Instagram advertising for product brands is a vital  question. According to Statista, the media attracts nearly 1 billion monthly active users! And not just any users, but the ones with a good purchasing power. Communications consultancy “We are Flint” established that  60% of people with a yearly income of $100K+ are on Instagram. As well as 46% of those earning $80K–$100K, and 55% of people with $70K–$80K per year. Which makes effective Instagram presence crucial for staying top-of-mind and selling online! 

While Instagram advertising might seem easy and straightforward, it’s not a magic wand. There are a number of mistakes that people often make, which can hinder success. To save product brands from falling into the same pitfalls, we are going to share six mistakes that anyone who advertise products on Instagram should know and avoid at all costs.

Instagram is a visual platform. Therefore, high-quality product imagery is crucial to the success of any Instagram advertising campaign. E-stores that stand out on social media pay great attention to each and every detail of their posts—from the imagery to the caption and hashtags. It is all part of one brand experience.

In today’s digitally-savvy environment, there is no excuse for poor image quality. One can choose a photography studio or a 3D modeling company, and easily get high-quality Instagram advertising posts without investing in expensive photography and photoshoot trips. So far, 3D rendering has been gaining a lot of popularity among furniture stores as they can easily create highly compelling and detailed images in a short space of time and without breaking the budget.

Having thousands or even millions of followers might seem cool and all, but it’s nothing if these huge numbers aren’t engaged or being converted into customers. Instead of masquerading for new followers, successful brands leverage the followers they have. They reply to comments, follow up on every poll response, reply DMs among many other practices.

It’s imperative to understand the nature of followers one has and what they want. Genuinely providing valuable information to customers through Instagram advertising will not only help increase brand awareness but will also serve as an effective ad — only without people rolling their eyes saying “not another ad.” Understanding that is essential for effective Instagram advertising for product brands. People will rather click on a valuable post with professional advice on how to evaluate a particular product than a straightforward ad. Sharing useful information helps establish a symbiotic relationship between product marketers and their subscribers—the later get helpful info, and the former can advertise their merchandise in a subtle and inconspicuous manner.

There is nothing wrong with leveraging paid advertising on Instagram. Using stories, carousel ads, video ads, or requesting app installs are all good. However, it shouldn’t be the song of every post. Often, advertisers get carried away with building brand awareness and forget that Instagram is not an eCommerce platform. Instagram is a social media community where people mainly go to have fun and cultivate their relationships. 

As a result, continually bombarding the audience with advertising content will get them bored, possibly leading them to unfollow or mute the posts. Businesses that succeed on social media are the ones that have an audience-centric Instagram advertising strategy and genuinely share helpful and creative posts. It’s not a numbers game, too many promotional posts can be easily perceived as selfishness and desperation, resulting in less trust and engagement.

While social media advertising tools like Hootsuite can help schedule posts and perform other small tasks, they have their limitations. For instance, they cannot reply to comments or DMs. As a result, companies that surrender all their Instagram advertising to automation end up with dozens of timely and relevant posts, but poor engagement. The magic in Instagram advertising for product brands is in keeping it human and social. It’s more about conversing with the target audience than merely exposing the merchandise.

Most product marketers—especially beginners—think that the number of followers is the only analytic that matters. However, that’s not true  Leveraging all Instagram analytics helps to identify which content gets the most traffic and which one is a waste of resources. Such data also helps marketers to get a better understanding of the audience—follower demographics, interests, and online purchasing behavior. With such insights, it’s easy to create relevant content customized for a specific audience.

It’s the little things that matter, measuring the traffic an Instagram account generates to a website, video views, clicks, conversions, etc. Performance-conscious brands are always aware of their cost for advertising on Instagram to maximize their ROI. This is what makes them stand out from a sea of other similar businesses who blindly change strategy after strategy without digging into their analytics to see what needs to be improved.

Gone are the days when Instagram advertising for product brands was solely visual. Today’s audience care about the story behind ecommerce product images. Captions help to tell a story, give a detailed description of the product, state the campaign objectives and strategically place a call-to-action. Caption copywriting goes a long way in cultivating fans and driving authentic engagement.

The same applies to well-thought and researched hashtags. They are certainly not magic wands to high engagement, but if used correctly, they can do wonders. For instance, having at least one hashtag can get 12.6% more engagement! Definitely worth investing time and effort.

Digital disruption is affecting every industry, and the Instagram advertising landscape is no exception. Instead of investing in expensive photography, photoshoot trips, today’s product marketers can save themselves a fortune by leveraging 3D modelling services. By using CGI, they get rid of tedious photo shootings. No prototypes production and transportations, no renting locations, waiting for prototypes to come back and storing them forever. With 3D modeling technology, all one needs is to send a smartphone photo to a CGI studio – and get a photoreal 3D model the product which can then be digitally put into any scene. Easy and fast! And best of all, the 3D models can be used for any number of images. Which makes CGI a leverage to use in Instagram advertising for product brands! Unfortunately, most people don’t know about this, so they stick to their old school expensive Instagram advertising strategies.

It’s high time people stop googling, “how to advertise on Instagram” and simply correct their mistakes. The good news is that all these mistakes are avoidable and reversible! Brands that work toward avoiding these 7 Instagram advertising mistakes set themselves on a better competitive state and long-term success. 

Need high-quality product imagery for promoting and selling your products? Contact us for top-quality 3D modeling services: we will make sure your imagery looks like a million dollars!