How to Boost Your Sales with Instagram Shopping Ads

By Cepy 8/16/2023 Post a Comment

Hi everyone, welcome to another article where we share tips and tricks on how to grow your business online. Today, we're going to talk about one of the most powerful tools you can use to reach new customers and increase your conversions: Instagram Shopping Ads.

Instagram Shopping Ads are a type of ad format that allow you to showcase your products in a visually appealing way across Instagram. They let users browse and buy your products directly from the app, without leaving the platform. They are ideal for driving in-the-moment purchases and boosting your brand awareness.

What are Instagram Shopping Ads?

Instagram Shopping Ads are a set of features that allow you to easily shop your brand’s photos and videos all across Instagram. It all starts with your shop, your storefront on Instagram. People can shop your products throughout Instagram[^1^].

There are different types of Instagram Shopping Ads that you can use depending on your goals and where you want to reach your audience. Here are some of the most common ones:

Shopping Ads in Feed

These are ads that appear in the main Instagram feed, among the organic posts from other accounts. They look like regular posts, but they have a shopping bag icon on the top right corner and a "Sponsored" label below the username. They also have product tags that show the name and price of the items featured in the image or video.

When users tap on these product tags, they are taken to a product description page within the Instagram app, where they can see more details, additional images, and similar products from your shop. They can also tap on the "View on Website" button to go to your mobile website and complete the purchase.

Shopping Ads in Stories

These are ads that appear in the Stories section of Instagram, among the ephemeral content from other accounts. They look like regular Stories, but they have a shopping bag icon on the bottom left corner and a "Sponsored" label on the top left corner. They also have a swipe-up feature that takes users to a product description page within the Instagram app, where they can see more details, additional images, and similar products from your shop. They can also tap on the "View on Website" button to go to your mobile website and complete the purchase.

Shopping Ads in Explore

These are ads that appear in the Explore section of Instagram, where users can discover new content and accounts based on their interests. They look like regular posts, but they have a shopping bag icon on the top right corner and a "Sponsored" label below the username. They also have product tags that show the name and price of the items featured in the image or video.

Shopping Ads in Reels

These are ads that appear in the Reels section of Instagram, where users can watch short-form videos from other accounts. They look like regular Reels, but they have a shopping bag icon on the bottom left corner and a "Sponsored" label on the top left corner. They also have product tags that show the name and price of the items featured in the video.

Shopping Ads in Shop Tab

These are ads that appear in the Shop Tab section of Instagram, where users can browse curated collections of products from different brands and categories. They look like regular tiles, but they have a shopping bag icon on the top right corner and a "Sponsored" label below the image. They also show the name and price of the product featured in the tile.

When users tap on these tiles, they are taken to a product description page within the Instagram app, where they can see more details, additional images, and similar products from your shop. They can also tap on the "View on Website" button to go to your mobile website and complete the purchase[^5^].

Why use Instagram Shopping Ads?

Instagram Shopping Ads are a great way to showcase your products and drive sales for your business. Here are some of the benefits of using them:

They are visually appealing and engaging

Instagram is a visual platform, where users expect to see high-quality and captivating images and videos. Instagram Shopping Ads allow you to leverage this power of visual storytelling and create ads that stand out and attract attention. You can use different formats, such as images, videos, carousels, collections, and more, to showcase your products in the best possible way.

They are convenient and seamless for users

Instagram Shopping Ads make it easy for users to discover and buy your products without leaving the app. They can see more information, browse similar products, and go to your website with just a few taps. This reduces friction and increases the chances of conversion. Instagram Shopping Ads also integrate with Checkout on Instagram, a feature that allows users to buy products directly from the app, without going to your website at all[^1^].

They are targeted and relevant for users

Instagram Shopping Ads allow you to reach the right audience for your products, based on their interests, behaviors, demographics, and more. You can use the same targeting options as other Instagram ads, such as location, age, gender, language, interests, lookalike audiences, custom audiences, and more. You can also use automatic placements to optimize your ads across different surfaces of Instagram, such as feed, stories, explore, reels, and shop tab[^2^].

They are measurable and trackable for you

Instagram Shopping Ads allow you to track and measure the performance of your campaigns, using the same metrics as other Instagram ads, such as impressions, reach, clicks, conversions, cost per result, return on ad spend, and more. You can also use Facebook's pixel or SDK to track events on your website or app that are triggered by your ads. This way, you can see how your ads are driving sales and revenue for your business[^2^].

How to set up Instagram Shopping Ads?

Setting up Instagram Shopping Ads is not very complicated, but it does require some steps and prerequisites. Here is a summary of what you need to do:

Create a Business or Creator account on Instagram

You need to have a Business or Creator account on Instagram to run Shopping Ads. This type of account gives you access to features such as insights, analytics, contact options, branded content tools, and more. You can switch your personal account to a Business or Creator account in the settings menu of the app.

Connect your account to a Facebook Page

You need to connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Page that represents your business. This is because Instagram uses Facebook's tools and systems to run Shopping Ads. You can link your accounts in the settings menu of the app.

Create a Business Manager account

You need to create a Business Manager account to manage your ads across Instagram and Facebook. Business Manager is a platform that lets you organize your ad accounts, pages, people, pixels, catalogs, and more. You can create a Business Manager account on business.facebook.com.

Create a catalog of your products

You need to create a catalog of your products that you want to sell on Instagram. A catalog is a collection of information about your products, such as name, price, description, image URL, website URL, availability, and more. You can create a catalog in Business Manager using one of these methods:

Upload a data feed file: This is a spreadsheet file that contains all the information about your products in a specific format. You can upload it manually or schedule it to update automatically.
Use a Facebook partner: This is a third-party platform that integrates with Facebook and helps you create and manage your catalog. Some examples are Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, and more.
Add products manually: This is an option for small businesses that have less than 50 products. You can add each product individually using a form in Business Manager.

Review the Commerce Eligibility Requirements

You need to review the Commerce Eligibility Requirements to make sure that you sell eligible products and comply with Facebook's policies. These include commerce policies, terms of use, community guidelines, intellectual property rights policies, prohibited content policies, data policies, and more. You can find the full list of requirements here.

Submit your account for review

You need to submit your account for review before you can start selling on Instagram. This is a process where Facebook checks if your account meets the Commerce Eligibility Requirements and followsthe best practices for Instagram Shopping. You can submit your account for review in the settings menu of the app. The review can take from a few hours to a few days, depending on the volume of requests. You will receive a notification when your account is approved or rejected.

Create your Instagram Shopping Ads

Once your account is approved, you can start creating your Instagram Shopping Ads. You can do this in two ways:

Boost any post to turn it into an ad: This is a simple and quick way to create an ad from any existing post that has product tags. Just tap on the "Promote" button below the post and follow the steps to choose your objective, audience, budget, and duration. You can also edit the product tags if you want to change the products featured in the ad.
Use Ads Manager for more advanced options: This is a more comprehensive and flexible way to create an ad from scratch or from an existing post. You can access Ads Manager from Business Manager or from the app. In Ads Manager, you can choose your campaign objective, ad set settings, ad creative, and ad placements. You can also use different formats, such as images, videos, carousels, collections, and more, to showcase your products.

Monitor and optimize your Instagram Shopping Ads

After you launch your Instagram Shopping Ads, you can monitor and optimize their performance using different tools and metrics. Here are some of the things you can do:

Use Insights to see how your ads are performing on Instagram: Insights is a feature that shows you data and trends about your account, such as reach, impressions, engagement, followers, and more. You can also see how your ads are performing compared to your organic posts. You can access Insights from the app or from Business Manager.
Use Ads Manager to see how your ads are performing across platforms: Ads Manager is a tool that shows you data and trends about your campaigns, ad sets, and ads, such as results, cost per result, reach, frequency, impressions, clicks, conversions, return on ad spend, and more. You can also see how your ads are performing across different placements, such as feed, stories, explore, reels, and shop tab. You can access Ads Manager from Business Manager or from the app.
Use Facebook's pixel or SDK to track events on your website or app: Pixel and SDK are code snippets that you can install on your website or app to track events that are triggered by your ads, such as page views, add to cart, initiate checkout, purchase, and more. This way, you can see how your ads are driving sales and revenue for your business. You can also use these events to create custom audiences and optimize your campaigns. You can set up pixel or SDK from Business Manager.
Use split testing and campaign budget optimization to improve your campaigns: Split testing and campaign budget optimization are features that help you test and optimize different aspects of your campaigns, such as audience, creative, placement, delivery optimization, and more. Split testing allows you to compare two or more versions of your campaign to see which one performs better. Campaign budget optimization allows you to distribute your budget across multiple ad sets based on their performance. You can enable these features from Ads Manager.

A detailed table breakdown related to Instagram Shopping Ads

To help you understand the different types of Instagram Shopping Ads better, here is a table that summarizes their main features and benefits:

| Type | Format | Placement | Description | Benefit || --- | --- | --- | --- | --- || Shopping Ads in Feed | Image or video with product tags | Main feed | Showcases products in a natural and organic way among other posts | Increases brand awareness and product discovery || Shopping Ads in Stories | Image or video with swipe-up feature | Stories section | Captures attention with full-screen immersive content | Drives urgency and action || Shopping Ads in Explore | Image or video with product tags | Explore section | Reaches users who are looking for new content and accounts based on their interests | Expands reach and relevance || Shopping Ads in Reels | Video with product tags | Reels section | Engages users with short-form entertaining videos | Boosts engagement and creativity || Shopping Ads in Shop Tab | Image with product name and price | Shop Tab section | Displays products in curated collections of different brands and categories | Enhances shopping experience and convenience |

FAQs about Instagram Shopping Ads

How much do Instagram Shopping Ads cost?

The cost of Instagram Shopping Ads depends on several factors, such as your objective, audience, bidding strategy,

Google Ads Guide