AdRoll has released a handy guide to help marketers unlock the power of Instagram as an advertising channel including best practices on the platform and why advertisers should be using Instagram.

The “Performance Advertiser’s Guide to Instagram” report is aimed at brands regardless if they’re experienced Instagram advertiser or running their first campaign.

In the report, AdRoll outlines five reasons why advertisers should be adopting Instagram including its growing user base; it’s a mobile-first platform; Instagram’s users are self-contained within the app meaning they stay longer; the millennial demographic (90 per cent of Instagram’s audience is under 35) and lastly, the native ad format means advertising appears naturally alongside standard posts.

AdRoll has identified the 20 best practices to help you get the most out of Instagram, here are five:

Reuse your top-performing creative from Facebook: While artistic images perform well, don’t be afraid to use your best Facebook ads on Instagram. In general, any ads that are hitting your key performance indicators (KPIs) on Facebook will also perform well on Instagram.

Make your customers feel famous: The more engagement you can generate on Instagram, the more likely it is that your product will come to mind when your customer is ready to buy. Tag customers in comments and share their photos online to create a personal connection with your audience and make them feel important.

 

Use metadata like hashtags and location tagging: Entice your audience to interact with your brand by taking advantage of the extra bells and whistles that Instagram offers. Research has shown that 88 per cent of brand posts include at least one hashtag and these posts receive almost 13 per cent more interaction. Additionally, brand posts with location tags receive 79 per cent higher engagement than posts without.

DON’T over-filter your audience: Refrain from narrowing down your audience too much until you learn how Instagram users interact with your brand. We recommend leveraging your existing AdRoll segments to target customers across the entire funnel. This will allow you to serve general awareness ads to new customers and offer discounts to loyal customers.

DON’T forget native ads have their quirks: Instagram metrics can be different from those of other channels. While ads can feature links that take customers out of the app, the typical user behavior is a passive scroll. It’s uncommon for Instagram users to click on links or buttons like they would on Facebook. Expand your focus outside of click-based metrics to key in on how Instagram users actually interact with your ads.

To download the full report, click here.