The Best Locations And Formats For Your Instagram Ads

Advertising on Instagram is simple enough. The complexity lies in being able to design highly effective ads that can really reach your target audience and help you achieve your goals. To be able to do this, it’s important have clear and complete information about all the options that are available to you through Instagram Ads.

Discovering all the types of ads that you can create on Instagram, as well as all the possible locations and formats you can adapt, are important key aspects to understand before you finally decide on what suits your brand and strategy the best.

Types Of Ads On Instagram: Locations

A location is a place where an ad is displayed, regardless of its format. The chosen locations do not determine the demographic characteristics of the audience, nor the objectives of the campaign, or the budget allocated to it. It’s just about choosing where we want and do not want our ads to appear.

By default, the option selected is ‘Automatic locations’. In theory, this will distribute the available budget in those locations that generate the best performance. However, it is possible to define the preferred Facebook and Instagram locations if the ‘Edit locations’ option is selected.

Remember that the ads of an advertising campaign in Ads are configured in 3 levels; campaign, ad sets and ads per individual.

With this knowledge, one decision we need to make when planning our Instagram ads is the location:

📍 Devices

On what devices do we want the audience to view our ads? It may seem like a completely unnecessary choice, but with it, we can determine the context, activity, and level of attention that the user may have when viewing our promotions. The device options are:

• MOBILE DEVICES  | You can choose the option ‘Mobile’ or ‘Cellular’ if you only want to spread your advertisements on users’ mobile phones, and not on their computers. This is especially relevant when you need to segment your audience for content related to mobile apps or a specific operating system.
• COMPUTERS  | If, on the other hand, you want to show your campaign only on computers, you can choose the option ‘Computer’. When your advertisement requires a long purchasing process or any activity that is preferably done over a computer, this is the best option for you.
• ALL DEVICES  | You will click here if you want your ads to be shown on both mobile phones and computers. This is the recommended option to reach more people.

📍 Platforms

Of course, apart from setting all your Instagram ads to be displayed on Instagram and/or Instagram stories, you can also add other platforms where you want visibility. Considering this will help determine the format with which you will be designing your ads.

• FACEBOOK | News, instant articles, in-stream videos, right column, suggested videos, marketplace, and stories.
• AUDIENCE NETWORK | With this option, your ads will be shown in various apps that are part of the Facebook network and that have to do with the interests of your audience.
• MESSENGER | We can show the same ads in this section of Facebook, where users have direct conversations with their contacts.

Before expanding to other platforms, you want to ensure that you have great visibility on Instagram, of course. Simplygram is the best Instagram growth service that can help you grow your account and gain more followers who can view your ads.

📍 Operating systems

When launching a campaign, you will want to distinguish between Android or iOS devices. For these types of ads on Instagram, we have the following options:

• Only Android devices.
• Only iOs devices.
• All operating systems.

At this point, it is also possible to distinguish between mobile phones or tablets using both operating systems or if you want your ads to be displayed only on those devices connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Types of ads on Instagram: Formats

In all types of ads, regardless of their format, the option to add links on Instagram is available. This should be done with the most suitable call to action to encourage responses:

• See more.
• More information.
• Register
• To download.
• Install.
• To buy.

Apart from selecting the locations, it will be necessary for you to determine which types of ads on Instagram are the best fit, according to the formats currently available:

📍 Announcement with photo or video

If you want your ads to be displayed in a simple but creative format, which also allows for the inclusion of square or horizontal images, photo ads are the best option for your campaign.

In the case of selecting Instagram Ads Stories or Facebook Stories as a location, it is advisable to create a set of ads with designs that would look great in a vertical format (designed for mobile).

The visual experience of the ads is enhanced if you also add sound and movement. It is possible to publish ads in video format with a maximum duration of up to 60 seconds.

📍 Ad by sequence

Do you have a lot to teach in your Instagram ads? With the ad format by sequence, you can include several images and users can see them all by just swiping to the next one.

It is also possible to use this format if you want to show several videos in your campaign. This is particularly ideal if the images or videos have their own texts or legends.

📍 Collection ad

This format is especially appropriate for brands that seek to inspire and encourage users to discover and buy new products. This is quite possibly one of the most complete types of Instagram ads.

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