Why advertise on Instagram?
There was a time when business owners relied solely on referral marketing. The “Word of Mouth” strategy was perfect for businesses operating in small communities where every customer could spread the word and attract other customers from the same town or city.
Things changed during the 20th century when radio and television gave people access to more information. However, it was the Internet that triggered one of the most important and most drastic shifts in marketing, business, and lifestyle. It changed the way we communicate and, of course, the way we market and advertise our products and businesses.
People react better to images and videos than texts and slogans.
People want to see, hear and learn more, but their time is limited. The problem is classic social media platforms are time-consuming. You need to deliver your message fast and concise to be able to attract fans or customers. And not all the social media platforms promote this kind of communication. Is there a platform that is visual and popular, easy to access and able to deliver instant messages? Yes, there is, and we’re referring to Instagram.
With more than 800 million active users, Instagram is a leading social media platform. Not convinced by this number? Well, just one year ago, Instagram announced its 500 million users milestone. A growth of almost 50% in one year tells us more about this platform’s popularity and future potential than anything else.
In simple words, it has become a huge and diverse online community with unlimited marketing potential. Of course, Facebook has more active users than Instagram. However, sheer numbers may not be the first thing to consider when advertising a small business. If you want to successfully promote your small business, you should look first at the relevant data. The statistics are more than just simple numbers calculated in order to attract more users.
According to Forrester, Instagram is the king of social media with a 4.21% engagement rate.
This is a huge number, considering that Facebook and Twitter combined barely reach a 0.10 engagement rate. “Instagram delivered 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter” Forrester ads.
What are the benefits of Instagram advertising? Here are the real benefits of advertising on Instagram.
● There are more than 700 million users on Instagram and the community is still growing.
● Instagram and Facebook are connected. So it’s easier to target your audience based on Facebook data. All budgeting and scheduling tasks, the setup and creation of ads are done through Facebook. So you don’t need to start from scratch and learn about Instagram, once you’ve already used its sister platform for marketing and ads.
● Instagram ads are non-intrusive and less likely to annoy your targeted audience.
● The engagement rate on Instagram is higher than the engagement rate on any other social media platform.
● Instagram measures the success of your campaign based on awareness, reach and recall instead of follower counts, likes or comments.
● Most people use their smartphones to read their news, socialize on Facebook or post their own stories and update social media timelines. Most smartphones feature high-end cameras that can shoot photographs to be immediately posted on Instagram. Everybody can be an amateur photographer. Instagram is the best channel for this type of media and it’s why most mobile users have Instagram accounts.
● In terms of ROI and cost, Instagram returns the best results. It’s effective and less time-consuming than other online marketing channels.
Instagram Photo Ads
You can tell a story or promote your products online through visually engaging images. Market your small business or brand to a broad audience or target just local customers from your geographic area or hometown. The main goal is to get your potential customers to visit your website once you’ve managed to draw your customers’ attention. With over 250 million daily users it’s a great way to grow your brand awareness.