The Cost of Instagram Advertising in the UK: A Complete Guide

Instagram is currently one of the top mobile photo-sharing applications available on the internet. The application now has 400 million active users per month and was declared to be growing at a further rate of 1 million every day. These statistics make it very attractive to advertisers who want to generate more traffic for their business through the social networking platform.

Unlike other social media platforms such as Facebook, you do not need thousands of followers on Instagram to get results. If you can get the proper exposure, an Instagram ad can bring you a good increase in followers or customers. Instagram advertising is also a powerful tool for practically any niche and can be used for any type of product.

It is essential to know how does Instagram ads work because when you use them correctly, you can do some severe damage to your competition.

How do Instagram ads work?

Instagram ads are a form of paid social media. If you buy an ad on Instagram, then your ad will appear in someone else’s feed. Furthermore, when you pay to promote your content on Instagram, you place it in front of potential customers, who have the option of whether or not to engage with it.

How much do Instagram ads cost in the UK?

The average Instagram ads cost per click (CPC) is around £0.35- £0.75. However, in highly competitive industries, it can go up to £2.70 because more brands are competing for the audience’s attention. Moreover, just like other social media platforms, Instagram ad pricing is also influenced by multiple factors. These include the campaign objectives, desired audience size, length of time the platform will show the ad to target users, click-thru rates (CTR), and several other things.

How to set up an Instagram ad

Setting up an Instagram advertising campaign is quick and easy, and there are multiple ways to do it. The first and easiest among them is to turn one of your regular posts into a sponsored post. Here, you choose whatever organic post you have already published on your account and pay to promote it. Similar to Instagram ads, you can also choose to target a specific audience. You can adjust the specifics of the users you want your post to be seen according to age, location, and interests. However, the reach of this kind of advertisement is somehow limited.

The second way is to use your Instagram Business account to promote a post. In your account, a “Promote” button will appear after you shared a post. Pressing the “Promote” button will show you a pop-up menu where you can choose the site your ad will direct the users who clicked the post, the demographics of your target audience, how much you are willing to pay for the advertisement, and how long your ad will appear. Once your post is live, you can check Analytics for Instagram from within the app to see how it performs.

The third and final way is to use Facebook Ads Manager. As everyone knows, Facebook bought Instagram in 2012. Hence, users can now also use Facebook Ads Manager to generate their Instagram ads. You can create an ad in Facebook Ads Manager by clicking the “Create” button, which will prompt you to set the parameters of your campaign. After setting the parameters, select the “Manual Placements” option in the “Placements” box. Next, type in Instagram into the search bar and then select it from the drop-down. Now you can choose where you want your Instagram ads to show.

Benefits of Instagram Advertising

Targeted Audience

Instagram ads are entirely personalised, with the ad network drawing upon Instagram’s data on who the users follow, what they like and comment on, and their locations. This feature of Instagram ads helps you reach the right audience and help your posts be seen by the right people, increasing your sales and profit.

Better Engagement Rates

To establish a dialogue with the audience of your account, you need quality content and a professional advertising strategy. An excellent example of an advertising strategy includes IG ads, which allow your content to resonate with eager Instagram users better. Moreover, Instagram is a dream of an advertising platform. If you have something to sell, it is as good as any other social network for getting people to notice your ad. The barrier to entry is low, and it is easy to get more engagement from Instagram users than on similar platforms.

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Instagram advertisements are a form of social listening advertising which are effective for user growth and sales. For Instagram ads to be effective, both the brand and its consumers must be comfortable with each other’s identity. Daily hashtag-based activity on Instagram allows users to create a sense of belonging to the same community and increases interactions between consumers and brands.

Real-time Tracking of your Campaign’s Performance

Instagram advertising analytics allow you to track how many people viewed your ad and the number of them who clicked on the link. This gives you more specific insight into your campaign’s overall performance than just tracking impressions and click-through rate alone. Such a feature makes it possible to manage and improve the performance of your marketing campaigns in almost real-time.

Affordable

Instagram has hundreds of millions of users who, on average, spend 21 minutes a day using the app. That’s valuable ad space. Furthermore, unlike most social networks, Instagram has more advertiser competition than publisher competition. What makes Instagram such an attractive ad platform is the relatively small amount of money and effort required to produce high engagement.

Types of Instagram Advertisements

Image Ads

This is your most basic option for Instagram ad creation, and it is one that you probably see all the time, no matter what page you are looking at. Image ads are your standard single image that appears as a native experience to your target lead as they scroll through their feed. Image ads are one of the most versatile ad formats since it takes up less space than text-based ads while still allowing you to reach a large audience.

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