Video is one of the most consumed content nowadays. See how successful Tiktok is? Instagram followed Tiktok’s success and started creating an option for users to upload short-form videos that are fast-paced, entertaining, and easy to consume in the form of Instagram Reels.
And guess what? Marketers can take advantage of this now, too.
Released just this year (mid-2021), Instagram Reels has been very instrumental in helping advertisers get more out of their marketing campaigns. As it is a newer feature, it allows for more opportunities because it is less saturated as opposed to older ad formats. If you’re looking to take advantage of this feature, here are some things you should know.
Instagram Reels is a section within Instagram that displays videos created by its users. If you open it on your mobile, you would find it by clicking on the middle button that looks like a video player.
An Instagram Reel Ad, on the other hand, is an advertisement that appears in between regular Reels. It looks the same as a typical Reel post, except the Reel ad would have “Sponsored” written under the name of the Instagram account that posted it.
Apart from the Reels tab, these ads could also appear on the Explore Page and normal Feed of users.
It is one of the newest Instagram Ad Formats in the social media platform's ever-expanding lineup.
With Instagram Reels, you are essentially taking a media format that does well organically and adding an advertising factor to it. As the platform goes through different Reels, the ads are up for your audience to see. Your audience would still be free to like, comment, save, view, or share your content – much like a regular Reel.
Creating an Instagram Reels Ad is almost like creating a typical post, save for a few extra steps. If you are a beginner, you shouldn’t have any trouble making one, as the Facebook Ads Manager is very user-friendly.
To get started, here is a quick guide on creating your first Instagram Reels Ad.
Instagram Reels Ads follow a specific format, so make sure to take note of this before creating your content. Otherwise, you won’t be able to upload your advertisement.
Instagram ads need to be eye-catching and creative because it's visual content, so the images and other creative aspects within the ad are very important. Once you know the basic format, the next step will be actually designing the Instagram Reel.
Since Reels is a creative-heavy ad placement, keep these in mind when creating your content:
The Reels Ads won’t work for the other objectives available on Ads Manager, as it was specifically designed for the objectives above.
Now that you’ve set up the marketing side of your Reels Ad, it’s time to upload your content.
After this, you should be able to see the options for adding or creating a video, which you can then do following the Creative Content guide above.
To increase the chances of a successful campaign, here are some of the best practices you might want to consider when creating Instagram Reels Ads.
Instagram Reels Ads might become more expensive in the future, so if you’re planning to start a campaign, do not miss the chance to take advantage of the low competition, which also means low rates.
Create an A/B split test for different ads with different videos and texts to see which one converts best.
If you can afford it, test at least five different variations to learn what works and what doesn’t.
You can schedule it to run continuously or just overnight. However, if you want to run it for more than 24 hours, make sure to create separate Reels Ads on your Ad Set — this will allow you to monitor them separately.
Before you go live with your campaign, make sure to create a mockup first to see how the ad would look like before you actually run it.
Say you’re not very happy with the first Reels Ad you made – no need to worry, as you can easily edit the placement within Ads Manager. You can click on any of the options on the left pain, like Change, Crop, Trim, Thumbnail, Captions, Primary Text, or Destination.
This is very important, as you need to keep your users engaged so they won’t realize that it is an ad right away. The main reason why Reels Ads work is that they look like they are meant to be on the Reels Tab – much like a normal Reel.
Again, only the first two lines of text will be shown on the Reel itself, so don’t overlook this part.
Your script should be concise and interesting so that people will want to watch your entire Reel. It's important to grab viewers' attention within the first few seconds of your reel, so make sure that your intro is catchy!
End the video at a good spot so it doesn’t look weird when it loops back. Play your video a few times and try to find a natural stopping point, and see if it goes nicely when the video restarts.
Make sure to keep your content focused and fun. Remember: you only have 30 seconds for the ads.
If you're sending users to your website, you should install the tracking pixel. This helps the algorithm of the various Meta (the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) platforms to reach your target customers.
Instagram Reels Ads can be truly effective at reaching your target audience. When done properly, Reels can seamlessly blend in with organic content and will feel less “sales-y” — which is something that customers tend to appreciate.
Since it’s a newer feature, not a lot of advertisers are using it yet, so now is the best time to start and get better conversion rates for your campaigns.
If you're feeling overwhelmed managing ads from multiple platforms, we at Brax can help you out. Schedule a demo with us and we'll show you how ad management can be made simpler a hundred-fold.