Advertising on Instagram for your ecommerce is one of the tools you have to ensure the growth of your brand, the profitability of your ppc campaigns and the acquisition of more customers.
Instagram was born in 2009 and acquired by Facebook in 2012. Since then, their growth has not stopped; they claim some one billion active users a month by 2020.
In September 2015, Instagram allows advertising and we have seen how more and more e-commerce brands are using its possibilities for advertising campaigns.
Don’t you use Instagram for your e-commerce? Do you know all the advantages and opportunities that this social network offers to your company?
Flexible cost
Instagram allows you to have very flexible budgets for your campaigns. Obviously, your results can be limited if you just spend $1 a day; however, that flexibility allows you to try out different goals and creativities.
If you already use the dollar-a-day method in your Facebook campaigns, you can use the same strategy with your Instagram campaigns.
One of the most common questions asked by marketers interested in Instagram ads is the potential ROI: how much does a click or conversion on Instagram cost?
In analyzing Instagram advertising costs, HubSpot found that the average cost per click (CPC) of Instagram ads ranges from $0.70 to $1.00.
However, there are many elements that determine the cost of your Instagram ads. For example, there is a difference in Instagram CPC prices for various age groups.
The highest CPC age groups are 18-24, 25-34 and 35-44, the most valuable age groups when it comes to Instagram marketing.
Facebook Platform Reports
I recommend that you use Business Manager to manage your advertising campaigns on Instagram for your ecommerce. Instagram offers you the ability to campaign directly from your App, but there are certain limitations.
For truly customized reports that allow you to optimize your campaigns, the Facebook Business Manager platform is ideal.
Objectives for all stages of your funnel
Instagram allows for a variety of advertising campaign targets for your ecommerce; by being part of the Facebook network, you’ll meet almost every target you already know (if you know Facebook Business Manager).
In summary, the objectives are based on the classic vision of a conversion funnel (Attraction > Interaction > Decision> Conversion).
Brand recognition
This is the top of the funnel, sometimes known as the TOFU (Top of Funnel).
Objectives
Let’s be honest. Not everyone knows us; except if we’re called Coca-Cola, Apple or Trump… and yet those brands spend millions of euros a year on campaigns aimed simply at brand recognition.
Simply put, at the recognition stage we make sure we solve the first problem a salesperson encounters: People don’t buy from brands they don’t know.
Therefore, at that stage, our campaigns are focused on building trust towards our brand, through carefully created messages and without being afraid to present our messages several times to our audience. In fact, the recommended frequency for branding campaigns is between 5 and 9, according to a study by Nielsen.
We will use the goals of Outreach, Brand Recognition and Video Playback (though have Facebook put it into the next phase).
Recommended creatives
Your audience has their preferences, on an individual level. Don’t miss opportunities to get good results by using a unique format for your creations.
In the upper funnel stage, the following formats are usually recommended:
- Photos
- Videos
- Stories
- Carousel
Consideration
It is the intermediary part, also known by its acronym MOFU (Middle of Funnel). With Instagram advertising campaigns for your ecommerce, you can show your services/products to those who already know you and are more likely to visit your ecommerce site to buy.
Objective
Your audience already knows you, maybe they’ve visited your site a few times. Trust has been established but they have not yet reached the final goal, to convert.
Here we want to strengthen the relationship, offering more information, more details and an even more personalized message.
We will use the Video Playback and Traffic objectives.
Recommended creatives
In the intermediate stage of the funnel, the following formats are usually recommended
- Photos
- Videos
- Stories
- Carousel
Conversion
The final part of the conversion funnel, also known by the acronym BOFU (Bottom of Funnel)
Objective
Your audience not only knows you, but already trusts your brand. In short, it is ready to commit to and consume your products.
We often see brands focusing solely on that objective; it’s not a bad idea to start with campaigns whose objective is very easy to measure; however, for someone to buy from your ecommerce, they will first have to have some knowledge of your products, of your brand.
Summarizing advertising campaigns to a single purchase objective is a strategy that will not allow you to grow. And for a company with limited history in the market, it will be very difficult to obtain good results.
Now, if you have several campaigns at each stage of the conversion funnel, your sales target campaigns will always have audiences to nurture their needs.
Some of the most common sales target campaigns are those we target to those people who abandoned their cart, or spent a lot of time on a product page; the campaigns known as “retargeting”.
Recommended creatives
In the final stage of the funnel, the following formats are usually recommended
- Photos (with products viewed/abandoned)
- Videos
- Stories
- Carousel
Many segmented audiences
The main strength of Facebook/Instagram compared to Google is the availability of very precise audience segments.
Within Business Manager we will be able to create very specific audiences, based on both the segments offered by Facebook, and our own audiences, created from pixels or email lists of our customers.
And finally, we will have the possibility to use the artificial intelligence of Facebook to create similar audiences to our best customers – very interesting results.
Instagram users are buyers
Several studies show that a large number of Instagram users discover brands and products within the social network.
Instagram’s potential is not limited to branding campaigns, but also offers several formats to increase sales.
It is clear that if no one knows your brand, you will have great difficulty in obtaining results with sales-oriented campaigns only. The best solution is to have several campaigns with different objectives so that you can feed your conversion funnel with qualified audiences.
Wide variety of visual solutions
Instagram allows you to promote your products and services with a variety of creativities.
What is the best creative format? There is no final, true answer to that question, except: It depends.
In fact, since the algorithm Facebook uses to optimize campaigns is increasingly agile, it is recommended that you use both photos and videos.
Moreover, if you have a product catalogue, the use of a carousel will be very useful, in particular for retagreting campaigns, of the “abandoned cart” type.
Finally, the Stories offer a vertical video format that covers the whole screen of the mobiles; it is very effective both for web visit objectives and for brand growth.
Photos
Videos
Carousel
Slideshow
Stories
“62% of people surveyed said they were more interested in brands or products after seeing them in stories” – source,
Promoting your product catalog
Thanks to its seamless integration with the Facebook advertising system, Instagram allows you to synchronize your product catalog to manage campaigns whose content will be your products. Using a catalogue allows you to advertise on Instagram for your ecommerce, showing your products dynamically.
When making campaigns aimed at people who have added a product to their cart but have not finished their purchase, you can dynamically load abandoned products and show them again on Instagram.
Get visits to your website
One of the most used campaign objectives is the visits to your website. Don’t forget to install the Facebook Pixel, so you can accurately track the actions your visitors will take in your ecommerce.
If you’re just getting started, you probably don’t get many visits to your ecommerce site. Or you want to try a new idea before you put it into action. Campaigns with traffic objectives are ideal in these conditions.
Your competitors are on Instagram
According to Instagram, there are already more than 25 million Instagram accounts from companies around the world. It’s not about being an original, but about controlling that space that belongs to you; if you don’t do it, other brands will find it easier to capture your customers.
The platform allows you such a variety of actions (free or paid) and covers such a wide audience, that not taking advantage of it to grow your brand and get more sales would simply be a big mistake.
Obviously, some brands find it more difficult than others to use mainly visual content (photos, videos), but with a little creativity, you can go a long way.
Is your ecommerce already using the full potential of Instagram?
The next big improvement: Instagram Checkout
Instagram Checkout was first launched in 2019 with only a handful of very large brands (Nike, Zara, Kiley Cosmetics) in the U.S. And after a year of beta testing, we could soon start seeing it in our feeds around the world
The payment feature allows users to make a purchase without leaving the Instagram application, creating a simplified 2-click process to turn Instagram supporters into buyers.
Instagram Checkout allows users to purchase branded products directly from Instagram, without leaving the Instagram application!
With Instagram Checkout, customers can tap to view a product from a publication and then continue the checkout process, all within Instagram! All you have to do is enter your name, email, billing information and shipping address the first time you use that feature.
Fun facts about Instagram
Instagram is the fifth most used social network in the world(Sproutsocial.com)
The Instagram social network enjoys a relatively young audience, with the majority of its users under the age of 44, with a balance between women and men globally (Sproutsocial.com).
Instagram is already an ideal complement to e-commerce marketing. The platform is often used in the discovery part of the sales funnel.
- 83 percent of Instagram users discover new products and services on the platform
- 81% use Instagram to learn more about services or products
- 80% decide on their purchase on Instagram
