Advertising on Instagram officially appeared in October 2015. We started working on this platform even before the appearance of “official” advertising tools in Russia — we tested ads, formats, and people’s reactions.
And while it's easy to find setup instructions online, there's a shortage of cases. That's why we conducted an experiment and figured out how to increase the number of Instagram subscribers with targeted advertising for a modest amount of money.
It was necessary to understand how to promote a page most effectively japan mobile phone numbers database without mass following and mass liking. Without intermediaries and exchanges. Only through official tools. Why is this necessary? Compare Facebook targeting settings with exchange settings.
So, I’ll tell you how to create advertising that will bring you targeted subscribers for four rubles.
How to Launch an Advertising Campaign
We create an advertisement with the goal of “Clicks to a website”, and as the website we will advertise, we indicate the Instagram we need.
Advertising with the objective "Clicks to the website": specify the desired Instagram
Then everything is as usual: we select the audience, set the budget and payment model and move on to the ads. We take the most appetizing photos (if there are none, find them) and write the texts. It is very important to explain where you are leading people: we compared identical ads for the same audiences and found out that people are more willing to go to Instagram than to the site - a click is one and a half to two times cheaper.
And when the ad is ready, the nuances begin. This column can cost you lost money and a wasted advertising budget:
Types of placement
It's all about placement
Which one to remove and which one to leave? We have tested the audience network many times — it doesn’t work in Russia: a ton of cheap clicks, but the output is zero. The right column is not suitable for this format.
It remains to be seen which ad will work better: the one that runs only on Facebook, or the one that is shown on Instagram. It took us a month to test this.
Experiment with Instagram
For split tests of Facebook ads, we use the "chessboard" strategy, when two campaigns run one hour after another. This approach is impossible with Instagram: the only thing the test will show is which campaign generates more clicks. But a click does not mean a subscription.
To evaluate the effectiveness of advertising, you need to record how many subscribers come from each campaign. There are services with hourly statistics, but the "checkerboard" is not suitable here either: advertising on Instagram has a delayed effect. You need to study over long periods.
The best way is by weeks: this way the ads won’t have time to become familiar, and the campaigns will be on equal terms. Our experiment lasted a month:
Week 1. No advertising, campaigns disabled. This was necessary to assess the natural growth or loss of the page.
Week 2. Launching ads with display only on Facebook (in the news feed and on mobile). Optimization for display — clicks. We track new subscribers every day.
Week 3. The previous ad is stopped, the same one is launched, but with different settings: showing only on Instagram. Optimization — also clicks.
Week 4. We keep the winning option and switch the optimization model: from clicks to impressions. We compare which model is more effective.
Three campaigns were running simultaneously each week. The budget was the same everywhere. The weekly advertising budget was 4,500 rubles.
First, graphs with overall figures, then details by week.
