How to Advertise Your Business on Instagram

October 31, 2025

Running ads on Instagram gives you direct access to over a billion people ready to discover new brands, products, and services. This guide will walk you through exactly how to set up, create, and optimize your Instagram ad campaigns to find new customers and grow your business.

Before You Run Ads: Setting Up for Success

Jumping straight into ad creation without a solid foundation is like inviting guests over before cleaning the house. A messy, inactive profile inspires zero confidence in potential customers who click on your ad. Get these fundamentals right first, and your ad spend will go much, much further.

Switch to a Professional Account

If you're still using a personal profile, your first step is to switch to a Professional Account (either Business or Creator). It's free and unlocks the tools you absolutely need to advertise.

Benefits of a Professional account include:

Instagram Insights: Access analytics to understand who your followers are, how they're interacting with your content, and which posts perform best.
Contact Buttons: Add buttons to your profile so users can easily email you, call you, or get directions.
The Ability to Run Ads: You can't spend a dollar on advertising without a professional account.

To make the switch, go to your profile, tap the hamburger menu (☰) in the top-right corner, select "Settings and privacy," scroll down to "Account type and tools," and then tap "Switch to professional account." Follow the on-screen prompts to connect it to a Facebook Page (a requirement for running ads via Ads Manager).

Define Your Audience

The golden rule of advertising is simple: if you try to speak to everyone, you end up speaking to no one. Before you spend any money, get crystal clear on who your ideal customer is. This exercise will be the foundation of your ad targeting.

Ask yourself these questions to build a customer persona:

Demographics: What is their age range, where do they live, what is their gender?
Interests: What are their hobbies? What other brands, influencers, or publications do they follow on Instagram?
Behaviors: Are they frequent online shoppers? Are they small business owners? Are they engaged with certain types of content?
Pain Points: What problem does your product or service solve for them? How does it make their life easier or better?

Having these answers ready will make building your audience inside the ad platform quick and effective.

Set Clear, Measurable Goals

"I want more sales" is a wish, not a goal. A successful ad campaign starts with a specific objective because your goal determines every decision you make, from the ad format you choose to the button people click on.

Here are the most common campaign goals, which align with Meta's official objectives:

Brand Awareness: Introduce your brand to new people who haven't heard of you yet.
Reach: Show your ad to the maximum number of people within your audience.
Traffic: Send people to a specific destination, like your website's homepage, a product page, or a blog post.
Engagement: Get more likes, comments, saves, and shares on your post. This helps build social proof.
Lead Generation: Collect contact information (like email addresses) from potential customers directly on the platform.
Sales: Drive direct purchases of your products. This often requires having the Meta Pixel installed on your website for proper tracking.

Pick one primary goal for each campaign. Trying to achieve brand awareness, traffic, and sales all with a single ad will dilute your results.

Creating Your First Instagram Ad: A Step-by-Step Guide

You have two main paths for creating Instagram ads: boosting an existing post directly from the app or using the more powerful Meta Ads Manager. We’ll cover both.

Method 1: Boosting an Existing Post (The Easy Start)

Boosting is the simplest way to get started. It involves putting a small budget behind a post you've already shared on your grid to show it to a wider audience. It's perfect for beginners or for getting extra traction on a post that's already performing well organically.

Choose a High-Performing Post: Go to your Instagram profile and find a post that has already generated good engagement (likes, comments, etc.). Good organic performance is often a sign that the content resonates with people.
Tap "Boost Post": Beneath the image or video on your chosen post, you'll see a blue "Boost Post" button. Tap it.
Select Your Goal: Instagram will ask what result you want from the ad. The options are straightforward: get more profile visits, more website visits, or more messages.
Define Your Audience: You can select "Automatic," and Instagram will target people similar to your existing followers. Or, you can tap "Create your own" audience, where you'll define the location, age range, and core interests of the people you want to reach.
Set Your Budget and Duration: Decide how much you want to spend per day and how many days you want the ad to run. Instagram will show you an estimated reach based on your budget.
Review and Launch: Give everything a final look, add your payment information if you haven't already, and tap "Boost post now." Your ad will go to Meta for review and typically goes live within a few hours.

Method 2: Using Meta Ads Manager (For Maximum Control)

While boosting is easy, Meta Ads Manager is where the real power lies. It's the central hub for running sophisticated campaigns on Instagram, Facebook, and other Meta properties. It gives you far more control over targeting, creative formats, and analytics.

Step 1: Navigate to Meta Ads Manager

Head over to business.facebook.com/adsmanager. You'll need to have your Instagram account linked to a Facebook Page to access it.

Step 2: Create a New Campaign

Click the green "+ Create" button. You’ll be prompted to choose an objective for your campaign. Select the one that matches the goal you defined earlier (e.g., Traffic, Leads, Sales).

Step 3: Configure Your Ad Set

The "Ad Set" level is where you define your targeting, placements, budget, and schedule.

Audience: This is where your customer persona homework pays off. You can define a very specific group using demographics (age, location), interests (pages they like, topics they follow), and behaviors (online purchasing behavior). For example, a local bakery could target people aged 25-45 who live within 10 miles, are interested in "Wedding Cakes" and "Baking," and were recently engaged.
Placements: This controls where your ad appears. By default, "Advantage+ Placements" will show your ad across all of Meta's platforms where it's likely to perform best. If you only want to advertise on Instagram, choose "Manual Placements" and select only Instagram. Here, you can specify if you want your ad to appear in the Feed, Stories, Reels, or on the Explore page.
Budget & Schedule: You can set a "Daily Budget" (the average amount you'll spend per day) or a "Lifetime Budget" (a set amount for the entire duration of the campaign). You can also set start and end dates.

Step 4: Design Your Ad Creative

The "Ad" level is where you build the visual part of your ad - what people will actually see.

Identity: Make sure your Instagram account is selected.
Format: Choose your ad format. Popular options are a single image, a video, a carousel (multiple scrollable images/videos), or a collection (an immersive mobile experience).
Ad Creative: Upload your photos or videos. Remember that different placements have different aspect ratios. A square image works for the Feed, but a vertical 9:16 video is essential for Reels and Stories.
Primary Text: This is your ad copy. Keep it concise, engaging, and clear.
Headline: A short, punchy line of text that appears near your call-to-action button.
Call to Action (CTA): From the dropdown menu, choose the button that best fits your goal, like "Shop Now," "Learn More," "Sign Up," or "Download."
Destination: Add the URL to your website or landing page.

Step 5: Review and Publish

Carefully review all your settings one last time. If everything looks right, click the green "Publish" button. Your campaign will enter Meta's review process before it goes live.

Best Practices for Ads That Actually Convert

Knowing how to run an ad is one thing. Knowing how to run a good ad is another altogether. Here are a few battle-tested tips.

Nail Your Creative

Hook Them in 3 Seconds: People scroll fast. Your video needs an attention-grabbing hook in the first three seconds to stop them in their tracks.
Use High-Quality Visuals: Your ads represent your brand. Grainy photos and poorly lit videos scream unprofessionalism. Use clear, vibrant, well-composed visuals.
Design for Sound-Off Viewing: The vast majority of users watch videos without sound. Use text overlays or burned-in captions to communicate your message visually.
Embrace a User-Generated Content (UGC) Style: Ads that look like genuine posts from real customers often outperform highly-polished studio shots. Feature real people using your product to build authenticity and trust.

Write Compelling Ad Copy

Focus on the Benefit: Don't just list features. Tell them what's in it for them. "Durable, water-resistant fabric" is okay. "Keeps your gear dry on any adventure" is better.
Keep It Snappy: Get to the point in the first couple of sentences. Use emojis to give it personality, but don't go overboard.
Have a Clear Call to Action (CTA): Tell them exactly what to do next. "Tap ‘Shop Now’ to get your exclusive discount."

Monitor and Optimize Your Campaigns

Advertising isn't "set it and forget it." Regularly checking your Ads Manager is where you turn a good campaign into a great one.

Watch Key Metrics: Look at things like CTR (Click-Through Rate), CPC (Cost Per Click), Cost Per Acquisition, and ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) to understand what's working.
A/B Test Everything: Try two different images against the same ad copy. Test two different headlines. A/B testing is the fastest way to improve your results.

Final Thoughts

Instagram advertising is an incredibly powerful tool for businesses of all sizes. By setting clear goals, knowing your audience, and launching ads with compelling creative, you can unlock a whole new channel for growth. The key is to start small, measure your results, and keep optimizing.

Of course, running ads is only half the battle, the other half is managing the organic conversation and content that supports them. While ads bring new eyes to your profile, having a consistently scheduled calendar of engaging Reels and Stories is what turns that attention into a loyal following. It also helps manage all the incoming comments and DMs in one simple inbox. Postbase was built for this reality so you can give your organic strategy the attention it deserves.

Spencer Lanoue

Spencer's spent a decade building products at companies like Buffer, UserTesting, and Bump Health. He's spent years in the weeds of social media management—scheduling posts, analyzing performance, coordinating teams. At Postbase, he's building tools to automate the busywork so you can focus on creating great content.

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