Facebook launched Instagram Ads a while ago and while the launch was highly anticipated, many businesses didn’t jump on the opportunity to advertise on Instagram. The Instagram audience might not be for everyone and ads required a linked Instagram account that of course needs upkeep.

Starting form the first week of December 2015, businesses can now run Instagram Ads without having an Instagram account. This means that advertisers can now increase engagement and scale up low cost conversions with Instagram Ads without ever having to create and use an Instagram account.

What’s New With Instagram Ads

Before the latest change, advertisers needed to link an Instagram account their Facebook Business Manager.

Disadvantages:

1. Businesses needed to create, optimize and manage an Instagram page
2. Businesses needed to create an audience on Instagram to create some organic reach with their posts
3. Businesses often didn’t want to allocate resources to an Instagram profile without knowing if it’s worth their while

Starting from the first Week of December 2015, Instagram ads can be created by using the Facebook Ad Manager without having an Instagram account and without having to link an Instagram account to the Facebook Business Manager. Instagram Ads are now available as Placement and can be selected as target of an ad set.

Would it be better to have and link an Instagram account? Facebook says yes:

“We recommend (but don’t require) connecting an Instagram account to run ads on Instagram. Representing your business with an Instagram account may help you get better results for your ad.” – Facebook

How to Set up Instagram Ads Without an Instagram Account

1. Go to your Facebook Ad Manager and create a new campaign (or use an existing campaign.) Go into an ad set of that campaign and add Instagram as a target method of your ad set:

2. Go into the ads of that ad set and create a new ad.

3. When creating the ad, select your Facebook page as a destination

You will now be able to advertise on Instagram. Advantages of Instagram ads include but are not limited to:

• Use all of the targeting methods available on Facebook
• Use all of the bidding options available on Facebook
• Pay only when somebody clicks on your Ads
• Manage your Ads directly from the Facebook ad manager
• Track conversions though the same pixel you already use for Facebook ads

This post originally appeared on international-ppc.com, and is re-published with permission.

[“source-searchenginejournal”]