The average person is on social media for 152 minutes every day, with 33 of those minutes spent on Instagram (reference). 

After hitting 1 billion active users and maintaining its spot as the fifth most downloaded app on the app store, Instagram is showing more promising growth than most other social platforms today.   

Despite its ubiquitous popularity, only 28% of marketers are using Instagram advertising.  

If you're part of the 72% not using Instagram ads, there's a definite business case to consider adding it to your marketing strategy. Read on to explore the world of Instagram advertising and the benefits it can provide for your club.  

Why Instagram? 

Despite slowing growth for other social platforms, Instagram’s user base is still growing steadily. Not only that, but, as of 2020, the platform now sees 1 billion monthly active users with 57% of users accessing the site every single day  (reference).  

From consumer goods to events to health and wellness products, Instagram advertising is on the rise. According to recent data, an average of 22% of a user’s feed is made up of ads (percentages vary based on engagement). Couple that with the fact that more than 30% of Instagram users have made purchases directly from the app, and you have a recipe for success when it comes to gaining new members for your club. 

Perhaps the most important benefit of Instagram advertising is its robust and specific targeting criteria. You can target users by age, location, interest, online behavior, and much more. Making use of Facebook’s ad targeting architecture, marketers can segment a huge base of engaged, ad-viewing users to reach exactly who they want. 

Instagram advertising is unique in that it is primarily driven by visual assets. You can use the platform to show off your facility in a way other ad formats can’t. At the end of the day, a visually compelling image or video is more likely to interrupt a prospect’s mindless scrolling than a traditional, text-based ad. 

What Should I Advertise on Instagram? 

Choosing what to advertise on Instagram is as simple as deciding on a goal. Whether you want to promote a new class, create brand awareness, advertise your childcare program, or simply bring in new members, the possibilities are limitless. Ideally, you want to focus on a unique feature of your club (bonus points if that feature can be easily translated to a photo or video). 

For the purpose of this blog, we'll use this example: 

Your club is finally re-opening and you’ve recently renovated your pool! Your goal is to bring in new members this summer by showing off your new facilities and touting your pool-based exercise programs that are a great way to beat the heat and get active. 

How To Create an Instagram Ad Campaign 

First time user? Creating an Instagram ad campaign is as easy as following these simple steps.

1. Choose Your Campaign Objective  

Choosing the right campaign objective is crucial to your Instagram advertising campaign’s success. Instagram’s algorithm optimizes your campaign based on the objective you select and shows your ads to users that are most likely to click on them.  

In our example of showcasing your club’s summer programming and new pool to drive new members, you’ll want to choose “conversions” as your campaign objective. In this case, a “conversion” is defined as someone who clicks on your ad, goes to your pre-determined landing page, and signs up to learn more about joining your club. 

Choosing a “conversion” goal let’s Instagram know to show your ads to people who are most likely click your CTA button and take advantage of the offer you are advertising. In other words, Instagram shows your ad to those most likely to “convert.”

2. Choose Your Targeting Information  

Choosing who to target is arguably the most important step in the creation of your ad. By targeting groups that are most likely to engage with your ad, you set your campaign up for success.  

At first, choosing between the vast array of targeting options can seem confusing, but most of the time, you can keep it simple with the following criteria. 

Location

Since your goal is to bring members into your club’s physical location, you’ll want to set your location to your area. If you forget to set your location, you’ll be advertising to people all over the world, which is a huge waste of your ad spend. You can set your ad to display to Facebook users any distance from your club, however, we recommend a 10-mile radius (maximum) as a good distance to start with to reduce wasted ad spend.  

Age & Gender

These options vary based on what you’re advertising, but for most fitness marketing  applications, you can use a similar range for all your ads.  

Important to note: Instagram has a predominantly young audience; more than half of the app’s users are aged 34 and younger. So, when setting your age criteria, keep that in mind.  For this example, we’ll use All Genders, ages 18-50. 

Additional Targeting Criteria

Interest-Based Targeting is a great way to narrow your targeting and get directly to people who  may be interested in what you’re offering.  

For our example, you could add Interest-Based Targeting criteria for “swimming,” “swimming workouts,” or “water aerobics.” Instagram’s algorithm looks at users’ followed accounts, likes, and engagement to determines what kind of content they’re interested in. The algorithm will use these interests to find people who are interested in what your ad is offering. 

Unless you’re advertising a class, service, or offer that only applies to a certain group of people, using general targeting criteria will yield the best results.  

Create Your Ad  

Next is the most creative part of the process, building your ad. This includes your asset (picture or video), ad copy, headline, and CTA (Call to  Action). The goal of any good Instagram ad is to create a compelling image or video that effectively draws the eye and gets users to click on your ad and sign up.

Below, we’ll break down the parts of an Instagram ad and how create each one.

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Asset 

Since Instagram is a visually-focused platform, your creative asset will be the most important element of your ad. Creating an image or video that’s both eye-catching and effectively conveys your offer is key to your ad’s success. 

While ads with videos often perform better than static images, we understand that it may be difficult to have a video ready for every ad. Images can be just as effective with a little creativity and when paired with clever ad copy. No matter which you choose, remember the following guidelines when creating an asset for your ad:

Image dimensions 

• Images: 1080x1080 
• Videos: 600x600 or 600x315 

File type 

• Images: PNG or JPG 
• Videos: MP4 

Ad Copy

Your ad copy comes second in your ad, and shows up directly below your creative asset. When writing your ad copy, your goal should be to get to the point as quickly as possible. We all know how easy it is to scroll past an ad without reading it. Make your offer clear and concise to avoid having it get lost in the mindless scroll.

Additionally, Instagram will truncate your ad copy after a certain number of characters and users will have to click “Read More” to see all of your ad copy. To avoid truncation, it’s best to keep your copy to a tight 125 characters or less. 

If you have more to say, just be sure that the most important part of your offer is stated in the first 125 characters of your copy.

Here’s an example for our new pool promotion: 

Get 15% off the aquatic exercise program of your choice when you join Millington Heights Athletic Club in the month of June! 

CTA  Button 

Every Instagram ad has a Call to Action button that sends users to a specific page on your website. This button acts as the opt-in for users to find out more about what your ad is offering.

While Instagram does limit what your CTA button says, it offers a variety of options. Many of the options likely wouldn’t apply to your club, so we recommend one of the following choices for your ad:  

• Contact Us  
• Learn More  
• Sign Up  

Depending on your copy and headline, you can choose which CTA makes the most sense for your ad, but these options are likely going to be the most common. 

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve built your first Instagram ad, you’re ready to launch your campaign! 

Once you’ve created your first campaign on Instagram, you can begin to learn what works with your audience and what doesn’t. Creating two or more sets of copy, assets, or headlines and testing them against each other is a great way to refine your approach to Instagram advertising and create more effective ads.  

Like we’ve said before, your ads are not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Finding success is an iterative process and will require some testing. When combined with your other marketing tactics,  Instagram marketing can provide a great boost to your lead generation.   

This guide and our companion guides on Facebook advertising and email marketing can help you create a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. From there you can learn more from each campaign and find what works best for your club and your community. 

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