7 Quick Tips to Get More Out of Your Instagram Ads

Instagram has never been more popular than it is now. It was already on the fast track to success when it launched in 2010, and it seems to have strapped on a jetpack after Facebook’s acquisition of the site.

According to eMarketer, the number of companies leveraging Instagram for advertising has steadily increased year over year, and this number is likely to surpass other social channels like Twitter by 2017.

Instagram is becoming one of the top channels for marketers, likely due to the fact that visual media is far more useful for engaging audiences than other traditional marketing channels online. Whether this popularity is caused by the expansion of mobile technology or the widespread use of smartphone and tablet applications by Millennials is harder to determine.

Much of the success that marketers have been able to attain from the photo-sharing site comes from Instagram’s advertising division leveraging Facebook’s data-packed advertising algorithm. The combination of the two advertising platforms allows for multi-layer audience targeting, including everything from basic demographic information to analytics on users’ behavior and interests.

However, using this powerful platform won’t necessarily guarantee a successful outcome for every campaign. Audiences are still a fickle bunch and your advertisements need to go far beyond the traditional “buy this now” approach in order to stand apart from the competition and reel in new prospects and customers.

Let’s look at how you can get more out of your Instagram ad campaigns with these seven tips:

Bonus: Looking to grow an Instagram following fast? Socially Rich provides a done-for-you service that gets you real, targeted followers on your personal or business Instagram accounts. Without ever spending a minute on Instagram! Try it for free here.

1. Use Instagram’s new zoom feature

Instagram recently launched an update to the service that gives you the ability to do a little close-up marketing with your Instagram ads.

Instagram’s new zoom feature allows users to pinch the screen to zoom in on both photos and videos. The addition was implemented due to the high number of user requests Instagram was receiving to have the feature added to its platform.

It didn’t take long for brands to start experimenting with the zoom feature, either. Some clever companies even tried out slow-motion effects and new filters, in addition to advertising through the use of storytelling on their Instagram feeds.

Each new feature offers opportunities for brands to flex their creativity and find new ways to make their ads shine through the sea of uninspiring, overly salesy ads pushed out by their competitors.

The zoom feature can help you amplify engagement on your Instagram ads, especially if you include a hidden gem that users can discover in your photos.

Tugging at their curiosity with the offer of somewhat interactive content could be enough to make them pause whenever they come across one of your photos in their feed.

2. Promote your best content

The typical approach companies take to generating new content for ads usually involves them carefully scripting ad copy and developing calls-to-action that will have the greatest impact with their audience. If you want to have more impact with your ads, don’t follow this approach when advertising on Instagram.

You already have a wealth of content that you know your fans appreciate.

Look back through your organic posts to find images that sparked the most engagement from your audience. Repurpose those posts as ads to get a huge lift in response from a wider audience.

That’s what Paper Boat Drinks did. Check out this original post on their Instagram page:

After seeing decent engagement on the first post, the company decided to reuse the photo and its caption to create an Instagram ad. At the end of a 6-week campaign, the post saw over 26,000 likes, a stream of comments, and a tremendous lift in their brand’s visibility.

Not every campaign you create is going to be a smashing success, given all the variables that go into creating and targeting ads. However, you can improve the likelihood of success by starting with something you know your audience already likes.

3. Improve your targeting

The fact that Instagram draws on the extensive user data available within Facebook’s ad platform means you can really zero in on your audience within Instagram.

But you have to know how to leverage different aspects of the platform to really make it work for you and your brand. Aside from the standard targeting mechanisms, there are some other features that can help you narrow your focus.

Custom and Lookalike Audiences: The lookalike audience feature allows you to create a custom audience for your ad that replicates your existing followers. This can help you bring in new people who have similar interests, demographics, behaviors, and employment backgrounds to your current audience.

Remarketing: Facebook has a pixel you can place on your website and track visitor behavior. While its primary purpose was intended for monitoring and tracking conversions from social, it can also be used for ad targeting.

You can then create a custom Instagram ad audience consisting only of people who have visited your website. Other modifiers can be added as well, such as only targeting the people who visited your website and either took a specific action or abandoned their carts.

Since the average cart abandonment rate is over 68%, remarketing through Instagram can be a great way to win back those lost customers.

Using the advanced targeting features will get your ad in front of the most relevant audience segments, which should improve your click-through rates. When you specifically target people who are more likely to convert, and your click-through rates subsequently increase, you’ll bring down your cost per click rate as well.

Spend extra time experimenting with Instagram’s audience targeting features, as they can dramatically impact your campaign’s performance.

4. Don’t make your ads look like ads

If you want to boost engagement and score more click-throughs with your Instagram ads, then don’t make your ads look like ads.

Your audience is far more likely to respond to posts that look like natural content as opposed to blatant product promotion. Incorporating actual people into your images and videos is critical; images that contain faces get 38% more likes than other types of content.

Make sure your fans don’t feel like you’re constantly trying to sell them something. While some won’t mind the marketing attempts, you should still aim to create the most organic experience possible. For this reason, plan your ads carefully. When you’re getting ready to launch a new Instagram ad, start creating organic, high-value posts with the same theme as your ad.

After your ad goes live, make a few similar organic posts. Creating a theme for your promotion will lead to a smoother transition that interweaves similar ads of both the paid and organic variety.

5. Use the call-to-action button

When you create an Instagram ad, you can include a call-to-action button near the image caption (bottom right of the image.) This CTA button is in the same spot for Facebook ads. The button offers you several choices in the messaging of your call-to-action.

If you find one that is relevant to your campaign, use it.

Clover, a dating app, launched an ad campaign on Instagram to promote their mobile app. The ad targeted 18-35 year-old singles. The goal of the campaign was to reach a wider audience and increase the number of mobile downloads of the app.

Using Instagram’s ad platform, Clover developed a series of ads featuring single men and women (see the above advice on using faces), along with the “Install Now” button on the ad.

By the end of the campaign, Clover saw a 30% increase in new subscriptions and reduced their new user acquisition costs by 64%.

“Hands down, Instagram has been the most successful platform for acquiring high quality app users,” said Kris Armstrong, Director of Marketing for Clover. “We’re familiar with Facebook’s ad management platform, which has really helped us optimize our campaigns quickly since Instagram uses the same interface.”

6. Promote with video

When most people think of Instagram, especially those who don’t use it often, they probably imagine an endless stream of static images. They forget that Instagram is also a great channel for promoting videos.

Videos instantly capture the attention of users because they stand out from the content around them. People love watching videos, even if they are short. When Instagram introduced videos, there were more than 5 million videos shared within the first 24 hours. If you put product videos in front of your customers, they are nearly twice as likely to make a purchase, especially if you couple it with a call-to-action button.

If you’re having a hard time coming up with material for a video, turn to your audience. User-generated content is a powerful tool for building trust with your community. Curate their videos or get video of your customers with your products on location or at events. Share their enthusiasm for your brand and promote those videos through ads.

7.  Tell a story with image carousels

You aren’t stuck with a single image for your Instagram advertisements. The platform is based on a carousel, which means you can showcase more images for your fans to browse.

If you’re trying to sell a product or service, weave a story into the content to make it more engaging. Intrigue your audience with a storyboard of striking images that not only highlights the best parts of your brand but also connects with your fans in a meaningful way. Don’t just post product images; use photos that represent the experience of your product or service and how it makes people feel.

With Instagram’s carousel feature, you can build a connection from frame to frame, crafting a story and subtly enhancing your sales pitch within the ad.

Are you currently advertising on Instagram? Has your approach changed with the updates to the platform? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below:

Guest Author: Andrew Raso is the co-founder and director of Online Marketing Gurus, a fast-growing, award-winning search company working with brands including HelloMolly, Baku Swimwear, and Forcast. Follow him on Twitter at @andrewraso1 or on LinkedIn.

Image Sources: Pinterest, Instagram, ProBlogger, AdHub

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Is This The Future of Infographics?

You’ve probably noticed a massive shift in the online world from text-based content to visual content.

There’s no denying the power that visuals have on the Internet, as well as in our everyday lives. YouTube and Instagram dominate the visual landscape, with YouTube the 3rd most visited site on the web and Instagram boasting about 80 million photos shared everyday.

Blog posts and articles are 80% more “consumable” when they have a colorful image, header, or thumbnail, and people will only spend about 15 seconds on a website if a visual doesn’t catch their attention first.

And infographics, the favorite among audiences and marketers alike, have been searched for 800% more today than in 2012.

Image Source

On top of all that, content is being created at an alarming rate – 60% of marketers create at least one piece of new content each and every day!

As more and more people begin creating, one thing becomes clear: To be seen, you have to stand out.

Naturally, content marketers are already looking to the future of visual content, seeing what they can play with now, what they can implement, and what new technologies are just on the horizon. This forward thinking is what can make or break your content marketing efforts; you have to adapt or you’ll be drowned out.

With visual content like infographics, marketers have the unique position of seeing the future as it approaches. Businesses, graphic designers, and marketers are all starting to play with infographics – update them to make them even more appealing to audiences. Even if you “just got the hang of” regular infographics, it’s never too early to see which trends are starting to develop, nor is it too early to learn how to implement them in your own content marketing strategies.

If you want to get a glimpse into the future, and maybe even learn a few tricks before everyone else jumps on the bandwagon, now is the time!

Here are three types of infographics that are going to be most common in the (very near) future.

If you’re looking for a great tool for creating infographics, I recommend checking out Visme. They offer a free account to get you started and have some amazing features for non-designers. Get your free account now.

1. Interactive Infographics

While we’ve seen the beauty of interactive websites and user-friendly games, interactive infographics are still fairly new on the block. As infographics, they obviously contain some sort of information and are visually dynamic, but throwing the interactive element allows users to connect with the information and make it their own.

Regardless of your business, product, service, or message, you can create an interactive infographic that allows people to evaluate themselves (like the “Calculate your own BMI here” link in the image below). Users can also click on relevant information that sends them to more in-depth sources or back to your landing page, thus generating traffic. This is a highly adaptable and fun way to engage your audience.

A number of marketers have already adapted to this style of infographic, and it’s catching on quickly. But while other people have focused on simple interactions:

See the full interactive infogaphic here.

….think about what else you could do with an interactive infographic.

You might try:

• Including scroll-over tactics that make images or figures stand out larger than the background
• Building in “pop-ups” that expand sections of text
• Connecting images or statistics when they get clicked on
• Making your infographic into multiple pages that users can click through

For a great example of an interactive infographic, check out this one:

To make an infographic highly interactive (with scroll-overs, pop-ups, etc.) you will need to learn a little bit of coding in HTML5 or CSS, or hire someone else to manage that aspect of it for you.

Despite that additional effort, you’ll be rewarded with a unique, engaging, and effective piece of content.

Why should you try to incorporate interactive infographics in the near future?

• It encourages your audience to engage with and share your content
• It generates traffic (through links)
• It proves to your audience that you are innovative, resourceful, and intent on providing content that is relevant and intriguing
• There are levels of interactive infographics, which make this a manageable progression of resources and effort

2. Embedded video and GIFs

This is another type of infographic we are seeing more and more today. Infographics that possess short video clips or even GIFs (which means Graphics Interchange Format) are a great way to attract attention and to separate your infographic from the crowd. While it limits the platforms you can currently share your infographic on, it makes up for it in ROI.

A number of simple infographic creation tools, like Easel.ly, offer an “Embed video from YouTube” option, or you can add video to an infographic you create in Photoshop with a video layer. You can even add video to a Powerpoint slide, which you can design into an infographic.

You can also find virtually millions of GIFs and insert them in a similar fashion. The key here is that you now have to share your infographic as a URL, or make sure it is properly embedded into your website. You can’t save or share these infographics as .jpeg or PDFs.

Undoubtedly, as this becomes more popular, other tools will pop up allowing video and GIF insertion to be an even easier process. But if you’d like to use this style of infographic before everyone and their dog has the ability to do so, start now with the tools that are already out there.

If you want to take it to the next level, though, you can even make a video out of an infographic you already have. This is a great way to get seen on YouTube, Instagram, and even other video platforms like Vimeo, Snapchat, and more. The video below is a great example of how to turn your infographic into a video.

Why should you embed video or GIFs into your infographics?

• It gives you the element of surprise – people don’t expect images to move!
• It is highly entertaining and novel, which increases the odds that people will interact and share your infographic
• It’s a great way to establish brand identity

3. Animated Infographics

Animated infographics have an extreme amount of visual appeal and demand a lot of attention. When a user is viewing an image, they don’t usually expect it to move – this is the beauty of learning these techniques before everyone else does.

While animated infographics are slightly more complex, and may require some graphic design, coding, and/or editing software knowledge, they are highly valuable.

Here is an example of what I am talking about:

 

If you’d like to learn exactly how to make animated infographics, check out this infographic from Tabletop Whale. You can also find a graphic design service that caters to this type of creation. Either way, this is one of the most involved processes in the evolution of infographics.

Why should you invest your time, energy, and/or money into creating animated infographics?

• This is going to truly set you apart from the crowd because not everyone has access to this sort of software or content
• It will be commonplace in just a few years – you want a head start!
• The animation will make the information within the infographic more memorable
• It will encourage your audience to engage with your Call to Action

This isn’t science fiction

While this may all sound fairly technical and maybe even out of your range of abilities right now, odds are that these types of infographics are going to be commonplace in barely 2 to 3 years from now. We’re already seeing a massive push towards animated and GIF-style infographics, especially as the popularity of GIFs continues to rise.

Infographics are becoming one of the most consumable and most created types of content on the Web right now. Why? Because it only takes about 250 milliseconds for a brain to process and assign value to an image or symbol.

If the average person spends about 15 seconds on a website before getting bored, it stands to reason that you’ll want to pull out all the stops to make them stay – or at least get the message across in 15 seconds or less. Some studies even find that humans have 8 second attention spans, and it’s decreasing every year.

This is the reason for, and possibly a byproduct of, our consistent need to consume content. We are in the Age of Information, and we have everything accessible to us. But that also means, as more people try to share their message and to answer as many questions as possible, that most of the content produced is becoming background noise.

If the direction of infographics today is any indication, they will soon be everywhere. This means that your job is to innovate. No marketing campaign in history has succeeded by doing the same thing forever.

The idea here is to see infographics as more than just a .jpeg image. They can be adapted to many different mediums and used on a variety of platforms. Entrepreneurs and marketers are already starting to see the potential here. Do you?

Guest Author: Latasha Doyle, discusses all things “infographic” on Easel.ly’s blog. If you are looking for more information on creating infographics, you can also check out Easel.ly’s free ebook, “Infographic Crash Course.”

If you’re looking for a great tool for creating infographics, I recommend checking out Visme. They offer a free account to get you started and have some amazing features for non-designers. Get your free account now.

The post Is This The Future of Infographics? appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

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How To Make Complete Strangers Fall in Love With Your Blog

Whether you’re having a face-to-face meeting with prospective clients, or trying to market your brand with blog content, first impressions count.

In fact, in the digital world brands often don’t get a second chance, because online consumers have short attention spans and they’re already bombarded with hundreds of blog posts, emails, social media posts and advertisements every day.

According to research published in Psychological Science, it takes an average person a tenth of a second to form an impression about a stranger based on appearance and looks.

However, as a blogger, it’s not just about making a strong first impression. Keeping your readers engaged and converting them into subscribers and customers is equally important.

Which is why, the moment a new visitor comes to your blog, you need to take them from one level of excitement to another.

Sounds difficult right? Let me simplify this for you.

Here are a few ways you can make complete strangers immediately fall in love with your blog and come to you every time they need help.

1. Make a strong first impression with powerful branding

Excuse me for using this word repeatedly, but first impressions are just so important.

What’s the first thing that shapes your blog’s perception when a stranger lands on your homepage?

Your website design, logo, the color theme – in short, the look and feel of your blog.

According to Reboot Online, 65% of people are primarily visual learners who perceive things by looks before exploring them any further.

So make sure your blog has a modern outlook and is compatible across different devices and platforms. You can use a premium responsive WordPress theme or hire a freelance designer from UpWork or 99Designs (especially for logo design) to get started.

Here’s what a good, clean and professional design looks like.

“But Jawad, why should I listen to you? Seth Godin, Google and so many other influencers and brands have ugly blogs and they still get millions of readers”.

I know that voice in your head.

Seth Godin is a well-known celebrity author and an authority marketer. He doesn’t need a good looking blog to make an impression on his followers. They already know what he has to offer.

You’re no Seth Godin and in this post, I’m talking about making an impression on complete strangers not people who already know you.

But one thing that shapes your brand image, even before a visitor looks at your design, is your domain name. If you’re trying to build a long-term business, choose a URL that resonates with your brand name.

You can use this really useful business name generator tool by FreshBooks or go through different domains listed on a branded domain marketplace to find ideas for your URL.

An ugly design can quickly turn away visitors from your blog, even before they hear what you have to say.

Here are some fabulous blog designs to give you more inspiration.

2. Offer premium content for free to win people over

Do you know the secret to winning the hearts of your readers?

Let me say this loud and clear: offer unbelievably useful content for free.

Yes, I said free.

And I’m not talking about good content. I’m talking about insanely useful and jaw dropping content.

“Why the hell would I do that?”

Because doing that even once can give you dozens, if not even hundreds of loyal subscribers.

Your content can be an eBook, a video series, a blog post, a knowledge base or anything useful really.

Shopify is a brilliant example to follow.

They not only create mind blowing blog content regularly, they’ve set up a huge encyclopedia for small businesses which contains everything a small business owner needs to know about doing business online.

Neil Patel, another great example, creates 5000-6000 word blog posts every other day. Every one of his blog posts can be sold as a premium eBook, but he gives them away for free.

Why wouldn’t people love him for doing this?

But just because a piece of content has 5000-6000 words doesn’t mean it has quality as well. As a blogging consultant, I regularly see business blogs with really in-depth blog posts that fail to generate any engagement.

Why? Because they write about the wrong things.

You can’t write a billion words praising your own products and expect people to take you seriously. Blogging isn’t about directly promoting your own products or business.

It’s about solving the problems of your ideal customers and offering them free actionable advice.

Here’s a really good example of a conventional business, a medical supplies company to be exact, using its blog the right way.

Image Source: Vive Health

Instead of writing about their products, they’re blogging about the problems of their ideal customers and offering free solutions in their content.

If this piece of content helps a blood pressure patient find relief, guess the first company they’ll contact when they need medical supplies or instruments?

That’s how you win people with great content.

3. Win the trust of your readers with social proof

You land on the blog of a digital marketing consultant and the first thing you notice of their blog is the “Featured In” section that mentions names like HubSpot, MarketingProfs, Search Engine Journal and Moz.

What’s your first impression?

Must be an expert, right?

That’s what social proof does to your blog visitors.

Even if they’ve never heard your name before, a testimonial from a leading industry figure or a publication will force them to take you seriously. They’d assume you’re an expert and give your content much more respect.

You’ll find this strategy in action on almost every influencer’s blog (including Jeff).

If you look closely, however, you’ll notice another subtle social proof used on Jeff’s blog

16 million readers! What else does a stranger need to take him seriously?

There are several ways to get your name on other authority sites.

The most common, and the most effective one, is guest blogging. Simply identify the top blogs in your niche, study their content style, create an epic blog post and offer it to your target blogs for free.

Easy, right? Not really.

Top-tier blogs receive hundreds of guest post pitches every single day, but they accept only the best ones. So to make it through to their editorial calendar, you need to create a high quality article – which of course requires a lot of time and effort.

An alternate approach is to connect with influential bloggers who are already writing for these authority sites and ask them to feature you in their articles. You can do this on platforms like Get Reviewed, which connects advertisers with influential bloggers.

MyBlogU and HARO are also great platforms to connect with brands and influencers who can help you feature on the top blogs and get the word out about your brand.

4. Create more infographics and video content to differentiate yourself

More than 2 million blog posts are published on the web every day.

You’re not competing with all of them, of course, but that still gives you an idea of the amount of content, mostly useless, being published on the web.

So even if your blog post has lots of value, a random visitor might never read that far to find the hidden gems in your content.

Which is why you need to use more visual content to get noticed and get your message across quicker.

Research shows that content with visual gets almost 95% more views.

Infographics and videos, however, are two visual content forms that not only receive the highest engagement but also go viral more frequently than plain text based posts. However, creating viral infographics and videos is a science that involves lots of different factors. Thankfully, though, with so many free design tools like Canva, Visme etc. creating a high quality infographic isn’t very difficult.

The same, however, can’t be said about video content which still requires significantly more time, budget and effort.

But even if you don’t have a large budget, even simple smartphone videos are good enough as long as you have something valuable to say.

In short, visual content could immediately put you ahead of your competitors and help you make a stronger impression on your audience.

5. Grow your own Facebook Group to create brand advocates

Ever since Facebook changed its algorithms and limited the organic reach of Facebook Pages, marketers have started focusing more on starting and growing their own Facebook Groups.

According to the recently released Facebook community updates, more than 1 billion people are now using Facebook Groups every month.

This approach has several advantages.

• You can create a Facebook group and use it to position yourself as an expert.
• You have complete control over the content and discussions in the group.
• There’s no limit on the organic reach of your posts – all group members see them.
• You get a much better opportunity to directly engage with your readers, answer their questions and convert them into loyal followers.

But above all, a Facebook Group is a great place to build a tribe of raving fans for your brand. They’re the brand advocates who will spread the word about your content and bring in more people to your Facebook Group and blog.

According to research, more than 82% of Americans seek recommendations from friends and family when making a purchase, making referrals and word of mouth one of the most influential forms of marketing.

The referral traffic generated from your Facebook Group already considers you an expert so there’s a much higher probability of them taking action after reading your blog content.

You should also make a conscious effort to promote your Facebook Group on your blog. This will allow you to route the visitors coming from search engines to your group and engage them more regularly.

And, of course, a thriving Facebook Group adds to the social proof of your brand (which I mentioned earlier in the post).

Managing a Facebook Group requires time and effort so you’d need to use different social media automation tools to minimize manual work as much as possible.

Wrapping up

With so many new blogs popping up on the web every day, your target users are already overwhelmed with the content that’s being thrown at them from every angle.

To stand any chance of catching their eyeballs, you need to convert your blog into a strong brand that not only contains supreme quality content, but also looks pleasing to the eye and is backed by tons of social proof.

That’s the only way to stand out in this overcrowded blogosphere.

Guest Author: Jawad Khan is a content marketing consultant, a certified inbound marketer and a freelance blogger for hire. You can follow him on his blog, WritingMyDestiny and Twitter.

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