Do you want to create an Instagram ad on your computer? Unfortunately, the "Promote" button on business account posts only works on mobile devices, but you may not have access to one. This minHour teaches you how to create an ad campaign from your web browser on Windows. If you want to promote an existing post, you'll need to use an iPhone, iPad, or Android.
How can I advertise on Instagram if I’m using Windows?
Go to your Facebook Ad Center.
If you see a message that you don’t have an ad account, click the “Go to Business Settings” button displayed in the center of your page. Then choose and enter your Ad ID, which you should find listed under your account information.
- You can change which account you’re accessing from the panel on the left side of the page.
- Since Facebook owns Instagram, you can create ads for Instagram by using the Facebook Business Suite. However, for this to work, you’ll need your Instagram business account linked to Facebook; but since that’s required when you create an Instagram business account, you shouldn’t have to do anything.
Click Create.
This green button is on the left side of the page above the list of ads you’ve run for the business.
- A new window titled “Create A Campaign” will open.
Make your selection.
You can choose to create a new campaign or you can click the “Use Existing Campaign” tab if you don’t want to spend the time setting up a new ad. During different parts of a business’s life cycle, you’ll want to run different kinds of ads.
- You can choose one option across three categories:Awareness includes objectives that generate interest in your product or service. For example, a company supplying fresh produce would use this campaign option to highlight their food to locals.Consideration includes objectives that get people thinking about your business and wanting more information. For example, the company that supplies fresh produce has a website and this campaign would get traffic to that website so they can learn more about the company and its fresh produce.Conversions includes objectives that encourage people to buy or use your products or services. For example, this campaign would encourage people to buy some of the company’s fresh produce.
- Awareness includes objectives that generate interest in your product or service. For example, a company supplying fresh produce would use this campaign option to highlight their food to locals.
- Consideration includes objectives that get people thinking about your business and wanting more information. For example, the company that supplies fresh produce has a website and this campaign would get traffic to that website so they can learn more about the company and its fresh produce.
- Conversions includes objectives that encourage people to buy or use your products or services. For example, this campaign would encourage people to buy some of the company’s fresh produce.
Name your campaign (if you want to) and click Continue.
Once you make your selection, you’ll see it bolded and in large text at the bottom of the window.
- Clicking the expand-down arrow to the right of “Name your Campaign” will drop down a menu. You can skip creating an ad or an ad set if you only want to create the campaign.
Choose “Special Ad Categories,” “Campaign Details,” “A/B Test,” and “Campaign Budget Optimization” and click Next.
The default settings are the most basic, so any newer ad-creators should leave them alone.
- You can click the circles to select an option. A filled-in bubble means that option is selected.
- Enabling “Campaign Budget Optimization” is recommended because it will automatically optimize and distribute your budget to get more results.
Make your ad set choices.
You can define your audience, choose your ad placements, then set a budget and schedule.
- As you scroll down the page, you’ll be able to click boxes to select age ranges and genders or type in date ranges for your ad. Click See More Options if you want to tweak the settings for a section even more, like changing if you want the ad to show to all your FB connections or only certain people.
- When you’re finished, click Next.
Create your ad.
Under the “Identity” header, you can also choose where the ad will run. Select your business’s Instagram account to make sure the ads run on Instagram.
- On the right side of the page, you can click a variation of the ad including a story and a post.
- Change the text under “Primary Text” to change the text that appears in the ad.
- Click Change Media under the “Ad Creative” header to change the image in the ad. By default, your cover photo is used.
Click Publish.
Your ad will now be displayed to your audience according to your settings.
Tips
- You can also use BlueStacks to mimic the Android experience on Instagram, so you’ll be able to perform the mobile steps to promote posts on Instagram.