Instagram’s 1.28 billion users spend roughly 11.2 hours a month on the platform. And 90% of users follow at least one business on the platform. But sometimes your brand’s regular content isn’t enough to stand out. This is where the Instagram campaign comes in.
Instagram marketing campaigns can help you achieve a certain goal in a fixed period of time. In a campaign, all of your content is aligned and focused on one specific goal.
If your Instagram strategy is a slow and steady marathon, campaigns are sprints. They consume more energy in a shorter time and give results and ideas quickly.
Whether you’re looking to launch a product, gain new customers, or build your brand’s reputation, an Instagram campaign can help you reach your goal.
Read on to discover 22 ways to level up your Instagram campaigns: 9 different types of campaigns, 8 influencer tips, and 5 examples to inspire your next campaign.
9 types of Instagram campaigns
An Instagram campaign is when business profiles on Instagram share content designed to achieve a marketing goal. This goal can be general, such as increasing brand engagement. Or it could be more specific, like creating a certain number of purchases.
There are several basic types of Instagram marketing campaigns. Each of them is best suited to achieve different goals. Here are nine of the most common Instagram marketing campaigns to get you started.
information campaign
During an Instagram awareness campaign, you are looking to increase awareness for your business, product, or service. For new brands, this could be a campaign to showcase your brand’s distinctive, exciting, and exceptional features.
The more users remember your brand, the more likely they are to choose you when it’s time to buy.
Instagram is a place where users also want to find and follow brands. In fact, 90% of Instagram users follow at least one company. And 23% of users say they use social media to view content from their favorite brands. This makes Instagram a natural social platform for building brand awareness.
Bulletproof Supplements is building brand visibility for their product by sharing annotated images:
teaser campaign
The Instagram teaser campaign gives users a glimpse into the future. Use teaser campaigns to create intrigue and demand for new products.
The key to a captivating teaser campaign is to reveal enough details to pique your audience’s curiosity. On Instagram, engaging content is always key, but this is especially true for teaser campaigns. You want to stop those scrolling thumbs on your way!
Netflix does a great job of promoting releases by posting teasers a few days before release:
Campaign reason
Younger consumers (such as those who dominate Instagram) care about more than just what a company sells. Generation Z and millennials are more likely to make decisions based on personal, social or environmental values.
A charity campaign is a way to uphold your brand values and connect with a conscientious audience. For example, you could organize an awareness day or event, or partner with a charity.
Outerwear brand Patagonia often shares campaign posts aimed at saving large tracts of land. This campaign post talks about the struggle to preserve Vjos as a national park in Albania. They use the carousel post to share a few facts about the area and the support they’ve already received. There is also a link in their bio to sign the petition:
Competition campaign
Instagram contests usually involve a brand randomly giving away a free product to followers. They are extremely effective at getting attention – who doesn’t want to win something?
You can set entry rules that support your campaign goals. For example, by asking users to tag a friend to participate, you will have the opportunity to attract new subscribers.
Here’s how dairy-free ice cream brand Halo Top set up their competition. Notice how they clearly stated their entry requirements for the draw and explained what the prize was:
Attention Campaign
Instagram has much higher engagement rates than other social media platforms. In fact, the average Facebook post engagement rate is only 0.07% compared to the higher average Instagram engagement rate of 1.94%.
Engagement campaigns motivate users to interact with your content. You will measure engagement by tracking the following metrics:
- Like
- Comments
- Stock
- Saves
- Profile visits
To better engage your audience, check your Instagram stats and see what content generates the most engagement.
Creating memorable engagement campaigns might look like this:
- Add Instagram Stories stickers to inspire replies and DMs
- Create persistent content
- Adding calls to action at the end of your signatures
- Experimenting with different post types and formats
Pro Tip: Post carousel posts to reach more audiences. The average engagement rate for carousel posts is 3.15%, which is higher than the average of 1.94% for all post types.
To create something worth saving, try to teach users something new. It could be a recipe, a style guide, or a new exercise program. Etsy often shares home style tips in an easy-to-view carousel format:
Sales or advertising campaign
If you want to increase conversions, run a sale or promotion campaign on Instagram.
The key to a successful campaign is to make sure your audience is ready to buy. It is best to run sales and promotions campaigns after you earn loyal and active followers through other campaigns.
Brands typically use these types of campaigns to:
- Promote flash sales or discount codes
- Increase awareness of an existing product
Here’s an example of how fitness brand Onnit is pushing their sales on Instagram:
26% of Instagram users say they use the platform to find products to buy. In addition, 44% of people make weekly purchases on Instagram. Create an Instagram store so you can share shopping posts that make it easy for users to buy your products.
To increase product sales, consider using the following Instagram features:
- Instagram Collections. Browse collections of new arrivals, trends, giveaways and promotions.
- Instagram Shopfront – Let people buy your products directly from the Instagram app using the platform’s e-commerce features.
- Product tags. Make posts shopperable with product tags that show prices and product details and allow users to easily add them to their shopping cart.
The Poster Club creates purchasable posts so users can easily view their current art collection:
Pro tip: Start a quick sale using a promo code that is only valid for a short time. Short-term discounts are a powerful way to encourage pre-sales before a product launch or reallocate inventory to make room for new products.
User Content Campaign (UGC)
In User Content Campaigns (UGC), you ask people to share posts about your products and use a specific hashtag.
A UGC campaign boosts your brand awareness with a hashtag and (as a bonus) gives you fresh content to post. Users are often motivated to participate in the hope that brands will repost their photos.
Sportswear brand Lululemon encourages users to share photos of themselves wearing Lululemon clothing with #thesweatlife. The brand then shares some of these images with its four million followers: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbQCwfgNooc/
Dog toy brand Barkbox often shares images of its customers’ four-legged friends:
Influence Campaign
Once you create compelling content for Instagram, you want as many people as possible to see it. A great way to reach more users is to work with influencers in your niche. 34% of users aged 16-24 (Generation Z) follow influencers on social media, so it’s definitely worth a try if your target audience is the younger generation.
Usually in Instagram influencer marketing, you will find relevant bloggers, photographers, or other creators with a large following.
Pro tip: Make sure any influencer you partner with has a high level of engagement. Sometimes influencers with fewer followers but higher levels of engagement are better suited for your brand.
One way to promote your campaigns is to partner with a few influencers and ask them to post your campaign on their channels. This gives your brand access to their audience.
Eyewear brand Warby Parker has partnered with musician Toro y Moi to promote their latest eyewear collection:
Consider running your Reels or Stories campaign. Right now, 55.4% of influencers use Instagram Stories for sponsored campaigns.
Pro Tip: Remember that posts created by influencers on behalf of your brand must comply with FTC guidelines and be clearly labeled as advertising.
Instagram Paid Campaign
Paid Instagram campaigns are posts (or stories) that businesses pay to serve users. If you have a budget for running ads on Instagram, you should include it in your marketing strategy.
Instagram ads could reach 1.48 billion people, or about 24% of the world’s population over the age of 13. In addition, 27% of users say they find new products and brands through paid social advertising.
Here’s a mouth-watering example of a paid Nespresso ad campaign created with influencer Matt Adlard:
The cost of advertising varies depending on several factors such as:
- Industry Competitiveness
- Your targeting
- Season (ad spend increases during the holiday season)
- Accommodation
Depending on your content and purpose, you can choose from several ad formats:
- Image Ads
- Ad stories
- Video ads
- carousel ads
- Ad collection
- Explore Ads
- IGTV advertising
- Shopping ads
- Drum advertisement
The wide range of ad formats means you can choose the best type to suit your campaign goals. Your campaign goal could be to increase conversions, signups, app installs, or overall engagement.
Instagram ad campaigns also allow you to use Lookalike Audiences to target users who are similar to your customers. Simply upload a custom audience and set your targeting options at the ad set level. Your ads will be shown to users who, according to the algorithm, may become potential customers. (Learn more about Facebook and Instagram advertising in our complete guide)
8 Tips for Creating Successful Instagram Marketing Campaigns
Now you know the main types of Instagram campaigns available. But before you jump into create mode, we have eight tips for creating successful Instagram campaigns.
Set SMART goals
Whenever you set goals for your next Instagram marketing campaign, follow the SMART goal framework.
SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound goals.
For example, let’s say you want to run an Instagram follower campaign. Break this goal into:
- Specifically: who do you want to attract? What do you want them to do? Be specific in your goals.
- Measurable: How will you know if you are successful? Set a baseline for your current followers and engagement so you can track growth.
- Attainable: Is your goal realistic? Can it be measured accurately? Goals must be worked hard to achieve, but they must not be out of reach.
- Realistic: Base your goals on your budget, current growth rate, and campaign duration. Do your research and don’t make crazy plans to go from 100 to 10,000 subscribers in two weeks.
- Time Based: The duration of your campaign should be based on your goal and the amount of time you think it will take you to reach it. Don’t set an arbitrary limit of one week if your goals are ambitious, but don’t make it so long that you lose steam.
Plan the content of your campaign
Then plan each post in your campaign. Create a content calendar with all the posts and stories you’ll be sharing each day. If you’re reaching out to influencers, ask them to post on a specific day that makes sense according to your calendar.
Each post should make sense on its own, while reinforcing the overall message of the campaign.
Always create a solid plan before launching. This way, it will be easier to maintain a high level of quality and creativity throughout.
Here’s how to create a content calendar in less than eight minutes:
Use videos and stories
If you only post images to your Instagram feed, you are missing out! 58% of users say they are more interested in a brand after seeing it in stories. In addition, Brand Stories have an 86% completion rate.
Stories can complement your posts or be standalone campaigns. You can also curate a series of Instagram stories in the form of saved highlights that appear below your bio. Then when a user visits your profile, they can see all of your saved highlights in one place.
The DIY brand Brit+Co categorizes its featured stories into categories such as Store, Home, and Podcasts:
Source: @britandco
Also try experimenting with Instagram Reels, a content format that lets you create and share short, engaging videos. Unlike Instagram Stories, they don’t disappear after 24 hours.
Handbag brand Anima Iris shares fascinating videos created by the founder that shed light on the creation process:
Stick to your brand aesthetic
Your campaign should always match the overall look and feel of your brand. Stick to the same color scheme and branding throughout all content. Then, when your campaign appears in a crowded feed, people can tell it’s from your brand.
Alo Yoga maintains a consistent look and feel across its feed, helping to make the brand more recognizable:
Source: @Aloyoga
Define the voice of your brand. All your copy should be related to your visuals and create a strong brand image as a whole.
Consider creating a style guide for everyone who works with your Instagram account so they know how things should look.
Track important metrics
Even before you launch your Instagram campaign, you should define the key metrics that you will use to measure your success (that’s the M in your SMART goals).
These will vary depending on your campaign goals. For example, in an awareness campaign, you’ll want to look at audience growth, reach, impressions, and engagement rates.
There are many metrics you can track on social media, and some analytics are unique to Instagram.
Depending on the type of campaign (such as a sale or a product launch), you may need to track metrics outside of the platform. Tracked links or promo codes can help here.
Always set a baseline. This way you can accurately measure the effectiveness of your campaign.
Set realistic ad campaign budgets
In an ideal world, we would all have an unlimited campaign budget, but unfortunately, this is usually not the case. Therefore, it is important to create an advertising budget in advance and stick to it.
First, decide if you’re going to pay per thousand impressions (CPM), which is the cost per thousand impressions of your ad. CPM campaigns can help build awareness as they are more focused on visibility than action.
You can also build your campaign based on cost-per-click (CPC)—the price you pay for each click on your ad. CPC campaigns can help you make sure you’re paying for actions, not just views.
The exact cost will depend on several factors.
You also need to consider the cost of creating and producing ads. For example, how much will it cost to shoot your product? How much does your chosen influencer charge per post?
Think about your call to action
When creating your campaign, think about what you want people to do when they see your campaign. Do you want them to view the product page on your website or sign up for a free trial? Maybe you want them to save your post for later.
Insert a clear call to action at the end of your campaign to make sure people follow your path. Then, if you want them to buy your product or learn more about your brand, it should be easy for them to do so.
For example, fashion brand Missguided asks users to comment on an image they like:
If you’re running a paid ad campaign, use one of Instagram’s call-to-action buttons to guide users through the next steps.
Plan your Instagram posts ahead of time
Scheduling Instagram posts saves hours and ensures no one forgets to post at the right time. You can schedule some or all of your posts weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
First, figure out when is the best time to post content for your Instagram audience. If you’re using Hootsuite, the Best Time to Post feature will show you the best time to post on Instagram based on your posts in the last 30 days. You can also use the platform to edit images to the right size and write a caption.
Here’s how to schedule Instagram posts and stories with Hootsuite:
5 Examples of Instagram Campaigns
Don’t know how to start? Here are five examples of the best Instagram social media campaigns.
Teach users how to do something like The Inkey List
Skincare brand The Inkey List shares Reels’ step-by-step tutorials. In this, they show their audience how to take better care of their skin.
Each reel is short, easy to follow, and has step-by-step action.
The reels also feature their own products, helping to raise awareness of their offerings. After watching the video, users not only learned how to care for their skin, but they may also be tempted to buy the brand’s products.
Build trust by sharing social proof like Califia Farms
Plant-based milk brand Califia Farms shares rave reviews to highlight its customers’ love for the product. They overlay the review on an unusual background to make the post more attractive.
Social proof is a powerful way to get consumers to trust your brand.
After all, if other people like your product, why not? Encourage customers to leave reviews so you can turn them into compelling content for Instagram.
Connect with your audience by sharing your story like Omsom
Product brand Omsom humanizes its brand by sharing its story. In this short video, the founder shares his brand values and what matters most to him.
The brand seems more appealing and authentic as it opens up to its audience. When people understand your values, they are more likely to believe your offer and make a purchase.
Take advantage of seasonal purchases such as Teleport watches.
If you’re planning on offering promotions throughout the year, don’t miss out on important holiday shopping dates. Instead, let all your followers know about your deals and their expiration dates.
Teleport Watches publishes one post with an image to let users know exactly what they are offering for Black Friday. Everything is clearly stated, and the conditions are clear to the customers.
Share some valuable tips like The Broke Black Girl
Sometimes the best way to engage an audience is to share some tips that will make their lives more valuable. Financial activist The Broke Black Girl posts helpful tips to help users improve their financial habits.
While the image is a quick overview for time-strapped users, people who want to know more can dive into the details in her caption.