Instagram ads are something that has become a crucial part of every brand’s marketing strategy. With billions of active users, creators, and influencers actively catering to them, Instagram has become an ecosystem of its own. And it is vital, brands find their place in this. With many brands vying for the attention of your audience, Instagram ads are a godsend that can help you skyrocket your business (if used properly!). But, you have to know when it is working and when it is necessary to optimise Instagram ads.
This is what we are tackling in this article. The subtle art of making Instagram ads your lead generation machine!
When to Optimise Instagram Ads?
Instagram is the third-most used social media platform, with 29% of users making purchases on it.
Let that sink in!
But if you really want to make the most of your ads and reach your goals, then you need to be able to know when and how to optimise your Instagram ads. Most of the time, we begin to address the issues in our ads when they make us lose money. But there are signs waaayyy before that indicate its descent. And this is how you identify them:
- You see a good number of people clicking and engaging with your ads, but they do not complete the ultimate CTR interaction (like signing up for your email newsletter).
- ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) has not shown a significant improvement and has hit a plateau.
- Since more people are clicking and not converting, your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) has skyrocketed. This has started to affect your bottom line.
- Your ads are not getting enough engagement.
If your current ad campaign is facing one or many of these issues, then it is time you optimise your Instagram ads.
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7 Tips To Optimize Your Instagram Ads
Okay, you know your ad is not performing well, now what? How do you make it better? Here are 7 optimization tips that can help you start making your ad work better!
1. Collaborate with Influencers
Accor is a hospitality brand that wants to let people know about the benefits of being a part of their loyalty program.
But instead of going the conventional route, where they shot numerous videos and made a glamorous edit, they did something different. They collaborated with an Influencer!
Now the creator made a humorous video comparing the benefits provided to a loyalty member vs a non-member. And guess what, the results of the strategy was fabulous!
Their ads had a 15.3 point lift in brand recall, attracted new customers, and improved their campaign metrics.
You could do that too. And trust us, this strategy works even better with micro-influencers because of their stellar engagement rate and lower rates.
2. Try Meta Advantage
STAGE, an Indian subscription-based streaming provider, wanted to improve their app sign-ups. So what do they do? They naturally run ads.
But their optimization process spanned a lot of time, and their operating costs were rising. They wanted to make the ads perfect for their audience and did not want to lose ad budget on experimentation. They needed a solution, and they needed it fast!
The solution they opted for was Meta Advantage. Leveraging advanced AI and Machine learning techniques, Meta created Meta Advantage that can help your ads perform better.
With this method to optimise Instagram ads, STAGE got 43% more subscription rates than from normal ads. And their cost per acquisition dropped by 19%
This is a lesson for any beginner who wants to leverage the power of ads. If you have the option to use Meta Advantage, take advantage of it!
3. Create ads for all funnel stages
Deichmann UK, a footwear brand, wanted its customers to be aware of their back-to-school offers. As a result, they ran their advertising campaigns through both traditional channels and Instagram.
During ad campaign planning, they decided to run ads for all stages of their marketing funnel: awareness, engagement, and sales. They targeted the respective set of people for their campaigns:
- For the awareness stage – showed to people 18 and over
- For the engagement stage – showed to parents and other relevant people
- For the sales stage – targeted towards people who have previously interacted with the ads.
As a result, they witnessed a 2.9-point increase in purchase intent and an 8-point lift in brand recall.
By creating an ad for every stage of the funnel, you can even convert a cold audience. By showing an ad to the same people repeatedly, you improve brand recall and recognition.
An additional advantage to this strategy is that you do not irritate your audience by continuously bombarding them with a similar set of ads.
4. Keep an eye on your competitor’s ads
Making mistakes is costly, which is why you need to learn from the mistakes of your competitors as well.
Thankfully for us, Meta has a transparency policy that allows you to see the ads that are run by your competitors. You can view these ads in the Facebook Ad Library. Although the ads library provides a lot of information, they do not show the performance metrics of those ads.
But, there is a telltale sign that allows us to know an ad is performing well. If an ad is doing well, the advertiser will tend to let it run for a longer period. So, keep a lookout for the started running date.
5. Write a better ad copy
Even experienced copywriters snag a hitch from time to time. And all of a sudden, you cannot write even a single relevant word.
This is where the writing frameworks come in handy. Because sub-par copies in ads can make the whole ad go to waste. So, here are 2 popular frameworks that you can use to make your copy better:
- PAS (Problem, Agitate, Solution) – Know what troubles your user? Use that Problem to agitate them and remind them how this problem is a big nuisance. Once you have established that, move on to the solution and position your product as the sole problem solver. Thus making your user think of your product as a necessity.
- AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) – If you are having trouble catching the attention of your audience, then this format is for you. The attention part is where you tell them a shocking fact or statistics that makes your audience stop in their tracks. Then interest them with relevant facts and gently guide them towards making the purchase or completing the conversion.
6. Try boosting your organic ads
If you are a newbie, then creating an ad campaign out of nowhere can feel out of reach to you. This is where boosting your organic posts can be of assistance.
If you are looking to run an ad, then boost your posts that have performed well in the past. This way, you get a hang of the ropes, see the kind of people engaging with your ads, and get a grasp of the budget requirements.
Although you cannot get access to advanced targeting techniques through this type of ad, it makes the whole process easy for you.
7. Monitor performance
Routinely check the performance of your ads and compare notes with the objectives you had before launching the ad. Did you make progress or not? If not, then it is time to revise your ad strategy.
Thankfully, this process has been made easy by the comprehensive analytics tools offered by Meta, such as Facebook Ads Manager and Instagram insights.
Some of the key metrics that you need to focus on are Impressions, reach, Engagement, CTR (click-through rates), and conversion rates.
Conclusion
Boosting engagement in your ad can prove to be hard sometimes. But with a good copy and stunning visuals, you can improve your chances of standing out from the noise and making your brand known.
To get there, you need to start with a creative and aesthetic ad. Gone are the days when you have to be a design pro or a wizard editor to achieve such ads. With Predis AI, you can create stunning, visually pleasing ads within a matter of seconds with or without design experience.
You can even manage, schedule, and collaborate with your peers through the same platform. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for your free account today to find out why Predis AI is preferred by top creators around the world!
