Influencer Marketing in Asia: An Interview with Aaron Brooks
Aaron Brooks
April 21, 2017
“Reels is our fastest-growing format and an important part of Instagram, as more people watch Reels to be entertained, go deeper with their interests or discover new businesses. Today, we’re announcing that businesses can now boost their Reels to turn them into ads for the opportunity to reach new audiences and drive more engagement.”
Boosting Instagram content isn’t a new concept. Anyone with a creator or business account can currently boost in-feed posts and live Stories. It’s a paid media strategy many of Vamp’s clients engage in once their organic creator campaigns come to an end.
We offer a media boosting service as a way to help clients target specific audiences, reach more consumers, boost their campaign’s awareness or engagement, or drive outcomes like app downloads or increase website traffic.
And now, this capability is available for Reels, a potential game changer for marketers and advertisers looking to use video ad content to increase the overall performance of their campaigns.
So what do marketers need to know about boosting Reels? In this blog, we’ll help you get to grips with Instagram’s newest advertising feature. Let’s get started.
Boosting your Reels can help supercharge your campaign results to drive mass awareness, website traffic, engagements, and return on ad spend. It also helps create a smooth path to purchase.
67% of consumers say they’ve increased their online shopping since the pandemic. Teaming eye-catching Reels video content with ‘Shop now’ type of functionality, offers the ability to take consumers straight to your eCommerce site – turning social scrollers into shoppers in a matter of clicks.
Boosted Reels will appear in-feed, in Stories, in the Reels tab and on the Explore page to help new customers discover your brand. Instagram is covering all bases with this new feature, which is excellent for brands wanting to reach as many new consumers as possible.
Yes. If you want to boost a Reel, it must be less than 60-seconds and have a 9:16 aspect ratio.
Instagram has also confirmed that Reels that use third party IP such as copyrighted music, GIFs, interactive stickers or camera filters, cannot be boosted. Reels shared to Facebook also cannot be turned into boosted ads.
#1 You can start boosting your Reels by finding the video on your profile, clicking the three dots under the Share button, and tapping on the ‘Boost Post’ button.
#2 If your Reel is eligible, and conforms to the requirements mentioned above, you will be taken to a ‘Goal’ page. Here’s where you select the type of outcomes you would like to achieve with this ad, including; more profile visits, more website visits or more engagement.
#3 Clicking ‘Next’ takes you to the ‘Define your audience’ page.
#4 After that, you’ll need to select your budget and the duration of the ad.
#5 Finally, you’ll be asked to review your ad. Once you’re happy with it, click ‘Boost post’. It will be reviewed and pushed live by Instagram, and you’ll have the ability to switch it off at any time.
#6 While your ad is running, remember to check your Insights to discover how it’s performing and learn what type of Reels content performs best for your audience.
According to data from Meta, and tips provided from our in-house Paid Media team, here are 3 things we think will help increase the performance of your boosted Reels:
This is something our Paid Media team looks at before boosting any type of content for clients. If it’s already performing well organically, then it’s likely to perform well as an ad. This tactic has driven up to 113x ROAS for Vamp clients.
So how do you know if a Reel is performing well organically? First, take a look at the views and the engagement it’s receiving. The more the better.
You can also take a look through the comments and see what people are saying about the video. Do they find it interesting, informative, or engaging? If the comments are positive, you have a winner!
Thanks to the rise of short-form video content, social users’ attention spans are decreasing. They spend less time watching a video all the way through and scroll onto the next one in a matter of seconds.
This means the first 3-seconds of your Reels content are critical to capturing and engaging a viewer’s attention for ad recall, brand awareness, and purchase intent. Showing your brand in the first 3-seconds will drive 44% more brand interest compared to when you show it at the end.
The following 7-seconds of your boosted Reel is your window of opportunity to get your key messages across to viewers. After that, viewers are more likely to keep scrolling.
So whether your ad is promoting your first product launch, latest sale, or spreading awareness around your new collection, use this time to highlight your ad’s purpose so viewers can be driven to action more swiftly.
Use these first 10-seconds to engage your customers so they want to watch for longer. We recommend featuring eye-catching transitions to increase engagement, and attention-grabbing language that feels native to Instagram.
Creators have the ability to promote your brand in the most authentic and genuine way. Their creativity is unmatched and they become advocates for your brand. They’re also pros at creating high-performing, high-quality short-form video content.
Vamp’s platform has streamlined the collaboration process between brands and creators, connecting you with our diverse, vetted community. Our talent sourcing software gives you the opportunity to find the perfect creators and scale content as needed.
You can make your selection based on verified audience and performance data, and manage the entire campaign, from briefing your creators to reporting on their performance, all within the platform.
Once your organic campaign has wrapped, you then have the option to run a paid media campaign through the Vamp platform.
We’ll boost your creators’ Reels content using the original content, caption, and influencer handle so it feels native to the platform, and use the app-native ad platform to target your audience with precision.
