Instagram Ads Are They Worth it?

By Jacqueline Manivone

I do believe that Instagram ads are worth it with the right visuals. Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms and people aimlessly scroll through peoples’ stories on Instagram therefore are unintentionally coming across ads that would be redirected to intended audiences. As a user of Instagram, the ads that I see are actually useful and worth it because I find myself clicking on things that peaked my interest.

​What are Instagram ads? Instagram ads are posts utilized by various businesses to better adhere to their users and audience.  Ads let organizations use various techniques to publicize their label, products and services.  Just like Facebook, Instagram ads occur all over the app, as well as in handlers’ timelines, stories, explore page, or suggested products. Instagram ads look just like regular posts but each time include a sponsored tag to suggest that the post is an ad. The best advertising campaigns contain compelling graphic content that peak the interest of various users.  Content can be captured through high resolution professionally shot pictures or videos. Instagram ads are not just a picture of a product, the posts also contain other features like links to the website.

​If you are interested in utilizing Instagram’s efficient feature of ads, keep in mind that not all ads cost the same and are extremely dependent on various factors. Some rate factors may include your target audience, how competitive the market is for your company, the season, or where you want to place your ad in Instagram.  The most efficient way to determine a reasonable daily or lifetime budget is to establish what works best for your company.  Depending on what your desired results are for your product will determine the range you are willing to spend in order to hit the intended targets.  To test out which strategy works best for you, Instagram has a method where you can spend a couple dollars a day and increase it with its parallel success. There are a variety of unique styles of promotion designs on Instagram like single picture posts, stories, videos like reels, carousel posts, explore posts, or shopping ads.  The broad selection allows you the freedom and flexibility to pick and choose which marketing technique best suits your business goal.

Instagram ads are worth it because they allow you to determine your intended audience through aspects like age range, location, gender, and other data gathered.  By knowing your targeted audience and establishing a goal for your product will increase product engagement and sales if you utilize Instagram ads to the full extent. It is important to experiment which technique works best for your company so that you can efficiently spend your budget and work smarter not harder.  The best types of Instagram ads appear seamlessly throughout users’ feeds.  For example a popular strategy business’ utilize are Instagram stories.  Millions of people watch their stories at all times of the day mindlessly tapping through each one.  If your ad popped up in their story feed it could easily captivate users and end the boring cycle of scrolling with no purpose.  Since Instagram ads appear to users who are not yet following your company account, it broadens your engagement spectrum therefore creating endless opportunities for your brand to grow.  Displaying your most popular products through ads can grab the attention of potential customers without them possibly losing interest having to scroll through countless products.  With ads they can see exactly what they went and press on the available link that ill take them straight to it.  Although Instagram is about a decade old now, the ap is not going anywhere for a long time unlike Facebook or MySpace.  People are consistently creating new accounts everyday, adding more and more to the list of potential consumers for your brand.  With the right mindset, strategy, and plan, utilizing Instagram ads to your highest benefit would be as easy as breathing and before you know it your costumer engagement could sky rocket over night, you just have to be willing to try it.