4 new Instagram ad tools app marketers should know about

Author: Steffen Meyer, Mobile Marketing Content Specialist

Celebrities and users stopped the Tiktofication of Instagram,  but it’s obvious that the social network is still looking over to its rival. So it’s not that surprising that after TikTok launched a variety of new options for advertisers, Instagram is following suit. 
Meta’s social network recently introduced four new mechanics that app marketers should know about. We tell you more about the details and how you can best employ them.

1. More music

Music plays a vital role for video ads: It evokes emotions, drives a story, sparks action, reinforces sales and meshes with your brand

Researchers measured brain waves of consumers, while showing them an advertisement with and without background music. They found that test participants listening to background music had “higher emotional arousal and attention level”.

Choosing the right music for your ad is crucial but it is often difficult to find the right tracks due to licensing regulation. You – hopefully – know that you can’t just use the latest song by Taylor Swift to accompany your video ad. 

That is why some marketers rely on royalty-free music that is offered on platforms like Bensound, Artlist or Jamendo. Now Instagram gives ad creators access to its own royalty-free “Meta Sound Collection” which you can access here (Facebook login required).

To use this music in your ads, you simply choose “add music” in the ad creative section and either manually select the desired track or let Instagram’s AI propose one for you. You find a step-by-step guide here.

However, be aware that this sound collection is NOT the music collection you access when creating an organic reel. It’s a royalty-free collection of music, so you won’t find any chart hits but maybe something else that fits your ad. It doesn’t always have to be Taylor Swift, does it?

2. More ad space

Instagram hops on a trend that Apple’s App Store, Tiktok and Netflix are already on: It gives marketers more possibilities to present their ads. There are two new options the social network is rolling out:

Firstly, marketers will be able to place ads in the explore section that users access via tapping the looking glass icon. Here, the algorithm usually offers organic content that matches the user’s interest. Now it will showcase ads as well

Secondly, Instagram begins testing ads in profile feeds “for non-teen, public profiles”, as the social network writes. So when checking out a profile, users will not only see the content of this profile but ads by other accounts as well.  As part of this test, Instagram experiments with monetization options with a few select US creators.

While the first options seems logical, the second one probably raises some eyebrows – especially when considering the latest shipwreck that Apple experienced after giving marketers the possibility to advertise on app profile pages.

In Apple’s case, publishers complained that ads for gambling and dating apps appeared on their profile pages. Additionally, some called this ad option an indirect tax, since publishers now need to bid for ads on their own profile page to keep contestants from “stealing” users.

Of course, Instagram differs a lot from the App Store but nevertheless it’s understandable that the social network is only testing this option first. And marketers should look at the Apple example to be wary about potential implications.

3. More shopping

E-Commerce has become an integral part of Instagram: When users like the jeans an influencer wears, some buy it directly via tools of the platform. With its new multi-advertiser ads, Instagram targets these transaction-friendly users. 

Shoppers that engage with an e-commerce ad – and thus have shown commercial intent – will see similar products and offers by companies in a carousel post underneath the original e-commerce ad. It’s a bit like Amazon’s “people also liked” but paid for.

According to Instagram, “a large-scale back end study” showed that “adding multi-advertiser ads to ad campaigns drove improved efficiency in incremental conversions per dollar spent.” So when you are a marketer for an e-commerce company, you should check out. 
You can activate the multi-advertiser ads in in the formats section at the ad level in the ad manager. Click here for a step-by-step instruction.

4. More AR

Imagine, users can not only look at a chair they consider to buy but also place it digitally in their rooms, seeing how it fits the rest of the decoration. Instagram’s new Augmented Reality (AR) Ads make this possible.

The feature gives marketers the opportunity to develop creative and playful advertisements users may interact with. 

Watch these general AR marketing best practices by big players for inspiration.
Of course, AR ads are way more complex than your usual image or video ads (have a look here at Instagram’s guide), so you should think twice before investing resources here. 

On the other hand, it allows for experimental creative teams to think of engaging ads that users may remember.


More isn’t always better

As you can imagine, not every new feature suits every marketing team or company. Before experimenting, ask yourself, if you really want to spend your precious ad budgets this way or if it is wiser to wait for others to do so and be on the lookout  for the first case studies.

In general, every new approach should fit your current marketing strategy. To keep an overview of all the possible tactics, grab our free Marketing Master Map here.

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