How To Use Instagram’s Branded Content Ads for Maximum Impact
Influencer marketing is one of the most popular ways to build a brand and grow an audience on Instagram right now. And one of the newest ways to do influencer marketing well are branded content ads.
Branded content ads allow you to use normal posts from influencers as advertisements within Instagram.
These are designed to expand the reach of sponsored posts beyond what an influencer would normally be able to achieve, with specific metrics and tools to gauge their performance.
Recent studies show that 68% of people come to Instagram to consume content from some kind of creator/influencer. This represents a massive opportunity for brands to reach new audiences.
Until branded content ads came out, businesses would have to rely on organic reach to get their sponsored posts out there. But now, businesses can get more bang for their buck out of the sponsored posts, using them to target specific audiences and getting more detailed metrics through Facebook’s ad suite.
Today, we will be talking about how you can go about creating branded content ads and what you should do for maximum ROI.
· Creating your own branded content ads
To create a branded content ad, influencers first have to tag businesses in sponsored posts. Then, they have to allow the businesses they are partnering with to use the post as an ad.
Once this is done, the brand/business in question will be able to see the post as an existing post within their Facebook Ads Manager, and they can then choose to promote it as a feed advertisement.
To allow your influencers to tag your business in their posts, go to your Business settings from the Instagram app. Within the “Branded Content” section, you can turn the Require Approvals setting to ON, and then add the handle of the creator you will be partnering with.
For influencers, once you have been approved as an official business partner, you can give the business permission to use your branded posts as ads.
If you are an influencer, you can create a branded post as per your partner’s requirements and then go to ‘Advanced Settings’ before you post. Here, you can use the ‘Tag Business Partner’ option and search for the handle of the business you are creating the content for.
Then, you can turn on the ‘Allow Business Partner to Promote’ option to make your post eligible for usage as a branded content ad.
You can also turn existing posts into candidates for branded content ads by going to the individual post and clicking ‘Edit’. In the Edit menu, select ‘Add Partner’ and then tap the ‘Tag Business Partner’ setting to search for the business you want to associate with the post.
Note that some of your business partners may not have the tagging setting enabled, so you will have to contact them and ask them to turn it on if you aren’t able to tag them.
· How do I get started?
Once one of your influencers has turned on the appropriate settings and tagged you in one of their posts, you can head to Facebook Ads Manager.
When you click ‘Create’, you will be presented with a list of options for your ad objective – engagement, traffic, reach, brand awareness etc. Pick the one that most closely matches your current advertising goals.
As you progress through the wizard, you will be choosing your demographic targeting within the Audience section. For ‘Placements’, select Instagram Feed.
When you get down to the Ad, you will now be able to see your branded content posts in the ‘Use Existing Posts’ section.
You can select the post you want or make any changes necessary in the ‘Creative’ section. Here, you will see an option called ‘Select Post’. From this screen you should head over to the ‘Branded Content’ section that will list all of the posts that your influencer has tagged you in and given their approval for use as advertisements.
· Why are branded content ads important?
It’s all about the reach.
If you are in a heavily niche market, your influencers may not have the organic reach necessary to reach the number of people you are looking for. But with branded content ads, you can take the guesswork out of the equation and target whoever you feel might be interested.
Facebook’s robust ad suite and optimization tools also give you a lot more control over your sponsored content and allow you to see actual statistics about what’s working and what isn’t.
Branded content ads are a natural evolution of influencer marketing and give brands a greater degree of control over their advertising efforts on Instagram. This new feature will build stronger associations between brands and their partners, and audiences will be able to see ads that are actually valuable posts from creators they like.
We hope this guide inspires you to start creating your own branded content ads and benefiting from them on Instagram. All the best!