November 8, 2024

Part 2: free or paid instagram ads : all the techniques

Instagram shopping posts
In 2018, Instagram launched a decisive feature that allows users to shop via the app.

With this tool, entrepreneurs can tag their products in their Instagram content and thus allow users to land directly on the corresponding product page. They don’t need to follow the brand.

Let’s say you represent an accessories brand and you have a photo of your model wearing items from the latest collection. Users can tap on the jewelry to see the price and buy it directly.

You will be able to sell via posts and stories once you are recognized as an approved seller. It’s even possible to create an Instagram store if you want to do Instagram marketing all the way. You’ll just need to have a Facebook business account.

If you’re new to this, you may want to read our guide to selling on Facebook.

Collectible Instagram Ads


Here’s another format of Instagram ads, quite similar to the Insta carousel. Instead of displaying one behind the other, the collection format presents images as a grid of five items, and then allows you to scroll down through multiple products. Each product can link back to the online store.

The instant experience on Instagram


The Instant Experience is a new Instagram ad format, accessible from the Facebook ad manager. This feature displays your branded content in full screen as soon as a user clicks on your ad.

Various templates are available, but you can also create your own.

Check the corresponding box in the Facebook interface to make your settings.

How to advertise on Instagram?
Now that we’ve seen the different formats available, let’s get practical and see how to advertise on Instagram.

There are two ways to go about it:

From the app
Go to one of your posts and tap on “Promote” at the bottom right of the post.

Be aware that you don’t need to have a Facebook account to advertise on Instagram. The network gives you both options.

You are then asked where you want to send your audience:

to your Instagram profile
to your website
to your Instagram email
Then choose the text for your action button.

You can also choose the automatic audience, which will select an audience close to your followers.

The next step is not the least: what Instagram ad budget should you set?

The budget directly influences the width of the audience reached. The more you spend, the more people you reach. The Instagram ad price can be €1 if you want, but the Instagram tip is to choose a minimum budget of €5 per day for 6 days. In the beginning, you can go up to €10 budget per day if you can afford it.

Indeed, it is better to allow a few days to give the algorithm time to identify the target, but also to collect enough data to evaluate the performance of your Instagram advertising campaign.

When you adjust the budget slider, you will see the audience reached.

All you have to do is add a payment method to your account if you haven’t already done so and validate your promotion.