At the stage of launching an advertising campaign, advertisers typically have questions: what goals, formats, and models to choose. There are so many options in targeted advertising systems that it can be difficult to make a decision.

We will use Instagram as an example to show where to look for advice and why the most obvious forms and delivery models do not always benefit businesses.

The selection of effective delivery models and formats for advertising goals is based on research of over 130,000 advertising campaigns from 2018. Despite the large sample size, data from individual campaigns may differ from the figures in the study.

Before considering colorful ads and texts for posting on Instagram and Facebook, they are usually combined due to the easy access and convenience of starting through Facebook Ads Manager:

It would be a shame to lose applications with a well-conducted advertising campaign.

The goals are determined by the marketing strategy: launching a new product to the market, increasing brand awareness, increasing loyalty among the target audience, expanding the CRM base, increasing sales, etc. If you launch random ads to a broad audience that has no interest in your products or services, you should not expect a positive result.

In digital marketing, there are two main business objectives:

1- Building Brand Awareness

Advertising campaigns aim to create awareness of the advertiser's brand or product among the target audience. The main KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for these campaigns typically include reach, impressions, number of interactions, views, number of subscribers, and click-through rates.

2- Performance 
Advertising campaigns focused on performance aim to sell goods and services for companies, drive targeted actions on the advertiser's website, and collect contact information from users who show interest in making a purchase. The most commonly used KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for these campaigns include the number of clicks, potential sales, purchases, conversions, transactions, and more.

Main Advertising Objectives and Payment Models Provided by Facebook Ads Manager:

1. Reach

When it is necessary to maximize the number of unique users who will see the ad. Every system provides the option to control the frequency of ad impressions. This approach is valid for two business objectives: increasing brand awareness and creating demand for the product.

Traffic

The system maximizes the number of users who click on the ad and visit the website or mobile app. This goal is especially important when you need to drive an audience to a site/page, for example, to provide information about promotions and special offers.

Number of video views

It is suitable for promoting video content on social media, which helps increase brand awareness. The system maximizes the number of video views among the target audience. Typically, views are counted for 2 or 15 seconds, depending on the settings.

Interest

All possible actions related to the advertiser's posts are counted, including comments on posts, clicks, and subscriptions to the community.

Lead Generation 
Suitable for advertisers who need to collect additional contact details from users who are interested in a product or service.

Conversion 
Once you upload the pixel to the site, set up goal tracking, and collect the necessary event statistics, the system optimizes the ad delivery to users who are more likely to perform the target actions on the advertiser's website. This goal is available on Facebook and Instagram and is in the early stages on other platforms.

Taking into account the main advertising goals in targeted advertising systems, we will move on to the suggested delivery models and formats that contribute to achieving each of these goals, according to our research.

Main Purchase Formats and Models on Instagram 
Coverage 
Addresses Business Goal

Our experience shows that the Carousel, Link Ad, and Post Promo formats are most suitable for purchasing BGBM with a limited number of ad impressions for this goal. However, we will increase our coverage to achieve more conversions.

Due to the high cost, we recommend not using CPE. When choosing between the three CDS formats, we recommend sticking with Carousel, but this requires a well-designed ad element with a logical storyline.

Example of an engaging creative cycle that increases interaction:

If you have a large budget and need to choose between Link Ad and Post Promo, leave room for experimentation. If at this stage you cannot afford such an investment in promotion, it is worth sticking with Link Ad as it is cheaper to purchase.

How Brands Are Recognized Through Stories?

Stories are different from other forms of social media advertising: the cost of coverage when purchased with TBM (cost per thousand impressions) is almost equal to that of purchasing with BGBM. However, BGBM stories are more expensive than related ads like Post Promo and Carousel. We recommend using TBM: this way, not only will you achieve a cost-effective price for impressions and coverage, but you will also reduce the cost per click.

Traffic and Video Content Promotion 
Solving Business Goals

Use TBM to drive traffic to your website. In this case, purchasing through BGBM and CPE does not yield a profit for any format, while Stories are the most effective. For posting ads in the feed, use Carousel and Link Ad formats.

Video promotion is more interesting: use Post Promo with CPE payment model; this will allow you to achieve a lower cost for video views compared to Stories versus Video Ads and CPV. Give this format a try by launching a video campaign on Instagram.

Traffic, Lead Generation, Conversions 
Solving Business Goal 
Status: Uncertain

As part of the cost per click, depending on the format, the oCPM model can be either cheaper or more expensive. But our main goal is performance. The more global the goal, the more difficult it will be to navigate when choosing. Although buying is cheaper than individual formats, the decision should be made by focusing on the cost per target action/conversion/sale. Test to find the most suitable option.

This is clearly seen in the oBGBM buying model, where the cost per 1,000 impressions is the same, but the purchase is twice as expensive compared to BGBM. The truth is that the system shows ads not only to those who match the targeting settings but also to users who are more likely to perform the target action. It is more difficult to distinguish these users in the system.

Therefore, more expensive, more restricted, and more detailed targeting settings are used. With this buying model, although advertisers may achieve cheaper conversions compared to TBM or BGBM, the accelerated execution of oBGBM campaigns takes longer. To get the system working, conversion statistics need to be collected. At the start, it is recommended to have at least 100 conversions per month.

In the initial stage, we recommend launching both campaigns sequentially and, after some time, splitting them based on the cost per conversion to discover the most effective strategy.

In Conclusion

Before you start publishing ads on Instagram, you need to ensure that your website audience and advertising opportunities align with your business goals and promotional budget.

For those who know how Facebook Ads Manager works and are starting to run ads on their own, we've prepared at least a small checklist:

1. Focus on a comprehensive promotional strategy.
2. Focus on one goal to objectively evaluate results.
3. Choose the format according to your business topics.
4. Prepare engaging content with a call to action.
5. Conduct tests with the formats, but do this carefully.
6. Analyze the results and make timely adjustments.
7. If the results are not favorable, discontinue the ad campaigns.