Since Facebook extended their ad network to Instagram, marketers have been given access to a whole new audience to target

Introduction to Instagram

Instagram as a platform is essentially creative first. This is how the platform started out, and is how it remains. It is a place to share photos and creative - all of which are primarily visually engaging. It is important to always remember this, regardless of whether you are posting organically or via the ad network.

To stand out on Instagram, an image needs to be eye-catching, and thumb-stoppingly engaging. This is why the Instagram app offers a range of photographic filters that you can overlay on your images, to make them stand out even more.

Advertising on Instagram

The challenge for Facebook is integrating advertising into the Instagram platform, without the ads being intrusive to it's users. And so far they have done this brilliantly.  Quite often, an ad can blend in to the Instagram news feed to the point of being barely recognisable from an organic post.

With an emphasis on quality and a strong approvals process, the Instagram ad network has been built into a important cog in any advertiser's marketing mix, particularly for brand awareness.

In tandem with your Facebook advertising, extending your ad campaigns to Instagram can be super powerful. Now all of a sudden you have vastly increased the size of your target audience.

The beauty of advertising on Instagram is that the exact same targeting options are available as to those in Facebook. Furthermore, you build your Instagram campaigns in the same Facebook Ads Manager that you build your Facebook ad campaigns. So there is no real additional learning curve here - you are already good to go.

To include Instagram in your placements, just tick it along with Facebook in your adsets. Alternatively, for extra transparency, break out Instagram into it's own adset. This way, you can monitor the effect of Instagram versus Facebook.