Ah, Instagram.
When it comes to social media marketing, one cannot deny the influence that Instagram holds.
With over 1 billion active monthly users, the social media giant offers an incredible opportunity to communicate with potential leads that may be interested in your goods or services.
Using Instagram Ads is the smartest way to do this - generating even more leads and driving more business growth.
But how much does these ads actually cost?
Read our ultimate guide on how much Instagram ads cost, how they compare to Facebook ads, what determines these costs, and more.
How much does an ad cost on Instagram?
There are a number of different costs you can take into account when determining how much an ad costs on Instagram.
As a standard rule of thumb, cost-per-click Instagram ads fall between $0.70 and $1.00.
There are a lot of different elements that can influence this cost, however, as the cost of your ads ultimately comes down to the audience that you are targeting.
As the above graphs show, we can determine that:
- Women are more active than men
- 13-17 year olds are the most active on the platform
- Those aged 65+ are the least active on the platform
Determining your CPC (cost-per-click) is directly related to the audience that you are targeting. By targeting demographics that have a higher usage rate on Instagram, it will result in higher CPCs.
It is also worth noting that CPC estimates vary based on the campaign. Ad costs for Instagram will likely rise during major events or public holidays, for example, such as Black Friday, Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday.
Instagram ads compared to Facebook ads
Objectively speaking, Facebook and Instagram are two of the most successful social media advertising platforms out there.
You might be wondering - which platform has the most cost-effective options? Which one gives you the best network to reach your audience?
When assessing the expense of Instagram and Facebook Ads, it is also important to look at the age demographic of each platform. Facebook can target almost any age group, whereas Instagram thrives when targeting younger audience members aged 13-29.
Our pro tip is to focus your efforts on the social media platform that gives you the most value and best results for your campaign.
Instagram also has the highest engagement rate when compared to Facebook and Twitter - with an engagement rate of 2.04 billion.
How are Instagram ad costs determined?
When determining ad costs, Instagram follows the same guidelines as Facebook.
There are four main factors that come into this.
Bid Amount
Your bid amount ultimately determines how much you spend on an Instagram ad campaign. Ultimately, you will need to decide how much you are willing to spend on lead generation, as the value of your bid affects how much you pay.
It is also worth mentioning that Instagram has higher bid rates when compared to other social media platforms: be prepared to need to pay more for impressions and clicks.
Relevance Score
Another factor that will affect the cost of your Instagram ads is your ad relevance score. It’s pretty self explanatory - it relates to how relevant your ad is to the users that will be seeing your ad.
Because Instagram aims to give users the most relevant content in their feed, scores will be based on how users respond to your ad.
Estimated Action Rates
These estimated action rates can also affect your Instagram ad cost. According to Instagram, this rate is dependent on the probability of users acting on your ad.
These interactions include actions such as clicking and converting. Instagram tends to promote ads that they think users will engage and connect with.
If Instagram believes that more people will interact with your ad, it will be put first. This provides you with a lower bid amount that can help you gain more leads and conversions.
Competition
Admittedly, competition will always affect the price of your Instagram ads. In an oversaturated market, there will always be competitors trying to reach the same specific demographic as you.
Because of this, your competition could cause the cost of your Instagram ads campaign to change.
There are a few additional factors that could also raise costs:
- Holidays and events: competition during holidays is high as most businesses are competing to achieve desirable leads.
- Day of the week: Instagram users engage more on weekdays than they do on weekends, so ads running on weekdays would cost more.
- Gender: advertising to females costs more than advertising to males - especially as females are more likely to engage.
- Target market: B2B companies are more expensive to run, as Instagram has fewer businesses than it does people.
It’s important to note that advertisers still can exercise a degree of control over how they can allocate their budgets. For example, you can choose between a daily budget or a lifetime budget.
All of these factors combined can assist you in deciding where you want to delegate your ad budget.
How can I lower the cost of Instagram ads?
Here are some of our top tips to help you maximise your advertising without breaking the bank.
Use automatic bidding
This is beneficial for those who haven’t used Instagram ads before.
Automatic bidding is useful if you don’t have historical data that can inform you of a good CPC to set for your campaign.
By doing this, you are preventing your company from overbidding, which will minimize the expense of your Instagram ads.
Use precise targeting
When setting up Instagram ads, the goal is targeting people who would be the most interested in your products or services.
You can target people on Instagram using their:
- Location: you can target based on their geographical location, which can be as broad as an entire country or as specific as a postcode.
- Demographics: information such as gender, age, and race.
- Interests: whether it’s tech or fashion, you can target people based on what they like.
- Habits: when someone views your website, you can target them using Instagram ads.
By keeping this targeting as precise as possible, you can reach more people who are interested in your products and services, resulting in a higher conversion rate.
Make relevant landing pages
Most businesses tend to make the mistake of directing leads straight to their home page after clicking on an Instagram ad.
In our eyes, a better idea is to be taken directly to a landing page that correlates with what is being advertised. This makes a lead much more likely to convert, helping to recoup the costs of running your campaign.
Test your ad
Finally - test, test, test!
You must test your ad to make sure that the best version possible is out.
Testing your ad allows you to make a more relevant copy of the ad, and more relevant ad copy leads to a higher ad spot, and ultimately, a lower CPC.
Instagram domination, here you come!
You did it! If you’ve made it this far, you’re officially an Instagram ad expert.
Remember - the more targeted your ads are, the more successful you can be, and the cheaper it will be to run ads on the platform.
You have control in delegating your ad budget, so try and do this as cost effectively as possible whilst still receiving maximum results.
If you're looking for that extra edge, of course, get a free proposal with Local Digital today, and we'll make sure you reaaaaally stand out from the crowd.
Happy scrolling!
