Christie Huber — June 23, 2017 — June 23, 2017
Instagram is one of the of the most visually appealing forms of digital advertising. It helps marketers tell their brand’s story with an aesthetic power you can’t find elsewhere. For consumers with increasingly short attention spans, Instagram has become the go-to app for image consumption.
Ad recall from Instagram is an astounding 2.8 times higher than Nielsen’s norms for online advertising. What this means for us marketers is that the over 700 million monthly users are our captive audience – and this audience continues to grow. Marketers can take advantage of this trend by leveraging the platform to run effective ad campaigns.
If you are wondering how you can run Instagram ad campaigns that drive not just awareness — but conversions and customers — here are a few tips that will help prove return on your investment (ROI):
1. Choose your Instagram ad type with a measurable business goal in mind.
Marketers are split on using Instagram for experimental projects and measurable campaigns. If you can’t prove the ROI, how are you going to justify the spend to your CMO or the impact of your ads to your clients? (We will explain how to show Instagram ad ROI in more detail in tips 5 and 6 – so keep reading!)
With Instagram ads, you can drive awareness by tracking reach, frequency, brand awareness, or local awareness, but you can also increase consideration and conversion. A consideration goal is appropriate if you would like your audience to learn more about your business via website clicks and video views. If you need to prove ROI by increasing product sales, store visits, website actions or phone calls, a conversion-based goal is key.
Once you determine your goal, decide your Instagram ad type (the four basic types are photo ads, video ads, carousel, and story ads). Simple photo ads are often best for driving conversions.
2. Choose an ad objective that helps you measure success of your goal.
There are eight types of objectives that you can choose from in order to create an Instagram ad within Facebook Ads Manager. A conversion objective helps drive measurable actions that will help you prove ROI. If your goal is to increase customer phone call conversions from your Instagram ads – and measure them effectively – this option is for you.
3. Create your Instagram ad with this same goal in mind.
If you want your ad to appear as organic and be remembered, focus on an appealing visual with little to no branding or text. In order to drive more customers, you want to pique their curiosity enough that they are willing to click.
Keep in mind that shoppers often need to call and talk to a real person. This is especially true for expensive, complex, or infrequent purchases. For example, 70% of consumers want to call to book local services and 35% of travel booking are from phone calls.
You should create an ad that is specific to Instagram and your goal. Banner ads created for other platforms and adjusted for Instagram will not perform well. The Instagram audience is accustomed to scrolling through pretty images with little text. Instagram is one place where you want to blend in with the crowd a bit. Think about your own behavior when using the app and the types of images you like to see.
4. Before your begin your campaign, be sure that your website is mobile optimized.
It is best to create a specific landing page meant for Instagram that is as basic as possible. Ensure the site has simple options for getting in touch with your business. For example, if driving more phone calls to your business is your goal, create a page that has a large click-to-call button as you main CTA. Review examples of call-friendly mobile sites for ideas or add a click-to-call button to your site like the examples below:
5. Measure direct conversions and view-through attribution.
What is the difference? Direct conversions are traditional click-based actions tracked when the user clicks on the ad or link, visits your website, and converts. A view-through attribution tracks conversions that happen within 30 days of a user seeing your ad but not initially taking direct action. Be sure to track both in order to accurately measure the influence your Instagram campaign has on driving conversions and customers — even when they come via other advertising channels.
6. Use this data to optimize and justify your spend.
Prove the value of your Instagram advertising spend by tracking and optimizing based on ad performance data that will appear in your Facebook Ads Manager account. Using a call attribution tool, you can track phone calls that were driven by your Instagram ads. With DialogTech’s direct integration with Facebook and Instagram, you can even see phone calls alongside your other performance metrics in Facebook Ads Manager.
Spending on digital ads is up, but perceived value is low. In order to boost your ROI and prove value of social advertising campaigns on various platform, such as Instagram, marketers must show the connection between social advertising, phone call conversions (or other conversion goals), and return on marketing spend.
Interesting in learning more about how to generate more inbound phone leads from your social ads? Download The Facebook Playbook to Call Conversions or visit our DialogTech for Social webpage.
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