We are now fully in the age of social media and by extension, social media marketing. As a young adult today I can confidently tell you that the easiest way for a brand to reach me and my peers is through social media. The growth of the internet has widened the possible ways in which businesses can market their products and services. One of the most effective platforms for this type of activity is through Instagram. Owners of business accounts have the option of using free marketing on Instagram. This is basically the same as free marketing on Facebook. The topic of our discussion today is The Benefits of Sponsored Instagram posts for your Business.
What is a Sponsored Instagram post?
In the simplest way to understand it; a sponsored post is when you or a business pays Instagram to promote an already existing post on your page. What usually happens is that any serious businesses will regularly post content on their accounts. This is according what information the Instagram analytics suggests to them. This means that they will intentionally post certain content at certain times because the goal is always to maximise engagement. In the event that a particular post does well and receives positive engagement, the business may opt to pay Instagram to turn that post into a sponsored post.
Instagram charges sponsored posts on a per click basis. Therefore the business has to decide how much money and time they’re willing to spend on a sponsored post. Instagram also allows businesses to target specific audiences with their sponsored posts. It also enables them to even reach potential clients in further locations. Another type of sponsored Instagram posts is also a form of Influencer marketing. Businesses sometimes sponsor the posts of popular Instagram influencer accounts. This is especially when the social media influencer posts content relevant to the business and target audience. The goal of this is to get more engagement from the organic audiences of the influencers.
Why should your Business make use of Sponsored Instagram posts?
Numerous studies have proved that people respond positively to visual cues. Before Instagram, Facebook and Youtube dominated social media and multimedia channels respectively. Both of these platforms are mostly visual and Instagram has since managed to represent the best of both platforms. After Facebook, Instagram is the most dominant social media platform. Instagram returns more engagement per follower that other social media platforms. I have discovered so many restaurants and places to visit just off being ambushed by sponsored Instagram posts.
How will Sponsored Instagram posts benefit your business?
- It’s important to remember that Meta owns Instagram. Meta also owns Facebook which has been mining its users for data for 20 years. This information is relevant because anyone with experience of running their business on Facebook can just use that experience for a seamless transition into Instagram marketing. Meta is notoriously secretive about how its algorithm works. However I am sure that Instagram benefits from being a sister company to Facebook.
- The Instagram UI and UX is very different from the ‘busy’ feel of other social media platforms. As a result of this, potential customers will never feel like your sponsored posts are disturbing them. It will also not negatively affect their Instagram experience.
- More engagement. As mentioned earlier, Instagram has a comparatively higher engagement rate per follower when compared to other social media platforms. I think that a reason for this is because you only have to scroll and double tap to like.
- A larger reach and more brand awareness. Smartphones have taken over the world. They can be described as mini handheld personal computers. Smartphones also have good quality cameras and this is important for anyone that uses Instagram. Anybody can become a content creator. People also collectively consume an almost unlimited amount of content online. This means that marketing yourself through sponsored posts can be really beneficial for your business.
- Cost effective. Instagram marketing is comparatively less costly and less time consuming. This means you can easily get a return on your investment.
- Applications such as myntra, flipkart and amazon can be integrated with Instagram. This serves to increase the traffic on those websites. While scrolling through Instagram, one may come across a sponsored post from Shopify with a ‘Shop now’ button. This seamlessly drives the traffic to the business website without inconveniencing the potential customer.
- Instagram has different metrics when measuring the success of an ad campaign. Things such as followers, comments and likes don’t hold so much weight. It is not a true measure of how much awareness was generated by your sponsored post. So how many people see your sponsored post is more important than how many people like or comment on it. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Imagine how many times have you clicked a link to buy something but didn’t leave a like or comment?
Make sure your target audience and content align before you decide to make use of sponsored Instagram posts. Also decide between which of the 4 main Instagram posts you will sponsor. These 4 are:
- Sponsored stories posts
- Sponsored video posts
- Sponsored photo posts
- Sponsored carousel posts
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