How To Save Money With Instagram Ads

Everybody knows that Facebook ads are the best social advertising available because they allow you to target niche markets. They also allow you to very quickly acquire insights as to the best combinations of your ads when it comes to your audience, placement, and creativity. This allows you to customize your ad campaign at a lightning fast rate.

In 2012 Facebook acquired Instagram which allows for even more flexibility when it comes to managing ads. You can show your ads on Instagram and toggle back and forth with Facebook as well.  What this has done is make many social media marketers feel that the platforms are the same. However, Instagram posts tend to get more than 10 times the engagement of Facebook posts on average.

So, how much does it cost to advertise on Instagram?

A typical Facebook ad that is highly targeted with cost you about $10 per CPM, ( cost per thousand impressions) while an Instagram ad is $5 CPM making the Instagram ads twice as cost effective as the Facebook.

Of course, various factors can influence these approximate costs, such as whether the ad is multiple-image, or single, or a video ad. Your target audience will also affect the cost, but for the most part, that $5 CPM is still much cheaper than you will find on any other platform.

With that in mind, here are some ways to keep your costs down:

1. Don’t overproduce your content. People like to feel like they are seeing something fresh and authentic. They are much more likely to warm up to your brand if they are seeing something that is user produced rather than stock content or images. You want to create content that is in line with your brand but is not too pushy and over the top. Don’t ask for the sale too soon. You are introducing people to your brand and you want to create long-term customers.
2. Use video to build your audience. Slideshow type videos are a great way to target traffic and build your audience. You will want to have good sales funnel in place as you drive traffic from your video ad so that you can increase revenue from your Instagram traffic.
3. Don’t be afraid to test and be creative. Test different combinations on your audience instead of just blasting the exact same message to everyone. Pick different target audiences and try different creative approaches for each. Then sit back and analyze the results. Once you have done that, turn off everything else and focus on the best combination.
4. Use demographics. The statistics are there, use them. Take a look at which demographic is the most expensive results and then just eliminate that one. Remove them from your target audience and you will greatly reduce your costs.
5. Don’t forget about your Relevance Score. Facebook judges the quality of your ads. Your ads are scored by FB based on targeting, creativity, and results. This information is there for you to use. Don’t overlook it.
6. Build a campaign. You can target the same users on Instagram as on Facebook and with multiple touch points, you can take your audience from simple awareness to purchasing very easy.
7. Create landing pages. Better converting landing pages with excellent sales funnels make it easier to absorb the costs of your Instagram campaign. Successful campaigns can have mobile friendly objectives, app installs, and lead generation, rather than just sending users to your home page.

Retarget. Adding tracking to a website or app will allow you to quickly and easily retarget consumers. You will need to change your creative much more because you are targeting a much smaller base, but it will also be easier since these people are already familiar with your brand. You just want to make sure they are not seeing the same ad over and over.