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Monetize Your Instagram Following Through Retargeting 

by Mike Iaco

Do you have an awesome Instagram Following?

I really like Instagram for the sole reason that the content that the typical successful Instagram content produces are extremely photography based.

… It better reflects the lifestyle and not necessarily need to be news oriented as opposed to typical Facebook page content.

And while there have been plenty of accounts that have been successful monetizing their Instagram, it’s only going to get harder as Instagram’s algorithm is going to constantly make your ads harder to be seen as time goes on and competition on the channel increases.

Fortunately for us advertisers, we can now retarget off of our Instagram following with either Instagram or Facebook ads.

What It Is Retargeting? And How Is It Different Then Just Posting On Instagram?

For those of you that aren’t aware of what retargeting is, have you ever browsed a product online and then see it following you the next time you’re on Facebook or browsing the internet?

Well we can now retarget anyone that’s visited your Instagram Page and follow them around both on Facebook and on Instagram by putting advertising spend behind it as opposed to posting a picture on Instagram for free and hope that a small portion of your following sees it.

So Who Should Use Instagram Page/Following Retargeting?

As I mentioned, any brand that does an excellent job of maintaining their Instagram offering by consistently producing well received content.

So if you’re thinking to yourself…. Well my Instagram posts get great engagement and I have a nice following… then you need to be all over trying this.

I’m going to use an example of my favorite Instagram account SD_ Bullies.

They breed some of the most exotic French Bulldogs and have curated a social audience of134,000 followers.

…I mean, who doesn’t love videos or photos of puppies playing all day?

This account has garnered a cult following, and a great deal (if not the majority I would imagine) of their customers first heard of SD Bullies through their Instagram account.

Now because there’s 134,000 followers does that mean they are all potential customers?

…No..

But they are engaged and are constantly tagging or sharing friends within SD_Bullies content.

That means there’s tons of people hitting the SD_Bullies page, and even if a small % of their following or Instagram Page visitors purchase a dog (these are expensive), will easily make their time spent producing content worthwhile from a financial return perspective.

I mean heck – it worked on me! I got my dog below from them

(shameless plug)

And I’ll tell you that I wasn’t sold on getting a puppy, but jeez, seeing pictures and videos of puppies every time I went on Instagram finally got me.

The important thing to note however, is that as time goes on, less people are going to naturally see their photos in the Instagram feed due to the algorithmic changes.

That’s why it’s so important we can now run ads to Instagram Page Visitors/Followers.

Instead of throwing up an Instagram post and hoping that a post will be seen, you can ensure 100% of these people will see your post by putting budget behind it now.

How To Implement Instagram Retargeting

So first and foremost, you’re going to want to access your Facebook Business Manager to access retargeting for your Instagram Profile.

  • Go to Audiences and click “Create Audience”
  • Click “Instagram Business Profile”
  • Create Audiences Around Instagram Page Visitors, Instagram Page Visitors that actually engaged with a post (commented, liked, clicked, shared a post, etc.), Instagram Page Messengers, and Instagram Post Page Savers.

Implement These Audiences into Your Campaigns within the Power Editor

Once you’ve created all your different Instagram retargeting audiences:

Go ahead and implement them into the “Custom Audience” Field under the Ad Set Level of your different campaigns.

Once the audience is placed in the ad set – everything else is as usual when launching an ad!

Wrapping It All Up

Are you ready to launch your Instagram retargeting? What type of results are you expecting to see?

Please comment with any questions and I’d be more than happy to help!

 

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