5 Common Instagram Advertising Mistakes And How to Avoid It

Instagram Advertising Mistakes

Instagram is an excellent platform to build your brand and to inspire your target customers by actively promoting your brands and services. It’s a vital marketing channel for businesses and brands to consider.

Human will always love visuals, and that’s probably why this image-sharing concept is so popular.

Instagram Ads, for instance, are a powerful tool that you can use to connect with potential customers. But while some brands and nailing it and driving sales, others are scratching their heads, and wondering why it isn’t working.

Well, that success can easily be jeopardized if you’re making crucial Instagram advertising mistakes. If done the wrong way, not only you’ll risk wasting your resources, but it can also significantly affect your brand.

The good news is, you can still learn from these mistakes to achieve the results you want.

In this post, we’ll talk about the 5 common Instagram mistakes and how to avoid them:

Having No Goal-Focused Strategy

Here’s the thing ‒ crafting compelling Instagram ads are meaningless if it doesn’t align with your overall objectives. If you don’t have a well-thought-out, goal-driven strategy, you’ll struggle with creating a successful Instagram campaign.

How to avoid this mistake:

The core principle of an effective Instagram strategy is knowing your goals.

Ask yourself ‒ do you want to boost brand awareness, and grow your Instagram following? Or do you want to reach another goal altogether?

What do you want to achieve?

Once you identify these goals, you can now concentrate on the other areas of your ad campaign.

By knowing how will you reach your primary objective, you’re sure that it will generate more impact.

2. Not Targeting the Right Audience

One of the many challenges most brands face is targeting the right audiences. Again, you might be creating show-stopping ads, but if you’re not targeting the right audience, then it hardly makes a difference.

How to avoid this mistake:

It’s crucial that you take your time in familiarizing yourself with the precise targeting options of the platform. That way, you can effectively target people based on their location, interests, demographics, and behaviors.

On the platform, there are two kinds of targeting options:

  • Custom Audiences – Custom audiences let you target specific groups of people who have interacted with you at some point. This type of targeting option is a highly efficient way of targeting people who have already shown interest in your business.
  • Lookalike Audiences – Lookalike Audiences is a target audience that’s created based on your existing customers. The goal is to reach new users that have similar features to those people who have previously liked your brand.

3. Missing the Mark with Ad Content

Another major mistake is when your ad content isn’t right. Some brands underestimate the importance of content to connect with audiences, and an even the slightest miscues on these ads can backfire.

How to avoid this mistake:

When creating ads, you must see to it that it:

  • reflects your brand
  • isn’t too promotional
  • gives inspiration

Ideally, your ads must represent your business, services, and products without becoming too sales-y. Focus on creating ads that inspire users through stunning visuals and stories to appeal effectively to your audience.

Another crucial aspect that you need to get right is the description. If something is lacking in there, then you might fail in delivering your message.

Ask yourself these questions:

  • Did you use hashtags?
  • Have you created a compelling CTA?
  • Did your description effectively back up the message that was portrayed in your ad?
  • Did you add emojis?

The goal of your description is to encourage users to complete an action that you’re aiming to achieve in your ad.

4. Only Thinking Short-Term

Make sure that you’re creating content that your audience will remember long enough. But that’s only the beginning.

Don’t be driven just by instant gratification and short-term results. You need to have a long term strategy in mind.

How to avoid committing this mistake:

For you to achieve your goals, you need to have a forward-thinking mindset. Also, look at Instagram Ads as an investment.

When crafting ads, focus on starting conversations and building long-term relationships. Doing so can help you boost your sales, achieve growth and success in the long run.

5. Overlooking Image and Video Quality

When a potential customer looks on your Instagram page, what kind of message are you sending to them? If you’re taking blurry photos and low-quality videos, then it’s high time to consider your visual strategy.

Using low-quality visuals immediately discredits your brand, making it look unprofessional. When lackluster visuals fill your Instagram page, it directly sends out a message that you’re not taking your brand too seriously.

How to avoid this mistake:

Always to put your best foot forward. It doesn’t have to take a lot of money ‒ even making simple tweaks can already make a significant difference.

Here are a few strategies to put into action:

  • Utilize the right tools – When it comes to images on Instagram, even the smallest changes in lighting can make a significant difference. That’s why it’s crucial to equip yourself with the right editing tools.
  • Mix up the perspective – Don’t just rely on flat lay or straight-on shot for all of the posts you publish. Instead, give your audience a variety of angles and views to mix it up and make it interesting. For instance, videos, close-up shots, and far away shots add variety and will make your page look great.
  • Carefully consider the background – The background can ruin a perfectly beautiful shot. Therefore, you also have to put into thought your photo’s background just like your image’s subject.

Over to You

While you might be guilty of committing some of the most common Instagram mistakes above, it’s never too late to fix your errors.

There are still many challenges that you still have to face when you chose to advertise on Instagram. But by learning how to deal with these mistakes, you’ll gain the upper hand on your fiercest competitors, and achieve the results you want.

One thought on “5 Common Instagram Advertising Mistakes And How to Avoid It”

  1. Hi Kevin, I’m working with one client whose logo is always filled with words, all their content provided is wordy. I’m trying to find ways to show just images without their words and it’s not easy. But it can make such a difference.
    You are right about the planning, if you just throw stuff up to get it out there it may not work very well for you.
    Thank you for these tips for Instagram.

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