How to promote a post on Instagram: an instruction with examples

How to promote a post on Instagram: an instruction with examples

Today, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms, especially among Ukrainian users. Therefore, it is not surprising that many young companies and brands first create profiles on Instagram, and only then engage in website development. And for quick and effective promotion of business accounts, social media has its own set of advertising tools. In this article, we will show and explain step by step how to advertise a post on Instagram without using Facebook Ads.

First of all, it is necessary to understand that the internal advertising cabinet of Instagram has its characteristics:

• you can promote only published materials in the feed or Stories. Currently, there is no possibility to create an advertisement without publishing it in the profile;
• promo settings are provided for any post: one image, carousel, video. For comparison, Facebook Ads can only advertise a carousel using the Reach goal;
• you cannot promote IGTV or previews to it;
• Stories promos can only be customized until they disappear and cannot include interactive elements (such as profile mentions, geolocations, polls, gif animations, and so on).
• it is not possible to choose the time and date of the start and end of advertising the post.

Considering these nuances, it is worth deciding whether the functionality of Instagram will be enough to promote the brand. If this kind of advertising suits you, then in this article you can familiarize yourself with the clear sequence of setting up promotional posts on Instagram.  

How to create an advertising post on Instagram

The advertising possibilities of Instagram may seem limited to you. However, there are still several good reasons not to reject this method of paid promotion. Why are so many businesses, media personalities, and brands choosing to advertise on Instagram?

1. The simplicity

Anyone can figure out how to set up advertising on Instagram. There are no complicated stages in selecting audiences, goals, and other nuances. Unlike the Facebook ads manager, which frightens beginners.

2. Speed

Thinking about creating a promo for publishing through Facebook Ads can give you a headache and a desire to postpone this activity until better times. There is no such problem with advertising on Instagram because this matter will only take a few minutes.

3. Advertising in direct

Another serious reason for choosing to promote a publication on Instagram is the possibility of setting up advertising with a Direct destination, that is, direct sending of the user to the message.

To create a post for promotion on Instagram, as we wrote above, you must first publish it on your profile. If you still need an ad that will not appear in the feed, then you will have to use the tools of the Facebook Ads Manager. With the help of one of the 11 goals presented, you can customize the ad and, in the third stage of creation, add the visual and text parts of the ad.  

How to promote a post on Instagram without Facebook

To launch effective advertising on the social media platform Instagram, you first need to create an advertising account and a Facebook business page, which, as a result, is linked to an Instagram profile.

1. Create a Facebook Business Manager: To do this, log in to your company or brand account, go to the Facebook Business Manager page, create a business account and fill in all the required fields.
2. Create an advertising account: To do this, open the section Company settings, go to Advertising accounts, and add a new one. At this stage, you need to enter data about the time zone and currency.
3. Set up payment: in a new advertising account, open the window View payment methods and enter the data about the method convenient for you.

Next, you need to link your Instagram profile with Facebook: log in to the Instagram mobile application, then link the profiles on the two social networks through the advertising office.  

What does the Boost post button on Instagram mean, and how does it works

To start a promo post on Instagram, you need to open the desired post. Below the illustration is a blue clickable Boost post button. It is responsible for promoting the post in the profile. In some cases, this button may be inactive. It is due to advertising restrictions on Facebook and Instagram. And the reason for the impossibility of promoting posts on Instagram is the visual or textual content of the publication. Therefore, for the system to miss a post, you need to ensure that you do not violate the advertising policy of social networks.

When the Boost post button is active, after clicking on it, we perform simple actions:

1. We select the advertising destination: the profile, site, or direct message. An additional option appears for redirecting to the site: in addition to adding a hyperlink, you also need to specify a button that will be displayed in the ad. For example, Learn more, Go to the store, Sign up, Contact us, etc. 

2. We define the audience. It can be selected from previously created, automatic, or created for a specific advertisement. When setting up a new audience, you must name it. It is preferable to enter data in this line to identify the audience segment quickly. Next, you need to indicate the location, interests (field of activity, etc.), and the age and gender of the people for whom future advertising will be shown. 

3. We select the duration of advertising and the budget. The minimum possible budget is USD 1 for one day. At the same time, it is worth remembering that larger budgets allow you to reach a larger number of users. 

4. At the last stage, you can check the advertisement to see whether all the previous points are filled in correctly. You can also open an ad preview to understand how this ad will look in Feed, Stories, and Recommendations. Also, on this page, you should ensure that the specified payment method is correct. If the payment card is entered incorrectly, it can be changed. 

Where to see the statistics of an advertising post on Instagram

There are two methods for viewing information about running ads.

1. In the Facebook Ads Manager. Immediately after the launch of the promo publication, a corresponding advertising campaign is created in the Facebook Ads advertising cabinet. Here it is convenient to filter the results by age, gender, and place of residence. You can also install the corresponding application on your smartphone, in which case it is even easier to track the effectiveness of advertising publications.
2. In the Ad section on Instagram. By clicking on the button in the profile, you will get access to all the advertising campaigns created on Instagram. Both active and completed promotional publications are displayed here. You can also view the results of the old advertising campaign at any time.

Promoting a post on Instagram can be extremely effective and is in no way inferior to a more detailed targeting setup on Facebook. But it should be taken into account that the result of such advertising also depends on the business page’s appearance on the social network and its content. Also, you should first get your company profile in order so that future ads gather more interactions and bring in new customers.

If this article does not give you a complete understanding of how to set up the promotion of a post on an Instagram account, contact our digital agency Lanet CLICK. We provide comprehensive brand promotion services on social networks. In particular, SMM specialists set up advertising and engage in promotion on Instagram.