The Cost of Glitzy Insta-Fame: How Much for an Instagram Ad?

Running Instagram ads can do wonders for any personal brand. It makes it easier and faster to reach the platform’s two billion active users and grow your page pronto. Of course, you don’t reap the benefits of ads for free. They cost a pretty penny. But how much for an Instagram ad are you willing to spend? And, more importantly, is it worth the investment?

In this guide, we’re breaking down the cost of advertising on Instagram, from campaign budgets to ad placement bids. Ready to learn how much you should be ready to shell out for your ads? Let’s jump right in to discover how much ads cost!

The Cost To Advertise on Instagram Depends on Your Budget

People wonder, “How much does it cost for an Instagram ad?” because they typically already have a budget in mind. What’s awesome about running an Instagram ad campaign is that you get to set your own budget for it. This refers to the total amount of money you’re willing to spend on an entire campaign. It’s something you set up when you create ads on Meta Ads Manager.

There are two types of budgets you can set to control your personal cost to advertise on Instagram. First, there’s a daily budget, the overall cap for what you want to spend for each day of the campaign. Second is a lifetime budget, or the overall limit you want to set for the campaign’s entire duration.

Instagram will then optimize its delivery strategy to serve your ad to the most people possible within your given budget. The budget you set directly affects how many people you can reach with your ad. A larger budget allows you to reach more people within your target audience. So, don’t be afraid to go crazy with it—only if you have a hefty digital advertising budget, of course!

So, how much is it for an Instagram campaign to run? The answer lies in your hands. Just note that it’s an advertising best practice to allot at least $5 for your ad spend budget. That’s the minimum it takes for Instagram to efficiently deliver the ads to at least a chunk of your audience.

Want to change the budgets you set? You can edit your campaign budget any time when you manage Instagram ads using the Meta Ads Manager.

A High Budget Is Great, But You Also Have To Optimize Your Bid per Ad

Now, your budget isn’t the only thing you have to consider when it comes to calculating your Instagram advertising cost. It’s also important to optimize how much you bid per result you want to see from your ads.

As we covered earlier, a budget refers to your spending limit for a campaign. Meanwhile, a bid is how much you’re willing to pay for each desired action as a result of your ads. This includes clicks, video views, conversions, website visits, and more.

See, Instagram advertising operates on a bidding system. Think of it like an auction. Every ad placement on Instagram (whether on the feed, Stories, Reels, etc.) is up for grabs. Then, advertisers compete and “bid” on that placement. The one with the highest bid “wins” the placement, and the ad is shown to the user.

The bids you set for each ad affect your chances of showing up on the screen of your target audience. The higher you set your bid, the more likely you can outbid competitors and get your ad seen more often.

When setting up a campaign, it’s extremely important to optimize both your ad budget and bids. They complement each other and work together to ensure your ads perform well.

If you have a high budget but a low bid, your ads might not make it to your desired placements. But if you have a low budget and a high bid, you limit your opportunities to win at ad auctions. So, you need to optimize both to get the best results possible.

The 5 Different Bidding Strategies on Instagram

Instagram allows advertisers to choose between five different bidding strategies when running ad campaigns on the Meta Ads Manager. It’s important to choose the right one that will fit your goals so you can maximize your spend per action. Here are the bidding options you can choose from.

1. Automatic Bidding

This bidding option gives Instagram free rein to bid on placements on your behalf. It’s programmed to optimize your bids to get the best results while maximizing your budget. It’s perfect for beginners who don’t know how to set their own bid caps yet. It’s also ideal for those who want to spend their full budget.

2. Highest Value

Next, there’s bidding to get the highest value from conversions. In this automatic bidding strategy, Instagram delivers your ads in a way that gets you to sell higher-value products. It’s an awesome route to take if you have ads for e-commerce promoting high-ticket items.

3. Bid Cap (Manual Bidding)

In this strategy, you can manually choose your bid cap for each desired result coming from your ad. It’s the limit you’re willing to spend per click, view, site visit, or whatever your objective is. This is best for more experienced advertisers who already have benchmarks for optimal conversion bids from previous campaigns.

4. Cost Cap

Next, there’s the cost cap strategy, where you choose your ideal cost per desired action across your campaign duration. While a bid cap sets a limit per bid, the cost cap strategy is more flexible. It allows Instagram to go a little above or below your cap if it means winning you the ad placement. But they balance it out in the next bids to ensure you stay at your ideal cost cap.

5. Minimum ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

This bidding strategy is designed for those who prioritize their return on investment more than anything. When you select this, Instagram will only bid on placements it thinks can generate revenue for each ad dollar spent. That way, you know you’re only showing ads that can make you your money back and even more.

What Factors Affect How High Bids Go for Instagram Ads?

If you’re lucky, you won’t have to compete with that many advertisers for your campaign’s parameters. But many times, the bids can get extremely high, and bidding can be stressful yet thrilling and fulfilling. Here are some of the factors that can affect how high the bids can go for ads on Instagram.

Campaign Objective

The lower you are in the marketing funnel, the more expensive bids might be. That’s because it’s easier to get users to perform certain actions, such as views for brand awareness. But actions like clicks and site visits require extra effort, making bids for ads that encourage them a little pricier.

For example, ads with the goal of getting more impressions might be cheaper than ads to increase followers. That’s because following an Instagram page is more difficult than simply looking at an ad.

Advanced Audience Targeting

Bids also rise according to the niche of your target audience. Broad audiences like Millennial females or men above 50 might be easier to bid on. However, ultra-specific segments that consider interests, hobbies, and online behavior will be more expensive. The bids rise even more for special audiences, such as custom audiences or a lookalike audience.

Instagram Ad Placements

Some ad placements are more competitive than others. For example, Social Media Examiner reports that ads on Reels are more expensive than those on the main feed. That’s because they’re trendier and have higher watch-through and engagement rates than other avenues on Instagram. 

So, always make sure to stay updated on in-demand placements to know how they’ll affect your ads’ bids!

How Much for an Instagram Ad if You Want Your Audience To Click Your Link?

According to K6 Agency, brands pay an average of anywhere between $0.50 to $1 per link click from their ads. But remember, these are just average costs. When the bidding auction gets hot and heavy, ads for link clicks can go up to $3 per click.

It may sound like a hefty price for an ad. But remember, clicking a link is considered a conversion action, making it more expensive than reach and awareness bids. If your overall ad campaign goal is site visits, this is more than worth it.

How Much Are People Bidding for an Instagram Story Ad?

Instagram Story ads are amazing for their full-screen format and awesome storytelling capabilities. They make for captivating ads with high engagement rates. But you’re probably wondering, how much are people bidding for an Instagram Story ad, and can you compete?

According to HubSpot, Story ads cost around $0.70 to $1 per click. However, depending on your target audience and the season, it can get competitive and cost upwards of $5 per click.

On the Influencer Side: How Much Do You Get Paid for an Instagram Ad?

Ads don’t always have to be campaigns set up on the Meta network. Brands that want a more authentic feel to their promotional content can opt for something like sponsored posts by influencers. Companies hire these creators to make content wearing or using their products, allowing them to reach an influencer’s established fanbase.

So, as an influencer, how much do you get paid for an Instagram ad? It depends on several factors, such as your audience size and engagement rates.

According to Shopify, you might be looking at $100-$500 as a micro-influencer. But the bigger your fanbase, the more you get paid. Mega-influencers with over 500,000 followers, for example, can earn over $10,000 for just one sponsored post. Wowza!

Explore Other Ways To Invest in Your IG Growth, Like With Path Social!

Launching ad campaigns is awesome for reaching more people on social media. But ads aren’t the only way to invest your money into growing your Instagram page. If you want to experiment with more organic promotional strategies, work with a reputable growth service like Path Social.

Our team uses proprietary, AI-driven algorithms to find your target audience on Instagram and promote your content to them. To do this, we use a myriad of promotional techniques, from influencer shout-outs to enhancing your hashtag strategy. As a result, more of these audiences discover your brand and give your page a follow, growing your online community.

You’re willing to pay how much for an Instagram ad? Well, what if we tell you that Path Social’s pricing might be more affordable? At low package prices, we can help you grow your Instagram presence just like that.

We’ve helped struggling brands like Modern Fit gain 41,000 followers, and we’ll do it again for your page! Like the sound of that? Get authentic and engaged followers on Instagram today with Path Social!

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