Instagram Ads provider: what they should do, and how to choose one

Instagram advertising is managed from Meta's ads manager, the same as for Facebook. An Instagram Ads provider is therefore, in practice, a Meta Ads specialist who knows how to produce ads made for Instagram: vertical, fast, looking like content rather than an advert.

Placements on Instagram

• Reels: full-screen vertical videos. Often the most watched format, and the one that needs the most pace.
• Stories: vertical, short-lived, between friends' stories.
• Feed: square or 4:5 formats, image or video.
• Explore: content suggested to people discovering.

One campaign can run everywhere. What changes is the creative: a video made for full-screen vertical, with text readable without sound, does far better than a cropped image.

What a good provider takes on

1. The creative: short videos in 9:16 and 4:5, with several hooks. On Instagram, it does most of the work. Six hook mechanics.
2. The campaigns: objective, structure, audiences, budget. Choosing the objective.
3. Tracking: pixel and conversions API, to know which ads bring enquiries or sales.
4. Renewal: new creatives regularly, because they wear out fast. Ad fatigue.

The "boost post" trap

Boosting a post from the Instagram app is easy, but usually aims for reach or engagement, not enquiries. A provider who just boosts your posts isn't doing performance advertising. What a boosted post really does.

Questions to ask

• Who produces the videos, and how many a month?
• What number do you track: likes and followers, or enquiries and sales?
• Do the campaigns run on my ad account?
• Do you also run on Facebook? (Letting Meta split between the two is often more profitable.)

That is what I do for businesses that sell to consumers: I produce the vertical videos, filmed or AI-generated, and run Meta campaigns, Instagram included. What Instagram advertising costs.

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Further reading: Structuring a short video ad and UGC advertising.

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