A Guide to Instagram Advertising for the Brunei F&B Industries
Things you should know before advertising on Instagram.
These days, many experts recommend businesses use social media marketing to help their brands reach a large audience.
You may then wonder. Is it really worth it for your business to use social media, particularly Instagram? If so, you know, how do you even start? And so on.
Well, in this article, I'll give you some guidance to answer those questions. Continue reading to find out.
Post Contents:
What is Instagram?
Instagram is a free photo and video-sharing app on iPhone and Android. It has been around since 2010 and has maintained its popularity until today.
With the widespread use of technology and social media, it's usually uncommon to meet someone who hasn't heard of or used Instagram before.
Why Use Instagram at All?
There are many reasons to use Instagram for advertising, but here are some of them:
1) Instagram is the most popular social media for Bruneians.
Generally, Brunei stands out for its online entrepreneurship via social media and websites, with locals prospering more in the food and beverage industry. For Brunei, Instagram has 250,000 users accounting for 70.5 per cent of the country's population.?
According to the Hootsuite and We Are Social's annual Digital 2022 study, the majority of users are female, with 53.8 per cent female and 46.2 per cent male. So, these percentages are also helpful if you wish to target your ads to a specific demographic.
Other data show that Brunei has the highest population ratio of Instagram users worldwide, at 89 per cent of the population (319,900 users)!
2) It saves cost and time.
Social media like Instagram offer focused marketing at a low price. This is highly beneficial for businesses with insufficient resources to invest in expensive marketing. Furthermore, engaging with customers online is not only a competitive advantage nowadays but also a recipe for success.
3) Sales may increase, and more people will find your brand.??
Active participation in social media may result in high sales performance if the salesperson exerts maximum effort and fully utilises the technology. Social media can also help increase brand exposure and searchability.
One study found that electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) is a quick way for businesses to reach more customers. This is because people who use social media platforms can attract their friends or share information about the business's products or services with others. So, marketers must also consider these social aspects of using social media.
4) Instagram has a good user experience.??
Over time, new formats have been incorporated (e.g., ‘Instagram stories’ and live videos) to improve the user experience. This has contributed to Instagram achieving a higher engagement rate than Facebook and Twitter and receiving more average interactions per post.
5) Instagram's visual nature will help a brand to get more shares. ?
Recent studies have attempted to make platform comparisons. According to market research, graphical images are more likely than text messages to be shared. As a result, a visual-centric site like Instagram may be even more effective as a marketing platform in influencing customers’ quality perception and purchasing intentions.
6) It can also improve the interactivity between the business and customers.
Instagram allows your business to connect with current and potential customers personally. These platform interactions and feedback can then be used to improve the quality of its products or services and avoid a declining business.
7) Furthermore, it can improve business performance as well.
Some data also show that effective use of social media can improve organisational performance because of that instant consumer feedback and improved brand exposure.
8) Experts recognise the effectiveness of social media marketing.
Many brands have realised the importance of social media marketing and are investing extensively in this strategy. Even the Statista data shows that brands spent around $90 million on social media advertising in 2019 alone.
How to Advertise on Instagram?
Now that you know the benefits of advertising on Instagram, let’s move on to how to advertise on it. Here are a couple of tips:
Many marketers are drawn to Instagram because of the link between brand ads and native content. Native content is an ad suited to the platform's content to 'blend in' with non-advertisement content. The opposite of this advertising is 'obvious,' such as when a product image with a large logo is shown. However, no clear studies have been found to determine which of the two situations, native or obvious advertising, is more effective on Instagram.
There are even certain restrictions regulating this matter, especially in certain countries. Forbrukerombudet and FTC (Federal Trade Commission), which govern the marketing of products and services in Norway and the United States, have stated that: "sponsored ads should be differed from non-sponsored ads in social media by clearly stating that it is paid for. Economic punishments can apply if the guidelines are not met."
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Theorists seem to agree that celebrity endorsement can be an effective way to create attention for a product or brand if done correctly. Because the product is associated with a familiar face, it can improve recall and recognition.
The advertising method can be done using Instagram features such as stories, posts, or paid promotions. Paid promotion is a kind of advertising in which both parties (service sellers and buyers) agree on specific rules. For example, product placements can be put in image posts, stories, videos, carousels, IGTV, shopping, reels, and more. This approach may increase the likelihood of reaching their target audience, such as youth who are more likely to watch IGTV, and so on. It’s all about how your target audience would prefer to see your posts.
What is the Benchmark For an Effective Advertisement?
According to a 2019 study conducted by Wardhani and Alif, four factors serve as the benchmark for advertisement effectiveness:
1) Emotional Appeals
Emotional appeals can take any shape, including positive feelings, such as love and pride, and negative emotions, like fear and guilt, which are listed as two sorts of emotional appeals that urge a purchase. Aside from a purchase, an emotional appeal could generate e-WOM on social media, leading to more shares.
A motivational message that is relevant to an individual creates emotional appeals and responses, which is why viral advertisement messages on social media have stronger emotional appeals. So, marketers should really focus on creating emotionally appealing ads that can be increased by using creative graphics or colours, a compelling message, or celebrity endorsement.
Companies can choose whether they want their customers to feel positive or negative emotions. However, this should be proceeded with caution. When a brand produces negative emotions in their customers, the products provided should be capable of delivering solutions that help attract people to buy and use their products only. An example can be shown in the following picture.
While this brand brings up negative emotions, it also offers a solution by providing a digital menu to avoid the issue depicted in this image. (Credit: QR Menu.)
2) Informativeness
Customers’ purchasing decisions are frequently influenced by informative advertising. According to the findings of that study, the informativeness of advertisements will increase people's attention and motivation.
Advertisement information is vital for a product when there are many substitute products. The more informative an ad, the more it shows a brand’s superiority over a competing product.
3) Advertising Creativity
Creativity is becoming increasingly important, particularly on Instagram, due to its emphasis on aesthetics. Nevertheless, each person evaluates creativity value differently, which is usually relative. The study also mentioned that ads with a high creativity value might result in double sales value compared to those without creativity.
When the image is of high visual quality, consumers are more likely to perceive that the products presented are high quality and report a higher intention to purchase.
4) Entertainment
A social media ad with entertainment value has a better chance of positively influencing customers' attitudes toward the ad. However, this may only apply to specific demographics.
An entertaining ad makes it easier for viewers to remember, which can result in a higher purchasing intention.
Furthermore, the entertainment value of ads is stronger on social media than on other advertising strategies. The relaxation effect anticipated by the audience is the reason for the importance of the entertainment factor, particularly for the audience aged 19 to 24 years.
Conclusion
So, what’s the bottom line here? Depending on your goals, investing in Instagram advertising can definitely be worth it.?
To recap, using Instagram is worth investing your time in if you want to:
1) Hit a market that is mainly using Instagram in that area
2) Save cost and time compared to other traditional marketing strategies
3) Potentially increase sales by making your brand more searchable
4) Receive more engagements
5) Get more shares
6) Encourage interactivity between the business and customers
7) Improve business performance
8) Try what experts have deemed effective
Finally, if you are still unsure about which path to take or would like someone else to handle your social media marketing, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here.