Instagram has over 800 million worldwide active users, as of September 2017, that’s over double the amount that Twitter has (Source: statista.com). It's the 7th largest social network in the world, 5th if you discount both Chinese instant chat and social platforms, QQ, and WeChat. In the UK the stats are impressive too. 17.2 million users, 56% female, 44% male, and 85% of users are younger than 45 years old (Source: napoleoncat.com). When you look at statistics like these it's easy to see why more and more brands are including advertising on Instagram within their marketing strategies.

Why advertise on Instagram?
So, the stats above show the potential of Instagram and it's huge audience, but what are the benefits for your business? Instagram advertising allows you to get your business/brand in front of your audience in a much more personal way. Research shows that Instagrammers like interacting with brands on the platform too. 65% of the top-performing Instagram posts feature products. Their more switched on. With 60% of users logging in daily, second only to Facebook. (Source: globalwebindex.net)

Combine the large audience, immersive experience through mobile, powerful analytics and a clever marketing strategy, and Instagram provides a very powerful channel for your business to take advantage of and grow.

So what brands are using Instagram and how?
Instagram isn't just images of mouthwatering food or cats. It's been adopted by brands across the globe, with 90% of the top 100 brands now using it within their marketing mix. Brands like Nike have over 75 million followers, using the video functionality to interact with consumers.

The huge growth in user-generated traffic also helps brands on Instagram. Brand advocates generate hashtags for their brands such as #JustDoIt for Nike. Showcasing photos and videos that are much more authentic than branded photos/videos. This allows a deeper more personal connection with consumers, and another way to capitalise and connect with them. Engagement with brands is 10 times higher than Facebook and a huge 84 times higher than Twitter.

The different types of advertising on Instagram
Photos, videos, carousels, and stories are the four different types of advertising on Instagram. Each offering their own advantages depending on your target audience and brand/product. Being a mobile app, Instagram offers a very personal experience that immerses Instagrammers in your content. Plus, with the ability to target your ads by reach, video views, traffic, conversions, app installs and brand awareness, it's a great way to increase business, whether that through sales, downloads or leads.

Reporting and adapting on your Instagram advertising
As Instagram is owned by facebook it benefits from Ads Manager and Power Editor. Two very powerful tools that give great insight into how your campaign is performing and greater control managing multiple adverts and campaigns. There's simply no point in advertising on Instagram if you're not going to gather insights and adapt accordingly. By studying the data received, your campaigns will have a higher chance of succeeding and achieve greater return on investment (ROI).

As with Facebook, to measure your campaigns successfully, Facebook Pixel will need to be installed. It's an analytics tool that helps you measure the effectiveness of your advertising and is installed on your website by placing some code in the header. Once installed it offers powerful ways to gain greater insight and knowledge about your campaigns and audience.

With the Instagram analytic tools, you will be able to target a more specific audience, one that matches your brand. You can re-market to visitors of your website that clicked on your Instagram advertising, increasing the chance of conversion greatly, and create lookalike audiences that match your best customers. Use automatic bidding that targets people who are more likely to take an action you care about, like making a purchase on your website.

Conclusion
Instagram offers a less intrusive and visual way of connecting with your customers, and compared with traditional advertising it's extremely cost-effective. If your audience is young and your product or service can be made visually engaging, then Instagram offers a powerful new marketing channel that can drive great ROI.

If you would like to discuss how Instagram advertising could be right for your business, and how we can help plan your social marketing strategy or improve on your existing results, get in touch today.