(Newswire.net — November 30, 2021) –In June, Instagram surpassed one billion monthly users, accounting for about a quarter of the world’s population. It’s a hugely popular platform with no indications of slowing down in terms of growth. Unfortunately for advertisers, the number of money businesses are currently paying to promote their products and services under the guise of selling on Instagram is the same. In the second quarter of this year, ad spending increased by 177 percent year over year. Impressions increased by 209%, but CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) decreased by 10%. Advertisers are pouring more money into the photo-sharing app than ever before, and they’re becoming better at it. The stakes are high.
However, only roughly two million advertisers utilize Instagram on a monthly basis, which is a relatively small percentage of the one billion users. Even though not everyone on Instagram is looking for new items or services, let alone yours, there is still plenty of chance to use the platform to sell your gorgeous things.
I’m going to show you how to do it properly! If you follow these five methods to make money and move units on Instagram, you’ll be selling like a pro in no time.
#1 Choose a product or a market that sells.
Instagram is a social media site that emphasizes visual content. People use Instagram to be motivated and to find topics they care about, according to the company. As a result, things with a high visual appeal or aesthetic will be easier to sell.
Here are a few examples of popular digital product ideas:
- LUTs sPresets
- Typefaces for graphic design
Physical product ideas that are currently popular include:
- Clothes (t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats)
- DIY and accessories (stickers, phone cases, jewelry)
- Products for women’s beauty (makeup)
- Furniture and accessories for the home (wall art, mugs)
- Sports and outdoor equipment (joggers, hoodies, bags, leggings)
Other Instagram business concepts include:
- Coaching and services
- Workshops and online courses
- An influencer on Instagram (beauty, food, health and fitness, travel, art, photography)
Do you already have a product or a market niche? Great! Don’t worry if it doesn’t fit into one of the following categories. You’ll be OK if you have a strong passion for what you’re selling.
The more specific your niche, the easier it will be to establish a following and sell your goods. Instead of “toys,” consider “plush toys for Cornish Rex cats.” However, the most important thing is to keep providing interesting content and a compelling story to persuade your followers to purchase your product.
#2 Convert your personal profile to a professional one.
This isn’t groundbreaking information, but a surprising percentage of small company owners I speak with want to begin selling on Instagram without first completing this basic step. Converting your regular Instagram profile to a business profile unlocks a slew of useful selling and reporting features. Here’s how to make the switch before we get into those.
- Log in to your account and go to the top right of your dashboard to the cheeseburger-looking button.
- At the bottom right, tap Settings.
- “Switch to Business Profile” is located at the bottom of the page.
Boom! You’ve completed the task. If you ever want to return to your personal account (which you won’t), simply return to the same location and tap “Switch Back to Personal Account.”
Now! Here are some of the highlights of the features you’ll have access to once you’ve made the switch:
- Insights from Instagram. It’s not as simple to dig up a follower’s personal and demographic information on Instagram as it is, say, on Facebook. Compiling that data in aggregate is significantly more challenging. Instagram Insights takes care of all the legwork for you.
There’s no shortage of important information here, and it’s all easily available through the app on your smartphone when you switch to a business profile. Metrics like profile visits, website clicks, reach, and impressions may be found under the Activity tab. You can get a more detailed look at the performance of each post or story under the Content page, including profile visits and engagements. You can track the locations, ages, and genders of your followers under the Audience tab, as well as the days and times of day they’re most active—all of which will come in handy when we get to Step 3 on this list.
- CTA (call to action) button. This appears under your bio at the top of your profile and allows visitors to phone, email, or obtain directions to your business.
- Links to other stories. Instagram, as you may know, does not allow users to connect within their posts. There is also a limit of one website link per bio. The ability to include links in your Instagram stories allows you to drive your followers to specific items and landing pages on your website. This is a significant positive because stories are extremely visible and progressively becoming a force. More fantastic Instagram story hacks may be found in this post.
- Alignment on Facebook. You can now use Business Manager/Advertisements Manager to connect to your Facebook business page and start running ads! This is the third step. Don’t worry, we’ll make it.
#3 Begin running advertisements.
Another common refrain I hear is, “I have a limited budget and want to make the most of it.” Many business owners believe that having a modest budget disqualifies them from running Instagram advertisements, yet this couldn’t be further from the truth. Executing low-budget bought Instagram advertising will offer you more bang for your buck than building and running organic campaigns if you execute well. And I know what you’re thinking: Aren’t organic campaigns free unless I hire someone to do them for me? Yes. However, Instagram advertisements have the potential for a huge return on investment, so if you do it well, you’ll earn your money back with interest.
You’ll want to resist the desire to simply tap “Promote” within the Instagram app to get the most bang for your dollars. You won’t be able to target Instagram users based on their interests or demographics, and you won’t be able to utilize Custom Audiences to remarket to Instagram users who have made specific actions on your website and persuade them to buy that widget they never bought.
Use your Instagram advertisements in conjunction with your Facebook ads, or adjust your placements to simply run on Instagram. However, spend some time on Ads Manager setting up your advertisements.
You’ll gain access to Facebook’s extensive targeting tools, as well as the Reach and Brand Awareness campaign types, which allow you to get your advertising in front of a large number of people for a low price. You may utilise the traffic and engagement you get from these ads in combination with RLSAs to convert prospects in Search later, or you can use them to construct remarketing lists in Ads Manager and execute conversion efforts on Facebook and Instagram, like I indicated.
#4 If you’re selling physical goods, use Instagram shopping.
Shopping on Instagram is a blast. The only catch is that if you’re selling services, you can’t use them. If you are, you may proceed to the next stage. If you’re an e-commerce seller, on the other hand, Instagram shopping is your best buddy.
A quick rundown of how everything works and how to get started. The only difference between shopping posts and organic posts is that when visitors “tap to view products,” product names and pricing are exposed.
They’re led to a product details page with a description of the product and a CTA when they click on the tags that appear. They proceed to a landing page after that.
Making sure you have a product catalog ready to go on Facebook and enabling product tagging is all it takes to get started. Check out our post on using shopping in Instagram stories for a more in-depth look at the process.
When you use Instagram shopping posts as advertising, you gain access to Google Shopping’s intent-wrangling capabilities as well as Facebook’s smart audience targeting. Manual targeting (demographic, behavior, and interest) allows you to reach a large number of net new prospects; and the ability to show those prospects all the relevant details of your product—most notably, what it looks like and how much it costs—ensures that anyone who engages with your ad is highly qualified once they land on your website thanks to product tagging in Instagram shopping.
Additionally, the newly-created Shopping channel in Instagram Explore allows your Instagram shopping posts to reach even more consumers.
#5 Collaborate with influencers
Influencer marketing has been on the increase for a while, but it’s particularly popular on Instagram, and it’s especially popular for pushing tangible things. Why? Because placing your product in the hands, on the shoulder, or in the stomach (if you’re selling juice, for example) of an influencer gives it credibility with a large and entirely new audience.
Right now, there’s a surplus of millennial Instagram influencers who grew up with the app and have a natural knowledge of how to use it to build and sustain a loyal following. There are thousands of these tiny pockets of celebrities on the app, and you can use them to put your product in the spotlight for a very fair price—most influencers charge by the follower, at $5-$10 per 1,000 followers—for a very reasonable price.
That means that if you simply had $100 to spend on an influencer campaign, you could get an influencer with 10,000 followers. That’s 10,000 people who were previously unaware of your product. And, because you’re paying for both reputation and reach, this may be a more effective strategy than, say, spending $100 on an Instagram ad campaign that reaches 10,000 people.
It’s all about buy-in when it comes to selling on Instagram
To truly enjoy the benefits of Instagram—to convince consumers to buy what you’re selling—you must first invest in the platform as a whole and commit to using it as a profitable channel. Don’t allow a tight budget to keep you from investing in ads, buying influencer posts, or even paying for organic campaign management. These five steps, when taken together, can help you generate a lot of money from Instagram sales. Let’s get started!