How to Lower Your Instagram Ad Costs 60% By Giving Facebook Exactly What It Wants
Did you know there’s a way to dramatically decrease your Facebook Ads cost by tapping into the algorithm and giving it exactly what it wants?
It works. So much so that we’ve had many clients reduce their Facebook costs by 60% on average over the last two months simply by following this outline.
Oftentimes with social media marketing, you must step back and pay attention to what the platform itself wants. And that usually means taking a long, hard look at their competitor. In this case, the Facebook competitor we’re using to lower your ad costs happens to be TikTok.
Since Facebook released Instagram Reels, the two platforms have been battling it out, and Facebook is determined that its Instagram platform will be the winner. That remains to be seen, but knowing this gives you an advantage.
First, when you set up a new Instagram campaign you need three key things: an engaging video, an Instagram Reel and one or two strong images.
We helped a client recently restructure her Instagram campaign to drive webinar registrations, which was costing her up to $10 a lead down to only $4 using this exact same method.
And without fail, every single time since Instagram Reels debuted, Facebook has favored those reels. After all, it’s the Instagram Reels that Facebook is hoping to use to take on TikTok.
So organically and with your paid ads, they’re going to favor those reels because they want that content to do well.
When you go to create a new Instagram campaign, I recommend recording a reel on Instagram, downloading that video, and uploading it to your Facebook campaign. Make sure it’s the same video used in the Reel without any editing or alteration. You want Facebook to identify it as the same content that’s appearing on Instagram.
Two Tips To Make Your Video More Effective
Record The Video Like An Instagram Reel
And I mean that. Record it just like you would record your Instagram Reel, preferably by using the same snippet of video. Don’t overcomplicate it. Keep it simple. Stick to pointing or dancing, and don’t spend hours creating this. Less is more. After you create the first couple, you should have the hang of it enough to easily create three of these Reels in just twenty minutes.
Add Highly Relevant Text
Now you’re going to take that video and add relevant text to the offer or information you’re sharing with the audience. Keep the video the same, just add the appropriate text to it, so your viewers know exactly what’s going on and where the link will take them.
Quick Example from a ServerWise Client
Our ServerWise client needed to lower her webinar registration costs of the lead magnet for her coaching business. We helped her highlight the benefits of the webinar.
If she were offering a product for purpose directly, we would have suggested that she highlight the benefits of the product itself. And we would have told her to keep it simple. Use the pointing video and add the major benefits of the offer as you point to it on the video. Finally, put the URL to your sales landing page or webinar registration page at the end of the Reel.
Now you’ll want to add some music. Make sure the music is catchy and engaging but royalty-free, or else Facebook will instantly flag and remove your ad.
Once you have that video with the text, music, and a link at the end, you’ll upload it into Ads Manager, as you would any other video ad.
At this point, Facebook is going to apply a budget to it. In our experience, that budget will have a considerably cheaper cost per reach than any other ad creative because the company wants it to do well.
Outline to Run a Reel As a Facebook Ad
The ad creative itself is your Instagram Reel.
The ad copy is the same you would run with an image or video on Facebook, the only difference being the video itself is now an Instagram Reel video.
Add in your ad text to the video itself, whether it’s a pointing reel or dancing reel. Integrate your ad copy into it.
Only at the end of the Reel / Ad Video will you include the link taking the viewer directly to your landing page.
Facebook presently doesn’t have an Instagram Reel placement option in the Facebook Ads Manager. Not a problem! That just means you’re going to upload it as a video and select automatic placements. That will tell Facebook to play your new Reel ad on the Facebook News Feed, Instagram Feed, Instagram Stories and anywhere else it chooses.
Common Mistakes Often Made Implementing Your First Instagram Reel with Your Facebook Ad
Choose Royalty-Free Music
You absolutely need music with your reels, but you can’t run ads with copyrighted music. That can be confusing to new marketers because Instagram gives you access to all the top songs to record your Reel. But that’s not for commercial purposes.
This means when you download your Reel as a video, you’ll notice the audio is missing. At this point you’ll need to pair your video with royalty-free music if you want to run it as a commercial ad.
15 Seconds Is The Sweet Spot
Keep your Reel short. A common mistake many make in the beginning is allowing their Reels to be too long. You have the option to select 15 seconds or 30 seconds for your Instagram Reel.
I strongly recommend you always select 15 seconds for your Reel-based ad. If you think about it, that’s a long time for somebody to stay engaged watching a reel, so keep it short. If choose 30 seconds, most likely you’ll lose 90% of your viewers after the first 12 seconds.
Get Silly and Have Fun
The final mistake that I see people make is they take the whole process too seriously. Reels work because they’re fun and entertaining and often just silly. They have dancing and crazy pointing and that makes them engage. You need to match that Reel culture when you create your own reel.
If you don’t, Facebook will not identify your ad creative as a Reel and will instead recognize it as another boring video ad and not favor it like they have been doing.
In short, keep it silly if you want to lower your ad spend 60%.
Above all else I always recommend testing a reel in every campaign you run, have run in the past or are currently running. Whether it’s an opt-in, a webinar, an actual direct sales ad, or a retargeting ad. Take a look at your ads and split test each of them by adding a new Instagram Reel style ad.
I can assure you that if you do that, you’ll see a substantial decrease in your overall ad costs, making the time spent very worth it.
It’s the sales page where the magic happens. This is the page that gives you a return on your marketing investment. It is on this page where we convert visitors to paying customers. Do you know the valuable elements of a high-converting sales page? You will soon. Keep Learning >
Content marketing is the backbone of the biggest success stories over the last decade. I’m referring to companies like Zomato, Canva, ThinkGeek, HootSuite and even Blendtec. It’s not surprising that so many brands are focusing on content marketing, given the average ROI is twice any other type of digital marketing. Keep Learning >