According to a study done by Forrester Research in 2014-2015, on user engagement with brands, Instagram blows other platforms out of the water when it comes to getting to know your audience. With a more attentive group of followers, you are much more likely to drive conversions on Instagram vs. other social media.
It’s the concept that higher engagement through reviews, testimonials, shares, and other popularity metrics that contribute to your credibility as a business. This seems obvious, but it is the game that surrounds social media.
People look towards other people not only for validation, but also for the next big thing.
And that’s not a bad thing.
In the fast-paced, high-information world we live in today, how likely is it that quality content is going to get passed up by everybody unless technical execution is the pain point?
If you can get your post to receive traction through engagement, it turns into a snowball effect where more people are willing to like, comment, and convert if they see others are doing the same.
Instagram promotions’ biggest use case is creating brand awareness. By boosting a post, you can kickstart the snowball effect and get posts the traction they deserve. This helps skyrocket reach and is very effective if your primary goal is high visibility.
Instagram’s algorithm’s, much like other social media platforms, operates off of an acceleration/virality factor. This means that the quicker your posts get off to the right start, the higher the ranking algorithms will put you in the feed.
And how could you blame them? There are more than 800 posts made per second on Instagram across over 1 billion monthly active users as of 2018. People have their work cut out for them to get visibility, but it has been done time and time again.
Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. And since they launched business accounts in 2016, it has come to be expected for your business to have its own profile.
Instagram has found that 60% of users say they learn about new products or services on their platform. What’s even more astonishing is that 75% say that they will take action after seeing a posts. This includes visiting sites, purchasing products, or even sharing posts, what every business dreams of.
Instagram helps businesses get a little bit more juice out of their posts through their promotions feature. Much like Google or Facebook Ads, you can accelerate your reach through a pay to play system.
Instagram operates their ad/promotion structure on a Cost-Per-1000 Impressions (CPM) basis. This means that you pay the specified bid amount on your post for every 1,000 people that see it.
Other platforms like Google Ads operates on a Cost-Per-Click (CPC), where you receive free visibility and only pay for successful clicks. Because Instagram values visibility you will have to put work in to optimize posts so that you reach your goals without wasting too much money.
However there is a difference between ads made through the Facebook Ads manager and promotions (ads) made through the Instagram app. That is an important distinction to make.
Before you can understand the answer to how do Instagram promotions work, you first have to understand what an Insta promo is. Instagram Promotions are normal, non-advertisement posts that you would like to convert to a sponsored post with elevated reach. They can appear in the same spot with the same ‘Sponsored’ tag, but Instagram treats them differently in their algorithm.
This is because there is a nuance in each of their purposes. While each are there to increase visibility and engagement. An Ad has many more preferences for targeting and customization because the leading purpose is to convert. A promotion serves to take a well performing post to the next level in terms of profile views, likes, comments, and shares.
If visibility, reach, and engagement are your goals, then think about opting for the boosted promotional.
Remember, the purpose of boosting an Instagram post is to receive the maximum amount of visibility and reach as possible. It is not always necessary to launch an entire ad campaign every time you want to spike brand awareness.
Instagram knows this, which is why they offer it as a feature. Its purpose is to convert quality posts into mainstream, targeted ads so that you can share its value with people beyond your normal audience.
While sales and lead generation remain paramount, social media accounts require nurturing through a variety of posts. Too much of the same is never good for anyone or any business. An effective social media marketing strategy will incorporate a healthy mix of both promotions and ads.
There actually isn’t any conclusive data that states that ads are cheaper than promotions. However, AdEspresso reported that CPC values range between $.70 and $.80. This figure was concluded based on two demographics. Users between the ages of 25-34 years can cost as much as $1.23 per click. On the other hand, the younger group aged between 13-17 years, came in at $.47.
