How to Find Ad Tools on Instagram

Running ads on Instagram but feeling lost trying to find all the tools? You're not alone. The functionality you need is spread across a few different places - some in the app itself, and some in Meta's powerful (but sometimes confusing) backend. This guide will show you precisely where to find all the ad tools on Instagram, from simple post boosts to advanced campaign management.

Getting Started: The Essentials for Instagram Advertising

Before you can run ads, you need to make sure your account is set up correctly. Think of this as getting your driver's license before you try to drive the car. It’s a fast, one-time setup that unlocks everything you need.

Step 1: Switch to a Professional Account

You can't run ads from a personal Instagram account. You need either a Business or Creator account to access advertising features and performance insights. If you haven’t done this yet, it just takes a second.

• How to do it: Go to your Instagram profile and tap the three lines in the top right corner. Go to Settings and privacy > Account type and tools > Switch to professional account.
• Why it matters: This instantly gives you access to the "Boost Post" button, the Professional Dashboard, and detailed post insights - the foundational tools for advertising.

Step 2: Connect Your Instagram to a Facebook Page

Instagram is part of the Meta ecosystem, and for more advanced advertising, its tools are deeply integrated with Facebook. Connecting your Instagram professional account to a Facebook Business Page is a non-negotiable step to unlock the full suite of ad tools.

• How to do it: The easiest way is directly within Instagram. Go to your Profile > Edit Profile > under "Public business information," tap Page. From there, you can connect an existing Facebook Page or create a new one.
• Why it matters: This is what allows you to use Meta Business Suite and the powerhouse Meta Ads Manager, where all the serious campaign building happens.

Step 3: Understand the Three Main Places Ad Tools Live

The biggest point of confusion for most people is knowing where to go to do what they want. Let’s break it down simply. Your ad tools are in three different locations, each serving a different purpose:

• 1. The Instagram App: Best for simplicity and speed. Use this for boosting existing content to a broader audience without getting bogged down in details.
• 2. Meta Business Suite: Your day-to-day command center. It offers more control than the app and lets you manage both paid and organic content for Instagram and Facebook in one place.
• 3. Meta Ads Manager: The professional-grade workshop. This is where you go for maximum control, intricate targeting, A/B testing, and in-depth campaign analysis.

Now, let's go find your tools in each of these places.

Quick and Easy: Using the Ad Tools in the Instagram App

The Instagram app itself is designed for convenience. If you have a great post that’s already performing well and you want to pour a little fuel on the fire, this is the best place to start. It’s all about “boosting.”

The "Boost Post" Button

This is your most direct and visible ad tool. You'll find it right below any post on your feed, any Reel, or any active Story you've shared from your professional account.

When you tap “Boost Post,” you’ll be guided through a simple setup:

• Select a Goal: Instagram will ask what result you want. This is usually broken down into simple options like More Profile Visits, More Website Visits, or More Messages. Choose the one that aligns with your post.
• Define Your Audience: You can trust Instagram’s "Automatic" audience, which targets people similar to your existing followers, or you can "Create Your Own" audience by selecting locations, interests, age, and gender. While not as granular as Ads Manager, it's great for quickly reaching new local customers or niche groups.
• Set Your Budget & Duration: Decide how much you want to spend per day and for how many days the ad will run. The app gives you an estimated reach based on your budget.
• Review and Launch: Give everything a final look, add your payment method if you haven't already, and tap "Boost Post." Your ad will go into review with Meta and typically go live shortly after.

Finding Your Ad Performance in the App

Once your boosted post is running, you can find performance data in a couple of spots.

From the Professional Dashboard

This is the best place to get a high-level overview of all your promotional activity.
Location: From your profile page, tap the "Professional Dashboard" button right below your bio. Inside, you'll find a section called "Ad Tools." Tapping this will show you all your active and completed promotions, allowing you to see metrics like reach, impressions, link clicks, and cost per result.

Directly on the Boosted Post

For a quick performance check on a specific ad, you don't even need to leave your feed.
Location: Go to the post, Story, or Reel that you boosted. Where you once saw engagement numbers, you'll now see a button that says "View Insights" or "View ad performance." Tapping here brings up a simple report card for that specific promotion.

Your Command Center: Locating Ad Tools in Meta Business Suite

When you're ready to move beyond simple boosts, Meta Business Suite is your next stop. It’s accessible on a desktop at business.facebook.com. It combines your Instagram and Facebook management, giving you a unified planner, inbox, and advertising hub.

The "Ads" Tab: Your Central Hub

The main place to find everything ad-related is straightforward.
Location: Once you're in Meta Business Suite, look at the main navigation menu on the left side of your screen. Click on the icon labeled "Ads." (It often looks like a megaphone).

This simple tab is surprisingly powerful. Here you can start the ad creation process, or you can manage existing ads created from any platform - whether it was a boost from the app or a full campaign from Ads Manager.

Creating an Ad from Business Suite

When you click the blue “Create Ad” button within the Ads tab, you’ll get a workflow that’s a perfect middle ground between the simple Boost button and the complex Ads Manager.

Here, you'll find tools to:

• Choose More Specific Goals: Unlike the three simple goals in the app, Business Suite offers choices like "Get more leads," "Get more purchases," or "Promote your business locally."
• Refine Your Targeting: The audience builder here is much more detailed than the one in the app, letting you layer interests, and target based on more specific demographics and behaviors. It's user-friendly but gives you far more accuracy.
• Select Placements: You can gain more control over where your ad appears. For example, you can choose to run it on Instagram Feed, but not on Instagram Stories, or vice versa.
• Write Ad Copy: You can create "dark posts" here - ads that run in the feed but don't live permanently on your profile grid. This unlocks more flexibility for creative testing.

The Pro Toolkit: Finding Everything in Meta Ads Manager

When your advertising needs grow, and you need maximum control and data, it's time to graduate to Meta Ads Manager. This is the official tool used by agencies and professional marketers. It can feel intimidating at first, but its structure is logical once you understand it.

You can get to Ads Manager via Business Suite (look for the "All Tools" hamburger menu) or by going directly to facebook.com/adsmanager.

Understanding the Three-Tier Structure

The entire layout of Ads Manager is organized into three levels. Knowing this is the secret to finding anything you need:

1. Campaigns: The highest level. This is where you set your one, single advertising objective. Are you trying to build brand awareness, drive traffic, or make sales? That's what you select here.
2. Ad Sets: The middle level that lives *inside* a campaign. Here, you define *who* you want to advertise to and *how*. This is where you’ll find all your tools for audience selection, budget settings, scheduling, and placement choices (where the ad will appear).
3. Ads: The innermost level, living inside an ad set. This is the actual creative - the image, video, carousel, headline, and primary text your audience will see.

So, if you want to change your ad’s creative, click on the Ad tab. If you need to expand your target audience or increase the budget, navigate to the Ad Set tab. It’s all a system of containers.

Where to Find Key Ad Tools and Settings

With that structure in mind, here is where to find the most important ad tools in Ads Manager:

• Audience Creation Tools: These live at the Ad Set level. In the "Audience" section, you can build audiences based on detailed interests, behaviors, and demographics. This is also where you create highly effective Custom Audiences (to retarget website visitors or people who engaged with your Instagram account) and Lookalike Audiences (to find new people who are similar to your best existing customers).
• Budget and Placement Controls: You’ll also find these at the Ad Set level. You have detailed control here over lifetime vs. daily budgets, ad scheduling, and you can manually select or de-select every possible placement - from Instagram Feed and Stories to Reels, Explore, and the Audience Network.
• Performance Analytics and Reporting: The main dashboard of Ads Manager is your primary reporting tool. It’s a spreadsheet-like view of all your campaigns, ad sets, and ads. The treasure here is the "Columns" dropdown menu. You can customize the table to show you hundreds of different metrics, like Cost Per Click (CPC), Click-Through Rate (CTR), Conversion Rate, and Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).
• The "All Tools" (Hamburger Menu): In the top-left corner of Ads Manager, there’s an icon with dots or lines that says "All Tools." This is a map to every single tool in Meta’s ecosystem. From here you can access:
  • Events Manager: To set up your Meta Pixel for conversion tracking on your website.
  • Audiences: A dedicated dashboard to build, manage, and view all shades of your saved audiences in one place.
  • Billing: See your payment history, manage payment methods, and download invoices.
  • Ad Account Settings: Administer permissions and manage general info about your ad account.

Final Thoughts

Finding Instagram's ad tools is really about knowing which part of the map to use for your specific needs. Use the simple Boost button in the app for quick promotions, lean on Meta Business Suite for coordinated management, and go into Ads Manager when you need total control over every aspect of your campaigns. Mastering these three destinations makes Instagram advertising feel much less chaotic and far more powerful.

Pairing smart ad campaigns with a consistent organic strategy is what builds a really strong brand. We built Postbase to make the organic half feel totally seamless. By giving you one visual calendar to plan, schedule, engage, and analyze your content - especially for the short-form videos that perform so well in both ads and organic posts - we help you free up time and focus on what matters: creating great content that your audience loves.