How can businesses benefit from the latest Instagram updates?

Instagram has come a long way since it launched in 2010. Now, more than 25 million companies worldwide use Instagram for business, and 90% of the platform’s users follow a business on it.

But what makes Instagram an important marketing channel? With a massive user base of 2 billion users a month, and the highest engagement rate per post between the beginning of 2019 and the end of 2020, it really is the perfect social media platform to reach a global audience.

Instagram is constantly rolling out new features that impact how businesses and users can benefit from the platform. So, whether you’re just starting a business or trying to revise your current marketing strategies, here are five Instagram updates every business can take advantage of.

1. Link Stickers

Instagram launched the Link Sticker, and this is definitely a game-changer in using the platform to drive conversions and sales on your website. Simply put, a Link Sticker is an option to add a sticker with an external link on an Instagram story. When you tap on the sticker, you’ll be redirected. Previously, Instagram gave users with more than 10,000 followers access to the swipe-up link function. However, this was replaced with the Link Sticker, which is now available to all users, regardless of followers counts.

The function has also been extended with new options that allow users to customise the link label text - a ‘customise sticker text’ link that allows you to enter your custom call-to-action text. To drive more clicks, try tilting your sticker with a strong call to action, like ‘Sign up for 10% off’ or ‘Shop up to 50% off!’.

How to add a Link Sticker

Tap on your profile photo and hold to add a story.
Take a photo, or you can upload it from your gallery.
Tap on the top Sticker icon.
Tap on the top in the sticker menu, browse for the Link Sticker.
Select it.
Add the link.
Tap ‘Done.’
Place it on the story as other stickers and tap to change colour.

The link will appear as a sticker, and viewers can engage, interact and click on it to navigate to the shared URL.

What are the benefits to businesses?

If you’re a business that has previously struggled with linking content to your website, product pages, or blog posts, Link Stickers will help drive traffic. A follower browsing on Instagram may not have visited your website before, so the feature will allow for an easy click-through. And if you’re an e-commerce business, it can also drive traffic to product pages. So, it will not only increase brand awareness, but also the possible sales of the products promoted.

However, the most significant benefit of Link Stickers is their role in increasing engagement with your audience. As viewers can respond and react to link stickers, your businesses can gain more insight from your customers. This valuable feedback can better inform marketing and product decisions, and this interaction helps to build deeper, more meaningful connections with customers. Ultimately, this will lead to increased customer loyalty and repeat business.

Our Social Media Executive, Helena Papakosta, explains that "interactions like these might have a positive effect on the Instagram algorithm, resulting in your content appearing in the “suggested posts” section, where posts from accounts users don't follow are situated.” She adds: ‘It has to be mentioned that how Instagram’s algorithm works is not 100% clear, but from my own experience, I can tell that the more people interact with your content, the more it will be considered as valuable and useful, so it’ll eventually be shown to more users".

2. Reels Ads

As the popularity of Instagram Reels continues to rise, so does its power as a marketing and advertising tool. Having launched globally in June 2021, and featuring a TikTok-inspired format, Reels ads are now available on Instagram. Users can like, comment, share and save these ads, and they can be displayed in various ways, including on the Explore pages and a user’s feed.

As Instagram Reels ads are displayed in the same parts of the app where users discover organic reels content, this is a huge opportunity for businesses to boost their creativity and capture their audiences’ attention when they’re scrolling through similar content. In fact, Instagram says that 50% are more interested in a brand when they see ads for it on Instagram.

How to set up an Instagram Reels ad

Create the ad: Record your video. At this point, it’s a good idea to write your copy and captions and decide on hashtags. Don’t forget to get creative - pair your video with a fun song or sound clip.
Navigate to Ads Manager: Check that you have a business account to get access to Ads Manager. Here’s how to connect your business’s Instagram to Ads manager. Then, click ‘Create’.
Select your advertising goal: Why are you placing an ad on Instagram Reels? The six options available are brand awareness, video views, reach, traffic, app installs and conversions.
Fill out details of the ad campaign: Include key information like your budget and your target audience.
Place the ad: Choose Manual Placements. Then, navigate to the dropdown next to Stories. Choose ‘Instagram Reels’ for your ad to appear as an Instagram Reels ad.
Include your call to action: Think about how you want your viewers to act? You can direct them by customising the call to action button with ‘Shop Now,’ for example.

These are steps, and once your ad has been reviewed and approved, it will go live for everyone to see.

What are the benefits to businesses?

▪️ An opportunity to tell your business’ story

There’s huge potential for brands to reach a greater audience when it comes to Reels Ads, but to be successful, brands need to think of creative content ideas to capture the user’s attention. Catchy music, nice animations and topical conversations are all the ingredients for creating eye-catching ads.

To drive even more awareness, brands need to pair their ads with other types of social media marketing, for example, influencer marketing. Using influencers alongside in-app ads can help brands capture the attention of their target audience better. Reels has allowed many influencers to show their creative flair and showcase brands in new, more exciting ways.

Pairing Reel ads with influencer marketing allows brands to target specific consumer demographics engaged with a specific type of influencer and expose new audiences to the brand through the ads. This approach can help widen the reach of a campaign and grow brand awareness while also generating sales.

▪️ You can monitor your performance

To see what’s working for your business and what’s not, you can check Reel Analytics, which shows ‘Reel-specific’ metrics. These include:

▪️ Accounts reached: this tells you how many unique Instagram users saw your Reel at least once.

▪️ Plays: This is the number of times your Reel has been played. It could be higher than the number of accounts reached because some users may watch your reel more than once.

▪️ Likes: This tells you how many users liked your Reel.

▪️ Comments: The number of comments on the Reel.

▪️ Saves: The number of times your reel was bookmarked.

▪️ Shares: The number of times Instagram users shared your Reel to their story or sent it to another user.

3. Live Badges

Next is another feature launched during what has been a period of rapid growth on Instagram’s live video platform, as creators and fans were at home during the pandemic, which resulted in concerts, live events, large meetups, and more being cancelled.

Instagram introduced Live Badges to support creators and their work on the platform - a monetisation feature that allows people to ‘tip’ their favourite creators. By tipping an influencer, for example, fans can express their love through badges that they can buy while watching the influencer’s Instagram Live stream.

The platform’s decision to create this feature resulted from Instagram Live usage skyrocketing at the start of the pandemic (a surge of 70%). This meant there was a need to support creators to make money and build deeper connections with their audience, which led to adding live badges to Instagram.

How do Live Badges work?

During a live video, viewers can buy a badge to show support for their favourite brands/creators with their fan’s badges. Anyone who has purchased a badge is featured in the comments, represented by a special visual icon, based on the number of hearts they have bought. They can also unlock more features, including being on the creator’s list and accessing a special heart icon. There are three different levels of badges, based on the number of hearts viewers are buying. Viewers can buy a heart for £0.89, two for £1.99 or three for £4.49.

What are the benefits to businesses?

▪️ Monetisation: You can benefit from your brand’s influence by getting rewarded for the content you create. While this might not be a full-time income, it’s a great way to gather tips during your live videos.

▪️ Find out who your top fans are and build relationships with your viewers: As a brand, you can access a list of everyone that bought badges during your love video. So, you can know more about your viewers, the type of content they prefer and engage with more, as well as the number of badges they’re happy to buy to support you. For example, you can connect with anyone who purchased a badge by giving them a shout-out. Ultimately, Live Badges help build connections and are a great tool for engagement.

▪️ Find out what sort of content your audience prefers: Live badges also create an opportunity for your company to improve your content. The number of badges you receive on your live streams can indicate what your audience connects with more and what content they’re not interested in. Your content strategy for growing your audience can benefit from this metric.

▪️ Expand your influence: As a brand, it can be difficult to measure your influence, and live badges are a great way of helping you measure success during your live streams and your earnings over time. As you grow your audience, you’ll also be able to assess whether you're expanding not only your influence, but also your revenue stream, as well as improving your content ideas.

While Live Badges are a great feature your business can capitalise on, it’s important to lay the foundations to ensure you make the most of them.

Here are some ideas:

▪️ Focus on building your community

Although monetisation is critical for long-term business success, it’s important to focus on building a community. A community that engages is more likely to buy a badge during your live stream, so it’s important to make connections with your viewers - get them excited about your content and be as interactive as you can.

This will create a desire for them to support you and make it easier for them to ‘tip’ you by buying live badges. From this point of view, Helena adds that ‘live badges are not beneficial only for content creators, but for users as well, as it is a way to feel valued and even more linked to the creator they adore.’

▪️ Give your audience an incentive to buy a badge

It’s not enough to start live streams and expect your followers to buy badges - you need to guide them and direct them on how they work and why they should purchase them. Give them a reason to buy them - for example, explain how the funds will help create new, exciting projects that you’ve got planned for them.

4. Ads in the Instagram shop tab

Ads on Instagram Shop is now available to advertisers across the globe, and Instagram says it will make it easier for people to discover and shop from brands when they’re already in browsing mode. Instagram Shop is a tab on the app that lets users browse items such as clothes and beauty products and, in some cases, purchase them directly within the Instagram app. The Facebook ad manager allows you to build Ads on Instagram Shop by selecting a targeted audience, adding relevant product tags and more.

What are the benefits to businesses?

More than 130 million users tap on an Instagram shopping post each month. The platform is making it easier for businesses to boost sales, and they can use Instagram shops ads in their marketing strategy to connect with consumers and grow a dedicated following. Users can click on an Instagram shop ad to view more details, browse additional items from the brand, or even save the product to a wishlist.

5. New metrics added to Instagram Insights

Instagram is also providing more data for marketers, with the addition of three new analytics metrics to Instagram Insights. The new metrics are:

▪️ Accounts engaged: This will tell you the total number of accounts that have interacted with your Instagram content over a period of time.

▪️ Engaged audience: This metric collects demographic data (including cities, countries, age and gender) relating to users who engage with your account and content, whether they follow you or not.

▪️ Reached audience: This data will provide demographic insights (cities, countries, age, gender) into all people reached over a period of time.

What are the benefits to businesses?

The new metrics will help brands get an even better understanding of how their content performs on the channel. Initially, Insight users could only analyse their followers, but this has now been extended to include people who interact with an account without following it. Ultimately, this new data will help guide your posting decisions and provide better opportunities to optimise your approach based on specific data points.

Conclusion

To properly leverage Instagram’s potential, businesses need to keep their eyes on all of Instagram’s tested and released features. And while Instagram is always evolving, with new features and updates nearly every week for businesses and influencers to use, it’s how well they use them which will make all the difference. To stay relevant and keep your followers engaged, you need to adapt and get creative.

But ultimately, using new features alone is not enough to increase brand awareness. Brands need to use new features alongside existing social media marketing strategies to truly benefit.