With more than a million advertisers currently competing for users’ attention on Instagram, it’s no surprise that some businesses are struggling to get Instagram Ads conversions.
Competition aside, Instagram Ads is an incredible platform that yields relatively high numbers of engagement and conversion, including website conversions. You just need to know how to optimize your ads to stand out from your competition, grab your users’ attention, and get that click.
In this post, we’re going to show you how to do just that, with seven different ways to set your Instagram Ads for better website conversions and a few mistakes that you want to avoid.
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1. Appeal to Your Customer’s Pain Points
If you want more Instagram ad conversions, this is absolute best tip that I can give you.
Instagram Ads rely on you showing your products or services to your audience and convincing them that they need it enough to convert. Whether you want them to leave their email in exchange for an ebook, or pay $50 for that novelty graphic tee, you need to convince them that they not only want it, they must convert. The best way to do this is through pain points.
Every product or service is created for a reason, and those reasons revolve around pain points. Saying “high quality air conditioning unit” may be true, but saying “Never have your air conditioning die in July again” appeals to a very big pain point (at least down here in Florida). You don’t just want to say that a product works, you need to say why it matters that it works.
If you can do this successfully, you’ll be able to drive conversions like you won’t believe.
2. Segment Your Audience
More often than not, getting more results means running more carefully targeted ads. And the best way to do this is through audience segmentation.
You can use a combination of interest targeting and custom audiences to separate your audience into distinct niches and then create ads that are extremely relevant to those users. An accounting firm, for example, would run different ads when targeting small and medium businesses than they would when targeting freelancers, or traditionally employed workers.
Your audience may use your product in different ways, or have different pain points that affect them in unique ways. Consider this when creating your ads to increase website conversions.
3. Tell a Story
Everyone loves stories. It’s why big-name publications run articles that have a central but very specific, individualized, personal story woven in with the general topic, statistics, and quotes. That story is what people will remember, especially if there’s an emotional connection.
All stories should have a beginning, middle, and end, but you don’t need to come up with anything crazy. There’s an awesome Curology ad (pictured below) that keeps popping up on my Instagram. In the ad, women describe how they went from spending too much money and having no results to having glowing skin and—best of all—tons of confidence after switching to the product.
This is a story, and it’s one that appeals to pain points and emotions. There was a beginning, a problem, and a resolution at the end. All brands can replicate this and use this strategy to drive more Instagram Ads conversions.
4. Have Clear, Relevant CTAs
Instagram Ads let you choose a CTA button. Not only should you use it, you should craft your ad copy around it.
The CTA should match the ad exactly, and the audience that you’re targeting. A “Learn More” CTA may be more effective when targeting a cold audience than a “Shop Now” button.
Sometimes, split testing different CTAs to see what works best for you and your audience will give you great insight that can help you increase your Instagram ad conversions over time.
5. Use More Video
Video is booming on social media right now, and Instagram video ads are no exception. We can now run video ads that last up to sixty seconds long, and all of which will start playing automatically as you scroll past them.
Videos can be used to show product tutorials, influencer testimonials, and even to just introduce users to your products and services. Whichever strategy you choose, make sure you get your point across and are able to show the value of your offer.
To get best results on your Instagram video ads, you should add captions to every video ad you run. This is particularly important for two reasons: 1) to make your video accessible to those with hearing disabilities, and 2) to grab users’ attention. Sound doesn’t play unless users click, even though the video does, so subtitles can help increase both your view and your conversion rates.
6. Test Different Ad Formats
Testing out different ad formats can benefit your campaigns significantly, and you may just be surprised what helps increase your conversions. Different ad formats you can try include:
- Carousel ads
- Landscape and portrait image formats
- Stories Ads
At this time, I don’t recommend using Stories ads for direct website conversions; in their current state, they’re much more effective for building brand awareness and recognition.
Carousel ads give you more room to sell your product, and their unique ad format helps them to stand out in users’ feeds, which is always a plus. You can incorporate both still images and video in the slides on your carousel ads.
Test out ads with both landscape and portrait image formats, and see which works best for you; in some cases, the different formats may also help you stand out against other content in the feeds, and anything that catches a users’ eye is a plus.
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7. Respond to Ad Comments
Not all Instagram users will be compelled by your copy to click on your CTA. They might have a few questions before they leave their Instagram feed to visit your Website.
Any queries they might have will be put in the comments to your ad. Make sure you have a social media management tool like Agorapulse that monitors Instagram Ads comments so that you can address their issues and thus encourage them to head to your site.
Instagram Ad Mistakes to Avoid
Optimizing for Instagram ad conversions is a great start, but you want to watch out for a few common mistakes that can hinder your campaigns, too.
Some of the most common Instagram Ad mistakes include:
- Having an ad that looks like spam. Have you seen the ads that use emoji or textual arrows ( ->) to encourage users to click? These arrows are unnecessary, and look a heck of a lot like spam to a large number of users. Or maybe you’ve seen the spam-like text, like “CLICK HERE NOW!” all in caps. The CTA should be able to pull the heavy weight of getting users to click on its own, so double check that your ad copy doesn’t look like spam before you run it.
- You don’t show the product in use. Which would make more of an impression—your watch being worn by someone, or your watch against a glass case? Probably the former. Products are more dynamic when they’re not just sitting on their own. You want ad viewers to picture themselves using the item instead of just looking at it.
- Forgetting to persuade. Unlike Google AdWords, which capture users who are searching for your product, Facebook and Instagram Ads rely on you capturing someone’s interest and convincing them that they need your product. If you just say “buy now!” and nothing else, you aren’t telling your audience why they need to convert. These ads will almost never convert, even with a warm audience.
Conclusion
Instagram Ads can help you get sky-high levels of conversions as long as your ad is actually optimized for them. The competition for conversions is higher than ever on the platform, with ads appearing every few posts, so following these tips and tricks can help you outshine your competitors and get the results you’re looking for.
How do you optimize for Instagram Ads conversions? Which ad formats and CTAs work best for you? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!
