Best Practices For Creating Instagram Video Ads

Instagram was designed keeping a smartphone in mind, hence, the Instagram ad template must look good when viewed on a smartphone. The ads need to have minimum but catchy text as well as attractive and fast-moving videos, which will make the user pause to look for more information. An advertiser can look at publishing Storie ads, Photo ads, Video ads or Carousel ads.

It has gained popularity over other social platforms too, and according to market research, it is likely to have 26.9 billion users by the end of 2020. As per the demographic profile, most of the Instagram users are youngsters between the age group of 18 to 24 years. The study also shows that 52% of the users are women, and 48% of the users are men. The USA has the most significant number of users followed by India and Brazil. Therefore, advertisers have a high potential on this platform to make their presence felt.

With the back-end ad integration between Instagram and Facebook, an advertiser is allowed to run video ads, on both the social media platforms simultaneously. This simple integration will help in optimizing their spend and reach out to the masses effectively.

How much does Instagram ads cost?

The cost of Instagram ads depends on many factors like, ad format, ad placement, time and duration and who is the target audience. It would be a good idea to arrive at a spending budget and look at the options offered by Instagram for advertising.

Creating ad templates can be a daunting task for a company without a background design or an in-house design team. Before working on the Instagram video ad, the company needs to fix a goal that has to be achieved from advertising. It could be to attract new business or engage more visitors, increase the viewership, or sell products. Once the roadmap is arrived at, it is easier to fit in the requirements into an ad template.

Instagram Video ads will have specific formats to fit into a smartphone. A few ad maker companies have pioneered in this area, and offer services at a specific fee. Some well-known names are as follows:

1. InVideo
2. SocialCaptain
3. ViralRace
4. BigBangram
5. io
6. Kicksta
7. Combin
8. Krootez
9. Upleap
10. Instazood

Best practices – Instagram Video ads

1. Setting up a business profile

Setting up a Business Profile is an essential task. A professional account will have to be opened on Instagram for this purpose. If a personal account is already available, it can be switched over to a professional account.

• Ensure that the call-to-action buttons are activated. Visitors and followers will use this to contact you or for business purposes.
• A verification badge for authenticity from Instagram will also be beneficial.
• Access real-time data to understand the effects of advertising.

2. Instagram biodata

Keep profile information short and crisp; but, at the same time, it should catch the attention of the user.

3. An easy way of doing business

Visitors find it interesting if pictures or videos of products are tagged to the Explore section. Add an action button to health and beauty, food and beverage, or travel business.

4. Follow Facebook

Content well-received on Facebook will surely be useful for Instagram. So, add the same video on Instagram and see the reaction.

5. Keep it short and sweet

Keep the ads short and sweet. The attention span of the user is short, so ideally, a 15-second hook for in-stream and 6 seconds for snippets for a story should be good.

6. Catchy captions

Short and catchy captions to draw viewers’ attention are the way to gain more viewership and business.

7. GIF-like effect

If videos need to be watched multiple times, include loops to repeat the videos. Interested viewers will watch it again and again.

8. Vertical – full-screen formats

To create story ads on Instagram, use Vertical full-screen format for a delightful experience.

9. Make WiFi setting mandatory

It is crucial to change the WiFi settings to mandatory so that the viewers need not wait to see the advertisements.

10. Goals to be spread

Multiple goals in one video will look crowded. One video for each purpose will hold the viewers’ attention. Focus on critical points that will offer solutions to the users.

Instagram Video Ads recommended specs –

• Caption / Heading : up to 125 characters
• Advertisement mode : video
• Recommended Video resolution: 600 x 600 pixels (square) or 600 x 315 pixels (landscape)
• Ratio requirement: 1:1 (square) or 1.9:1 (landscape)
• Resolution (Min): 600 x 600 pixels
• Resolution (Max): 1080 x 1080 pixels
• Length: 3 seconds minimum
• Length (Max): 60 seconds maximum
• Size: 4GB maximum
• Rate for the Frame: 30fps max
• Type of file: .mp4 container
• Video specs:264 video compression; high profile preferred; square pixels; fixed frame rate; scan should be progressive

Audio: Audio compression with Stereo AAC, 128kbps + preferred