Instagram Ads Price: How Much Does It Cost and How to Save Money

By Cepy 8/25/2023 Post a Comment

Hi Online Friends,

If you're looking for a way to reach more customers, grow your brand awareness, and increase your sales, you might want to consider advertising on Instagram. Instagram is one of the most popular and engaging social media platforms in the world, with over 1.4 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily Stories users. It's also a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes and industries, as it offers various ad formats, targeting options, and creative possibilities.

But how much does it cost to advertise on Instagram? And how can you make the most of your budget and get the best return on investment? In this article, I'll answer these questions and more, based on my experience as an Instagram marketer and advertiser. I'll also share some tips and best practices on how to optimize your Instagram ads and save money in the process.

How Instagram Ads Work

Instagram ads are paid posts or Stories that appear on users' feeds or Stories tabs. They look like regular organic posts, except they have a "Sponsored" label and a call-to-action button. You can also create ads for other Instagram features, such as Reels, Explore, and IGTV.

To create Instagram ads, you need to use Facebook's Ads Manager, which is an advanced tool that allows you to set up campaigns, ad sets, and ads across Facebook and Instagram. You can also use the Boost Post option on your Instagram app to turn any existing post into an ad.

Types of Instagram Ads

Instagram offers several types of ads to suit different goals and objectives. Here are the main ones:

Photo ads: These are simple ads that consist of a single image and a caption. You can use them to showcase your products, services, or brand identity.
Video ads: These are ads that consist of a video up to 120 seconds long and a caption. You can use them to tell a story, demonstrate a feature, or create excitement.
Carousel ads: These are ads that consist of multiple images or videos that users can swipe through. You can use them to highlight different aspects of your offer, show a sequence of events, or create a mini-catalog.
Collection ads: These are ads that combine an image or video with a product catalog. Users can tap on the ad to browse and buy products directly from the app.
Stories ads: These are full-screen vertical ads that appear between users' Stories. They can be either images or videos up to 15 seconds long. You can use them to capture attention, create urgency, or inspire action.
Reels ads: These are full-screen vertical ads that appear between users' Reels. They can be up to 30 seconds long. You can use them to reach a large and diverse audience, showcase your creativity, or promote your products.
Explore ads: These are ads that appear on the Explore tab, which is where users discover new content and accounts. They can be either photo or video ads. You can use them to reach people who are interested in topics related to your business.
IGTV ads: These are video ads that appear on IGTV, which is where users watch longer-form content from creators and brands. They can be up to 15 minutes long. You can use them to showcase your expertise, educate your audience, or entertain them.

Campaign Objectives

When you create an Instagram ad campaign, you need to choose a campaign objective, which is what you want people to do when they see your ads. There are 11 campaign objectives available on Instagram:

Brand awareness: To increase awareness of your brand among your target audience.
Reach: To show your ads to as many people as possible in your target audience.
Traffic: To drive people to your website or app.
Engagement: To get more likes, comments, shares, or views on your posts or Stories.
App installs: To get more people to download your app.
Video views: To get more people to watch your videos.
Lead generation: To collect leads from people who are interested in your business.
Messages: To get more people to send you messages on Instagram Direct.
Conversions: To get more people to take a specific action on your website or app, such as making a purchase, signing up, or filling out a form.
Catalog sales: To show products from your catalog to people who are likely to buy them.
Store traffic: To get more people to visit your physical store locations.

Targeting Options

One of the main advantages of Instagram ads is that you can target your ads to specific audiences based on their demographics, interests, behaviors, and more. You can also use custom audiences, which are groups of people who have already interacted with your business, such as your website visitors, app users, email subscribers, or followers. Or you can use lookalike audiences, which are groups of people who are similar to your existing customers or prospects.

Some of the targeting options available on Instagram are:

Location: You can target people based on their country, state, city, or zip code.
Age: You can target people based on their age range.
Gender: You can target people based on their gender.
Language: You can target people based on the language they speak.
Interests: You can target people based on their interests, hobbies, or passions.
Behaviors: You can target people based on their online or offline actions, such as purchasing habits, device usage, travel preferences, etc.
Connections: You can target people based on their connection to your business, such as your followers, app users, website visitors, etc.

How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Instagram?

The cost of advertising on Instagram depends on several factors, such as your bidding model, your campaign objective, your target audience, your ad quality and relevance, and the competition in your industry and market. There is no fixed price for Instagram ads, as they work on an auction system, where you bid for the impressions or actions you want to get from your ads.

The most common bidding models for Instagram ads are cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-impression (CPM), and cost-per-engagement (CPE). CPC means you pay for each click on your ad. CPM means you pay for each 1,000 impressions (views) of your ad. CPE means you pay for each engagement (like, comment, share, or view) on your ad.

Average Cost Per Click (CPC)

The average cost per click (CPC) for Instagram ads is between $0.20 and $2.00. However, this can vary depending on your industry, location, and ad placement. For example, according to WordStream [^2^], the average CPC for the apparel industry is $1.91, while the average CPC for the travel industry is $0.45. Similarly, according to HubSpot [^1^], the average CPC for the United States is $1.01, while the average CPC for India is $0.12. Moreover, according to K6 Agency [^4^], the average CPC for feed ads is $0.80, while the average CPC for Stories ads is $0.50.

In some cases, the cost per click for Instagram ads can exceed $5.00 per click [^2^]. This usually happens when there is high competition for your target audience or when your ad quality and relevance score is low. The quality and relevance score is a metric that measures how well your ad matches the interests and needs of your audience. The higher the score, the lower the cost per click and vice versa.

Average Cost Per Impression (CPM)

The average cost per impression (CPM) for Instagram ads is between $6.70 and $10.00 [^2^] [^5^]. However, this can also vary depending on your industry, location, and ad placement. For example, according to WordStream [^2^], the average CPM for the apparel industry is $10.21, while the average CPM for the travel industry is $7.04. Similarly, according to HubSpot [^1^], the average CPM for the United States is $7.91, while the average CPM for India is $5.13. Moreover, according to K6 Agency [^4^], the average CPM for feed ads is $8.00, while the average CPM for Stories ads is $5.00.

The cost per impression for Instagram ads can also be influenced by the seasonality, the time of the day, and the day of the week. For example, according to WebFX , the CPM for Instagram ads tends to be higher during the holidays, such as Christmas, New Year, or Valentine's Day, when more businesses are competing for ad space. Similarly, according to K6 Agency , the CPM for Instagram ads tends to be higher during peak hours, such as 9 am to 12 pm and 5 pm to 8 pm, and during weekdays, especially Monday and Thursday.

Average Cost Per Engagement (CPE)

The average cost per engagement (CPE) for Instagram ads is between $0.01 and $0.05 . However, this can also vary depending on your industry, location, and ad placement. For example, according to WordStream , the average CPE for the apparel industry is $0.04, while the average CPE for the travel industry is $0.02. Similarly, according to HubSpot , the average CPE for the United States is $0.03, while the average CPE for India is $0.01. Moreover, according to K6 Agency , the average CPE for feed ads is $0.03, while the average CPE for Stories ads is $0.02.

The cost per engagement for Instagram ads can also be affected by the type of engagement you are measuring. For example, according to WordStream , the average CPE for likes is $0.02, while the average CPE for comments is $0.08. Similarly, according to K6 Agency , the average CPE for video views is $0.01, while the average CPE for link clicks is $0.50.

How to Save Money on Instagram Ads

Now that you have an idea of how much Instagram ads cost on average, you might be wondering how to reduce your ad spend and get more value from your campaigns. Here are some tips and best practices on how to save money on Instagram ads:

Define Your Goals and Metrics

Before you start creating your Instagram ads, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure your success. This will help you choose the right campaign objective, bidding model, and budget for your ads.

For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you might want to use the brand awareness or reach objective and pay per impression (CPM). If your goal is to drive traffic to your website or app, you might want to use the traffic or conversions objective and pay per click (CPC). If your goal is to get more engagement on your posts or Stories, you might want to use the engagement or video views objective and pay per engagement (CPE).

Once you have defined your goal, you need to choose a metric that reflects it and track it throughout your campaign. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you might want to track metrics such as impressions, reach, frequency, or brand recall lift. If your goal is to drive traffic to your website or app, you might want to track metrics such as clicks, click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), or landing page views. If your goal is to get more engagement on your posts or Stories, you might want to track metrics such as likes, comments, shares, views, or cost per engagement (CPE).

Know Your Audience

Another way to save money on Instagram ads is to know your audience well and target them accordingly. This will help you avoid wasting money on showing your ads to people who are not interested in your offer or who are not likely to take action.

To know your audience better, you can use tools such as Facebook's Audience Insights or Instagram's Insights. These tools can help you learn more about your audience's demographics, interests, behaviors, preferences, and more. You can also use surveys or feedback forms to collect more information from your customers or prospects.

Once you have a clear picture of who your audience is and what they want, you can use Facebook's Ads Manager to create custom audiences or lookalike audiences based on them. You can also use Facebook's detailed targeting options to refine your audience based on their location, age, gender, language, interests, behaviors, and connections.

Test and Optimize Your Ads

A third way to save money on Instagram ads is to test and optimize your ads regularly. This will help you find out what works best for your audience and your goal and improve your ad performance and efficiency.

To test and optimize your ads, you can use Facebook's Ads Manager to create split tests or dynamic creative tests. Split tests allow you to compare different versions of your ads based on one variable, such as the audience, the creative, the placement, or the delivery optimization. Dynamic creative tests allow you to combine different elements of your ads, such as the image, the video, the headline, the text, or the call-to-action, and automatically show the best combinations to your audience.

Once you have run your tests, you can use Facebook's Ads Manager to analyze the results and see which version of your ads performed better based on your metric of choice. You can also use Facebook's Ad Relevance Diagnostics to see how relevant your ads are to your audience based on three factors: quality ranking, engagement rate ranking, and conversion rate ranking. Based on these insights, you can make changes to your ads to improve their relevance and lower their cost.

A Detailed Table Breakdown Related to Instagram Ads Price

Ad Type	Average CPC	Average CPM	Average CPE
Photo	$0.50 - $1.00	$6.70 - $10.00	$0.01 - $0.05
Video	$0.50 - $1.00	$6.70 - $10.00	$0.01 - $0.05
Carousel	$0.50 - $1.00	$6.70 - $10.00	$0.01 - $0.05
Collection	$0.50 - $1.00	$6.70 - $10.00	$0.01 - $0.05
Stories	$0.20 - $2.00	$5.00 - $8.00	$0.02 - $0.04
Reels	$0.20 - $2.00	$5.00 - $8.00	$0.02 - $0.04
Explore	$0.20 - $2.00	$5.00 - $8.00	$0.02 - $0.04
IGTV	$0.20 - $2.00	$5.00 - $8.00	$0.02 - $0.04

FAQs About Instagram Ads Price

How much should I spend on Instagram ads?

The amount you should spend on Instagram ads depends on your goal, your budget, and your expected return on ad spend (ROAS). There is no minimum or maximum amount you can spend on Instagram ads, as you can set your own daily or lifetime budget for each campaign or ad set.

However, as a general rule of thumb, you should spend enough to get enough data and results to evaluate and optimize your campaigns effectively . For example, if your goal is to get conversions, you should spend enough to get at least 50 conversions per week per ad set . This will help Facebook's algorithm learn from your data and optimize your delivery accordingly.

You should also consider your expected ROAS , which is the ratio of revenue generated by your ads to the cost of your ads . For example, if you spend $100 on Instagram ads and generate $500 in revenue , your ROAS is 5:1 , which means you get $5 back for every $1 you spend . You should aim for a positive ROAS , which means you get more revenue than cost , and a high ROAS , which means you get a high return for every dollar you spend .

How can I pay for Instagram ads?

You can pay for Instagram ads using the same payment methods you use for Facebook ads. These include credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, and manual payments. You can also use Facebook's billing threshold system, which means you will be charged only when you reach a certain amount of ad spend or at the end of the month, whichever comes first.

How can I track the performance of my Instagram ads?

You can track the performance of your Instagram ads using Facebook's Ads Manager, which is a dashboard that shows you various metrics and reports on your campaigns, ad sets, and ads. You can also use Facebook's Attribution tool, which is a tool that shows you how your ads across Facebook and Instagram contribute to your conversions along the customer journey.

How can I stop or pause my Instagram ads?

You can stop or pause your Instagram ads at any time using Facebook's Ads Manager. You can either stop or pause your entire campaign, your ad set, or your individual ad. To do so, you just need to toggle the switch next to the campaign, ad set, or ad name from active to inactive. You can also resume your ads by toggling the switch back to active.

How can I delete my Instagram ads?

You can delete your Instagram ads using Facebook's Ads Manager. To do so, you just need to select the campaign, ad set, or ad you want to delete and click on the trash icon at the top of the page. You can also delete multiple ads at once by selecting them and clicking on the trash icon. However, keep in mind that deleting your ads will remove them permanently and you won't be able to access their data or reports anymore.

Conclusion

Instagram ads are a great way to reach more customers, grow your brand awareness, and increase your sales. However, they also come with a cost that depends on various factors, such as your bidding model, your campaign objective, your target audience, your ad quality and relevance, and the competition in your industry and market.

To save money on Instagram ads, you need to define your goals and metrics, know your audience, and test and optimize your ads regularly. You also need to choose the right ad type, campaign objective, and targeting options for your goal and budget.

I hope this article has helped you understand how much Instagram ads cost and how to save money on them. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. And if you want to learn more about Instagram marketing and advertising , check out some of my other articles:

Google Ads Guide