Instagram is a social platform designed for people who use mobile devices daily. It was built simply for publishing photos and videos.
This lets companies share their stories with a very large, engaged audience, delivering high-quality ads through a single image. Any advertising strategy can work for all kinds of companies, especially now with Instagram, which is seen as an advertising solution that helps drive real business results.
The Instagram platform was acquired by Facebook in 2015 and currently has over 400 million active users.
Instagram advertising is divided into:
- Photo ads: companies can tell great stories through images. Users can understand the brand from a single snapshot.
- Video ads: the advantage of engaging audiences not only visually but also through sound and motion makes video as popular as photo ads, or even more so. Plus, videos of up to 30 seconds can now be shared.
- Carousel ads: ads showing 3 to 5 images/links in a single ad are becoming common, aiming to direct audiences to a specific part of the website through the call-to-action button.
At Trilogi we know social media is vital for any marketing strategy, and we encourage companies to use this platform to advertise.
Punto Blanco is a good example of how companies increasingly rely on Instagram. Its diverse content, visual language and creative designs make it very well received.
Instagram’s main features:
There are many reasons Instagram can be a good way to build advertising for your business, but in short, the main ones are:
- It generates lots of engagement: this may be one of the main reasons companies love Instagram. As a primarily visual platform, its impact is far more appealing and therefore greater. With Instagram, you can get audiences not just to follow you but to adore you! Audiences relating to and interacting on the network is increasingly common on Instagram. The result is a highly dedicated, involved community.
- It’s highly visual: no wonder the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” holds true, especially when it comes to understanding Instagram. It’s a very creative, enjoyable social network, open to all audiences, where advertising wins people over through images.
- A platform built for mobile devices: as I said at the start, being usable on any mobile device makes it a very dynamic, easy-to-use network.
- It makes storytelling easy: Instagram encourages companies to create ads that connect emotionally through a story. Instagram is more than an app for posting photos; it’s an ideal channel for storytelling. It’s important to know how to reach your users and convey your products/services, events and company anecdotes. In the end, the more users know about the business, the stronger the connection.
It also brings many benefits to your business. In general, we consider Instagram ideal for our companies because it helps us meet our goals, such as:
- Beneficial for both large and small companies. In fact, it works well for small businesses because it’s a good channel for customers to get to know them. Companies can learn more about customers through the images they post. This gives businesses the chance to find out what customers really think of their brand and helps define who their best customers are. Companies can use Instagram to keep customers informed and engaged, building a sense of brand loyalty.
- A great opportunity to launch new promotions and/or products. It can serve as a testing ground for other social networks and give you very quick feedback on what your target audience thinks and how it behaves.
- It connects with other social networks. This makes it a good distribution tool, where every photo posted can be shared on Facebook and Twitter, or even emailed to contacts or customers.
So, should we advertise on Instagram?
According to a study by Forrester, companies are increasingly choosing to advertise on Instagram.
The chart shows how in 2015 it established itself as the fourth social network for advertising. In 2016 it is expected to keep growing significantly.
It also shows that, despite efforts to connect with their target audience, companies are seeing user interaction drop on major social networks like Pinterest, Google+ and Twitter. Instagram, however, does a great job of generating engagement.
Likewise, Instagram is establishing itself as a growing social network. What’s more, it has been shown that, users are “two and a half times” more likely to click on ads than on other social media platforms.
So, to the question of whether to advertise on Instagram, our answer is that it can undoubtedly be a great advertising tool for your company.
If you’re interested in advertising on Instagram, Trilogi can help!
