While Facebook marketing is all the rage, a couple of my clients are shifting their focus more to Instagram. The younger audiences in this channel are a better fit for their products and services. You can create ads for Instagram via Facebook Ads Manager the same way you would for ads on Facebook as long as the Instagram account is already assigned in Business Manager.
One of my clients had been boosting their own Instagram posts. When looking at the promotions in Business Manager, I noticed some inconsistencies in their audiences. When I mentioned it to them, they asked if I could start boosting them instead to ensure best practices were followed. I didn’t think it would be a big deal since I’ve boosted more than my share of Facebook posts via Ads Manager before. Their Instagram account was already associated with their Facebook account.
For the first one, I routinely started a new campaign for Post Engagement like I had numerous times before, only to slam to a complete halt once I realized that there wasn’t a way to select Instagram posts instead of Facebook posts. This made sense to me once I got there as it dawned on me that I had never selected Facebook posts in the past, but they were the only option. So, the investigation began.
Please note that this client’s Instagram account was already set-up as a business account. If your client needs help with that, they can find all of the instructions here.
Step 1. Gain Access to the Client’s Instagram Account
The client has to grant you access to their Instagram Account in order to proceed. Here are the instructions the client would need to follow. Facebook has a strict no password sharing policy, so this is necessary for the client to do on their own. Make sure you provide your client with your Business ID.
- In Facebook Business Manager, select Business Setting from the dropdown.
- Under Accounts, go down to Instagram Accounts.
- Select the account you want to grant access to.
- Select the Partners tab.
- Assign Partner and enter the Business ID provided.
Step 2. Assign Ad Account
You should see your client’s Instagram Account appear in the Instagram section of your own Business Settings now. When you see that it’s there, make sure it is assigned to an Ad Account. To do this:
- Select the Instagram Account
- Click on the Ad Account tab.
- Click on Assign Ad Accounts.
- A drop-down will appear with all of the ad accounts already in your Ad Accounts. Choose the right one and save.
You can see these options from the same screenshot above.
Step 3. Facebook Pages
If you already have access to the page associated with the Instagram account, you can skip to the next step.
For this particular client, they have more than one Facebook page and we only had access to their primary page. We had not yet been given access to the page associated with this Instagram account. If you also need to request page access, take the following steps:
- Navigate to the Pages section.
- Click the + Add icon.
- Click on Request Access to a page.
- Enter in the URL of the Facebook page you are requesting access to.
- Select Request Access. Your client will need to accept the request and then the page will appear here. Don’t forget to go in and assign the Page to yourself under the People section under Users.
Step 4. Logging into Instagram
It’s important to note that you can only boost Instagram posts from the app.
If you don’t already have an Instagram Account
- Go to your App Store and download it.
- Use your Facebook account to gain access.
- Login with the username and password of the account you’d like to add.
If you already have your own Instagram Account
- From your profile, click on the sun-like icon to go to your settings.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Add Account.
- Enter the username and password of the account you’d like to add.
Toggling Between Instagram Accounts
Whether you have your own account and a client’s account or you have multiple client accounts, you need to know how to switch between them.
In the app, touch the arrow to the right of your username at the top, you’ll see a drop-down now of multiple accounts. Just select the account you want. Once you have more than one account added by the above instructions, you’ll be able to add another account from this location as well.
Step 5. Boosting a Post
Once you’ve navigated to the current account in the app, go to the Account Profile by selecting on your image in the lower right.
- Tap the Promote box.
- Scroll through your posts at the top to choose which one you’d like to promote and tap Next in the top right.
- Select from one of the following.
- More Profile Visits
- More Website Traffic
- More Promotion Views
- Choose the targeting outcome and click Next in the top right.
- Determine your audience. This has a feel very similar to Facebook. You can either choose
- Automatic, which is basically lookalikes
- Local, a specific location
- Manual, you create an audience based on interests, locations, age and gender.
- Your Audiences (previously saved from step 3)
- Click Next in the top right.
- Budget and Duration
- Budget: Enter how much you’d like to spend each day.
- Duration: Select how long you’d like the post to be boosted.
- Click Next in the top right
- Review
- Make sure everything looks correct.
- Select Create Promotion
A Few Things to Note
You can always go back to a previous screen by clicking on the left arrow in the top left. If you’re not sure targeting option to select, Instagram gives you some guidelines along the bottom of each screen next to the magenta circle with “Learn more” or “Get help” options. I included them in the screenshots above.
Once you have set up the post, you can view the promotion in your Facebook Ads Manager moving forward. You can also view results directly in the Instagram app by navigating to the post, then tapping on View Insights.
Unlike Facebook in which you can only boost a post once, you can boost an Instagram post more than once.
If you need to edit your promotion, since it was created in the Instagram app, it can only be edited
in the app.
Keep experimenting and testing with your boosted posts and your Instagram Ads to know which works the best to meet your clients’ needs and objectives.
If this was helpful to you, you also might appreciate our post on Getting Twitter Access as an Agency.
What has been your experience in boosting Instagram posts? Comment below to share!
