With its millions of users, Instagram is a tested and trusted eCommerce platform. And it is no surprise that its ad revenue is consistently on the rise.
While most marketers believe only big bucks can run effective ads, you don’t have to waste big dollars to run successful campaigns. If you know how to structure your Instagram ads, you can get great results while keeping your spend down.
In this article, we’ll tell you a bit about Instagram ads and show you how they can be effective on a small budget.
The True Nature of Instagram Ads
At least 80% of Instagram users follow a business profile. So, being on the platform as a business or brand already gives you enough leverage to be successful.
However, making the most of such potential is easier said than done. This is because the app itself is one of the most competitive apps in existence. Posting pictures and videos gives your audience a glimpse into your brand, work culture, and the inner workings of your products and services. However, to drive sales and increase the following of your brand, you will need to learn how to create effective Instagram ads.
The platform offers various ads you can run to achieve particular objectives, depending on the nature of your brand, industry or niche, and your type of business. When the right ads are posted at the right time, and with the right design specifications, you are bound to achieve more engagement.
Hence, spending lots of money on Instagram ads isn’t all that is needed to drive your sales. You must design the right ads, and strategically place them on the best parts of Instagram to maximise their growth potential.
So, Are Instagram Ads Effective on a Small Budget?
Unless you have the big bucks to spend on strategic marketing professionals, you won’t truly relish the power of Instagram advertising. Or will you?
Well, the truth is, even with a tiny ad budget, you can make something of your Instagram ads. And although the bigger and better brands on the platform will have the money edge, you can still make your ads as effective as theirs, albeit on a smaller scale.
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and some other platforms support small-budget social media ad campaigns. At the least, these ad campaigns can help your brand learn more about its target audience while producing successful and scalable results. Irrespective of your budget size, odds are, you can reap the ROI merits through a personalised, focused, and inclusive social media marketing strategy.
How to Run Effective Instagram Ad Campaigns on a Small Budget
Instagram is certainly among the top social media platforms when it comes to reaching and engagement. While the potential to tap into its wide array of target audiences is extremely high, at the end of the day, an ad campaign on Instagram is only as strong as the strategy behind it.
With you already at a disadvantage on the money front, using all the hacks that Instagram has to offer is the best way to reach your audience effectively.
Let’s take a look at how you can create an effective Instagram advertising campaign with a small budget.
Establish Clear Goals
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To compete with brands or businesses with larger ad budgets than yours, you’ll have to excel at your Instagram marketing strategies. The first path to achieving that is making sure your goals are as clear as possible.
Thankfully, Instagram caters to advertisers with different objectives, whether it be to drive awareness, create leads, or make conversions.
Identifying your ad goals affords you the chance to target the right audience, connect with them, and constantly measure the performance of your campaigns.
For example, your goal may be to buy new followers with your instagram ads. At the end of the campaign, it’ll be easy to calculate your success by how many new followers you get.
Know Everything About Your Target Audience
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You might have heard this several times but you must know your audience before attempting to sell to them. This isn’t just about knowing the type of people you want to focus your brand’s services and products on. Instead, you must also understand their behaviours, preferences, and general mindset when it comes to how they view ads on Instagram.
If your target audience is already interested in your products and services, that’s great. However, you must continue engaging with them and expand their numbers by connecting with others like them. Your Instagram ad campaign will automatically create a greater success rate if you nurture an audience with established behavioural patterns, while continuously growing their number.
Promote Only Your Best Content
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At this point, you may not know the exact type of content you should use for your ad campaign. However, above everything else, have a mindset of using nothing but your best content.
Yes, you’ve created definite objectives and have come up with an efficiently targeted audience base. Still, this doesn’t mean customers will flock to your Instagram ads and yield you results.
As with any aspect of advertising, high-quality, relevant content is vital to making any audience feel compelled enough to engage with your business. Considering that you’re working with a low budget, using quality content is your best bet for reeling in loyal customers that’ll continue serving your brand for many years.
When you invest in authentic content and original designs, you’ll be able to create visually captivating ads that will make your ad campaign on Instagram stand out. The good news is, you can do all this without breaking the bank. You may need to hire some professionals to help you out. But, to save some bucks, you can do it yourself with easy-to-use editing apps.
Remember, you only have 3 seconds, or less, to grab attention with your Instagram ads. This is because users are bombarded with online ads every day so they tend to get bored by ads. So, you need to be particularly more creative than your competitors with big bucks. This is the only way to make your audience want to know more about your brand and product.
Usually, ads by big brands have a lot more screen time and multiple placements. So unlike you, these big brands will have multiple chances to woo their target audience.
This is why striving to be more engaging with your visual content is important. Also, choose your ad location wisely as some locations can be more effective than others, depending on your goals.
Monitor Your Progress and Adapt to Changes
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Now that you have stated your clear goals, targeted the right audience, and used only high-quality ad content, you need to monitor your progress.
The Instagram ad environment is a very volatile and flexible one. You need to learn to hop on trends that can make your ad campaigns even more effective. Also learn to change tactics when your ads aren’t pulling as much weight.
Using tools like Instagram Analytics, you can carefully monitor the progress of your ad campaigns. Ensure that you always meet your targets. This way, you will retain relevance and keep your ads as effective as possible.
Bottom Line
Your journey to increased engagements and multiple sales can be somewhat halted due to low advertising budgets. Nevertheless, you still have the opportunity to rise to the top with calculated marketing strategies.
By laying the foundations for your ad campaign and doing the basics immaculately, you can take your content to a level that performs at its best, even with your budget limitations.
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