How To Use Instagram For Influencer Marketing: A Guide for Brands

Influencer marketing has become one of the most effective ways to reach specific target audiences and drive brand awareness. Instagram is one of the most popular places for brands and influencers to collaborate. In fact, according to a study by LENDED, the number of users following an Instagram influencer has more than doubled in the last three years. The same study found that among Millennials, nearly 15% follow an Instagram influencer on a regular basis. 

With so many potential collaborators out there, it can be tricky for brands to break through and find the right people who align perfectly with their target audience. Here are some tips for collaborating with influencers on Instagram that will help your brand stand out.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is the process of partnering with key people who have established, engaged followings on social media to drive awareness and sales for a particular product or service. With the shift towards content-driven marketing, brands are realizing that investing in partnerships with social media influencers can have a significant ROI. Influencers have huge networks that brands can tap into by creating custom campaigns that are designed to engage and drive results. 

In exchange for promoting a product or service, influencers often receive monetary compensation or free products depending on the scope and scale of each job. When executed correctly, influencer marketing can be incredibly effective in driving sales and increasing brand awareness. 

Influencers tend to have very engaged, highly relevant audiences that are willing to trust their recommendations. They are able to cut through the noise and get their followers to respond to campaigns in a way that general advertising may not. The key is to find the right influencers for your brand.

How to Find the Right Influencers for Your Brand

The first step in collaborating with influencers on Instagram is to make sure that you’ve identified the right people to approach. When searching for potential collaborators, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. 

First, you want to find influencers who are both relevant and engaged. You should be able to tell just by looking at their profiles that they’re the right people for your brand. 

Second, when it comes to targeting specific influencers, you’ll want to make sure you know your target audience. You can use the demographics section of Instagram to get a sense of who your influencers are and where they’re located. 

The best way to find the right influencers is to look for someone who fits your brand and has a strong following. Start by searching for hashtags related to your product or service. This will pull up a list of people who have mentioned those terms in their bios or posts. 

Or, you can work with an influencer marketing agency that has expertise in matching brands with relevant influencers.

Top Influencer Marketing Agencies

A round-up of the best influencer marketing agencies to help you find what you’re looking for.
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Harness the power of influencers to achieve your growth goals with Moburst, a leading global performance influencer marketing agency that helps brands over-achieve their goals and become category leaders.

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80-100
Est. 2017

Humanz is an AI-powered platform that makes influencer marketing accessible, reliable and trustworthy for marketers.

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How to Develop the Right Content for Instagram Ads

One of the most important things to keep in mind when creating Instagram ads for influencer campaigns is that you don’t want to create something that immediately screams “ad.” Sure, you want to be transparent about the fact that you’ve sponsored a post, but you don’t want to turn off your potential customers. 

Start by thinking about your brand and the product or service that you’re promoting. What kinds of things are your customers interested in? Are they into health, fitness, or travel? Make sure that you’re selecting influencers who are interested in the same things. This will help you create more authentic content that your customers will appreciate.

Tips for Producing Great Instagram Ads

Just like with any other ad, you want to keep things as simple as possible. Avoid anything that will distract your customers and just focus on your product.

Instagram ads are now available globally, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will see your ads. Make sure that you’re targeting the right people so that your ad dollars are being spent correctly. 

Be transparent. It’s important to be fully transparent about the fact that you’ve sponsored an influencer’s content. This will help keep your reputation intact and will also help you avoid any potential problems with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). 

Focus on one ad at a time. Again, these should be short and to the point. Don’t overwhelm your followers with too much information.

How to Measure the Success of an Influencer Campaign on Instagram

Once you’ve finished planning and executing your influencer campaign, it’s time to evaluate how successful it was. To do this, you’ll want to look at a few different metrics, including impressions, engagement, and conversions. 

  • Impressions: The number of times your ad was displayed whether or not it was clicked on. 
  • Engagement: How many times people have clicked on your ad or interacted with it in some way. 
  • Conversions: This can be a bit more tricky to track, but it’s important to know how many sales your ad generated. For our technical readers here is the formula – to calculate CTR, divide the total number of clicks for a post by the total number of impressions. Multiply by 100 to get your CTR as a percentage.

Conclusion

With Instagram, brands and influencers have more opportunities to collaborate and create awesome content together. And with each post, you can include a call to action to drive more engagement and sales. With this guide, we hope you learned how to find the best influencers for your brand, how to work with influencers on Instagram, and how to measure the success of your Instagram influencer campaigns. What are you waiting for?

Jess Ailion

Jess is a Content Writer hailing from the UK. After studying English Literature, she found herself writing about all things digital marketing. When she's not writing, you can find her cooking for her friends or trying out London's tastiest restaurants.

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