Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly active users. Even better, those users are highly engaged. Every day, they’re uploading 80 million photos and “liking” 4.5 billion posts.
But that’s not all Instagram has to offer advertisers.
Instagram posts are naturally intrusive, but in a good way that feels native to the platform. While it’s easy to scroll past posts users aren’t interested in, it’s essentially impossible to avoid them altogether.
This means the potential reach and impact of any type of Instagram ad is huge – but you want the best possible results from your online advertising, don’t you? In that case, one format consistently outperforms all other – video.
Instagram’s video view rate benchmark regularly averages over 40%, depending on the month.
When done well, video marketing is crazy effective. It also offers an awesome return on investment. In fact, right now Instagram story ads boast a lower CPC and much higher click-through rates than other ad types.
Intrigued?
Let’s start from the beginning.
How to Create Instagram Video Ads
While you can create Instagram ads (video or otherwise) using Facebook’s ad manager, it’s much easier to create ads using the app, so that’s what I’m going to talk you through.
To create an ad via the app, you first need to post the content you want to promote. Ensure you know when to best schedule Instagram posts.
Then you simply navigate to your profile page. A business account is helpful; if you don’t have one, you can easily switch to one in your settings:
You’ll see a “promote” button in the corner of each post (thanks and credit to Kristi Hines and Social Media Examiner for the screenshots from here onwards):
Click that button and you’ll be asked to choose from a number of objectives:
What happens next will depend on the objective you choose. For example, if you want to drive website visits and profile visits, you’ll need to enter your web address.
Alongside this, you’ll have to decide how much you want to spend and how long you want your ad to run. You’ll also need to select your call-to-action. The one you pick will depend on whether you are trying to generate leads, impressions or sales on Instagram.
And define your target audience:
When you’re done, you can click the ‘preview’ tab to see how your ad will appear to your audience. If you’re happy with it, you can then click ‘create promotion’ to submit your ad for review.
It’s worth noting that while this is the quickest and easiest way to create an Instagram ad, you can go into far more detail in terms of targeting if you create it using Facebook’s ad manager.
For a detailed run-through of how to do this, read Kristi’s full article here.
Best Practices for Instagram Video Ads
Video advertising on Instagram (and many other social media channels) couldn’t be more different than creating an ad for television.
To get you out of that mindset, here are a few best practices you should be considering when creating video ads for Instagram marketing – or for that matter, pretty much any other social network that offers a platform for video advertising.
Educate Yourself on Dimensions
To ensure they’re displayed correctly on all devices, Instagram video ads need to comply with strict size specs. Thankfully, advertisers get a choice of three dimensions, but it’s important to know what these are, as well as what will work best for your brand and the specific ad you’re creating.
You can read an excellent article detailing dimensions for all Instagram ad types here (which also takes credit for the information and example gifs below). However, when it comes to video, your choices are:
Landscape video:
Minimum resolution: 600 x 315
Proper aspect ratio: 1:91:1
Square video:
Minimum resolution: 600 x 600
Proper aspect ratio: 1:1
Vertical video:
Minimum resolution: 600 x 750
Proper aspect ratio: 4:5
Make the First Couple of Seconds Matter
The average Instagram user doesn’t waste time when scrolling through their feed. They use the app as an easy way to occupy a few spare moments, check out trending Instagram hashtags, so if you haven’t captured their interest within a couple of seconds, you’ve lost your opportunity to reach them.
In fact, the time you have to grab a user’s attention on social sites like Instagram or Facebook isn’t really comparable to anything else. Even YouTube ads give you five seconds to draw viewers in.
This means that getting users to notice your video is tough, but it’s far from impossible.
Take this illustration-based ad from Oreo that hits you so fast you’re compelled to keep watching before you’re even sure what’s going on or why it’s grabbed you:
Or this ad from Ikea UK:
It’s super-smart in how it repeats the first (very short) portion of the video twice. Those initial moments fly by so fast that you’re sucked in before you even realize you’re watching the same scene twice.
The video then seemingly loops a third time but instead, catches viewers off-guard when the story plays out differently, and they realize what the ad is actually for.
Keep it Short
As with all video advertising, brevity is key.
Life today offers more distractions than ever. If we lose our interest in a video, book, article, or in this case, an ad, the alternatives are endless. We have no reason to continue consuming something we’re not finding that interesting.
So how long should an Instagram video be?
Research reported by HubSpot says around 30 seconds. This is based on data showing that videos averaging 26 seconds receive the most comments.
However, there may well be flaws in this data. After all, correlation doesn’t equal causation.
We have to ask who’s posting these videos? How many followers do they have? And do image posts from that Instagram account get a similar amount of Instagram comments as the videos?
Odds are, there’s more to HubSpot’s recommendation than meets the eye, and it could just be that the biggest Instagram accounts, which (naturally) see the most interaction with their content, happen to post videos around 30 seconds long.
In other words, don’t take the advice above as gospel, and if in doubt, your best bet is to keep your ad as short as you can.
Make Your Videos Loopable
All Instagram videos loop automatically – this means that if you’re creating content which is engaging enough for viewers to see it through to the end, it will just start again.
This is something you should be considering when creating videos – or at least, when deciding how to end them. You want the loop to feel natural, not disruptive. This will boost how frequently your videos get viewed more than once, and with it, how engaged viewers become with your ad and your brand.
Done well, a looped video shouldn’t seem to loop at all – remember this?
It was a looping gif of a tornado that was so perfectly timed it tricked millions into believing they were watching a live video.
While the nature of a video ad means you’re unlikely to be able to create something this seamless, it does go to show the impact looping (when done well) can have on engagement.
Don’t Look Like an Ad
Users don’t want to watch ads – they want to watch interesting, amusing, or useful content. We’ve seen how this can work in the earlier examples.
You’re not watching an Oreo ad, you’re watching an illustrator. You’re not viewing an ad for a flatpack furniture company, you’re watching a comedy interaction between a father and son.
Create videos that blend in with the content that everyday users share, and you’re almost guaranteed to see your views, likes, comments, shares, and conversions increase.
Have One Focus
Cramming multiple themes into one video isn’t just confusing, it’s distracting – and it will significantly increase the rate at which viewers tune out and keep on scrolling.
Your ads should always focus on a single theme.
Why?
It makes it easier for viewers to focus, and as a result, it will increase engagement. It’ll also help with the point I made just above – blending in with video content the everyday Instagram user shares.
Personal Instagram users don’t typically post compilation videos of that day’s or week’s events. They’ll film a few seconds of footage, and upload it.
Okay, so most Instagram ads will stand out on account of being more professional and polished, and while you should aim to look as little like an ad as possible, you can’t entirely hide the fact that you’re promoting something.
That said, you should never deviate from the cardinal rule that video ads should have one sole focus.
Use Subtitles
85% of Facebook videos are viewed with the sound turned off. I can only assume Instagram users behave in a similar way.
These users will only view video featuring speech if it’s subtitled.
If there’s speech in your videos, subtitle it.
This is non-negotiable.
Include a CTA
Unless your sole goal is to increase brand awareness, Instagram video ads should feature a CTA. This could appear at the end of the video, but you could also include a CTA in your description (just bear in mind that it’s unlikely to get the same attention as a CTA in your ad).
So what should your CTA consist of?
This is up to you, but as with any CTA you need to tell viewers what you’d like them to do next – whether that’s liking or sharing your video, following your account, or clicking a link to your website and buying something (for this last one, it’s always a good idea to sweeten the deal with a discount code).
Ultimately, the CTA you use should depend on your goal. If you want to grow your Instagram account, it would be better to ask people to follow you. While if you want to get more sales, you will need to ask them to visit your website and buy. And if you want more impressions, you will need to ask people to like and share.
Think Beyond Instagram
The most effective Instagram shoutouts and ads do more than get brand exposure and increase your likes – they drive traffic to your site and get people to buy.
So you need to think beyond Instagram.
Does your website match up to the UX that’s managed to make Instagram one of the biggest social networks in the world?
Make sure that if you’re sending users from an ad to your website:
- The landing page is 100% mobile-friendly (remember that the vast majority of Instagram users are on mobile devices).
- The transition feels seamless.
- The page loads fast (ideally within a second – two seconds max).
- Copy is kept to a minimum.
- The content of the page is optimized for conversions.
Instagram Video Ads: Case Studies
Not convinced Instagram video ads are worth the investment?
There’s no escaping the fact that there’s more time and work involved in creating a video ad than other ad types, but get it right, and the payoff should be well worth it.
Here are a few case studies from brands that demonstrate just how effective and easy Instagram video advertising can be.
Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen has 6400+ branches across the U.S. and revenue exceeding $2.5 billion. Odds are, they have a marketing budget bigger than any of us could ever dream of, and yet they’ve mastered the art of super-simple video content.
In fact, their Instagram profile is almost entirely populated by video, most of which last just a few seconds, and probably didn’t take much longer to create (that’s an exaggeration, of course – but they’re not posting much that the average designer couldn’t recreate pretty easily).
Take their “Upside Down or Free Campaign,” in which customers were promised a free ice cream on their next visit if they ordered a Blizzard and it wasn’t served to them upside down.
In fact, some of the videos in the campaign feature nothing more than an image of the product in question and a flashing banner highlighting the offer. It’s also possible to change order of Instagram highlights.
Despite this, the campaign reached 20 million people and significantly increased awareness of the promotion and purchase intent.
Headspace
Most of the video content I’ve used as examples in this article has been fast-paced and in-your-face.
Naturally, the content Headspace produces couldn’t be more different. What we’ve seen so far would go against the whole ethos of their brand and product.
For those who haven’t heard of Headspace, it’s a mindfulness app designed to encourage happier, healthier living with just a few minutes of meditation a day (you can find out more here).
This presents a bit of problem.
How do you grab users’ attention in just a couple of seconds, when your whole ideology is based around helping people relax and clear their heads?
It can’t be easy, but impressively, Headspace seems to have cracked it.
The video in question asks users to breathe in and out in time with the movement of a series of shapes. It’s almost hypnotic, and is legitimately effective at fulfilling its goal (which many of the comments are testament to – “Solid, subtle marketing. Chilled me out and got me interested in the product.”)
More importantly, it’s clear what the purpose of the video is within less than a second. It’s also an excellent example of a video that loops so naturally that you wouldn’t know it’s looping at all.
Amy Porterfield
Amy Porterfield is a digital marketing consultant with an enviable Instagram account, and more than 78.6K Instagram followers.
Most of what she posts wouldn’t look out of place on the average user’s account – holiday snaps and pictures of her family and friends.
But this is interjected with promotional content designed to grow her business.
Take this. It’s not even really a video; it’s an sneak peak of podcast, accompanied by an animation.
While 1,964 views doesn’t sound like much when compared to how many followers she has, the responses are extremely positive. More to the point, Porterfield’s take on Instagram video ads can teach us a few things.
- What constitutes a “video” is more flexible than you might think.
- Your ad doesn’t have to promote your brand or product directly; it could promote other content you create.
- A largely static “video” enables you to feature a CTA throughout the content.
Have you experimented with Instagram video ads? Did they get results, and if not, why? It’s always great to hear your thoughts and experiences – comments are below.
Image: Pixabay
I build and grow SaaS companies.
“When it comes to marketing, Sujan is the best. I’ve never met someone with such creative tactics and deep domain knowledge not just in one channel, but in every flavor of marketing. From content, to scrappy guerrilla tactics, to PR, Sujan always blows my mind with what he comes up with.”
Thanks for this direction and advice Sujan. I look forward to testing this with my new brand for my digital marketing agency (kind of nervous about the full switch).
Do you recommend Upwork to hire a contractor to manage an instagram account since I don’t focus on social media personally?
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Nate,
My pleasure. You can use Upwork to hire a contractor..just make you vet their experience with Instagram.
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