Top Rated Instagram Advertising Agency
in Australia

Let’s put it this way – Instagram has some 800 million users. So, if you want to reach and engage your consumers where they are spending time, you need to be advertising on Instagram. Better yet, studies show users are 58x more likely to engage with branded content on Instagram compared to Facebook.

And over one-third of Instagram users have used the platform to purchase a product online. With such an enormous base of regular, engaged users who are ready to buy, Instagram is one of the best digital platforms for your advertising spend.

We’re the social media advertising agency trusted by Australia’s most innovative marketers and businesses. There are heaps of reasons for this, but above all it’s because we are entirely results-driven. We won’t stop until we are generating the maximum return for your social media advertising budget.

Nothing less than the best is good enough. How do we do it? We work closely with you to drill down into your goals and your target audience. Then, we use all the tools available to reach your audience with the best, more relevant messaging and creative.

Above all, we know the secret to social media advertising success: testing, testing and more testing. We live and breathe your digital data to uncover the insights that will give your campaign the edge and deliver that irresistible ROI.

There’s no actual “Instagram Ads Manager”, but there are two ways to create an Instagram ad campaign:

1. Using Facebook Ads Manager
2. Promote posts within Instagram

First, let’s look at Facebook Ads Manager.

Facebook Ads Manager is the one you use when you want to run ads on both Facebook AND Instagram.

This is an incredible powerful platform for advertisers as it lets you pinpoint and customise audiences. Once your ads are live, you can deep-dive into how your ads are performing.

For the purposes of this guide, we’ll assume you already have a Facebook page and access to Facebook Business Manager. If you don’t, Hootsuite has a great step-by-step guide.

Now, follow these steps to crate your Instagram ad.

1. Link your Facebook Business profile to your Instagram account

Go to your Facebook page to Facebook Business Manager and click on the top left-hand menu.

Click Business Settings> Instagram Accounts.

Click Add.

In the pop-up box, add the details of the Instagram account.

Save the changes.

Now the fun begins – it’s time to create your Instagram Ad.

2. Choose your objective

Go to Facebook Ads Manager and click Create.

Choose how you want to create your ad campaign – Guided Creation or Quick Creation.

Choose Guided Creation if…  you want detailed instructions on how to create the campaign.

Choose Quick Creation if… this isn’t your first rodeo and you want greater control over your ad.

Now, choose your ad campaign objective from the list provided:

img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-1234″ src=”https://www.onlinemarketinggurus.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/purpose-of-an-instagram-campaign-on-ads.png” alt=”” width=”512″ height=”231″ />

Here’s a quick guide to ad objectives:

Awareness objectives:

• Brand awareness: Show your brand to users who haven’t heard of you.
• Reach: Show your ad to as many users as possible for your spend.

Consideration objectives:

• Traffic: Drive clicks to your website
• Engagement: Increase comments, likes, shares, event responses and offer claims.
  
• App installs: Encourage users to download your app.
• Video views: Increase the amount of views for a video.
• Lead generation: Gather lead data from those who click on your ad.
• Messages: Encourage users to send a message to your business.

Conversion objectives:

• Conversions: Increase sales and sign-up conversions.
• Catalog sales: Show ads for products on your Facebook catalogue.
• Store visits: Direct users to your physical store locations.

Let’s say you choose Conversions.

Next, name your campaign.

3. Identify your audience

Now for the really important part. Who do you want to target?

Be specific. You can tap into Facebook’s targeting tools to pinpoint your audience by a wide range of options.

To see what’s available, go into the Detailed Targeting dropdown and click Browse.

Step 4: Select your ad placements

Next, decide where your ads will appear.

Automatic Placements means your ad will be shown to your audience where they will perform best, in Facebook’s view.

Or, click on Edit Placements for the full range of options.

Step 5: Set your budget and schedule

How much you want to spend on your ad campaign and how long will it run for?

Again, you have a few options here.

To set a maximum daily spend, choose a Daily Budget.

If your ad has a set lifespan (for example, the sale runs for four weeks), choose Lifetime Budgeting.

Instagram Ads work in the same way as Facebook Ads. Costs depend on your budget and whether you select Manual or Automatic bidding.

So, your Instagram Ad will never cost you more than you have to spend.

Pro Tip:

Instagram ad costs are typically slightly higher than Facebook ads – even when you’re hitting the same target audience. The reason is simple: Instagram ads typically see 10 times the engagement of a Facebook ad, which means a much higher chance at converting the user.

6. Create your ad

This is the part where you choose your ad format.

Then, follow the steps to complete your ad:

• Add media (pictures or videos)
• Create your ad copy
• Add the website URL
• Choose your call to action

Finally, add your tracking.

The Facebook Pixel is super important if you want to see how your ad performs and how your audience interacts with your business after clicking on your ad.

Click Confirm– you’re done!

Now you know how to create an Instagram ads, you need to make sure your campaigns perform to their maximum potential.

That’s where our advanced Instagram advertising tips come in.

1. Switch up your ads

People quickly get tired of the same pictures and videos on Instagram.

The solution is to switch up your ads regularly to prevent ad fatigue.

This also helps you learn which ads perform best, which leads us to…

2. Test EVERYTHING

Want to create the perfect Insta ad? It doesn’t happen overnight!

You need to test out every element of your campaign to find the perfect combination of elements: caption, format, audiences, images, call to action…the list goes on.

Then, measure the performance of the ads in Facebook Ads Manager.

You might find that one audience drives a 15x cheaper CPC. And within that audience, one specific Instagram ad achieves a 5x higher click through rate (CTR).

Now, you can shift your budget to your winning combination.

3. Focus on the first few seconds

With Instagram ads, the trick is to grab the user’s attention immediately and make your message super clear.

This is even more critical for Stories ads.

Why?

Because photo ads only last 5 seconds, video ads for up to 15 seconds and users can’t return to them later.

So you need to ensure users instantly understand what your ad is about and why it matters to their life.

Take a look at this ad from Mountain Bikes Direct:

It has all the right elements: strong visuals, clear messaging and a compelling call to action.

4. Make it feel exclusive

People want things that are reserved for a few or that are in limited supply and high demand.

It’s human nature.

Or, as it’s now known, FOMO.

Use the law of exclusivity in your Instagram ads.

Make your users feel like they are missing out on something incredible.

Like this one from Calm:

5. Measure everything and use the data to make better ad decisions

The only way you can know if certain ads work better for your audience is to measure it.

You might be surprised at what you find.

For example, did you know that static image ads can outperform videos at a much lower cost?

By measuring your ad performance, you might find out that promoting image posts directly from Instagram performs better for your goal.

Also, sometimes videos are not the best performers. But you only know if you track your cost per click and cost per acquisition metrics.

PRO TIP: Remember to measure Dark Social – that is, when people share content through private channels like email and instant measuring.

You should probably review: When is the Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2022?

When running Instagram marketing campaigns, advertisers can choose different bidding models based on their goals. Cost Per Click (CPC) refers to the amount you pay each time a user clicks on your ad, making it ideal for driving traffic to your website or landing page.

On the other hand, Cost Per Engagement (CPE) measures the cost of interactions such as likes, comments, shares, or saves, which is useful for boosting engagement and brand awareness. Choosing between CPC and CPE depends on whether your focus is generating website visits or encouraging audience interaction with your content.

With five different ad types to choose from, which will be the most successful Instagram ads for your brand?

It comes down to your GOALS.

Know what you want to achieve from your Instagram campaign.

Let’s say you’re trying to increase sales rapidly, Collection ads or Stories ads may be the best option for your brands.

Collection ads let you directly sell products, while Stories ads are great for one-time promotions that get in front of users instantly.

What if you want to increase brand awareness?

Photo or video ads are a great option as you can use captivating content to engage like-minded users.

The bottom line?

Be clear on your goal and choose the right ad type to match it.

How long it takes to roll out your Instagram advertising campaigns depends on whether you’re working solo or with an agency. Launching an Instagram advertising campaign might be simple in theory, but without the help of an experienced agency, it can prove stressful and difficult to get the results you deserve.

You need to work out the right audiences, nail your ad creatives and craft a solid targeting approach. And it doesn’t stop once your campaign is live: you need track data and gather insights to continually fine-tune and test new ad creatives, audiences and targeting approaches for even better results.

Does your team have the time and experience to achieve this? If not, you’ll wind up wasting more time trying to set things up than doing the fine-tuning and testing needed to deliver real conversions. Work with us and we can get you started within days. We use our proven formula for success to roll out your campaigns quickly and seamlessly. No need to stress about ticking the right boxes – we’ve got it covered. Give us a call to see how we can help your business succeed.

Instagram advertising is incredibly effective for Australian businesses when executed correctly. With over 9 million active Australian users, Instagram offers a massive audience for businesses to reach, engage, and convert. The platform’s advanced targeting features, like demographics, interests, and behaviour-based targeting, allow businesses to connect with highly relevant audiences.

When combined with visually engaging content, Instagram ads can drive not only brand awareness but also measurable results like website traffic, leads, and sales. Additionally, Instagram’s diverse ad formats—such as Stories, carousel ads, and video ads—give businesses a variety of ways to engage users, which can significantly improve campaign performance.

In short, Instagram advertising is a powerful tool for growth, particularly for businesses looking to connect with a younger, trend-savvy audience, build brand loyalty, and drive conversions. When paired with a well-optimised strategy, it can deliver a strong return on investment and contribute to sustainable business growth.

Instagram advertising offers a powerful way to reach potential customers, increase brand awareness, and drive engagement. With features like Instagram Explore, your business can appear on users’ explore pages, making it easier for people who aren’t already following you to discover your Instagram account and learn more about your product or service.

There are several Instagram ad formats to choose from, including Instagram video ads, carousel ads, and story ads, all designed to engage users in different ways. Whether you want to showcase a product launch or highlight your services, Instagram video ads are a great way to visually captivate your audience.

To run Instagram ads, you’ll need to set up a business account on Instagram and connect it to your Facebook Ad Manager, where you can create and manage your campaigns. Ad Manager allows you to choose from various types of Instagram ads, set a daily budget, target specific demographics, and track performance.

Additionally, adding a call to action button on your ads can encourage users to take immediate action, whether it’s visiting your website, signing up for a newsletter, or purchasing a product. With these options, Instagram advertising helps businesses effectively reach and engage with a highly targeted audience.

Instagram has five ad formats:

• Stories ads
• Photo ads
• Video ads
• Carousel ads
• Collection ads

That’s take a closer look at the types of ads on Instagram:

1. Stories ads

Stories Ads appear between other users’ Stories as full-screen, vertical ads. So when you watch them, all you see on your screen is the content.

This is a fast-growing ad format for one simple reason:

500 million Instagram users view Stories every day, meaning you have the potential to reach a massive audience.

When one Instagram Story ends, the next one begins. So, it’s an easy way to get in front of people while they are actively engaged with Stories.

Not only can you target your audience, you can also choose how often they see your ad.

All the usual Instagram Stories features are available too, like adding text, filters and video effects to create creative promotions that look and feel like your normal posts.

That’s the brilliant thing about Stories ads – it’s difficult to tell them apart from organic content. Especially if they’re targeted properly, as that means they will blend in as part of the user’s interests.

The call to action is a swipe-up feature that takes the user directly to visit your website or landing page. Like this example:

The best way to use Stories ads is for limited-time offers and promotions, because Stories expire after 24 hours.

2. Photo ads

Photo ads are what you use when you want to showcase products and services through stunning images.

This type of advertising on Instagram is especially effective if you’re already using eye-catching visual content that’s getting noticed on your organic feed. Use Instagram photo ads to reach even more people who don’t yet follow your Instagram account.

Think brand awareness.

The example below is a stunning photo ad by an Australian tourism site, which purely aims to drive more followers to their profile.

3. Video ads

Video is exploding and trending in social media and Instagram is no exception.

When Instagram introduced videos, more than 5 million were shared in 24 hours.

In fact, user-time spent watching videos was up more than 80% year-over-year on the platform in 2017.

That’s why Instagram makes it easy for advertisers to use video for advertising gain.

Get creative to really stand out on the feed, like this one by Oreo.

In this example, Bankwest uses video for a competition – which is more impactful than a simple picture.

4. Carousel ads

Carousel ads are the ones where users can swipe through a series of images or videos. These are highly popular for ecommerce brands.

Online retailers use them with call to action buttons to drive users directly to the ecommerce site to buy the product.

The brilliant thing about Carousel ads is that you can use them to dive deeper into a single service by breaking it up into 10 images/videos.

Take a look at this one by Inside Vancouver. It tells a story with beautiful images, which leads you to the call to action button – enter the competition.

5. Collection ads

Instagram Collection ads are a pretty new addition to the platform, introduced in 2018.

Here’s how Instagram describes them:

“You can use collection to visually inspire and help your audience discover, browse and purchase products. Tell an integrated story with a product or lifestyle focus, through video, images or both.”

But this skims over the true advantage of this ad type: users can purchase products directly from the ad.

You can also set up ads directly from your Instagram profile. If you have an existing post that’s performing well, you can promote it to other target audiences.

Simple as that.

This lets you reach even more users really easily without going through Facebook Ads Manager.

There’s another benefit too.

A study by Hootsuite found that content that receives paid promotion has a big effect on search rankings.

How big?

It almost DOUBLES the performance of content that’s just posted and left alone.

Here’s how you do it.

Choose your post and click on Promote.

If prompted, log in to your Facebook account.

Then, select your goal.

Choose where to send people.

Do you want to drive more users to your profile, website or direct messages?

If you choose your website, it will automatically draw the URL form your profile.

Edit this to send users to a specific landing page.

Now, select your target audience.

Instagram can target your ad to people who are like your followers. Or you can enter your own targeting options to create a custom audience.

Finally, select your budget and duration.

Click Create Promotion and you’re done!

Like most things in life, the best results are achieved by professionals. That is why you should opt to hire an agency vs doing and managing your own ads on IG.

Hiring an expert Instagram advertising firm is essential for maximising your ROI and achieving the best possible results. While Instagram offers powerful advertising tools, running successful campaigns requires in-depth knowledge and experience. An expert firm brings a deep understanding of the platform’s algorithms, advanced targeting options, and best practices, ensuring your ads reach the right people with the right message at the right time.

A professional agency will create and optimise campaigns tailored to your specific business goals—whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or generating leads and sales. They’ll also continuously monitor campaign performance, making real-time adjustments to improve results.

An experienced Instagram advertising firm knows how to create engaging, visually compelling ads that resonate with your audience. With their expertise, you can save time, avoid common pitfalls, and ensure that every dollar spent is contributing to your business growth. Plus, you’ll have access to data-driven insights that allow you to make informed decisions and achieve long-term success.

The great thing about Instagram advertising is that it can cost as much or as little as your budget allows. You can drive significant results with minimal ad spend, so long as you take full advantage of the impressive targeting capabilities.

Need some real numbers to play with? Expect to pay anywhere from $0.20 up to $5 for a click. But our advice is to think about it from an ROI point of view.

Because users are 2.5x more likely to click on Instagram ads than ads on any other social media platform, your budget can deliver much more exciting results than other platforms. Work with our Gurus to squeeze the best return from your Instagram advertising budget.