Why Should B2B Advertisers Advertise on Instagram?
Believe it or not, the largest age group on Instagram right now is actually 25-34 according to Sprout Social! This means that it’s likely that the manager-and-above job roles and decision makers you’re targeting on LinkedIn are also on Instagram!
Instagram surpassed the 1 billion global user mark in 2020! It was in the top 5 most downloaded apps in 2020 (no surprise there).
Over the last year, chances are you have heard of the growing competition between Instagram and TikTok for short-form videos. Instagram recently introduced Reels ads, which shows the platform’s commitment to competing with TikTok. These ads can be up to 30 seconds with the ability to comment, like, view, save and share the Reels ad.
Managing Instagram Ads
Instagram campaigns and ads are easily managed through your Facebook Business Manager and ad account!
If you’re already advertising on Facebook, you can easily begin introducing Instagram placements for those ads as well.
To get started with Instagram placements, all you need is the following:
- An Instagram account that is established in one of these three ways.
- Images and videos that meet the requirements for the Instagram Feed placement or the Instagram Stories placement. Both of these placements require differently sized creative than other placement options.
- Select an ad objective for your campaigns that is compatible with Instagram placements. The table below outlines which of the campaign objectives are eligible to appear through the Instagram app. All objectives are eligible to appear in the Feed and Stories placements and most (except for Store Traffic) can appear in the Explore placement.
Strategies for B2B Instagram Ads
1. Lead Generation & Instant Forms
One of the biggest complaints I hear from B2B clients is that leads are poor quality. Facebook lead generation campaigns will automatically optimize to More Volume to generate the largest number of leads. There are times that generating the most leads you can is useful, but sometimes you are looking for highly qualified and interested users.
Enter: Higher Intent Instant Forms.
To select this form type, select the Higher Intent option in the Form Type section while creating the Instant Form.
This Instant Form type has three features that set it apart:
- Indications that your business will follow up after submission of the form.
- A review screen that allows users to review their information.
- A slide to submit button on the review screen.
According to Facebook, “These extra features often result in more intentional submissions and prevent submissions from those people who are only marginally interested in your product or service. If follow-up or further qualification is required on each lead submitted, using a Higher Intent Instant Form may make more sense for your business.”
It’s important to note that a Higher Intent Instant Form will only be delivered to Facebook Feed and Instagram Feed on mobile devices. This form type does NOT appear on desktop computers.
2. Placement Breakouts
It’s not considered a ‘best practice’ to break out placements in Facebook. But when you’re trying to gather more information about what is and isn’t working, I find it to be worth it.
At the ad set level, select ‘Manual Placements’ and unselect all of the platforms except for Instagram.
I prefer to test the Feed, Explore and Stories placements separately, so I create an ad set for each placement individually. If you have video, you can also test the IGTV placement.
For a true test, read on to the next section to see how to create an A/B test.
3. Testing Content, Retargeting & More
Since Instagram is a different kind of channel than something like LinkedIn, it can be vital to test your content, retargeting and other campaign strategies.
Consider utilizing the A/B test feature for your new strategies.
Within Ads Manager, select the campaign you want to test. Click ‘A/B Test’ in the navigation bar.
Select the variable you want to test. The options are Creative, Placement, Audience or Custom. Click Next to finalize the copy of the campaign.
Once duplicated, you’ll need to make the adjustments to the test campaign.
4. Audience Targeting
When it comes to audiences, here is a couple of suggestions for new audiences to test:
- Lookalike audiences based off of customer and MQL/SQL lists
- Interest targeting for users interested in the industry I’m advertising for
- Facebook Business page admins
- Interested in upcoming Facebook events
- Users who commute to work
I like to make exclusions as well. Here is a few ideas that might be worth excluding for your next campaign as well:
- Recent converters
- Users connected to your business page already (net-new campaigns only)
- Employees of the company
- Employees at your company
Conclusion
I hope these suggestions are helpful in your journey into Instagram! If you’re interested in bringing in an agency with extensive experience with B2B clients on Instagram (and Facebook), reach out, we’d love to help!
