Instagram has become a powerhouse for reaching and engaging audiences, making it an essential platform for brands looking to drive results with their ads. With over 2 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active Stories, Instagram offers brands unique opportunities to connect with highly engaged audiences. Most Instagram users follow at least one brand, showcasing the platform’s effectiveness for businesses aiming to boost visibility and engagement.
If you want to tap into Instagram’s full ad potential, this guide will walk you through how to create Instagram ads in Meta Ads Manager and set them up for success from day one. By focusing on clear objectives, audience targeting, and optimized placements, you can harness Instagram’s unique strengths to drive your business goals.
Let’s dive into the preparation steps to help you make the most of Instagram ads, from connecting your accounts to crafting compelling ad content.
Preparation
Setting up effective Instagram ads requires careful preparation. These initial steps will ensure your ads are positioned to reach the right audience and achieve your business goals.
Connecting Instagram to Your Facebook Page
Linking your Instagram and Facebook accounts is crucial for cross-platform advertising. This connection provides streamlined ad management in Meta Ads Manager and offers deeper audience insights, enhancing your ad targeting and performance.
To connect your accounts:
In Meta Ads Manager, go to Business Settings.
Under Accounts, select Instagram Accounts and click Add.
Log in to your Instagram account and complete the prompts.
Confirm the Instagram account is linked to the correct Facebook page under Page Settings.
With this setup, you can manage both Instagram and Facebook ads in one place, simplifying cross-platform campaigns.
Planning Ad Creative and Message
Next, plan ad creatives that appeal to Instagram’s highly visual audience. Successful Instagram ads feature striking visuals and clear, authentic messaging. Here are some tips:
Standout Visuals: Use bold, high-quality visuals that capture attention and reflect your brand.
Concise Messaging: Keep the message clear and impactful. Ads that communicate value in a few words perform best.
A/B Testing: Test different visuals, headlines, and CTAs early to find combinations that drive engagement and conversions.
With thoughtful planning, your content will better resonate with Instagram users.
Selecting Advertising Objectives
Choosing the right objective is key to ad success on Instagram. Meta Ads Manager offers various objectives to match campaign goals, such as:
Brand Awareness: To boost visibility and initial interest.
Reach: To maximize exposure to a broad audience.
Traffic: To drive clicks to a website or landing page.
Engagement: To increase likes, comments, and shares.
Conversions: To drive purchases.
Selecting an objective that aligns with your goals creates a clear path for your campaign’s success. After completing these foundational steps, you’re ready to create your Instagram ads in Meta Ads Manager.
Creating Instagram Ads in Meta Ads Manager
After completing your preparation, you can create your Instagram ads using Meta Ads Manager. This tool provides a straightforward process, allowing you to control each aspect of your campaign to match your objectives.
Signing into Meta Ads Manager
Log into Meta Ads Manager using the credentials tied to your Facebook business account, or you can log in using your Instagram Professional Account. Here’s how to access the platform through the Meta Ads Manager and begin:
Visit Meta Ads Manager and sign in.
Once logged in, you’ll reach the main dashboard to view any current campaigns or create a new one.
The dashboard is the central hub where you can monitor performance, adjust settings, and manage all ad campaigns across Facebook and Instagram.
Setting Up a New Campaign
Once in Meta Ads Manager, you can begin creating a new campaign. Follow these steps:
Click on “Create”: This button is prominently displayed on the main dashboard and initiates the campaign setup.
Choose Your Objective: Select an objective that aligns with your goals, such as Reach, Engagement, or Conversions. For Instagram ads, objectives like Engagement and Conversions are popular for boosting interactions and driving sales.
Name Your Campaign: Assign a clear name to your campaign for easy reference in the dashboard. Naming campaigns based on objectives or audience can be helpful for tracking.
After these initial steps, you’ll configure more specific details about your campaign, such as budget, audience, and placements. Once the campaign is set up, the next step is to define the audience you want to target for your Instagram ads.
Defining Your Audience
Selecting the right audience is crucial to any successful Instagram ad campaign. Meta Ads Manager provides multiple audience targeting options, allowing you to define who sees your ads based on your goals, insights, and budget.
Targeting Options: Specific vs. Broad Audiences
When setting up your audience, you can choose between highly specific targeting or a broader approach, depending on your campaign goals.
Specific Audiences: For brands focused on conversions or retargeting, a specific audience helps narrow the ad’s reach to people most likely to take the desired action. Specific targeting can include demographics, interests, or custom audiences based on past interactions with your brand.
Broad Audiences: If your goal is brand awareness or reach, broad audience targeting allows you to reach a larger pool of Instagram users, increasing visibility. This option is particularly beneficial for campaigns focusing on growing general awareness and establishing your brand among new audiences.
Using GoMarble’s AI-Assisted Consumer Research
GoMarble’s AI-driven consumer research adds an extra layer of precision for brands looking to maximize Instagram's targeting capabilities. Its custom Generative AI model allows GoMarble’s team to analyze all of the partner brand’s online assets, creating targeted buyer personas that align with your Instagram campaign goals.
GoMarble’s AI can help refine your audience strategy and ensure your ads connect with the right people on Instagram.
Factors to Consider When Defining an Audience
Defining an audience requires careful consideration of your campaign’s objectives, insights into your ideal customer, and budget:
Objectives: Your campaign objective plays a key role in defining the audience. For example, a conversion-focused campaign may benefit from a specific, targeted audience, while an engagement campaign may perform better with a broader reach.
Audience Insights: Analyze past campaign data or use available customer insights to inform your audience settings. Factors such as age, interests, and geographical location can help you create an audience more likely to engage with your ads.
Budget: Your budget influences the scale and precision of your targeting. For example, a smaller budget may perform better with a narrow audience, allowing you to focus on high-value prospects. In comparison, a larger budget can support broader targeting for increased exposure.
With a defined audience in place, you can now select placements that will best showcase your Instagram ads to your target audience.
Ad Placements
With your audience defined, the next step is choosing the right ad placements on Instagram. Meta Ads Manager offers several placement options, each designed to capture attention in different areas of the Instagram app. By selecting the most effective placements, you can ensure your ads reach users where they’re most engaged.
Understanding Instagram-Specific Placements
Instagram offers various placements that serve different purposes, depending on your campaign goals, such as:
Instagram Feed: This placement is ideal for high-visibility ads that blend seamlessly with users’ regular content. Feed ads are versatile and allow you to use single images, videos, or carousels. It’s a go-to choice for campaigns focused on engagement or conversions.
Instagram Stories: Stories ads appear between user Stories, taking up the full screen and offering an immersive experience. These are perfect for short, engaging content that encourages immediate interaction. Stories are also an excellent choice for campaigns focusing on quick actions, such as swiping up to visit a site.
Instagram Explore: Ads in the Explore section reach users who are browsing new content outside their feeds. This placement is effective for brand awareness campaigns, as it reaches users actively looking for new and interesting content.
Manual Placements vs. Automatic Placements
Choosing between manual and automatic placements depends on your campaign strategy.
Selecting the right placement strategy depends on your goals. Automatic placements might be best if your objective is to reach a broad audience. Manual placements enable precise targeting for more focused campaigns.
With placements in place, the next step is to set a budget and schedule that align with your campaign goals.
Setting Budget and Schedule
With your placements chosen, it’s time to set up a budget and schedule directly within Meta Ads Manager. These steps will help ensure your campaign reaches the right audience while staying within your spending limits.
Defining Your Budget
In Meta Ads Manager, you can choose between a Daily Budget and a Lifetime Budget when setting up your campaign:
Daily Budget:
In the campaign setup, under Budget & Schedule, select Daily Budget.
Enter the maximum amount you want to spend each day.
This budget type provides consistent daily exposure, which is ideal for ongoing campaigns.
Tip: You can monitor daily performance in Meta Ads Manager and adjust the daily amount to optimize reach.
Lifetime Budget:
Under Budget & Schedule, select Lifetime Budget to set the total spending for the campaign duration.
Enter your total budget amount, distributed evenly over the campaign’s schedule.
This option is useful for time-sensitive campaigns like sales, as Meta Ads Manager will pace the spending across your set timeframe.
Tip: Both lifetime and daily budgets support ad scheduling, but lifetime budgeting provides more flexibility to optimize spending over the campaign’s duration and allows you to control when your ads are shown throughout the day.
Scheduling Your Ads
Scheduling options in Meta Ads Manager let you decide when your ads will be visible, which is especially useful for lifetime budgets.
Run Ads All the Time:
If you want your ads to appear continuously, select Run Ads All the Time in the scheduling section.
This straightforward choice suits brand awareness campaigns that need steady visibility.
Tip: This setting is helpful if you’re targeting a general audience and want to reach users around the clock.
Scheduled Ads:
With a lifetime budget, choose Set a Start and End Date and Edit Schedule to access specific time and day settings.
Select the days and hours that match your audience's peak engagement times (e.g., evenings and weekends).
Tip: Use Meta Ads Manager’s insights to check when your audience is most active and set ads to run during these high-engagement times.
Delivery Type and Potential Charges
Meta Ads Manager offers two delivery types, which affect how quickly your budget is spent.
Standard Delivery:
Select Standard in the Optimization & Delivery section to pace your ad spend evenly.
This option is ideal for campaigns needing consistent reach and performance over time.
Tip: Standard delivery is recommended for most campaigns, as it prevents budget burnout early in the day.
Accelerated Delivery:
Choose Accelerated to maximize exposure quickly—ideal for limited-time offers.
This option spends your budget faster and is only available for manual bid control campaigns.
Tip: Accelerated delivery should be used sparingly and requires close monitoring to avoid overspending.
By setting up your budget, schedule, and delivery type directly in Meta Ads Manager, you create a strategic foundation for your campaign that aligns with your business goals. With the budget and schedule in place, the final step is to choose an ad format and finalize the ad.
Choosing Ad Format and Finalizing
The final step in creating your Instagram ad campaign is selecting an ad format that aligns with your content and campaign goals. Meta Ads Manager offers several ad formats, allowing you to choose one that best fits your message, visuals, and audience preferences on Instagram.
Selecting Instagram Feed Formats
Instagram Feed ads are versatile and appear directly in users’ main feeds, blending naturally with regular content. In Meta Ads Manager, you can choose from multiple formats:
Photo Ads:
To create a Photo Ad, select Single Image under Ad Format.
Upload a high-quality image that captures your brand’s essence. Ensure it’s visually engaging and relevant to your campaign.
Tip: Use compelling captions and a clear call-to-action (CTA) to drive engagement. Photo Ads work well for simple, straightforward messages.
Video Ads:
Choose Single Video under Ad Format to create a Video Ad.
Upload a short, engaging video (up to 60 seconds) that delivers your message quickly and visually.
Tip: Videos with a hook in the first few seconds tend to capture more attention. If audio isn’t essential, use captions to ensure the message is accessible.
Carousel Ads:
To select Carousel Ads, choose Carousel under Ad Format.
Upload multiple images or videos that users can swipe through. This format is great for showcasing product features or telling a story.
Tip: Make the first slide eye-catching to encourage users to swipe through the entire carousel. Each card can have its link, which is useful for multi-product campaigns.
Optimizing Formats for Instagram Stories
Stories are immersive, full-screen ads between user stories, making them ideal for short, impactful content.
Single Image or Video for Stories:
In Ad Format, select Single Image or Single Video and check the placement of the Instagram Stories.
For a Single Image, upload a vertical image that fits the 9:16 ratio; for Single Video, ensure it’s short (15 seconds or less) and designed to grab attention immediately.
Tip: Stories ads are viewed quickly, so use bold visuals with strong CTA’s like “Swipe Up” or interactive elements to ensure your message is clear and engaging.
Include Interactive Elements:
Add interactive elements such as polls, swipe-up links (for eligible accounts), or countdown stickers directly in Meta Ads Manager.
Tip: Interactive Stories are particularly effective for boosting engagement and encouraging viewers to interact with your content.
Finalizing Your Ad and Publishing
After selecting your format and uploading content, it’s time to finalize and publish your ad:
Review Ad Preview:
Use the preview feature in Meta Ads Manager to see how your ad will look on Instagram. Ensure visuals are optimized for mobile viewing, as most users will see it on their phones.
Tip: Double-check your CTA and any links to ensure they work as intended.
Confirm Ad Copy and CTA:
Write a short, compelling ad copy that aligns with your visual. The copy should reinforce the message and encourage a specific action.
Choose a CTA button (e.g., “Shop Now”) that best matches your goal.
Hit “Publish”:
Once you’re satisfied with the ad, click “Publish” to launch it. Meta Ads Manager will review your ad, which may take up to 24 hours. After the review, it will start delivering your ad according to the budget, schedule, and placements you’ve set.
Your ad format is finalized and published, and your Instagram campaign is live and ready to reach your target audience.
Running Instagram ads through Meta Ads Manager gives you powerful tools to reach, engage, and convert your audience. You can continuously monitor and optimize performance and make data-driven adjustments for future campaigns.
Conclusion
Running Instagram ads through Meta Ads Manager empowers brands to connect with audiences meaningfully, backed by data-driven strategies and targeted precision. By following each step—from setting up your accounts to defining your audience, choosing placements, budgeting effectively, and selecting the right ad format—you ensure your campaign is built for success from the ground up.
For brands aiming to simplify and scale their Instagram advertising, GoMarble’s expert team and AI-assisted approach deliver the insights and strategies needed to drive results. By combining advanced technology with hands-on expertise, GoMarble helps you achieve profitable growth, optimize ad performance, and stay ahead of the competition.
Ready to see the impact of a finely-tuned Instagram ad campaign? Connect with GoMarble today, and let’s bring your advertising goals to life.