Instagram was created so you can show the best side of your business. How? By creating content that your customers and followers will value.

And even if Instagram starts hiding the number of likes that your posts get, winning hearts on the platform still matters for your business.

That said, here are ten effective ways your Instagram ads can achieve that:

1. Know Who Your Audience Are

Meanwhile, audience research can help you determine what kind of content is relevant to them.

Conduct a target market research, and keep in mind that your Instagram audience can be different from your other social media audience. That’s because not all social network leans towards sharing visual content. Not to mention that 72% of teens in the US are using IG.

Whether you’re running an organic campaign or you opt to do Instagram advertising, one of the first things that you need to do is know who your audience is.

2. Post Amazing Photos

Let’s not forget that Instagram is an image-heavy social media platform. Which means that you need to post exquisite photos. And not just any images, it should be images that tell stories.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should take a photography lesson or spend some cash to upgrade your equipment. You’d be surprised that many of the well-liked images on Instagram are taken using a smartphone.

How did they do that? There are filters available on the app that can help you enhance your images before posting them.

3. Write Compelling Captions

It’s a no-brainer that your caption should be compelling whenever you run an Instagram ad campaign. However, what works well for other brands doesn’t mean the same for you.

Nonetheless, it is always best to be consistent with your brand’s voice if you want to write a good Instagram caption. Use emojis is you must but don’t forget to talk about the important stuff first, as captions on IG get truncated.

Make sure to add a call-to-action as well so you can generate engagement.

4. Tag Relevant People and Brands

Whenever relevant, it’s ideal to tag people and brands on your IG posts and stories. That way, their audience will get to see your content, and this could drive engagement.

For instance, you’re a social media fashion influencer who happened to have a collaboration with Ralph Lauren. Make sure to share photos or videos on your IG, and do not forget to tag the brand’s official Instagram account.

This will not only update your followers of what keeps you busy lately but you’re also highlighting how much you value your work and the brand.

5. Use the Right Hashtags

Using the right hashtags when writing a caption for your Instagram ads allow you to expose your content to more people.

However, that doesn’t mean that you should add as many hashtags as you can. You need to give your hashtag strategy some thought.

Nonetheless, here are some quick tips on how you can use the right hashtags:

• Have a branded hashtag
• Do not use broad (e.g. #tshirt) or niched-down hashtags (e.g. #whitetshirtformeninNYC)
• Use about nine hashtags on your posts to maximize engagement

6. Hashtagify You Stories

Your captions aren’t the only place where you can include hashtags. You can also add hashtags on your IG Stories, whether it’s organic content or an advertisement.

Just like with your captions, you can leverage hashtags to expose your IG story to more users.

However, you only have a limited online real estate to place nine hashtags on your stories. What you can do is to use the best and most relevant hashtags, pinch them so they can be as small as possible, and then hide them by placing an appropriate sticker on it.

7. Use Geotagging

Tagging your location may sound like bragging, but geotagging your Instagram posts is actually another way to expose your content to more people.

This is definitely useful if you have a brick-and-mortar store. That’s because it allows you to create a sense of community on Instagram. This can even attract your target market within the locality to visit your store.

Just make sure that your coordinates are correct so that your store address will appear on the map. Also, you need to set your location to public if you want to take advantage of Instagram Geotagging.

8. Be Consistent

The thing with social media marketing and advertising, in general, is that you don’t want to annoy your followers without making them feel left behind either. This is where content calendar comes in.

For one, it helps you plan out the number of posts you need to publish. That way, you’re able to keep your followers’ attention. Second, it allows you to easily review whether the quality of your posts adheres to your guidelines.

Another thing you need to keep consistent is the theme of your posts. This can include the filters you use, the color schemes, as well as the voice and tone of your caption.

9. Schedule Your Campaign

If you want to maximize your ad budget, our best tip is to run your Instagram ads when your followers and fans are most active.

But of course, it requires a bit of analytics and at least a week of experiments. So make sure you have an ad budget for at least two weeks.

The first week is to figure out whether your ads are effective, as well as when are your followers most active. The second week is where you get to run your ads during your followers’ peak hours.

10. Outsmart Your Competitors

With the number of likes on an Instagram post now hidden, it can be a challenge to figure out which of your competitors’ posts are resonating well with their audience.

Nonetheless, there are social listening tools that you can use to measure the people’s sentiments about a particular brand. You can also conduct a full-scale competitive analysis in order to point out some missed opportunities that you can take advantage of.

With 60% of users discovering new products on Instagram, we can say that the platform is one of the big leagues. This also means that organic feeds are saturated and your post can only do so much. Good thing, there’s Instagram ads that can help boost your presence.