With over 400 million monthly active users and 2.5 billion likes daily, its no wonder why Instagram introduced sponsored photos and videos onto their stream. The sponsored posts was first tested for the big brands such as Philadelphia and L’Oréal Paris. However, as of September 9th, any brand can sponsor their post. We have decided to share our thoughts on the new service available to any business.
Digital and traditional marketing methods such as Facebook and Twitter have a stricter rule on what you can post in comparison to Instagram, it allows a brand to be more creative with their content which can capture their audience in a different way to other social media sites. However, one of the biggest mistakes that businesses make on Instagram is the content of the photos, you have to make sure that the content your posting, people want you to see on their timeline. The main question you need to ask yourself is ‘would you like that post?’, you don’t want to be that generic company that shows off your new services such as a new stapler in stock.
One feature on Instagram is that businesses can post carousel type photos, these don’t have to be photos of your services, it could include interesting abstract photos or quotes. By having a carousel type ads, the advert creates more depth to the post, enabling your business to tell a story through imagery. Don’t have to directly post about your business, merely increasing your following will increase awareness of your brand.
Instagram have also introduced 15 second videos for users, this has also available in Ad formats (30 seconds), and therefore your brand can engage in richer storytelling. This could resemble a TV ad but for a minuscule price. One advantage that Instagram has over TV is that the Instagram video is more suited to your audience, whereas TV ads aren’t a niche market and are dominated by big brands. If a user swipes your ad, they are actively engaging into it, however with other social media platforms and TV ads, the user doesn’t have to actively swipe the advert.
Instagram ads can reach a wide audience fast without the user actively ‘sharing’ the post. Liking an Instagram post adds the post to the private stream where the user can only see it. Merely liking the post will appear on other peoples streams that follow that user, meaning that your reach and impressions will be very high.
With Instagram marketing being a new development and concept, this may cause an overload of businesses wanting to post on app. However Instagram isn’t just one stream which means most people will only have one or two ads on their stream at one time, making it a perfect platform for marketers.
We are pleased that Instagram are finally letting Small – Medium businesses advertise on their app. This new development will be revolutionary and will allow businesses to increase awareness of their brand and could potentially increase sales.
Here at Bigwave we are able to help manage and run pay per click campaigns across a range of social and search networks including Instagram. To discuss campaign ideas that we can help you develop, please contact us on 0845 643 2385 or complete our contact form.