Simply choose a powerful, high-res photo, and stay focused on the visual message at hand. A bit of light branding is fine, but when that becomes the focal point of the message, viewers will typically be turned off.
Although consumer goods lend themselves to visual social media content, there are plenty of B2B companies that are finding success on Instagram as well. GE’s Instagram account, for example, regularly posts compelling imagery, driving thousands of interactions.
As such, products that are especially strong aesthetically are those that are most likely to resonate with the Instagram crowd. It’s a visual platform, after all, which is why fashion and lifestyle brands do so well here. We can’t all be GE, but there are some great examples of brands driving major engagement here too.
3. Use call-to-action buttons organically
Call-to-action buttons are extremely powerful when used correctly, at the right time, the right place, and with the right micro-copy. Depending on the action you are trying to drive, however, the wrong CTA can kill conversions.
Instagram was once shunned by many marketers because only URLs appearing in user bios were clickable, but in recent months, the platform has diversified its “direct response” advertising product line, so that users can now tap on buttons in ads, which, if you’re advertising a mobile app product, can load app store landing pages as modal boxes within the Instagram app experience.
When advertisers promote app installs via paid posts on both Facebook and Instagram, the latter has been found to drive significantly better clickthrough rates and lower cost per install (CPI) rates.
Now you have even more reasons to make sure your landing page is mobile-friendly and that its UI and creative match the ad creative.
CTAs currently supported by Instagram ads include Sign Up, Download, Watch Now, Contact Us, Apply Now, Shop Now, Book Now and Learn More. No, you can’t create custom CTA microcopy, but that could be a good thing, as the community of Instagram users has likely already grown accustomed to these limited options and what’s likely to happen when they tap on each.
If you’re promoting a lead capture landing page with your ad, it makes sense to use one of the more transaction-oriented CTA options, like Contact Us or Apply Now. If you’re promoting gated premium content assets, then Download or Learn More would probably be the best match.
4. Make sure your hashtags are optimized
Hashtags can blow up on platforms like Periscope, Twitter and Instagram in a matter of hours. On Instagram, according to data from Simply Measured, brands use an average of 2.5 hashtags per post, and posts with one or more hashtags in their captions see 12.6% more engagement.
A few things to keep in mind for hashtags in Instagram ads. Firstly, remember that hashtags are used differently here than elsewhere. With Instagram, people don’t follow topics with hashtags like they do on Twitter, instead including them in caption blurbs for clever color commentary.
On Twitter, moreover, it’s considered bad form to use more than two or three hashtags per post, whereas on Instagram, it’s common to see dozens in a given caption. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post.
To find the best hashtags for the content of your Instagram posts, you can use a hashtag search engine like Hashtagify, which will aggregate the latest uses of the hashtag you search for, display popularity scores, list recommend additional hashtags that commonly appear alongside yours, and even export lists of selected rows of results.
Secondly, using informative hashtags is almost always more effective than abstract messages. This is why hashtags like #IceBucketChallenge spread like wildfire; it presents its message clearly with little to no explanation required.
A contingency plan is also a must have for hashtags. The internet has a mind of its own and can quickly turn something sour through scads of ironic and snarky comments (even the White House had to have a backup plan when the #ObamacareIsWorking hashtag spun out of control; it was quickly replaced with #ILikeObamacare).
Beyond that, ensure that your hashtag is easy to read and hard to misconstrue, keep it short, and always remember to monitor the conversation surrounding it.