The Benefits Of Instagram Ads

Instagram now has over one billion active users and the platform is growing very fast. It was not so long ago that they announced that they had 700 million active users and now it is over a billion. Instagram is a very popular social platform and there is no sign of this changing.

This means there is a great deal of marketing potential with Instagram. It has the highest levels of engagement of all of the major social platforms at around 4.2%. Facebook and Twitter combined can only manage around 0.1% engagement. Here are the major benefits of advertising on Instagram:

Huge User Base that is still growing

Instagram is growing at an alarming rate and now has more than a billion active users. The estimates suggest that this growth will continue in the next few years so it offers you a huge potential audience.

It is connected to Facebook

Facebook owns Instagram so you will find targeting your audience a lot easier using Facebook data and tools. You can set up everything for your Instagram Ads through Facebook including audience identification, budgeting and ad creation.

This is great news if you have used Facebook Ads before. There is no need for you to learn about Instagram advertising from scratch. You can just jump right in and create ads for both social platforms.

Non Intrusive Ads

Instagram Ads will not annoy Instagram users like ads on other social platforms do. They appear seamlessly to the user which helps with the level of engagement. This is a major benefit as your ads are less likely to be skipped.

Higher Engagement Rate

Engagement is everything with social media marketing and Instagram has the highest levels of engagement for any social platform. If you create your ads properly then you will receive comments, likes and shares like never before.

Success through Awareness

With Instagram Ad campaigns, success is measured based upon awareness. You will be able to see your follower counts and growth, the reach that your ads are getting and the level of likes and comments.

Instagram perfect for Mobile Users

These days everyone has a smartphone with a high quality camera included. Smartphone users are usually very interested in social media and Instagram is usually their number one choice. Many users will user their camera phones as an amateur photographer and post their pictures on their Instagram account.

Get the best results with Instagram Ads

Instagram Ads usually provide the best results in terms of cost and return on investment. It is a very effective marketing channel and it is quicker and easier to post compelling ads on Instagram than it is on other social media channels.

If you are not taking advantage of the marketing opportunities provided by Instagram then you need to start right now. You can set up an Instagram account for free and easily convert it to a business account so that you can place ads.

The user base is huge and will only get bigger. With the Facebook integration you can identify your target audience precisely and target them with your advertising messages. There are different types of ads that you can post depending on the needs of your business.

When you know your audience really well you will be able to provide them with exactly what they are looking for using Instagram Ads. The cost per click is cheaper than other platforms so you will get the best bang for your buck.

The Different Types Of Instagram Ads

More and more businesses are turning to Instagram for their advertising these days. Not only does Instagram have a very large user base but it is also the social platform with the highest level of engagement. Instagram have made it easier for businesses by offering a number of different types of ad:

Instagram Photo Ads

Photo ads are the most common type of ad on Instagram. This is not surprising as sharing photos and images is the most popular thing to do on the platform. A number of business are taking advantage of photo ads to promote their brands, their products and services, their upcoming launches and events and a great deal more.

When you use a photo ad the image must be relevant to whatever you are promoting. You can add a compelling caption to your photo to persuade users to take the action that you want. Use the right hashtags in the caption and you will extend the reach of your ad. Many large and small brands use a lot of photo ads for their campaigns.

Post Boosting or Sponsored Ads

If you have a business account on Instagram then you can boost posts that you have already made to extend the reach of the posts. Boosted ads will appear in the home feed of their target audience and they can contain a direct website link, an online store or the user’s profile page.

Some businesses use sponsored ads to promote giveaways and contests. They do this to increase the amount of participation that the original post achieved. This can be very successful with increasing engagement levels too.

Instagram Story Ads

Stories are very popular on Instagram and around 80% of the active users post a story at least twice a week. You can generate a great deal of traffic through stories as they are popular with Instagram users.

When you create a story ad it will usually appear when an Instagram user is switching between one story and another. You can add a direct link to your website from a story ad or a link to your profile. Stories will only appear for a few seconds and once they are gone that is it. They are still a good ad choice though.

Instagram Video Ads

Video is an immensely popular choice of media with social users and this is certainly the case on Instagram. The view rate for videos is much higher than it is for other media types. You can post a 30 to 60 second video ad and these can be full ads or teasers.

If you create the right kind of videos then video ads will probably bring you a lot of success. You can get some really high viewing numbers with the right video ad and you can add direct links and a call to action in the caption.

Instagram Carousel Ads

If you want to showcase a number of different products in your ad then you need to go for a carousel ad. Instagram users are used to swiping through a number of different images in a carousel and this usually means higher engagement levels.

As with the other type of ads you can add a captivating caption with a call to action and a direct link back to your website, store or profile. So use carousel ads when you want to get the word out about a range of your products.

Instagram Ads 101

Instagram Ads are fast becoming the number one choice for businesses that want to get the word out about their brand and their products and services. There are a number of good reasons for this including the staggering growth of the social platform and its high levels of engagement.

How does an Instagram Ad look?

There are different types of Instagram Ads but the good thing is that they look a lot like regular posts. They will have the word “Sponsored” on them but apart from that they look and feel like a normal post.

With ordinary posts it is not possible to add external links to your website. You can add direct links in Instagram Ads as well as a call to action button to persuade a user to take a specific action. The different types of ad have different call to action buttons available.

How do you create an Instagram Ad?

Facebook now owns Instagram and you can use the Facebook Ad tools when setting up your Instagram Ads. This is good because you can use the advanced tools in Facebook to target your specific audience based on demographics, interests, location and more.

You can satisfy a number of business objectives with Instagram Ads. These objectives are:

Brand awareness

If you want to increase the awareness of your brand then you need to select this option. When you do this you will maximize the number of impressions for your ad among the audience that you have specified.

Reach

If you want your ad to be seen by the largest number of people in your target audience then go with the “Reach” option.

Traffic

This is the best objective to choose if your goal is to increase the number of clickthroughs to your website or online store. You achieve this by using persuasive call to action buttons.

App Installs

If you have an app and want to increase the number of installs then select this objectives option.

Engagement

Increasing your engagement levels is always a good thing to do on social media so choose this objectives option if you want more comments, likes and shares or you want users to show up for a specific event.

Video

If you want to increase the number of views to your videos then this is the best objectives option. You can use videos to put out brand messages or showcase your products. Do this in an inspiring and creative way and you will get great reach and high levels of engagement.

Conversions

This is the objectives option to choose if you want to increase the level of conversions on your website.

Identify your Audience

Once you have chosen your desired objective you can now identify your target audience by selecting users based on their age, gender, interests, behaviors, location and more. Once you have create an audience you can save it for use with other ad campaigns.

This is a very important step. With 80% of the users on Instagram following a business you want to make sure that you get this right and that your advertising message will resonate with your target audience.

Choose the right Ad Type

Instagram offers a number of different types of ad and these include:

• Boost or sponsored ad – you can extend the reach of an existing post
• Image Ad – use a single image for promotion
• Video Ad – use a video for promotion
• Stories Ad – base your ad on a story
• Carousel Ad – use multiple images in your ad

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Everyone knows about viral videos. They dominate the news when they happen and they spread like wildfire on social media. But how do these viral videos get started in the first place? Are they designed that way or is it just a happy accident? The fact is, both are true. There have been viral videos that were carefully designed to have as high probability as possible of going viral, and the effort succeeded. There are also other videos – in fact the majority of videos that go viral – that do so against all odds and completely by accident.

How to Know If the Video Will Go Viral or Not

If you want to know if a video will go viral or not, you need to look at the characteristics that make up the video. This doesn’t mean the production value, nor does it really mean the subject matter. Instead, you want to see if it has the characteristics that make it impact you emotionally and want tell your friends about it. When something changes someone’s life, even in a very small way, they want to tell her friends about it. A viral video touches someone either in a good way – or sometimes in a bad way – it makes them want to share it.

Tips to Give a Video the Best Chance of Going Viral

If you want to give your video the best chance of going viral you should start with creating a short but effective video. You don’t want a video that is too long because people are going to want to sit through a 10 minute video even if it’s good. You should keep your video about the same length of the song – 3 to 4 minutes.

Make sure that your video conveys some sort of message you want the viewer to come away with something when they leave – something that is going to be simple enough for them to easily share with others.

You also want to make sure that there is some sort of emotional connection – some sort of human touch that works on emotions. As mentioned, viral videos work because people have an emotional connection with them and they want to share it with others.

These things may not make a viral video at all. In fact, you could follow the exact same steps that other viral videos followed and not have your video go viral because much of it depends upon chance.

One of the things that you can do to create an effective video that could get people to use your company or buy your products and services is a video marketing campaign featuring customer testimonials. You want to use actual customer testimonials if at all possible. People can tell when the person is not being genuine and besides, you have to identify actors as such when you make a video for profit. Here are some great tips so that you can use customer testimonials in your video marketing strategy and can get views and traffic.

First, you want the testimonial to feel as natural and as genuine as possible. That means that you are going to want to use actual customers who have enjoyed your products or services and don’t mind talking about them on camera. In order to capture that natural and genuine spirit on video you probably are going to want to write them a script either. A much better idea is to let them talk and then use editing to create a concise testimonial that will keep the viewer’s attention.

Second thing is you want the video to be interesting. This is done many different ways. First, make sure that you choose a background or setting that is interesting to the eye but not so interesting that it detracts from the person on the screen. You can ask them to where a colorful outfit or something that will contrast nicely with the background. Obviously, you also want to make sure that what they are saying is interesting. Storytelling comes into play here. If you can get them to tell a story with her testimonial it will have much more of an impact than if not.

You also want to make sure that the video is relevant to whatever it is that your marketing and that viewers go away with a message that they’ll remember. In fact, this may be the most important part of creating a good marketing video. If you can create a message in a video that resonates with people they are going to share it. On the other hand, if you don’t make an emotional connection with your video you are going to have much success with it no matter how many views you get. Make sure that the video has an impact emotionally on every single person that watched it.

If you’re getting in the video marketing, you should definitely look around the Internet and find out what the pros are doing. The people who are being the most successful when it comes to marketing their videos and getting views are the ones who will teach you how to grow your own video marketing strategy so that you can start to get the traffic that you want. Here are a few strategies that have worked well for some of the biggest video marketing campaigns out there.

The Dove Campaigns

The beauty brand of has been making viral video content for several years now. They have a team that is put together several winning campaigns based upon the idea that all women are beautiful no matter the size, shape, skin color or other attribute. One recent campaign had them placing signs and then allowing people to choose between two different doors that they had to enter through on a busy building. One sign said ‘beautiful’ and the other ‘average.’ It was such a fascinating social experiment, and the people that actually walk through the doors and then were interviewed afterward were touched so much that the campaign went viral, which is what Dove intended.

Google Earth

Recently, Google Earth had a campaign where they used a person that was searching for his family. This story had all of the ingredients that would make up a viral video campaign and it was definitely designed to be talked about and get shared. That’s because people felt like they could relate to the person that was searching for their family and because the story was so touching. Of course, at the climax of the video, users could share in the joy that the person the video featured was experiencing. This is a perfect example of using human emotion to create a viral video.

American Greetings

You might remember the American Greetings campaign where they posted a video that said it was seeking a candidate for a particular job. This job, the interviewer said, was 24 hours a day and required things like the equivalent of a medical degree, a degree in culinary arts and many other requirements. In fact, the job didn’t even pay anything and you would have to work overtime on Christmas and other holidays. This was obviously a brilliant campaign that made everyone who watched it think of their mother – the person who actually does that job and meets all those requirements.

One of the big types of marketing videos that are out there is tutorial videos. Why does this video type get made so often? Because it works; people are always looking to learn how to do something and creating a tutorial video that is either the only one out there that shows them how to do this particular thing or is the best out there of all of the ones available will allow your tutorial video to rise to the top and be an effective marketing video.

What Can You Make a Tutorial Video about?

You can make a tutorial video on anything that you can solve within your industry. You may be an expert in other areas as well, and can easily make tutorial videos in that area, but unless you stick with your niche you’re going to have a hard time naturally incorporating marketing into the video which is the entire point.

So, you can make a tutorial video about common problems that people have with some product or service within your industry. For example, if you have created a technological product and you know that some people have had trouble with a particular feature, you could make a tutorial video on this feature and how to resolve it and this will build your brand as well as create customer loyalty. It may also advertise to people who don’t have that particular product, but need it.

Of course, an even better way is to create a tutorial video on solving a problem that your product or service actually fixes. If you can create a tutorial video and show people that are trying to solve an issue that it can easily be resolved by buying your product or service you will make sales. This is the most effective way to use a tutorial-based video marketing strategy.

How Do You Make a Tutorial Video?

Making a tutorial video is rather easy. If you are using an actual product make sure that you can set it in front of you so that people can see what you are doing. If the solution to whatever problem they’re facing is a service then you can use an approach where you simply talk to the camera. Look at some of the more successful tutorial videos on YouTube and use the same techniques that they use if you want to create the most successful tutorial video possible.

If you’re getting into video marketing, you’re going to want to create a strategy that will get you results. But how do you do that exactly? How do you know what sort of things make up a good video marketing strategy? Here are some tips to help you know what your strategy should include and ensure that you will be effective at video marketing.

First of all, you should definitely stick to a publishing schedule. There are multiple studies that show that the most effective video marketers – or marketers of anything else – are those that publish on a regular schedule. That includes Twitter, blog posting and much more. People just like to see regular content when they expect. This is a great way to grow your followers and make sure that your video marketing is reaching an audience.

The second tip is to keep your video short. A period of 3 to 5 minutes is the ideal links for a video that you want to be shared and viewed as often as possible. If you make your video to short, it is going to make an impact in people’s minds when they watch it. If you make your video too long, they aren’t going to finish it. You need to make it within the optimal window the people have gotten use to watching.

Third, you should definitely incorporate customer content into your video somehow. People respond much better when is other people making videos than if there is a company behind them. People simply distrust videos that are obviously made by companies and so it takes a lot more good content for them to get shared easily. If you can get some of your customers to help you with your viral marketing efforts, you’ll be much more successful.

Finally, you should always include a call to action. The call to action is a vital part of video marketing – or any other type of marketing – but many people skip it for some reason. If you provide a call to action people are going to know what to do next. That means that you are going to prod them in a certain direction and some of them will go that direction and do whatever it is that the video was asking them to do. If you don’t provide a call to action, there is little chance of that happening.

There are many businesses out there that could benefit from video marketing but there are some that definitely could use the strategy more than others. Here are some of the types of businesses that should definitely try to incorporate video marketing into their advertising strategy.

Healthcare Businesses

Healthcare businesses should definitely invest in video marketing. The thing about this industry is, people like to know where they’re going to be treated if they should get sick – or where they’re going to be treated for regular doctor visits. Video marketing can definitely showcase some of that and allow people to be impressed by an organization’s technology or facilities. Healthcare organizations can also take patients on a 360 tour of their entire facility quite easily, and this is a very useful thing for any business that is going to be having people in their facility for any length of time.

Hotels

Hotels are another type of business where people stay for a particular length of time. People want to see in advance what they are going to get if they check into that particular hotel. Video marketing using high-quality footage of the hotel can be very impressive and even if it is a budget motel, people are going to see that they’re getting a clean, comfortable room for a budget price.

Restaurants

Restaurants are another great type of business to use video marketing with. The reason the restaurants should use video marketing over all of the other types of businesses that are out there is that video marketing can easily showcase your food. If you’re giving a tour of your dining room, for example, there will be several different dishes and each shot – assuming that you take the pictures or video when there are people in the dining room. Either way you can incorporate pictures of the food that you serve and this will make people want to come in and try it.

Beauty Salons

Finally, the last group of people who should use video marketing to promote their business are those who work in or own beauty salons. People like to know what the salon looks like, what the stylist looks like and of course, they want to know that the service is good, so featuring customers who have had great hairstyles or other services is the key to video marketing within this industry. Of course, these are just three of the many, many businesses that could benefit from video marketing.