Instagram is currently making a huge impact around the world and is already a part of our lives. It is a social network where we share many personal moments and in the case of photographers it is a fantastic platform to publicise their work. That’s why Instagram ads for photographers are a fantastic option when it comes to getting more exposure for your photos, especially if you learn how to get the most out of them.

In today’s article we are going to explain the 5 steps you need to take to create your first Instagram ads.

Learn how to create Instagram ads for photographers that work.

Why is it important for you to learn how to create Instagram ads for photographers?

When considering whether Instagram ads for photographers can be a good strategy for your photography business, it is important to define what you want to achieve with each campaign: more visibility? users to get to know your website? to spread a temporary photo shoot? Etc.

Once you have a target, shaping your ads will be much easier.

As well as helping you achieve a very specific goal, Instagram ad campaigns are perfect for:

• Broaden your audience: with a simple advertisement you can reach hundreds of people who may be interested in your photo stories.
• Enhance your personal brand: Instagram and other social networks are perfect for gradually spreading your style and the way you work in order to create a stronger personal brand.
• Targeting: thanks to Instagram ads for photographers you will be able to choose the type of audience you want your posts to reach. This way you’ll have a much better chance of them getting in touch with you.
• Direct contact with your audience: When it comes to having a closer contact with your followers, Instagram allows you to interact with your followers in a simpler and more direct way.
• Measurement: another advantage of creating advertising on Instagram is that you will be able to measure and improve those advertising campaigns that have not gone as well as expected.
• Etc.

If you are not yet using Instagram professionally, the following blog post will show you how to set up your profile.

>> Instagram for photographers: learn how to create a professional profile

5 tips for creating your first ads on the Instagram social network

When you start creating your first Instagram ads, it is important that you take into account a series of tips that we are going to give you below so that your posts generate a greater reach:

• Learn how to plan your advertising campaigns.
• Find the most appropriate image.
• Accompany it with a text that attracts your followers.
• Create the advertisement.
• Measure your results.

Let’s look at all the steps in a little more detail.

1# Plan a pre-strategy for your Instagram ads

The first thing you have to do is to develop a strategy, or rather, an Instagram ad campaign for photographers and for this, as we have already mentioned, it is important that you first make clear the objectives you want to achieve with the ads to guide your efforts in the same direction and to measure the success of your campaigns.

In order to better plan your Instagram ads, it is essential that you have previously done a thorough research to know your audience well by collecting the following data: age, gender, location, interests, what type of photo shoot they are interested in, etc.

Another crucial point when planning your advertising campaigns is to set a budget, so set a maximum amount per ad that you are going to invest in each type of campaign. At this point it is important that the budget is realistic and can be maintained over time.

When it comes to planning the ad itself, Instagram will allow you to choose different formats using, for example: images, carousels, slideshows, videos, collections, stories, reels, etc.

 >> Instagram Reels: learn how to use them in your photography business

2# Choose the most appropriate image for your customer prototype

The photographs you select for your Instagram ads will be, without a doubt, the most important part of your publication and even more so in this social network where visual aesthetics are so important. When choosing the images for your ads, we recommend that you try to use the best ones you have in your portfolio, but also make sure they are as eye-catching as possible.

If you decide to edit the image of your advert and add some information, please note that, as with Facebook advertising, on Instagram you cannot add too much text on top of the photo as it is only allowed to take up 20% of the total image.

In all your publications you will have the option to add a button at the bottom of the ad in the colour of your choice to lead users to your website or wherever you want to take them.

3# Create engaging text that provides valuable information

It’s clear that the most appealing part of Instagram ads for photographers are the images, but it’s also true that the information that usually accompanies the caption of the photo can help you a lot in your networking strategy.

When planning the text for your Instagram ads you have to keep in mind that you will have slightly less space to write than on Facebook, so you will have to choose the information very well and try to make it as descriptive as possible. When you are planning the written content of your ad, you should also have a small hook to make it easier for the user to click on it.

As Instagram ads are going to be in the same format as other posts, it’s likely that many of those who see your ad will wonder who among their friends has uploaded that beautiful photo. That’s when they will read your text and discover your photo shoot.

In the text show what you are capable of but don’t use too many characters, the Instagram limit is 2,200 but from 125 onwards the “more” tag is placed, so try to put the most important things in the first few words.

4# Learn how to post Instagram ads

Once you have all the content well planned, it is time to create the ad itself, for this you will have different options that we will explain below:

• You can take advantage of a post you have already created on Instagram and turn it into an ad, if you are just starting out this is, without a doubt, the easiest way to create your first ads on this social network. For this type of ad to work well, choose posts with a lot of views and in which users have interacted. To make this type of ad it is important that you have a professional profile and a Facebook account connected to Instagram. To create an ad you just have to: click on Promote, choose an objective, define your audience, daily budget and duration.

• Use the ad manager, click on the + Create button, select your target, name your campaign, choose the budget, the date in the calendar and define the type of audience you want the ad to reach, location and publish it.

5# Measure results and adjust your ads

Before you start measuring the results of your advertising campaign, it is important that you consider how much money you want to invest in each of them. As an idea, we have come up with different ways to set it, the most used being the daily budget. With this option you set a maximum amount to spend in a day, if you do not reach this maximum, it is not accumulated for the next day but it is not lost either, it is returned to the account. If the campaign exceeds the daily budget, the ad will not be shown until the next day.

Optimising an Instagram advertising campaign for photographers is very important and a big part of this importance is again the right choice of the objective you want to achieve. At this point, you will have to select whether the campaign is going to be aimed at making yourself known (impressions) or getting people to know your website (interaction or clicks).

The optimisation of your Instagram ads can be further developed by analysing the results of the first days of the campaign.

Learn how to create Instagram ads that work for photographers

If you want to get more visibility on networks Instagram ads for photographers are a very good choice, you can leverage your posts or learn how to make your own ads in Meta Business Suite.

Before we say goodbye, let’s give you a few last quick tips:

• Make sure your ads look good on mobile devices.
• If it is a video, subtitle it so that users who use networks without volume can understand your message.
• Be clear and concise in conveying your message.
• Try different types of ads for the same publication and then analyse which one worked best.

Here is a post with some very interesting Instagram accounts of photographers.

>> Check out the 6 best Instagram accounts of photographers

On this occasion we are going to share with you the testimony of Javier Bejarano.

>> Javier Bejarano talks to us

And to finish off this article on how to make Instagram ads for photographers, here’s our final question: What do you find most challenging about creating this type of advertising for your business? We’d love to read about your experiences in the comments.

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