Tried and True Marketing Methods Prevail for Instagram Advertising

July 22, 2021

Focus on Benefits and Broader Targets for Advertisements Embody Main Event Digital’s Social Media Approach

It’s time to challenge old thinking when it comes to advertising on Instagram.

The platform has 130 million users in the United States alone—businesses can’t afford to ignore the opportunities this social channel presents.

‍

Google ads and rankings are very important for most businesses, but to get your brand noticed, you can quickly and easily start with an Instagram advertising campaign that will result in less Cost Per Engagement (CPE).

Jumping into the Ring

Most digital marketing companies will start with paid Google ads and social media posts at the sound of the opening bell. Five years ago, this approach was innovative, but now it’s like an old glove.

Rather than try and land the perfect punch with the perfect ad, we prefer throwing a flurry of combination punches, producing several advertisements and then collecting data to see which punches land, and which ones miss.

It doesn’t pay to take the haymaker approach, because let’s face it—if you miss it’s embarrassing and costs your company money. We know that CPEs will be lower with more advertisements in the beginning and speak to a broader audience.

Broad Target Searches

Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have a lot of features that they want companies to use and pay for. These features enable targeted advertisements to a narrow demographic. While companies should embrace many of these features as an integral part of social media advertising, that's not where the story ends.

A study by The Workshop on the Economics of Information Security found that publishers haul in just 4% more on average in sales by using targeted ads. This fascinating data point has us asking if it’s worth it to spend a month, or more, on crafting the perfect advertisement for the right target audience?

As the study points out, “Targeting decreases the ‘pool’ of audience interested in an ad, which decreases competition to display ads, which reduces advertisers’ bids, eventually reducing publishers’ revenues.”

At Main Event Digital, we actually do take the time to craft the perfect advertisement just like any other agency. The difference is, we do this only after we already have collected data, found success with no less than a couple ads and have a very clear vision of how to entice your prospects and connect with your users and customers.

‍

How it All Works

“There’s an inverse relationship between the amount of money and time you spend in development to the success of the ad,” says Michael Kofman, who’s the Paid Search Specialist at Main Event Digital. To better explain, here’s a look at Kofman and Main Event Digital’s approach to crafting Instagram advertisements.

1. Benefits - We believe in tried and true marketing methods, such as focusing on the benefits of your company’s product or content. Kofman will create three to five ads based on these benefits, with one extra that’a a little unorthodox, or perhaps funny.
2. What’s working - From these ads, Kofman will typically find one to two that outperform the rest, and from here, dozens of variants of the same ad are uploaded into Instagram. “What survives,” says Kofman, “passes on its genes and keeps being displayed to the audience.”
3. Payoff - Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram will give low-performing ads the boot after just a few days. Main Event Digital will already have a performer by then, causing companies’ cost of an advertisement to be a fraction of what it would be otherwise.

“When a company spends thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars with a creative agency,” said Kofman. “I already know that I am going to be able to outperform them with something I come up with. Then I’ll show the company the numbers, and I guarantee they’ll say, “Keep going!”

Get the support you need to be a champ on Instagram. Place your money on Main Event Digital.

‍

(Photo Courtesy of Santeri Viinamäki)