Instagram Advertising Strategy: 6 Tips to Level Up

You’ve done research, crunched the numbers, allocated funds, and your Instagram budget is set. Now, the hard part of your Instagram advertising strategy is over, right? Not quite.

Your Instagram business account might provide you with insights to track important KPIs such as impressions, engagement and follower demographics, but what lies ahead is the task of determining what to spend on and how. If your goal is to reach as much of your target audience as possible, your Instagram advertising strategy has to focus on campaign optimization and healthy ROAS (return on ad spend), which includes allocating your budget to the relevant areas at the right times. The following six simple rules will make this a breeze, so worrying about your digital media spend will become a thing of the past.

1. Remember the 70:30 Rule

When determining how much to spend on Instagram ads, it's important to be flexible in your approach. Consider dividing your digital media spend by using the 70/30 rule. 70% goes into your set Instagram advertising cost, and the other 30% is set aside for fluid spending, such as reactive Instagram ads. If any portion of the 30% is not needed, it can always be added back into the main spending pot.

2. Choose Your Days Wisely

According to Instagram, more than 80% of users follow at least one business. And, 75% of users reportedly visited a website or purchased after seeing an Instagram ad. To capture this audience, it’s crucial to determine when is the best time to reach these users?

Different sectors do better at different times, so as part of your Instagram campaign strategy, do your research and plan carefully to get the most out of your ad spend.

Overall, the best day to post ads is Thursday. Tuesday and Wednesday having the highest cost-per-click (CPC). Want a sure-fire response to your ad? 3 pm on Wednesday is the way to go. But there are exceptions: consumer goods experience a boom on the platform between 11 am and 1 pm on Saturdays, with a distinct drop-off noticed on Mondays when people are too busy at work to shop.

3. Connect With Your Audience

Segmentation is the key to connecting with your audience and is crucial to a healthy Instagram campaign strategy. AdRoll can help you target customers on Instagram across the entire funnel. For example, you can serve general awareness ads to new customers and offer discounts to your loyal ones. Then, you can further segment with dynamic ads, delivering specific messaging to customers based on the products they’ve viewed in carousel posts or IG Stories. This way, your targets don’t get tired of seeing the same ads and have a greater potential for conversion thanks to a more personalized experience.

4. Be Instagram Smart

Little tricks are available to help you make the most of your digital media spend on Instagram – like the placement of your adverts. Currently, ads between IG Stories are less expensive than those that roll out in the main Instagram feed. If you’re targeting a group that interacts well with the Stories feature, then selecting that type of ad would be a natural choice and can help to decrease your Instagram advertising cost.

There are other quick wins too. Maybe you’ve noticed an organic post is doing particularly well and you want to make it more visible? No problem: you can turn it into an ad by tapping the “Promote” button below the post’s image. Follow the instructions to complete the details - whom you want to reach (audience), how much you want to spend (budget), and the length of the promotion (duration). Once you’ve tapped ‘Promote’ to finish, Instagram will review your ad within 60 minutes. Job done.

5. Follow Through

It sounds like common sense, but only 1 in 10 brands respond to potential customers when they receive a message from them. 71% of people are likely to buy a product after a good experience on social, so be the brand that listens to its audience by responding to messages and comments.

6. Ask for Help

Instagram continues to gain followers every year, and trying to connect with them can seem daunting. That’s why AdRoll offers simple solutions to get you going. We believe programmatic advertising offers more value for your money. By using prospecting and retargeting to help your customers move along the sales funnel, we'll help you get a better return on your Instagram marketing spend. Whether you’re an Instagram novice or a social media whizz, we'll help you discover how to use the AdRoll platform to catapult your business to the next level.

Now that you know how to optimize your Instagram advertising strategy, learn how to use Instagram to grow your brand, check out 15 Tips for Selling on Instagram.

Last updated on August 16th, 2022.