you have a strong CTA in the text and it supports the CTA button. Is it a product? Use Shop Now. An Event? Learn More. Are you building your email list? Sign Up! The best marketing instructs your audience on what they should do, simply and clearly.
Utilize the Swipe Up feature on Stories: A huge benefit of advertising is having the swipe-up feature on Stories. Organic Stories require you to have 10k+ Followers to add a swipe-up option, but not so with ads! The feature will show whatever Call-to-Action you’ve chosen and made it easy for them to follow through with a simple swipe.

👉 Pro Tip: If you have already built out your Product Catalog on Facebook, be sure to tag your products in the ad. It allows users to instantly connect with the product on your website. With just the click of a button!

March 27, 2017 By Crystal Leave a Comment

Instagram Ads: Choosing the Best Objective

We talk a lot about Facebook Ads and how beneficial they can be for your business. But Facebook’s sister network, Instagram, has a lot of opportunity as well!

There are two ways to set up Instagram Ads: On the Instagram app on your phone or where you set up your Facebook Ads. We prefer to set them up through Facebook because you have more options. No matter which option you decide to use, you’ll choose a new campaign for your first ad.

You’ll need to choose an objective for your campaign. You may notice that not all of the objectives available to you in Facebook Ads are options for Instagram Ads. These are the objective you have to choose from:

Brand Awareness
Reach
Traffic
App Installs
Engagement
Video Views
Conversions
Lead Generation

Your objective will depend on your end goal:

If you want to increase overall awareness of your brand, you’ll want to choose Brand Awareness.
If you want to reach as many people in your area as possible, you’ll want to choose Reach.
If you’d like to send people away from Facebook, to the app store to download an app or to your website, you’ll want to choose Traffic.
To get people to specifically download your app, you’ll choose App Installs
To get more post engagement, you’ll choose Engagement
To get more views on a video, you’ll choose Video Views
To increase conversions on your website or app, you’ll choose Conversions
To collect new leads for your store, you’ll want to choose Lead Generation

If you’re not sure which objective you’d like to start with, here are a few ideas:

Choose the Traffic or Video View objective, film a new product arrival video and link a “Shop Now” button to your website, blog post or contact page. If you sell online, consider running a conversion ad.
Choose the Traffic objective and send people to a special offer on your website. Be sure that you have the Facebook Pixel set up on your website, and you can use it to retarget the people who visit your website from your ad.
Choose the Engagement objective and feature locally made products, or products to support your local team in the graphic. For text, try something like, “Tailgating this weekend? Cheer on the {team name} in style!”
Choose Engagement and target users who have a relationship status of “engaged.” Feature your top wedding gifts to appeal to couples prepping for wedding season.
Promote your spring cleaning sale with a Video View Ad. Under detailed targeting, you can choose the partner category of “homeowner” or “renter” to target people who may be sprucing up for spring.
If you’re running a contest, you can share the details in a Conversion, Engagement or View View ad, depending on the contest, or put in-store contest details on your website and send people there with a Traffic Ad. Be sure to review Instagram’s contest guidelines.

It’s important that you test all of your ads. Not performing well? You may need to adjust the graphic, text or targeting. Paying attention to what is working and what isn’t can help you keep your costs lower and help you become a pro at targeting YOUR perfect customers on Instagram.

Have you tried Instagram Ads yet? Which ad type have you found works best for you? Have you tried a video ad yet? Comment below!

February 16, 2016 By Crystal Leave a Comment

3 Ways to Find New Customers with Facebook and Instagram – Webinar Replay

Welcome! Here’s where you can access the latest webinar replay, 3 Ways to Find New Customers on Facebook and Instagram. As a Social Edge member, you have endless access to this webinar!

A great obstacle in many of our ways is time. Maybe you love everything on the webinar, and you think “once I have time, I’m going to get right on this!” My response? One of my favorite quotes:

“Tomorrow is too late, yesterday is over and now is exactly the right moment to start. So start.“ – anonymous

So let’s get started.

Mentioned on the webinar: a tool to see if your image has less than 20% text when advertising on Facebook and Instagram, click here.