3 Reasons to Jump on the Instagram Ads Bandwagon

Instagram ads are now available and Likeable Local’s Evan Seto has a trio of reasons why jewelers should take advantage of this marketing avenue sooner rather than later.

Michelle Graff michelle.graff@nationaljeweler.com

Instagram ads are here.

Evan Seto is the marketing apprentice at Likeable Local.

That’s a headline you might have heard a couple of times in the past few months. The truth of the matter is, each headline was marking some milestone in a patchwork rollout of the Instagram ads platform to the Facebook accounts of businesses. It’s for real this time though--Instagram ads are now available to everybody. So, you should jump on board! End of story, right?

No, hold on; you might be wondering if this whole Instagram thing is worth it for your jewelry business. After all it is, at its core, simply a different presentation of Facebook ads. So, let’s dig a little deeper.

It’s still early going, so there’s not a lot of data. However, preliminary reports show that Instagram ads are seeing higher engagement than standard Facebook ads. In fact, for web click conversions, Instagram ads are seeing an average 1.5 percent click-through rate, versus a 0.84 percent for a comparable Facebook ad at a similar cost per click.

There are several reasons that this could be the case.

1. Instagram Ads are New
Don’t underestimate the power of novelty. The reason people are clicking these ads more could simply be because of interest. I’ve never seen an Instagram ad before! What happens when you click this? (Or, you could be getting the accidental clicks of the confused.) These ads are refreshingly new but, of course, the novelty will wear off, which cuts into the value proposition of Instagram ads over other social media ads over time. Still, it’s an argument that you should jump on board as soon as possible and ride the wave while you can.

2. Instagram Ads are Big
One of the original selling points of Instagram itself was the simplicity of the platform; it’s just one big square picture after another. While other social media networks struggle with cramming as much stuff into their feeds as possible without cluttering the user interface, Instagram has remained simple and minimalistic.The ads slide in seamlessly, and with the exception of chronology and a small “Sponsored” tag, they are indistinguishable from other posts. For consumers who might have a negative reaction to conspicuous advertisement, this could be more favorable.

3. Instagram Ads are Higher Quality
The reason the click-through rates are so good could be because up until recently, it’s

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only been a select few larger brands that have been advertising on Instagram. These companies, with the resources to create sleek ad campaigns, are creating higher-quality ad campaigns than the general populace, and juicing Instagram’s early numbers. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help you (although I’m sure your ads are better than average.)

Maybe it’s not exactly definitive whether Instagram ads are more effective than Facebook ads based on the raw, early results. You have to factor in the fact that while there are 10 ad objectives offered through Facebook, Instagram ads only are available in three objectives: clicks to website, video views, and mobile app installs, which restricts the flexibility you have to create more effective and specific ad campaigns. This is especially relevant if you’re using specific Facebook options such as “Add to cart” for your jewelry business to reduce friction (and if you aren’t, you should really consider it.)

However, there’s one big statistic that points to why Instagram ads have the potential to be superior to Facebook and ads on other social media platforms. Compared with the others, Instagram skews younger, more diverse and richer. In a world where jewelers are always trying to chase that particular demographic, especially when business support on social media lags behind the cutting edge of current trends, it pays to at least be as far forward as possible.

Combine this with the knowledge that overall, Instagram is not as small as you might still perceive it to be. At around 200 million users it’s catching up with Twitter, and Instagram users are more engaged because its feed is less saturated.

Instagram also was founded with photos as its central concept. Unlike Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other platforms where “text only” is an option, Instagram is photo mandatory, text optional. For a jewelry business where a lot of sales are dependent on a consumer’s positive reaction to the visual appeal of the product, Instagram’s clean interface and larger pictures are particularly appealing.

All things considered, it’s worth your time to get your jewelry business on Instagram ads as fast as possible.

Evan Seto is the marketing apprentice at Likeable Local, a social media marketing platform and app for small and mid-sized businesses. Reach him at evan@likeablelocal.com.

Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.