We've been bullish on Instagram since early in 2017 when we realized the sheer volume of active users and the amount of attention those users are giving to the platform.
We're big on building up your company's content strategy, then deploying pieces of it consistently on Instagram.
Our 2018 Data Download showed that Instagram is the most qualified social media referral source for web traffic.
Here are some recent articles we've written on Instagram and the power of the platform as a marketing tool:
But more and more useful marketing tools keep popping up within the platform, for example, when a post is performing well, Instagram will show you a message in your feed to promote it. There are four main options to promote your Instagram post now.
Here's a breakdown:
If you feel you have your content strategy down and are ready to show your posts to people who don't follow you yet, we recommend the "Reach New People" objective.
Your expectations for "Reach New People" should be low in terms of profile visits, likes or follower growth. It's simple to increase awareness of your brand. You'll get metrics on how many new profiles saw your post. I'd reserve this for content that you really feel will resonate with a particular group of people.
If you're looking to increase the quality of your following, or drive quality web traffic to the URL that's on your profile page, "Profile Visits," try profile visits.
Numbers won't be huge, but quality should be there.
If you're running a particular campaign that requires users to take action on your website, try "Website Traffic."
I'd personally split test this against "Profile Visits" to see which one works best.
"Promotion Views" is a lot like "Reach New People." High on impressions, low on clicks, and TBD on quality. I'd personally split test this against "Reach New People" and see which works best.
Beware of LOSING followers with Promotion Views, as you'll hit the same audience as your followers, potentially making them get sick of you and bow out if you're not converting. Promotion Views can be "do or die."
In closing, a great strategy would be to split your budget over a one month time period.
Pick your two best performing posts over the previous month, and deploy a 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4 strategy.
One post should be a general business value proposition (i.e., this is why our clients/customers love us). The other should be more solution based at a particular target audience (i.e., are you a small business owner who can't update your own website?).
A/B test Website Traffic vs. Profile Views for the solution-based ad, and A/B test Promotion Views and Reach New People the general business value prop content.
Hit me up with any questions on Instagram Content Strategy at paul@datadriven.design.
Thanks for reading, watching and listening, and have a great day!
KEEP MARKETING!
Paul Hickey, Founder / CEO / Lead Strategist at Data Driven Design, LLC has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 10 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing and Email Marketing. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.
