So you’ve set up your Instagram business account and you’re ready to get your marketing going. You’re excited to get started with all those Instagram campaigns that you hope will turn into sales for your business. Here’s the thing, though: How do you know you’re spending too much on your Instagram campaigns? The platform may be free, but the advertising isn’t necessarily.
The cost of your Instagram ads depends on several factors. The demographic you’re targeting, the mobile device you want to advertise on, whether you’re targeting your ads to be displayed during a major television event or something similar, and even what day of the week you want to run your ad.
All of these factors contribute to how much you end up spending on your advertising campaign. For this reason, every marketer should know their Instagram demographics.
In this article, we will take a deeper look into the cost of Instagram ads.
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How much do Instagram ads cost?
The average cost of Instagram advertising ranges from $0.20 to $6.70, depending on the bidding model. CPC or cost-per-click advertising costs advertisers between $0.20 and $2 per click. Advertisers pay $6.70 per 1000 impressions for cost-per-impression or CPM. Advertisers pay $0.01 to $0.05 for each engagement or CPE.
Instagram ad costs vs. Facebook ad costs
Comparing Facebook and Instagram makes sense since they are two of the largest social media networks for advertising. How can you reach your audience the most effective and at the lowest cost?
Compare the two platforms (and their prices) in the table below:
| SOCIAL NETWORK | CPC | CPM |
| $0.20-$2.00 | $6.70 | |
| $0.97 | $7.19 |
As well as taking into account the cost of Instagram and Facebook ads, you should consider the demographics of each platform. In contrast to Facebook, Instagram excels when it comes to attracting viewers aged 25 to 29.
Using the social network that offers the most value will help you achieve the best results with your ad campaign. You may be able to advertise on one platform for less, but you may lose the chance to reach the shoppers and leads that matter most.
What determines Instagram advertising costs?
Your Instagram advertising costs are determined by four factors:
- Bid amount
- Ad relevancy cost
- Estimated action rates
- Competition
1. Bid amount
In Instagram advertising, your bid amount determines how much you spend. To get leads, you must determine your budget. Bidding also affects your spending.
Instagram has higher bid amounts, so you’ll have to prepare for paying more for impressions and clicks.
With a $500 budget and a $2 bid amount, you can only get 250 clicks on your ad. As an alternative, a budget of $1000 with a CPC of $2 will allow you to get 500 clicks. The same scenario would allow for more clicks with a bid amount of $0.50.
How much you bid will influence your budget, and how much you bid will influence your budget. The amounts you bid will affect the cost of your Instagram advertising.
2. Ad relevancy score
Instagram ads cost will also be affected by your ad relevancy score. Instagram considers the relevance of your ad in relation to those who will see it by your relevancy score.
Instagram wants to show their audience relevant content in their feed. Your score will be based on how your ad is received.
Your relevancy score will increase if your ad is well received. These actions include clicks, comments, likes, and more.
Hiding the ad, on the other hand, produces a negative reaction. You will get a lower ad relevance score as a result, which will affect the performance of your ad.
Ads with high relevance scores are displayed over ads with low relevance scores. The minimum amount will be closer to the minimum if the ad is more relevant. Your campaign will generate more leads and clicks.
3. Estimated action rates
Your Instagram advertising prices will also be affected by the estimated action rates. According to Instagram, this rate determines the likelihood of people taking action on your ad. Essentially, they want to assess the likelihood of your audience engaging with your ad.
In addition to clicking and converting, these engagements include other actions. They want to promote ads they believe will get people to engage with your content.
Your Instagram ad cost will be determined by your estimated action rate.
Instagram will put your ad at the top of their lists if they believe it is likely to get more interactions. You’ll be able to generate more leads and conversions by obtaining a lower bid amount.
4. Competition
The competition will always affect the price of your Instagram ads. When you’re trying to reach a specific demographic, there will always be competitors who are also trying to reach that group. Instagram ads campaigns can be affected by your competition.
There can be a bidding war if other people are trying to reach the same audience as you. To get the top spot, companies must outbid each other. If you want to bid against your competitors, your CPC may increase.
Additional factors
Other factors can influence how much it costs to advertise on Instagram
These are a few of them:
- Holidays and events: Competition is higher during holidays, especially around Christmas. As a result, more companies compete to reach valuable leads, which drives up the cost per click.
- Gender: It costs more to advertise to females than males.
- Day of the week: People use Instagram more during the week than during the weekend.
- Your market: The market you want to reach determines how much you pay for Instagram ads.
These are a few additional factors that can influence your Instagram ad prices.
How to lower Instagram ad costs?
When it comes to advertising on social media, you want to do whatever you can to lower the cost of advertising on these platforms. Here are a few best practices that will help you lower the cost of your Instagram ads and maximize your return on them.
1. Use automatic bidding
If you’re new to Instagram advertising, it’s beneficial to use automatic bidding for your campaign. It’s an easy way for you to get a bid that is the best for your campaign.
Automatic bidding is beneficial to your business if you don’t have any previous data telling you about a good CPC to set for your campaign. It will help you set the bid amount that’s right for your campaign.
When you use automatic bidding, you prevent your business from overbidding to run an ad. The lack of previous data can make it difficult for you to know the best bid amount. You may think you need to bid more than you actually do.
2. Use precise targeting
When you set up your Instagram ads, the goal is to reach people that will be interested in your products or services. To drive the best results for your campaign, use precise targeting to reach your ideal audience.
Instagram allows you to target people through
- Location
- Demographics
- Interests
- Behaviors
- Custom audiences
When you use precise targeting, you reach more people interested in your products and services. This means your ad copy will be more relevant to them, which will allow you to get a higher ad rank and lower CPC.
3. Set goals
Whenever you run a marketing campaign, it’s crucial that you set goals for your campaign. Setting goals will help keep you focused on what you want to achieve with your ad.
There are three main goals you’ll want to focus on achieving with your Instagram ads:
- Awareness: With an awareness campaign, you’ll focus on increasing awareness surrounding your business, brand, product, app, or service.
- Consideration: If your goal is a consideration, you’ll focus on educating your audience more. You’ll want to provide your audience with more compelling information that gets them to convert.
- Conversion: When you focus on conversions for your campaign goal, you want to provide compelling copy that immediately gets your audience to purchase your products or use your services.
By setting goals, you’ll have a more cohesive campaign. You’ll know what you want to achieve, which will allow you to create more cohesive ad copy. Better ad copy leads to more engagement and more conversions.
4. Create more relevant landing pages
Creating more relevant landing pages is another great way to reduce your Instagram ad costs. Many companies make the mistake of directing leads to their home page after clicking on their Instagram ad. It doesn’t encourage engagement because people aren’t directed to a landing page that is relevant to the ad.
5. Test your ad
If you want to lower your Instagram ad price, you must test your ad. Whenever you create ad copy, it’s never going to be the best or most effective version of your ad. It’s crucial that you test your ad to ensure that you’re putting out the best possible version.
Testing your ad helps you create more relevant ad copy. Relevant ad copy means you’ll get a higher ad position, which leads to a lower CPC. It’s an easy and efficient way to lower your Instagram advertising costs.
Instagram’s Advance Schedule and Budget Choices
To get even more bang for your buck, Facebook Ads Manager then gives you additional features that you could use to optimize your ad, including the delivery style if you’re looking to get your ad displayed more than once a day.
Before you start this process, you must be completely sure of your ad placements. Only then will you be able to edit your post based on the engagement, daily unique reach, and impressions that it receives. No matter which option you decide to go for though, you will be charged by Instagram when that engagement metric happens.
For example, if you were to select your ad based on the number of impressions, the Instagram ads would charge you based on the number of impressions that your ad receives. If you select post engagement, on the other hand, you will be charged for post engagements such as likes, comments, and shares, and you will be charged for impressions too.