Here is a step-by-step guide on how to get started:

If you are interested in posting an Ad on Instagram, there are two ways to go about advertising your posts. One is through the Instagram app itself, and the other way is through using the Meta Ads Manager. We will go through both ways of posting your advert on Instagram. Posting an ad through the Instagram App is quite simple. If you have a business profile, at any point, you can advertise any of your posts. You can also even advertise on Instagram Stories as well! When looking at your post, there will be a pop-up titled “Boost post.” One thing to note is that it is especially good to advertise a post that already has a good engagement to reach out to a wider audience. You can tell based on the number of likes, comments, and follows you get after posting your image or reel. In addition, if you have a business profile (which you should have set up by now!), you can see the amount of reach that your posts get, along with how many saves and shares it has.

Once you click on the “Boost post” button, you will have the option to select your goal. Unfortunately, you can only select one choice, but you can choose between getting more profile visits, website visits, or getting more messages. Once you have chosen the goal for your ad, you will be prompted to choose your target audience. If your ad falls under special requirements (i.e., Politics, employment, etc.), you will have to select the top option titled Special requirements. If your ad does not fall under these special requirements, then you will have two options: automatic and create your own. If you select automatically, Instagram will select who gets to see your ad based on your current followers. However, if you select to create your own, you will be able to manually enter who you want to see your ad.

Once you have determined your target audience, you will be prompted to set the budget and duration of your ad. Your ad campaign can be as short as one day all the way up to 30 days, and your budget can start from $2 up to $3,000. You can also choose to continuously run an ad for $2 a day and stop the ad whenever you like by selecting the option titled “Run this ad until I pause it.”

When you finish setting your budget and duration, you will have to finalize and review your ad before posting. You will be able to preview your ad and double-check that you have inputted the correct settings for goals, audience, budget, and duration. You will need to select your payment option, and you can either pay with your credit card or through Paypal. Once you have input your card information, click on the blue icon titled “Boost post,” and you are all set! Your post will now be promoted all throughout Instagram. It’s as easy as that!

Afterward, you will be instructed to select your campaign objective. Some examples include awareness, traffic, engagement, and leads. There are more choices in comparison to posting an ad through the Instagram app. However, like through Instagram, Meta Ads manager only allows you to select one choice.

Once you’ve made your selections, you will be asked to name your campaign and describe the details with the option to do an A/B test to see which ad format or image performs best.

Afterward, you will be asked to select your budget and duration of your ad (same as posting an ad on the Instagram app).

The next step is to customize your target audience. This can be categorized based on the person's location, age, gender, and language.

After selecting your target audience, you will be able to select which platform(s) you want your ad to be posted on in addition to selecting where you want your ad to be placed (i.e., Instagram feed, Facebook Marketplace, Instagram/Facebook stories, Instagram Reels, etc.).

Once you have this all set, you will be able to add a call to action button, enter your URL and add any final touches to your ad. The URL could be for your website or for a certain product that you’re selling/promoting. A call to action is defined as an interactive element with the goal of motivating users to complete a specific action based on its message (buy, contact, subscribe, download, etc.).

Once you have selected your call to action, press the green button that says “Publish,” and then you are all set to start posting your ad! Both methods are relatively easy, and you are free to choose whatever method suits you best. However, for absolute beginners, I would recommend using the Instagram App as it is more simple and straight to the point in comparison to the second method.

Next, we will be going over some tips on how to create a successful Instagram Ad!

The first thing to know is that the majority of people who use Instagram use it on their mobile devices rather than their desktops, so it is important to make your ad mobile-friendly. In addition to this, focusing on the quality of the image or video is essential as well. No matter what you are advertising, if the visuals are blurry, overly pixelated, or unclear, the viewer will immediately skip over the ad. In your ad, you should also minimize the amount of text written. People on social media do not want to read long paragraphs, but adding a little bit of text is good as long as it’s concise and to the point. One additional note is that when adding text to your ad, your font size should be big enough to read on a handheld device.

Now, we will look into the pros and cons of Instagram Ads:

One of the main pros is that it is really easy to start using Instagram Ads! You can set it up directly on the Instagram app itself or by connecting your Instagram account to your Facebook account to use Ads Manager. If you are just starting your business or a beginner at social media marketing, using Instagram to market your business is the most optimal way to go! While it’s easy to set up an Ad on Instagram, it is also much more cost-effective in comparison to print media, and you have the ability to target whom you want to see your advertisements.

Another pro is that advertising on Instagram feels less invasive to users’ privacy in comparison to ads that are sent to users' emails or home addresses. Reel ads, in particular, feel the least intrusive because they are more likely to blend in with other Reels, and the ads are targeted to users who are already interested in the product or service, which will overall lead to higher engagement. There are many pros to using Instagram ads. However, there are, of course, some cons as well. While advertising on Instagram is significantly more affordable and is a cost-effective way to promote your business, Instagram ads are not free to use. If you are starting out and have a very tight budget, using Instagram ads may not be the right fit for you.

Another potential con is Instagram’s overall age demographic. In a study in April 2022, the majority of people who use Instagram are between 18 - 34. This will not be an issue if your target audience is within that age demographic, but it may be a challenge if you are trying to reach people outside of this age group. If Instagram Ads is not in the right budget for you, then simply posting high-quality images and reels can create engagement on your page for free. You can even use sites like Canva to find templates for your feed if you need a bit of assistance in creating your Instagram feed.

Overall, Instagram Ads and Instagram for Business have many rewarding benefits, and it is an excellent ways to get traction and engagement for your business. I would highly recommend trying out Instagram Ads if you have the budget to see what types of campaigns work and which do not. Experimenting is one of the best ways to go about Instagram as you get to understand your target audience better, and you can assess what your audience is looking for in your content. Instagram has many benefits, and you can read more about it here.