Video advertising on Instagram

Instagram

Well known and well loved, Instagram sees daily activity from a whopping 500 million world-wide accounts. It offers live and pre-recorded video formats that engage B2B and B2C audiences through eye-catching, creative content. By creating eye-catching visuals, you can reach a wide range of consumers in a natural and creative way. We’ve put together information on demographic, advertising styles, and what works. New to Instagram video marketing? This guide will help you get started with Instagram for Business.

Audience

Compared to its parent platform Facebook, Instagram has a much younger user base. Half of users are under 34 and it’s largest user group are aged 18-24. In terms of gender demographics, there is an even spread: 51% female and 49% male. On average, audiences also spend 28 minutes a day on the app. In addition, 70% of shopping enthusiasts visit Instagram for product discovery.

Why advertise on Insta?

Instagram ads blend seamlessly into users’ feeds and Stories, making them less intrusive and more engaging. Instagram’s heavily curated feed allows your brand to show off personality and create beautiful visuals increasing engagement and awareness. According to Instagram, 90% of users follow a business, making it a valuable platform for reaching consumers. Users also see brands on Instagram as popular (78%), creative (77%) and entertaining (76%). With over 25 million businesses on the platform and 200 million+ users visiting at least one business profile daily, Instagram offers brands significant reach.

Instagram has a huge community base which is growing rapidly. Instagram drives strong engagement, particularly for e-commerce brands with visually appealing products, helping boost ROI. Videos also generate over twice as much engagement as photos, while eMarketer predicted that Instagram and Facebook would account for around two-thirds of social video ad spend in 2020.

Types of video advertising on Instagram:

•In-feed

With 72% of In-Feed content being photographs, you can use video to stand out from the crowd. Post videos directly to your business profile, using captions and relevant hashtags to reach your audience. As Instagram’s feed is highly curated, polished, professional content can help you impress potential customers.

In-Feed video length can be anywhere between 3 seconds and 2 minutes, so can present a longer story or be quick, inspiring a call to action to find out more about a brand or visit their page or website. In Feed video ads will increase brand awareness, interaction and professional impression.  Additionally, this content can be boosted via Instagram for Business to appear in the feeds of those who don’t follow you. Boosted ads are presented as sponsored, with a link to your brand’s page, and a ‘Learn More’ or ‘Shop Now’ section clicking through to a chosen landing page. 

In-feed ideas to get you started:

• Tell a story. Get users to invest in your brand’s story by using the full 2 minutes to tell them a bit about yourself. Consider showing the ethics behind your brand, how you set up your business, or why you set it up. However, keep in mind, if people don’t see something they’re interested in in the first 3 seconds they may lose interest, so make the first 3 seconds count. 
• Demonstration and product videos. By seeing how your product works users will find out how it might be relevant or useful to them. Moving from the ‘awareness’ to the ‘interest’ stage of the sales funnel, these videos will push users to click through to your website to find out additional information such as price, and half the work is done for you.  
• Time-lapse. Because we all love a time-lapse! 

•Instagram stories

For many, Instagram Stories have become more important than the Instagram Feed, with 500 million accounts using stories everyday. Instagram reports that one third of the most viewed stories are from businesses, making Instagram Stories an important engagement route for brands. 

Instagram video Stories tend to be more free-hand, user-generated content allowing brands to quickly engage users without spending time on production. In a form of point and shoot, you can video there and then, showing a behind-the-scenes look at your business, a day in the life, or a sneak-peak at a new product. While polished, professional videos can boost paid promotions, Stories offer a quick, informal alternative. Each clip lasts up to 15 seconds, but you can upload multiple clips in sequence. Stories disappear after 24 hours.

Here’s what works:

• Vertical Format Works Best. By using as much of the phone’s dimensions as possible you create a full visual display for the user. 
• Seconds Matter. Use speed to your advantage by splitting into different scenes and using a fast-paced narrative and quick messages; you want to create thumb-stopping visuals.
• Stories are only 15 seconds long. And that’s if they don’t get swiped. Make the product the star and show who you are in the first 3 seconds.

•Instagram live

Offering you an unedited, user-generated video marketing approach, Instagram Live allows brands to create their own Live Events for longer content forms such as product demos, Q+As and unboxing content. According to New York Magazine 82% of audiences would rather watch a livestream than see a social media post, proving that people prefer watching over reading. You can also save live videos to Instagram Highlights for long-term use.

•IGTV

After a slow start, IGTV seems to be gaining popularity, and recent trends have seen that people enjoy longer videos that share more. These videos last between 1 and 15 minutes and allow you to post a brief preview on your feed where people can click through to watch the full video. This preview will be the first 60s of your IGTV so make sure it’s interesting and consider adding visuals and a well designed, captivating opening card.  

Providing vertical and horizontal options, IGTV allows brands to show more personality. Effective formats include unboxing videos, behind-the-scenes content, brand stories explaining how and why the company started, and founder Q&As. IGTV content should be more thoughtful and polished, so spend time and money on pre and post production to make users pay attention to your brand. 

Ideas to get you started:

• Documentary/Docu-series. Take some time to present the story behind your brand. This could involve a series of documentary-style videos showing how your brand was born, the benefits of your product or service, success stories, or how it’s made.
• Q+As with Founders. Utilise the questions feature on Instagram Story to understand what your followers want to know and take the time to answer them in detail. By adding question cards to the video and captions, people can find the exact questions they want answered, watch without sound, and your video looks professional.
• Product Videos- Show your followers in-detail how your product or service works so all they have to think about is how many they want. 

Instgram video top tips:

• Focus on Your Customers. Make your video content audience-focused. By tracking your view count and interaction rate you can see what works and continue making similar content (not too similar though or they will get bored).  
• Make Sure Your Videos are the Right Length. Both long and short videos prove effective, so don’t make yours longer than needed or you may lose your customer attention. Again, you can track what length works through the Instagram for Business feature. 
• Hashtags and Ads. On your organic posts you can add hashtags to link to related content and can sponsor your In-Feed and Stories to take them further than your follower-base. 
• Get involved with your customers. Answer questions and respond to user comments to increase your overall engagement rate helping you with Instagram’s infamous algorithm. Equally, a lot of people take to social media to air complaints, so by responding quickly and referring them to an email address where they can contact you, you will look reliable to other users.
• Use Video Variety. Many brand pages use video and video ads to help with the different stages of the sales funnel. By creating a more general and informative video to produce brand awareness, you can then feature more organic and personalised content to continue brand investment after users have followed your Instagram page. 
• Use UGC (User Generated Content). By featuring videos from influencers or users who are loving your product or service you can increase reputability and retarget users who have looked at your site but haven’t committed to buying.

So there you have it; all the stats & facts about Instagram! Need help with Instagram Video? Get in touch!