How to Create Instagram Ads:

A Step-by-Step Guide to
Advertising on Instagram
When setting up a paid Instagram ad, there are a lot of boxes to be checked.

Are you targeting the right people? Are your image dimensions to scale? Are you running
the right type of ad? If we’re being honest, it can get a little confusing.

With more than 1 billion people using Instagram every month, and nearly 500 million+
users every day, Instagram offers a unique opportunity for marketers to reach their target
audiences through ad campaigns.

The other perk of advertising on Instagram? The ads can look almost no different than
regular posts, making them much less invasive than other ad types.

But setting up ads on any platform requires a lot of thought: What should your target
audience look like? What should your copy say? What image should you use? There are a
number of ads tools available that can help you create your ads and targeted audiences,
but there’s still the more technical aspects to consider like what size your image needs to
be or how long your ad should run for.

If you’ve ever set up a Facebook ad, you’re about 75% of the way there. After Facebook
acquired Instagram back in 2012, the platforms conveniently merged, making setting up
Instagram and Facebook ads merely the difference of a couple clicks. So even though
your intent is to run ads on Instagram, and it is certainly possible to boost ads from within
the app, to take full advantage of all the ad features, we recommend that the setup,
budgeting, scheduling, and creation is done through Facebook’s platform.

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How to Advertise
on Instagram
Introduction 5
Choose Your Audience
1
Determine an Objective 6
Set Your Placement

2
Add Campaign Details 7
Curate your Ad Creative

3
Create Your Ad Set 8
Build Your Page & Links

4
Make your Budget and Schedule 9
Report on the Performance

To start, log into your company’s Facebook portal and select the account you wish to use.
(Note: To run ads on Instagram you’ll need to use a Facebook Page. Pages are specifically
for businesses, brands, and organizations, while regular Facebook accounts are for
personal use.)

To get started with an Instagram ad, you’ll want to create a new campaign.
 1

Determine an
Objective
 Determine an Objective
You’ll notice that there are several different campaign objective options to choose. These
are your options for Instagram ads and where they will appear within the app:

Source: Facebook

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You’ll choose the buying type first, and then can choose your objectives.

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For this guide, we’re going to select: “Traffic.”

When you select this option, you’ll be prompted to name your campaign. This may seem
like a simple task (and it is) but it’s a good idea to have some sort of naming convention
or set process within your company. This will make it easier for you to keep campaigns
straight as you continue to create them.

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Here at HubSpot, we like to name them in this format:
Company Department | Content/Offer/Asset Being Advertised | Date | Name of Creator

If you have created ads in the Facebook Ads Manager before, you can also choose an
ad set here. If you aren’t sure what an ad set is, ad campaigns are made up of ad sets.
Ad sets are groups of ads that share settings for how, when and where to run. When you
create an ad set, the choices you make at the ad set level automatically apply to all of the
ads in the set.

At this point you can also choose a previous ad to use, but for this guide we’ll create
those later.

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 2

Add Campaign
Details
 Add Campaign Details
First you’ll need to declare if your ads are related to credit, employment, housing, social
issues, elections or politics.

You can also decide to A/B test campaigns to see what type of ad features may give you
the best results. To learn more about A/B Testing, head here.

If you have multiple ad sets, you can choose Campaign budget optimization here.
Campaign budget optimization will distribute your budget across ad sets to get more
results depending on your delivery optimization choices and bid strategy. You can control
spending on each ad set. Since we’re creating our first ad, skip this section and choose
Next at the bottom of the page.

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 3

Create Your
Ad Set
 Create Your Ad Set
All ads developed in the Ad Manager go into an Ad Set. You can have multiple ad sets with
various versions of an ad.

There are several options to choose where you want to drive traffic. We are going to
choose “website.”

Next you can choose if you want to Create Ads Using Dynamic Creative. This feature will
allow you to test combinations of your ad assets (images, videos, titles, descriptions, CTAs,
etc.) across different audiences. According to Instagram, “Businesses can upload their
entire product catalog once, and dynamic ads on Instagram will automatically show the
right products to the right people at the right time. This includes people who have shown
interest in a specific product by either viewing it, adding it to their cart or purchasing other
products on a website or mobile app.”

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Online advertising company, Wordstream, tested it out and saw:

60% more conversions generated by

the dynamic creative ad...55% lower
cost-per-conversion for ads using
dynamic creative.

60% more conversions generated by the dynamic creative ad set than the standard
version. Efficiency also improved, with a 55% lower cost-per-conversion for ads using
dynamic creative. One interesting finding when comparing these two ad sets was the
difference in Ad Frequency. While CPM was 12% cheaper in the Dynamic Ad Set, the
frequency the dynamic ad was shown was 45% higher than the standard ad set.

You can find more information on Dynamic ads here.

You’ll also see the ability to create an offer ad, but this is an option only available on Facebook.

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 4

Make Your Budget

and Schedule
MakeYour Budget and
Schedule

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You have the option to select either a daily budget or a lifetime budget for your campaign.
The difference is this:

Daily budget sets your ad up to run continuously throughout the day, meaning that
the algorithm will automatically pace your spending per day. Keep in mind that there
is a minimum daily budget depending on different factors in your campaign, usually
around $1.00.

Lifetime budget sets your ad up to run for a specified length of time, meaning the ads
algorithm paces your spending over that entire time period.

The other aspect to setting your budget is setting your schedule. You’ll need to choose
exactly when you want your campaign to start and finish running, down to the minute.
There are also options to set parameters so that your ad runs only during certain hours
of the day or during specific days of the week. You can find these options in the “Ad
Scheduling” section.

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Now you are ready to decide who should see your ad.

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 5

Choose Your
Audience
 Choose Your Audience
If you’re just starting out with Instagram advertising, odds are you won’t know exactly
which audience you want to go after. This will come with time, and you may just have to
play around with it at first. (If you want tips to help you choose the right audience, check
out this page.)

During this step, you’ll find that the platform’s built-in targeting can be as simple or as
extensive as you need it to be, with options such as:

• Location • Ethnic Affinity

• Age • Generation
• Gender • Parents
• Language • Politics (U.S. only)
• Relationship • Life Events
• Education • Interests
• Work • Behaviors
• Financial Status • Connections
• Home

You can create what’s called a custom audience to reach people who’ve already interacted
with your business, or a lookalike audience to reach new people on Facebook who are
similar to your most valuable audiences.

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The ads platform also allows you to save the audience you create to be used again at a
later time, which can be good if you’re experimenting and want to remember the exact
audience you used for certain campaigns.

In terms of the objective we selected — “send people to your website” — we’ll want to
target a more specific group of people: the type of people who are actually going to be
interested in the content we present.

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To do this, you’d jump down to the “Detailed Targeting” section, and search for different
demographics, interests, or behaviors that apply to your target audience. Here’s an
example of a (very small) audience, just to show you the different ways you can target
certain people:

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To give you a sense of the audience you’ve chosen, Facebook provides an “audience
definition gauge.” This gives you immediate feedback on how narrow or broad your
audience is, as well as the estimated reach number of your ad. Since we didn’t add very
much criteria to our targeting, you’ll notice that the audience appears “fairly broad.”

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 6

Set Your Placement

 Set Your Placement
This step is the biggest differentiator between setting up Facebook ads vs. Instagram ads.
To move forward with the Instagram ad, you’ll want to uncheck all the boxes except for
“Instagram.”

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This will leave you with three placement possibilities, in your Instagram Feed, Instagram
Explore and Instagram Stories.

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Then, you can set your ad up for delivery.Here, you have four options that will influence
who sees your ads.

Landing Page Views: Your ads will be delivered to people who will be most likely
to click through to visit your landing page.

Link Clicks: Your ads will be delivered accordingly to get the most clicks to your
website at the lowest cost. This is all based on the platform’s algorithm.

Impressions: Your ads will be delivered to people as many times as possible. Ever
see the same ad on your newsfeed all day long? That company is most likely using this
option.

Daily Unique Reach: Your ad will be delivered to people up to once a day. People
may see your ad multiple times, but at least not multiple times a day.

Then, after you choose your delivery method, you will have to figure out your bid amount.

This determines how effectively your ad is delivered. When you look “behind the scenes,”
you’re competing with other advertisers trying to reach a similar audience in a constant
auction.

You can choose to leave the Cost Control section blank and let Facebook’s algorithm to
deliver your ad — ideally getting you the most clicks for the lowest cost. Manual allows
you to set a price for link clicks. If a link click is worth a lot to you, try setting a higher than
suggested bid, and your ad will be displayed over a competitor with a lower bid.

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For more on bidding, check out the Facebook Bid Strategy guide.

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 7

Curate Your
Ad Creative
 Curate Your Ad Creative
This is where your creativity comes in. Here you’ll decide what you want your ad to look
like, which will depend on your original objective, of course.

(Psst — Want to get a stunning Story auto-magically created for your brand? Check out
StoriesAds.com, a free Instagram Story generator from HubSpot and Shakr. Click here to
get started.)

On Instagram, you have a couple different options for your ad:

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Single Image

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Up to five images or videos for the viewer to scroll through, at no extra cost.

A collection allows you to showcase several different products at the same time, ideal for
retail brands. You can find more on collections here.

Once you pick your ad type, click on it and you’ll be prompted to browse and upload your
imagery, whether that be images or a video.

For any ad type, the Facebook ads platform recommends you don’t include images with
more than 20% of text. Previously, an ad with over 20% of text wouldn’t even be approved
to run, but it has recently changed to more of a suggestion than anything. Learn more
about the rules and guidelines here.

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Some requirements for Instagram ad imagery:
File Type
• .jpeg
• .png
Text/Caption
Recommended: 125 characters
Maximum: 2,200 characters

Square Image or Video ad

Recommended Image Size: 1080 x 1080 pixels
Minimum Resolution Accepted: 600 x 600 pixels
Image Aspect Ratio: 1:1

Landscape Image or Video ad

Recommended Image Size: 1200 x 628 pixels
Minimum Resolution Accepted: 600 x 600 pixels
Image Aspect Ratio: 1:1

You can also add languages to your ads, so that they render for individuals who may view
Facebook in their native language. You can let Facebook do the translation, or you can
upload your own translations.

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 8

Build Your Page

& Links
 Build Your Page & Links
Next is a very important step: putting in the website URL to which you’re trying to drive
more traffic. If you’re using marketing automation software, be sure to create a unique
tracking URL with UTM parameters for this to ensure that you’ll be able to keep track of
traffic and conversions from this ad.

(HubSpot customers: Learn more about creating a tracking URL here.)

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Next, you’ll add a headline. This is not usually displayed to viewers of your ad on
Instagram, but it’s always a good idea to complete it just in case. Enter a brief headline
describing where people will visit.

After making a headline, you’ll add a caption.

You have up to 2,200 characters — but you don’t have to use all of them.Facebook
recommends you keep your text under 125 characters, which is the amount that’s
displayed without needing to click “more.”
Select a Call-to-Action.

There are several different options for your CTA button, depending on what the page
you’re taking visitors to looks like. You can choose to have no button, or select any of the
following:

• Learn More • Get Offer

• Apply Now • Get Quote
• Book Now • Get Showtimes
• Contact Us • Request Time
• Donate Now • See Menu
• Download • Shop Now
• Hope Now • Subscribe
• Sign Up • Watch More
• Watch More • Send WhatsApp Message

Once your image is uploaded and your text is set, check out the preview of your ad to
make sure everything looks right.

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At this point, you’ll have the option to edit the Tracking, but only if you wish. Advanced
Options include Conversion Tracking, adding offline event data, entering URL parameters,
and opting in or out of pixel tracking.

Then, you’re ready to place the ad! Click the green button to confirm, and your ad will be
presented to the world.

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 9

Report on the
Performance
 Report on the
Performance
Once your ads are up and running on Instagram, it’s important to keep an eye on how
they’re doing. You can go back in and tweak most aspects of the ad, so if you catch a
mistake you made or your image isn’t doing as well as you’d like it to, you can go in and
alter these things.

You can look at results of your ads in two places:

• The Facebook Ads Manager
• Your marketing software

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In the Ads Manager:
There’s a sophisticated and extensive dashboard that provides users with an overview of
all their campaigns. Without customizing any settings, you’ll find data on reach, cost per
result, and amount spent.

In the upper right-hand corner, you’ll see a button that says “Columns: Performance.”

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If you click the drop down menu, there’s an option to customize columns, which allows
you to choose the specific data you want to see. There’s data ranging from CPC or CTR, to
things much more specific like “Adds to Cart” for ecommerce stores.

Here are the categories that the available metrics fall into:

• Performance (reach, results, frequency, etc.)

• Engagement (post likes, post comments, post shares, etc.)
• Videos (video views, average percent of video viewed, etc.)
• Website (checkouts, payment details, adds to cart, etc.)
• Apps (installs, engagement, cost per app engagement, etc.)
• Events (event responses, cost per event response, etc.)
• Clicks (unique clicks, social clicks, CTR, CPC)
• Settings (start date, end date, ad set name, delivery, bit, ad ID, and objective)

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With your marketing software:
With so many metrics to track, it can be easy to lose sight of the big picture. To truly track
your success, take advantage of your marketing software and the UTM codes you used in
your ads to measure your ads’ full-funnel effectiveness.

Looking at the specific tracking codes through your marketing software will help you keep
track of how many leads (or better yet, customers) you actually generated through your
Instagram advertising campaign. This ROI information can then be used to inform other
campaigns down the line.

If you’re a HubSpot customer, you can create unique tracking codes for your Instagram
campaign by following the instructions here. All you’ll need to do is plug in the URL, attach
a campaign, and choose the source you want the URL to be attributed to in your Sources
Report.

Once your ad launches and you start getting traffic and conversions to your website, you’ll
be able to easily track how many visits, contacts, and customers you’re generating.

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