If you're trying to reach young people, Instagram advertising might be the right solution for you based on this information. However, if you're trying to reach the older generations, Instagram ads may be more costly with fewer conversions.
Instead, businesses with an older target audience may opt for other social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn, depending on the nature of the business.
Image-based
Instagram is an image-based app. If you use the Instagram app, you'll notice it features grids that consist primarily of photos and videos.
Therefore, there's not a ton of space for text, so if your image or graphic doesn't speak for itself, you may not have enough space to explain your offer or the purpose of your ads. Since copy can be important in helping convince users to click the ad, Instagram advertising may not be right for you if you need more text to explain the product or service details.
Less advanced features
Instagram ads offer less advanced features than other advertising platforms. This can be beneficial for small business owners who want to avoid a steep learning curve. However, it also means fewer capabilities than Facebook ads.
For example, Facebook ads offer more detailed targeting to help you effectively target your audience. Of course, you can use Facebook ads manager to create and run Instagram ads, but your options are more limited.
Why create Instagram ads through Mailchimp?
Instagram ad campaigns in Mailchimp—just like their Facebook counterparts—are an easy way to promote your business, grow your audience, and sell your products. We’ll automatically pull product images from your store into your account, so you can create beautiful Instagram ads that target current customers, help you reconnect with former subscribers or lapsed customers, and introduce new people to your brand.
After running your ad, Mailchimp closes the loop by providing easy-to-read reports that help you analyze your Instagram insights and ads performance, view engagement, and monitor spending over time. And, if you’ve connected your store, our clear ROI reports will track your ad’s revenue, products sold, and customers acquired, too. Since you never have to leave Mailchimp to create an ad or track its performance, you can develop integrated, multi-channel marketing campaigns and learn how each channel is contributing to your success.
Instagram ad campaigns are available to all Mailchimp users without any additional markup or fees. So, no matter what type of Mailchimp plan you have, you can start advertising your products or services across Instagram with as little as $5 a day.
Instagram ad best practices everyone should follow
Define your goals
Before you get started, it’s important to give careful consideration to the goals of your Instagram marketing and ad campaign efforts. Maybe you’d like to grow your audience or raise brand awareness. Perhaps you want to drive traffic to your site or online store. Or, maybe you’d like to promote specific products, increase sales, or encourage mobile app downloads. Determining the purpose of your ad—no matter the preferred outcome—will help you decide on your message, audience, and call to action.
Instagram is primarily a mobile medium, so be sure to keep that in mind as you’re developing your campaign, too. The goals of your Instagram ad should reflect the best possible experience for your audience and customers. For example, if your website or online store isn’t optimized for mobile users, your Instagram ad should focus on brand awareness or list growth rather than encouraging web traffic or increasing conversions.
When defining your goals, always ensure you can effectively measure your Instagram ad performance. The platform's ad manager makes it easy to measure everything from impressions to clicks on an ad, including your cost per click.
Depending on your ad spend, you may have different goals for different campaigns. If you've never done Instagram advertising before, creating your first Instagram ads can serve as a baseline to help you measure the performance of the rest of your campaigns moving forward.
Determine your audience
Choosing the right audience—and keeping your content relevant to that audience—is the key to running a successful Instagram ad. Instagram offers some targeting options to help you reach the right people at the right time. You can target users based on location, demographics, interests, behavior, and more based on the data you've collected through both Instagram and Facebook.
For example, if you're a retailer that specializes in men's winter clothing, for example, don't target an audience that consists of both men and women between the ages of 18-65 and who live in the United States. Selecting such a broad audience often leads to lower Instagram engagement and clickthrough rates, which can even result in your ad being canceled.
Instead, use your contact list to build an audience of Instagram users who are similar to your existing customers and subscribers. Mailchimp gives you the power to find value in all sections of your contact list, even people who have unsubscribed. Now, you can leverage your subscriber activity and e-commerce data to create powerful segments that help you show relevant ads to the right people.
People on your list
Targeting your existing Mailchimp subscribers on Instagram is a great way to reconnect with customers who are already engaged with your business. Our segmentation tools allow you to leverage what you already know about your contacts to create relevant ads that focus on conversions and retention. With Mailchimp, you can target your Instagram ads based on the following:
Targeting ideas
- Potential customers. Create a segment of subscribers who haven’t made a purchase just yet. Drive traffic to your store by showcasing your newest items, highlighting your best sellers, or advertising a special offer for new customers.
- Recent customers. Create a segment of customers who have recently purchased an item from your store, then target them with ads promoting similar products they might also enjoy.
- Repeat customers. Create a segment of customers who have placed multiple orders from your store, then show your appreciation by giving them early access to new products or exclusive sales.
- Lapsed customers. Create a segment of customers who haven’t made a purchase from your store or opened/clicked your email lately, and create an ad to re-engage them.
- Former customers and non-subscribers. Create a segment of people who have unsubscribed from your list or haven’t subscribed yet. Target them with an ad that builds awareness around your business, delivers your message, or offers incentives.
People with similar interests
Since Instagram accounts are tied to Facebook profiles, Instagram has a lot of data about its users that can help marketers find the right audience. And, when you create an ad targeting people on Instagram who are similar to the contacts on your Mailchimp list - with lookalike audiences-, you can put that data to work for you. Instagram analyzes the Facebook profiles of your Mailchimp contacts, then creates an audience of similar people based on shared interests, behaviors, and demographics. You can even narrow down the audience by location, gender, age range, or interest keywords. This can be an effective option for introducing your brand or products to new people and growing your list. With lookalike audiences, you can create lists of:
- People similar to your best customers. Once you’ve connected your store, you can create a segment based on the purchase history of your customers. For example, you might choose to use a segment of customers whose total amount spent is more than $100, or a segment of customers whose total number of orders is greater than 2.
- People similar to your most engaged subscribers. Create a segment based on subscribers who have a high contact rating. In this instance, you’d use a segment of subscribers with a contact rating greater than 4 stars.
People with interests you define
There are other cases, however, where you might want to harness the power of Instagram and Facebook’s data by creating an ad that targets people based on unique criteria you define. You can narrow down your audience by location, gender, age range, or interest keywords.
This option provides businesses of all sizes with the tools they need to build brand awareness and grow their audiences. If you’re a new marketer or a business with a small contact list, this tool can help you find potential customers.
Here are a few things to consider:
- Where else does your ideal customer shop? You can use those other brands as interest keywords to help define your target audience.
- Do you typically sell more stuff to women? Or, do you find that men are more likely to purchase your products? Target based on gender to increase the relevance of your ad.
- How old is your target audience? Are most of your customers twentysomethings, or are they more likely to be grandparents? Plug in an age range to make sure you’re reaching the right people.
