Instagram Marketing Tips

Instagram is one of the most popular apps for discovering new products. But if you’re feeling frustrated by the ever-changing algorithm, there’s never been a better time to add paid Instagram ads into your strategy. Incorporating the following Instagram marketing tips can give you the leg up for your business or brand.

What Are Instagram Ads?

Instagram ads are paid posts that can show your brand’s content to Instagram users who are most likely to engage with it. You can use both photos and videos as paid content. Ads always include a “sponsored” label and can appear throughout the app, including in a user’s feed, stories, reels, or explore tab.

You set up Instagram paid campaigns using Meta Business Suite, the same platform used for Facebook advertising.

What Are The Benefits of a Paid Instagram Ad Campaign?

When 61% of all Instagram users use the app to discover new products, and another 44% wished that brands used Instagram more, having an active Insta presence is non-negotiable.

Some of the specific perks of using ads and sponsored posts include:

• Better Targeting: Meta Business Suite’s audience tools let you target specific users by demographics, behaviors, and interests, helping you find people in your core audience who haven’t organically discovered your page.
• Get Extra Features: Paid Instagram ads include features that standard posts don’t, like CTA buttons and product tags.
• Extend a Post's Lifespan: Regular Instagram posts have a short lifespan in the feed. But paid advertising lets you reuse the same post for weeks or months.
• Action-Oriented: You can optimize your Instagram ad campaigns for the specific action you want users to take, like clicking through, signing up for a mailing list, or buying something.
• Immediate Visibility: While regular posts might get buried in the feed, ads can reach more eyes faster, making them especially useful for spotlighting sales or product launches.

Instagram Marketing Tips: Formats Explained

Instagram currently offers four main ad formats, each of which affects where your ads can be featured on the app. They are:

Images

Image ads are a single static image used to promote your brand. They’re most successful with an eye-catching product photo or illustration, and you can add text directly to the image.

Format: Square, Landscape, or Vertical.

Video

Video ads let you spotlight a specific reel, which can be as short as 5 seconds or as long as an hour, depending on where your ad appears on the app. Video ads are excellent for product demonstrations, testimonials, or brand awareness.

Format: Square, Landscape.

Carousels

Instagram carousel ads let you feature multiple images in the same post, which users swipe through. For small businesses, carousels are handy for showcasing multiple products

Format: Square, Vertical.

Flexible

This choice allows your ad to appear as any of the above formats. Instagram will choose the option most likely to convert a target user.

Format: Square, Landscape, Vertical.

Instagram Marketing Tips: Ad Locations

You can also decide where you want your ad to appear on a user’s Instagram feed. The main options are:

Newsfeed

Instagram feed ads look like regular posts and will appear as sponsored Instagram posts in a user’s feed. They can be images, carousels, or videos, and can mimic the look and feel of an organic post.

Explore

These ads appear in a user’s "Explore" tab, which recommends new pages and content based on an individual user’s behavior. Explore ads can be images or videos.

Stories

Instagram story ads pop up between stories from accounts a user already follows. They can be images, videos, or carousels, and you can use the same dimensions as a regular post. But since stories take up a user’s entire screen, they also provide an opportunity to experiment with more immersive graphics.

Reels

Ads that appear in a user’s reel feed, either as the initial post when they load the tab or while they scroll. Sponsored reels can only be videos and must be in a vertical format.

Instagram Marketing Tips: What's the Ad Cost?

That’s completely up to you! Meta Business Suite allows you to set a customized ad budget, with caps available per day or for the lifetime of an ad campaign. Your ad will be entered into an “auction” with similar advertisers to compete for the opportunity to be shown in a relevant user’s feed or story.

According to data from Birch, the average cost per click for an Instagram ad in the United States is $1.32, as of January 2026. But Instagram ad costs can vary, and you can expect to spend anywhere from $0.20 per click to $2 per click, depending on the ad.

While you may think that simply having the highest bid will guarantee your ad reaches the highest number of users, budget isn’t the only factor in winning an auction. An effective Instagram advertising strategy maximizes your chances of getting the best results.

Building an Effective Instagram Advertising Strategy

A lot of your strategic approach will depend on your industry and the demographics of your target audience. But some Instagram ads best practices stay the same across the board. Use these Instagram marketing tips to give your ads the highest chance of success.

Target the Right People

Meta’s targeting tools let you target users as broadly or specifically as you like. But make sure you’re only choosing people who can take advantage of your brand and offers.

For example, don’t advertise across the country if you’re a local brand. Or, if you’re marketing an offer available to new customers only, make sure to exclude past customers from the campaign’s audience.

Transfer Your Facebook Audience

If you’re already advertising on Facebook, you can transfer saved audiences from Facebook to Instagram paid campaigns through Meta Business Suite. All you need to do is save an audience type from a previous campaign, then select it when setting up a new Instagram ad campaign in Meta Business Suite. The algorithm will target Instagram users who fit the same criteria.

Choose the Best Format

Rather than choosing your ad types at random, it’s important to optimize them for your desired results. For example, research suggests that carousels yield the highest engagement of any post type. But that can depend on your user base. For example, Gen Z prefers Instagram reels, with just over 30% of reel watchers in the 18-34 age range.

Keep Your Branding Consistent

You don’t want customers to skip over your ads because they don’t recognize your business.

So, use the same logos, colors, fonts, and graphic style across your organic Instagram posts and paid Instagram ads to build brand awareness. Users should be able to recognize your branding at a glance.

Use Captions

When up to 85% of social media users watch videos on mute, you can’t afford to hold back crucial info in a reel’s audio. If you’re using a voiceover in a video ad, use text captions to keep your videos accessible, even when audio isn’t an option.

Connect to Your Online Storefront

Did you know that Meta has a feature that allows users to shop from your Instagram ads? Meta’s Commerce Manager tool allows you to connect your Instagram profile to your online storefront and create a catalog of products for customers to browse and buy from your site.

Conduct A/B Testing

Sometimes, you don’t know what will resonate with your audience until you experiment. Take advantage of Meta Business Suite’s A/B tests to see what images, captions, and products make the biggest impact with your targeted users – and use the data you gathered to make your next Instagram paid campaigns even better.

Did You Enjoy These Instagram Marketing Tips?

If you want more tips on setting your small business up for social media marketing success, check out our other guides on social media and video marketing, courtesy of a Rhode Island videographer.

• Best Practices for Marketing on TikTok
• What Makes A Great Marketing Video? Examples & Techniques
• 8 Tips To Maximize Short Form Video Content