[ Social Media ]

Top 5 Reasons You Should Be advertising on Instagram

Six years ago, Instagram was bought by Facebook. There are now over 2 million advertisers on the mobile app, and over 800 million monthly active users. The number of active users has grown massively, with a 900% jump since February 2016. A growing number of advertisers now opt to include Instagram as part of their ad strategy, and you might be wondering, what made Instagram become such a huge hit?

1. Reach new heights of creativity with Instagram Stories

Back in 2016, when Instagram launched Instagram Stories – its own version of Snapchat’s Story function, the social network saw its number of advertisers soar. From a figure of 500,000 before the launch of Stories, the number of advertisers on the platform now stands at 2 million. – That’s a 300% growth in just one year!

Instagram Stories allowed advertisers to explore new visual and in-the-moment content to advertise their brands. The function has now become a favorite tool for companies as, according to Dan Grossman, VP of platform partnerships at VaynerMedia, “Instagram is a follower platform, where Snapchat is more of a best friend platform.”

Source: Sprout Social

IG Story:

Source: Maximize Social Business

2. A broad range of ad formats

Since the launch of Stories, the number of ad formats on Instagram has grown, with the company rolling out even more new ad possibilities than before. The growth in ad features and formats on Instagram has given advertisers more room to present their ads more effectively, and this, in turn, has helped Instagram boom.

The ad formats available on Instagram rely on Facebook’s technology and targeting methods. Formats include images, carousels, videos, lead forms, and slideshows, with newly added features such as collection ads and “tap to view products.” The following are the variety of ad formats you can use on Instagram.

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1. Images:

 

Image ads are composed of a single image.

 

2. Videos:

 

Video ads are composed of a single video.

 

3. Carousel:

 

Carousel ads use two or more images and/or videos.

 

4. Lead forms:

Lead form ads are great for generating sign-ups to services or email subscriptions.

 

5. Collection Ad:

 

Collection ads are a new format on Instagram that allows advertisers to combine both video and images – allowing consumers to find the products shown in the video easily.

Source: AdAge

 

One of the most interesting statistics reveals the amount of time spent watching videos on the app has gone up by 80% year-on-year. Also, as Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom explains, the number of video views on the platform has shot up by 150% in the last six months.

In addition to the growth in the engagement of video ads, when it comes to video creation, Marne Levine, Instagram’s chief operating officer has noted that people and brands are producing four times more video content. – A recent report shows 25% of ads on Instagram are now videos.

The main reason advertisers now prefer this medium is because many brands have found videos give the best conversion rate. Amazon and eBay found that using video ads increased the chances of a shopper buying that item by up to 35%.

 

3. Excellent for anyone who is familiar with Facebook advertising

A notable point with advertising on Instagram is how easy it is – especially for companies that are already familiar with Facebook advertising. Instagram ads can be placed through Facebook’s interface so any brands looking to start advertising on Instagram can pick it up in no time.

“Being part of Facebook has been super helpful for Instagram,” Levine said. Relying on the technology and targeting methods of Facebook ads has helped Instagram to improve its own ad services. With reasonable costs and a familiar setup process aligned to Facebook, advertising on Instagram is an easy way to reach a wide audience, making the ads highly effective.

 

4. The most highly engaged customers on all social platforms

The biggest standout point of advertising on Instagram over other social platforms is its super high engagement rates – showing that its audience is truly interested in what brands have to say. Research shows that ad recall from Instagram sponsored ads is 2.8 times higher on average than recall from other social networks, and Instagram has an engagement rate of 4.21% – much more than other platforms. On average, people also tend to stay on Instagram for 192 seconds longer than other channels such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter – showing that traffic on the social network is the most engaged.

Source: Yotpo

 

5. The ultimate platform for attracting mobile customers

Another significant plus for Instagram is the fact it’s mobile-first. Out of all social platforms, Instagram has the highest proportion of mobile users. With a majority of people spending more time on mobile than desktop, this hugely benefits Instagram who has been mobile from the start. As more users shop on mobile, this will make Instagram ads more attractive for brands compared to other social platforms. Ads on Instagram are optimized for mobile traffic, and this is clearly appreciated by advertisers.

As Facebook has seen people spending less time on the platform – likely due to the recent algorithm changes, Instagram will continue to remain an important network for advertisers. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operations officer at Facebook, has recently highlighted the success of Instagram and Stories. The newly launched collection ads and the “tap to view products” feature have also given advertisers more ways to take their ads to another level, and we are likely to see further improvements for ads on Instagram in the future.

Which Instagram features have you found most effective for your business? Let us know by commenting below!