I wanted to drive more traffic to my blog/Instagram because let’s face it, I’m impatient so I decided to create an Instagram Ad. It was supposed to run for 4 days at 5 dollars a day but sometimes things don’t go as planned and my ad ended up running for 3 days at about 13 dollars total. Before I chose the platform that I wanted to have the ads run on I did a lot of research on which social media platform had the best results for their ads. I consistently found articles praising Instagram ads so I went with those and this is the result.
Day 1 Ads (Saturday)
First .30 cents or 1:30 Minutes I got 6 likes
Likes: 14
Follows: 1
Results: 860
Reach: 11344
Amount spent: $2.31
Day 2 ads (Sunday)
Likes: 15
Follows: 1
Results: 2990
Reach: 39,535
Amount spent: $6.69
Day 3 ads (Monday)
Likes: 10
3 follow
Results: 5740
Reach: 75,468
Amount spent: $12.83
These numbers are solely based on the ad and do not correlate with anything else I posted during this time. As you can see by the numbers, my reach to results ratio is really low. The mass amount of followers I thought I was going to get didn’t actually happen and there are a few reasons why.
My Audience Was Way Too Big
I wanted to make sure that any country I thought would have even a remote interest in my post would be able to see it so I started adding whole continents to the list of countries I wanted my ad to be seen in. The problem with this is, yes my ad was being shown to a lot of people, but it was also being shown to a lot of people who didn’t care. Compared to other topics, Surface Pattern Design is not that widely searched. When you search pattern design in Google’s keyword planner Google estimates that people search pattern design 10,000 to 100,000 times a month so I was trying to reach the majority of pattern designs whole monthly audience in 3 days. By the end of the 3 days, I reached 75,468 people with my ad, most of them glossing over my ad without a second thought. If I had spent more time narrowing down my search and sticking to a few countries the ad probably would have done better.
Not Including a Call to Action
Instagram allows you to add a call to action button to your ads, which can be helpful in getting your audience to do something other than simply just viewing the ad. I didn’t feel like any of the buttons applied to what I wanted to achieve with the ad but I wish I had added one since it would have helped increase my traffic.
Not Having a Storefront to Redirect My Audience to
This was probably the biggest reason why I didn’t get a lot of traffic to my blog/Instagram with the ads. Most people don’t care for looking at patterns all day unless they are on a product that they can buy. If I had my patterns on phone cases, stationery, etc. that people could buy they would have been more inclined to head over to my website because they wanted the product. Instead, I just showed them a way they could view the same patterns on a different platform.
Will I Get Instagram Ads Again?
Probably not, unless I open a shop. Instagram ads are great for the traditionally successful products/photos on Instagram. Makeup/beauty products, photos of Instagram models, travel photos, etc. all do pretty well on Instagram and would be boosted by the ads, however, Surface Pattern Design is sort of a niche market and to advertise something that rarely has engagement isn’t worth it.
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