As of early September 2015, Instagram released the ability to advertise on their platform to agencies. They are slowly rolling their advertising option out to the general public, so if you don’t have access yet, you can either work with Social Vantage, or be patient! In this article, we are going to share with you a few of the many brands we have worked with and the results generated from their Instagram advertising campaigns.
Within the last 30 days, we have developed and executed Instagram advertising campaigns for many businesses around the world. We have worked with businesses & organizations such as Best Bronze, a self-tanning product; Mercyhurst University, a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, Rootsgear, a unique lifestyle apparel brand and Little Skull Photography, an internationally published photography company.
We have seen fantastic results right off the bat with the Instagram advertising campaigns we have run for our clients. The most important aspects of Instagram advertising campaigns are:
- Image / Creative
- Call To Action
- Targeting
The most important aspect of an Instagram campaign is the Image used for your ad. It is extremely important that you use original content for your Instagram ad image. The Instagram user base is savvy enough to recognize when a stock photo is being used for your ad and if that is the case you will see less engagement with that type of content. Create your own image, invest in a photographer / illustrator to create a high quality image that jumps out on the news feed.
Here are a few images below that we have used for our clients:
It is also very important to add a “Call To Action” button to your Instagram advertisement. For our clients ads, we are using a CTA button, which is increasing click-through-rates dramatically. There are many CTA buttons you can select for your Instagram advertisement:
- Apply Now
- Book Now
- Contact Us
- Donate Now
- Download
- Learn More
- Shop Now
- Sign Up
- Watch More
The targeting used for Instagram advertising is extremely effective, as it is the same targeting used for Facebook advertising which has the most advanced targeting options available for any advertising platform in modern marketing.
For Instagram ads, it is mandatory that you target the age, gender and location of your audience. You can target a specific location and then 10-50 mile radius around that specific location which is extremely effective for targeting specific people in specific locations.
You also have the ability to re-target people who have already visited your website by using a “Custom Audience,” which should be very familiar to those that currently use Facebook advertising.
The results we have seen for our client’s Instagram advertising campaigns are fantastic. We have worked with small, local businesses all the way up to fortune 500 level companies. No matter the company, we are seeing click-through rates (CTR’s) 3x higher than what we see on Facebook and cost per clicks (CPC’s) that are 3x less than Facebook.
Mercyhurst University wanted to use Instagram advertising to appeal to their younger audience who is looking for a beautiful campus with a rich Catholic history that offers hands-on experiences and learning opportunities. We implemented the #HURSTisHOME to create virality around their brand.
Here are their results:
Results:
- Website Clicks: 3,638
- Reach: 179,822
- Cost Per Click: $0.01 / click
- Amount Spent: $49.55
Live A Great Story, a media and apparel lifestyle brand wanted to inspire Instagram users in their demographic audience to share their stories and create virality for the “Live A Great Story” brand by asking people to use the tag #LIVEAGREATSTORY
Here are the great results from this advertisement:
Results:
- Website Clicks: 1,788
- Reach: 92,213
- Cost Per Click: $0.07 / click
- Amount Spent: $125.42
I$VNE (Pronounced Insane) is a unique clothing brand that wanted to bring more exposure to their brand and increase their website traffic through their social media channels. Here are the great results from this advertisement:
Results:
- Website Clicks: 14,935
- Reach: 762,409
- Cost Per Click: $0.02 / click
- Amount Spent: $320.05
Best Bronze, a self-tanning product, wanted to effectively reach their Brazil female market between the ages of 18-44 through their Instagram advertising campaigns. Their objective was to drive targeted traffic to their Brazil website.
Results:
- Website Clicks: 4,684
- Reach: 219,334
- Cost Per Click: $0.03 / click
- Amount Spent: $163.62
- Relevance Score: 10/10
Luv Fit Jewelry, a fitness and health inspired jewelry company, wanted to drive more targeted traffic to their website from Instagram.
Results:
- Website Clicks: 521
- Reach: 23,095
- Cost Per Click: $0.08 / click
- Amount Spent: $42.60
Instagram is going to continue to roll out new advertising objectives such as Pay Per Follower, similar to Facebook’s now “Pay Per Like” which will really help brands grow their Instagram pages with relevant fans and followers.
Tell us what you think! Have you tried Instagram advertising for your business? What type of results are you seeing?
If you are interested in trying Instagram advertising with Social Vantage, you can contact us right HERE!
