In terms of the number of active users as of October 2020, Instagram is the 6th most popular social network in the world (figures shown in millions):

71% of Instagram’s billion monthly users in general are under age 35 (Source: Statista, 2019). 52% of them are female and 48%, male (Source: Hootsuite). In addition, Instagram users are 58 times more likely to like, comment or share a photo than Facebook users (Source: Irish Tech News).

In Singapore, 33.8% of the entire population, mostly female, uses Instagram, with those aged 25 to 34 forming the largest user group. By January 2020, the number of Instagram users in Singapore hit around 2.1 million (Source: Statista)

“Insta-Gran” is a current local trend where 33% of Internet users aged 55 to 65 are on Instagram, too. Another key Instagram user trend is the Instagram Tribe — more than 2.2 million users who are highly engaged in attractive images and 15-second videos.

Get ahead in the race to reach your target market.

While its numbers may not be as large as those of other social heavyweights, Instagram continues to be the social media platform of choice for digital marketers able to recognise the distinct advantages of its use:

Instagram packs some serious firepower in a business’ digital marketing arsenal. Its main advantages over other social media platforms lie in how easy it is to use and how very much engaged its users are in the content.

In comparing its minimalist, clutter-free UI to Facebook’s, for instance, it’s easy to see how users readily engage with posts regardless of format. The fact that the ads look a lot less like ads and a lot more like all the other posts and content on Instagram makes it even more likely that users engage.

The good news is that the more users engage with your business’ content, the more your business’ visibility and credibility grow. Instagram also has a huge impact on the buyer’s journey, by helping 80% of users decide on whether to buy a product or service (Source: Facebook 2019).

When advertising on Instagram, you’ll have access to the formidable audience targeting tools and options of its parent company, Facebook. You’ll even be able to run ads on Instagram from within Facebook itself, and choose from Facebook’s own advertising objectives.

You can also keep track of your Instagram ad performance by using Facebook Ads Manager. This makes managing campaigns extra convenient for businesses running ads on both Facebook and Instagram simultaneously.

Of course, you can also create, run and track ads directly on Instagram, but you’ll have less ad objectives and budgeting options to choose from.

Every business is unique and has its own unique marketing strategy—through Facebook Ads Manager, Instagram allows you to tailor your ads to reach your particular marketing objectives.

You’ll be able to choose objectives according to where you want to reach your target audience during their buyer’s journey, whether they’re at the Awareness stage, the Consideration stage, or the Decision (Facebook calls it the “Conversion”) stage. The different marketing objectives are:

Note that if you were to set your objectives directly in Instagram, you would only be able to choose between the “Visit Your Website” or “Call or Visit Your Business” objectives.

Once you’re certain of what you want your Instagram ads to achieve, you can start creating and running them. It can be as easy as picking out your “star performer post” and boosting it directly within Instagram, provided, of course that your account is set up as a Business Profile.

In fact, you could even run ads on Instagram without an Instagram profile and run them from Facebook, instead. But because doing it this way or by way of running ads within Instagram itself has its limitations, industry practitioners recommend having a Facebook business page and an Instagram Business profile, and using Facebook Ads Manager for running Instagram ads.

When you have your business page and profile set up, and you’re sure of your ad objectives, you may now move on to choosing your target audience. Thanks to Facebook, you’ll be able to choose according to:

Instagram recommends that you allow it to create your audience automatically based on your existing followers.

Because Facebook targeting is a lot more precise, you’ll be able to write and design your ads to be a lot more relevant to your audience. Using Ads Manager will also allow you to choose exactly where your ads appear, whether it’s on the Instagram feed or in Stories or Explore—or you can just have Ads Manager choose for you.