How to Get Paid Ads on Instagram

Setting up your first Instagram ad can feel a bit overwhelming, but it is one of the most effective ways to break through the noise and connect directly with the people you want to reach. This guide walks you through the entire process, whether you're looking for a quick and easy promotion or want to launch a full-scale campaign. We’ll cover both the simple “Boost Post” button inside the app and the more powerful Ads Manager, turning confusion into confidence.

Why Bother with Instagram Ads? A Quick Reality Check

Let's be real: growing organically on Instagram isn't what it used to be. While building an authentic following with great content is still the foundation of any good strategy, the algorithm makes it difficult for your posts to reach all of your followers, let alone new ones. This is where paid ads come in.

Paid advertising on Instagram allows you to sidestep the limits of organic reach and pay to put your message directly in front of a hand-picked audience. Think of it this way:

• Organic content is for nurturing your existing community and slowly building brand loyalty. It’s a long game.
• Paid content is for achieving specific, immediate goals, like driving traffic to your website, generating new leads, or making sales in a predictable way. It’s about targeted results.

By investing even a small amount, you gain access to powerful tools that let you target users based on their location, demographics, interests, and even online behaviors. For businesses, creators, and entrepreneurs, this is a game-changer.

Two Main Ways to Run Instagram Ads: The Simple vs. The Powerful

There are two primary methods for getting paid ads on Instagram, each designed for different needs. Understanding the difference is the first step to spending your money wisely.

1. The "Boost Post" button (in-app): This is the simplest and fastest way to promote a piece of content you've already posted on your feed. It’s perfect for beginners or anyone needing a quick visibility push without getting bogged down in complicated settings.

2. Facebook Ads Manager (desktop): This is the professional-grade control center for all Facebook and Instagram ads. While it has a steeper learning curve, it offers vastly more control over targeting, creativity, and objectives. This is where you go when you're ready to build serious campaigns.

We'll walk through both, starting with the easier option.

Method 1: The 'Boost Post' Button – Your Fast-Track to Visibility

The "Boost Post" button (which might also say "Promote" on your screen) is Instagram's entry-level advertising tool. It's user-friendly and can get an ad running in just a few taps.

When to Use the Boost Button

Boosting is a great option when your goal is straightforward. It’s ideal for:

• Amplifying your best-performing organic content to reach more people like your current followers.
• Quickly promoting a time-sensitive announcement, like an event, sale, or product launch.
• Building general brand awareness and increasing engagement (likes, comments, views) on a specific post.

Step-by-Step Guide to Boosting a Post

Step 1: Check Your Account Type

First things first: you can only run ads from a Professional Account. If you're still using a Personal Account, head to your profile's 'Settings and privacy', scroll down to 'Account type and tools', and tap 'Switch to Professional Account'. You can choose between a 'Creator' or 'Business' profile - both work for ads.

Step 2: Choose the Right Post

Don't just boost any post. Pick one that has already performed well organically. A post with a good number of likes, comments, or saves is a clear indicator that the content resonates with people. Boosting it will just show it to more people who are likely to enjoy it, too.

Step 3: Tap 'Boost Post'

Underneath your published image or video, a blue button will be waiting for you. Tap it to start the setup process.

Step 4: Select Your Goal

Instagram will ask what you want to achieve with this ad. The three main goals are:

• More Profile Visits: Great for growing your following and encouraging a deeper look at your brand.
• More Website Visits: Ideal for driving traffic to your online store, blog, or landing page. You’ll add your website URL here.
• More Messages: Encourages users to start a conversation with you via Instagram Direct, Messenger, or WhatsApp. Perfect for service-based businesses or generating leads.

Choose the goal that best matches your immediate objective for this specific post.

Step 5: Define Your Audience

Next, you’ll tell Instagram who to show your ad to. You have two main choices:

• Automatic: Instagram targets people who are similar to your existing followers. It's a quick and often effective option if your main goal is to expand your current audience.
• Create Your Own: This gives you manual control. You can build a specific audience based on location (country, city, or even a local radius), interests (e.g., 'yoga', 'coffee', 'skincare'), age, and gender.

Example: A local bakery in San Diego could create an audience of people aged 25-50 who live within a 10-mile radius and have shown an interest in 'cupcakes', 'baking', or 'local restaurants'.

Step 6: Set Your Budget and Duration

Decide how much money you want to spend and for how long. You set a total budget (e.g., $50) and a duration (e.g., 5 days), which means the ad would spend about $10 per day. Instagram gives you an estimated reach based on your settings. You can start with a very small budget, like $5 a day, just to see how it works.

Step 7: Review and Launch

The final screen gives you a summary of your selections. Double-check everything - your goal, audience, budget, and payment method. If it all looks good, tap 'Boost post now'. Your ad will go into a review process (which usually takes a few hours) before it goes live.

Method 2: Facebook Ads Manager – Taking Full Control of Your Campaigns

When you're ready to move beyond simple boosts and run strategic, objective-driven campaigns, it's time to graduate to Meta Ads Manager. This powerful dashboard is the hub for all things advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and more.

Why Upgrade to Ads Manager?

Ads Manager unlocks a whole new level of precision and customization. Here’s what sets it apart:

• Advanced Campaign Objectives: Go far beyond profile visits or messages with goals like App Installs, Conversions (e.g., purchases or sign-ups), or Lead Generation using on-platform forms.
• Specific Placements: Manually choose exactly where your ad appears - Instagram Stories, the Explore page, the main Feed, Reels placements, etc.
• In-Depth Audience Targeting: Create Custom Audiences from your email list or website visitors (using the Meta Pixel) and build Lookalike Audiences to find new people who are virtually identical to your best customers.
• Creative Control and A/B Testing: Run multiple versions of your ad at once to test different images, videos, captions, and headlines to see what performs best. This lets you optimize your spending based on real data.

A Simplified 6-Step Guide to Launching a Campaign in Ads Manager

Ads Manager can look intimidating, but campaigns are always built using the same three-level structure: Campaign (the objective), Ad Set (the audience &, placement), and Ad (the creative).

Step 1: Accessing Ads Manager

Before you start, make sure your Instagram Professional Account is linked to a Facebook Page. Then, head over to business.facebook.com/adsmanager to open the dashboard.

Step 2: Choosing Your Campaign Objective

Click the green "+ Create" button. You’ll be asked to choose a campaign objective. These are grouped by an older structure of Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion, but newer layouts simplify this to things like:

• Awareness: Show your ads to the maximum number of people who are likely to remember them.
• Traffic: Send people to a destination, like your website.
• Engagement: Get more post-engagement, messages, or video views.
• Leads: Collect information from potential customers.
• Sales: Find people likely to purchase your product or service.

Your objective signals your priority to the algorithm. Choose the one that reflects the real-world result you're after. Picking 'Traffic' when you secretly want 'Sales' won't work as well.

Step 3: Give Your Campaign a Name and Set the Budget

Give your campaign a clear name (e.g., "Summer Sale - Traffic - June 2024"). You'll also see an option for "Advantage campaign budget," which lets Meta automatically distribute your budget across different Ad Sets. As a beginner, it's often easier to leave this off and set budgets at the next level (the Ad Set level).

Step 4: Defining Your Ad Set (The Who, Where, &, How Much)

The Ad Set level is where you define your targeting. This is the most important part.

• Audience: This is where you leverage Ads Manager's superpower. Beyond basic location, age, and interests, you can create a Custom Audience from an uploaded customer list or target people who've visited your website. Or you can build a Lookalike Audience based on those high-value groups. Below that, Detailed Targeting allows you to specify behaviors ('frequent international travelers') and even life events ('newlyweds').
• Placements: "Advantage+ Placements" is the recommended default, letting Meta place your ads where they're most likely to perform well. Or, you can choose "Manual Placements" and specifically select only Instagram Stories and Reels if your creative is designed for a vertical, full-screen experience.
• Budget &, Schedule: Here, you set a daily or lifetime budget for this specific Ad Set and choose start and end dates.

Step 5: Creating Your Ad (The What They See)

This is where you design the ad itself.

• Choose your connected Instagram account under 'Identity'.
• Select an ad format: Single Image or Video, Carousel (multiple scrollable images), or Collection (a mobile-only storefront experience).
• Under 'Ad Creative', upload your image or video. Meta's Creative Hub has inspiration for what resonates well, and focus on vertical videos for Stories/Reels.
• Write your copy. This includes the 'Primary Text' (the main caption) and an optional 'Headline'.
• Pick a Call to Action (CTA) button from the dropdown menu, such as ‘Shop Now’, ‘Learn More’, or ‘Sign Up’. Make sure it matches your campaign goal.

Step 6: Review, Publish, and Monitor

Use the preview tool on the right to see how your ad will look across all potential placements. Once you're happy, hit the green 'Publish' button. After your ad is approved, your job isn't done. Check back into Ads Manager regularly to monitor key metrics like your Click-Through Rate (CTR) and Cost Per Click (CPC) to understand what's working and turn off what isn't.

Tips for Creating Ads People Actually Want to See

The technical setup is just half the battle. Your creative content is what ultimately converts. Here are a few tips:

• Video is Essential: Use punchy, short-form video formatted for vertical viewing (9:16 aspect ratio). Show your product being used, tell a quick story, or feature a happy customer. Hook them within the first 3 seconds, as thumbs are quick to scroll.
• Make it Feel Native: The best ads don’t scream “AD!” They blend in with the surrounding content on the feed or in Stories. User-generated style content - less polished and more authentic - often outperforms slick, corporate-style visuals.
• Lead with Value, Not the Sale: Instead of just saying "Buy Now," show how your product solves a problem, inspires an emotion, or makes life easier.
• Have One, Clear Call to Action: Tell people exactly what you want them to do next. "Tap to shop our latest collection," "Download our free guide," or "Book your consultation today." Make it clear and unmissable.

Final Thoughts

Running paid ads on Instagram, whether through the straightforward 'Boost Post' button or the comprehensive Ads Manager, gives you a direct line to your ideal audience. The key is to start with clear goals, test your creative and targeting on a small budget, and gradually scale what's delivering real results for your business or brand.

When those ads start sending floods of new visitors to your profile, a consistent and engaging organic presence is what convinces them to stay and hit 'follow'. At Postbase, we've designed our tool to streamline that exact part of your operation. We've focused on what truly matters to today's social media managers: a clean visual calendar for planning content ahead, reliable cross-platform scheduling (especially for video), and a unified inbox to manage all your comments. This lets you maintain an active, high-quality profile effortlessly, which perfectly complements a successful ad strategy.