With the introduction of business accounts, the way companies have sponsored their content on Instagram has also changed. Before the second half of 2016, the only way to promote an Instagram post was to go through Facebook ADS, then launch a sponsored post that would cover both social networks (if the accounts were linked). With the introduction of an Instagram business, things have changed considerably. It is possible to sponsor on Instagram without going through Facebook.
Create Instagram business accounts
To sponsor content on Instagram, without going through the most used social network in the world, you need to create an Instagram business account. If you already have an active account, you only need to enter the settings and click on the wording “Switch to a business profile. Once you have done this, all you have to do is enter your contact information, such as email and telephone number, and you’re done.
Creating an Instagram business account is not only convenient for sponsoring posts without Facebook, but it is fundamental because it allows you to keep insights under control without using additional external tools. From Instagram Insights, it is possible to check the progress of the posts, perform socio-demographic analyzes relating to the Instagram followers, and even understand the most suitable moments to publish content.
When it comes to social strategy, it is necessary to know how to analyze and understand the data relating to company profiles, and by opening an Instagram business account. You will also have the possibility to check the performance of sponsored companies, which are found under the heading “Promotions.” A little note on business accounts is to pay attention to the Instagram name. It must be connectable to the company, and it is not recommended to use fancy names that are not related in any way to the company activity.
Sponsoring on Instagram: the contents
Instagram is not made only for the sponsorship of photographs and single images, but ADS can also be created with videos and a set of images (carousels). Often the feed flows with great speed, without dwelling too much on the same contents, unless there is something really particular that captures the attention. This speed of use is ideal for promotional content, as it is not very intrusive within the user’s stream.
According to livemint.com, buying instagram followers from recommended sites and sponsoring on Instagram does not have very high costs, and, due to the targeting settings, you can go to identify a selected audience and potentially interested in your brand and your content, exactly as it already happens on Facebook. Through the images, it is possible to tell and leverage the user’s emotional sphere through the use of a good photograph or graphic, combined with an interesting caption. The image to be sponsored can be in a square (1080 x 1080 pixels) or rectangular (1200 x 628 pixels) format.
The video Instagram may be even more compelling images, they must necessarily be in landscape format and, due to the combination of sound and movement, help to capture the attention of a wider audience. Finally, there is the possibility of creating carousels, which is a set of images that flow to tell a story or explain a specific concept, product, or service.
How to sponsor from Instagram
Once the Instagram business profile has been created, it is necessary to click on the “Promote” button located within the reference profile. The “Create Promotion” screen will open where you can choose an already published post to make ADS. Once you have chosen your favorite image or video, simply click on the arrow to continue, and you will need to define the type of action that will be requested from users, choosing between “Visit your website” and “Call or visit your company.
Assuming that the desire is to bring the public potential to the company website, we will tap on the first option, and we will have the opportunity to choose the CTA in detail. The next step is to create a reference audience for our sponsored post, and it can be “Automatic” (not recommended) or manually targeted according to the characteristics that the typical customer/user should have. In the targeting options, it is possible to choose the origin, interests, age-range, and gender.
Once this is done, all you have to do is define the budget to invest in ADS and the duration of the promotion. Once all the steps have been completed, there will be a summary screen to recheck the order details, and you will have the opportunity to check the payment method. If you have an Instagram business account already connected with a Facebook page, the payment method already used for the advertising account on Facebook will be automatically selected.
How to sponsor on Instagram through the Facebook Business Manager
What happens even more often is to create an advertisement from the Facebook ad manager. In fact, from a single platform, it is possible to sponsor content in the three big names of Zuckerberg, Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. In this case, you can choose whether to sponsor an image or video that you have already posted on your feed, to sponsor a story or exclusive content that is not yet on Instagram.
The choice depends on the strategy you are pursuing. For example, for remarketing, it is not published on your feed, to receive more likes or to show off a new promo.
From the Business Manager, go to the section on managing advertisements and create a new one.
Step 1) the choice of the objective of the campaign
At this point, we must choose the objective of the campaign and what is the result that we expect from this sponsorship. Among the most common ones:
Traffic: to link to a link on your site
Interactions: to receive more Instagram followers, likes and comments (not available for Stories placement)
Brand Awareness: to ensure that many people see it
Step 2: Select placement in the ad group
After choosing the goal, the next step is to set up a group of adverts. Here we can finally choose Instagram as the only positioning and choose between Feed, Explore section, and Stories. To bring up the list of placements, you must click on “Edit Placements.” Let’s not forget that always at this stage, we have to choose the target and the budget.
Step 3: Selection of creativity for the insertion
In the next screen, we can choose the advert to sponsor. We insert text, image (or video), and links if necessary. If instead, it is a post already published, we must select it from “Use the existing post” under the choice of the Identity of the page. Remember to connect the Instagram page that we want to use to an existing Facebook.
