Advertising on Instagram: advantages and disadvantages
Instagram is an application that reaches more and more users every day. It stands out from other social networks with its innovation and the possibility of creative self-expression. Instagram has become not only a platform for communication and information exchange, but also an advertising resource.
Due to the way ads are placed on Instagram, they can be divided into free and paid ones. Paid is advertising targeting by FB Ads, advertising by bloggers, advertising on promoted public sites. Free messages are direct messages, carousels from photos or videos, work with brand ambassadors, freebies, joint barter PR.
The advantages of advertising on Instagram are:
- Availability. There are free tools as well as paid in-app targeted advertising, and there are many ways of advertising to advertise each person.
- Reaching the target audience. During the settings, user parameters are indicated (gender, age, interests, geolocation, etc.) who are potential buyers and they will see the advertisement.
- Wide range. Every day, the application is used by a large group of active users around the world, and their number is growing rapidly.
- Possibility to analyze effectiveness. The ad tool settings allow you to track impact and response metrics. Based on the data obtained, the applied strategy can be adjusted in order to optimize the result.
- Scalability of the ad. If you get positive results after running a small ad campaign, you can increase your budget and continue with your broad audience.
- Performance. Preparation does not take long. Often the minimum time to run a targeted ad is 30 minutes and the result is visible in the short term.
The disadvantages of advertising on Instagram are:
- User distrust. Unreal advertising and the increasing frequency of unfair behavior via social media undermine the loyalty of consumers, who increasingly associate advertising with fraud.
- The complexity of customization. In the initial stages, it will take some time to understand the mechanisms for preparing and launching your ads. Experience is gained through trial and error to effectively use the advertising tool, but it can be problematic for people unfamiliar with digital marketing.
- Compliance with advertising requirements. Announcements are subject to mandatory moderation by security services. Often, however, correct data and materials are not accepted.
- Application inefficiency in some market segments. First of all, it concerns b2b relations and manifests itself in the implementation of costly and complex projects.
- Time costs. It takes time and resources to monitor performance, update and manage your ads, and connect with your audience. While advertising on IG can be effective, a lot of effort and attention must be put into it.
Instagram is a social network that, with the right selection and use of tools, can help you build or maintain brand loyalty. At the same time, however, an inappropriate promotion strategy via social media can undermine consumer loyalty. On the basis of preliminary data, goals and desired results, the company determines the possibilities of using this type of advertising and selects the most appropriate tools for itself. Therefore, before launching an ad on IG, it is worth analyzing whether it will help meet our expectations and will be the right choice.