Over time, organic marketing builds your brand, credibility, and brings in more revenue. However, if you’re looking to sell online courses quickly, try paid advertising. It’s a straightforward marketing tactic to promote your message and offer fast – and to the right people. 

Instagram is one of the best channels for paid advertising and course promotion. Like Facebook, Instagram is owned by Meta, and the company uses its robust ad platform to make advertising as simple and powerful as possible. You can use Meta Ads Manager to create and manage ads on Facebook and Instagram, but in this article, we focus on Instagram only. 

Let’s explore why and how you should use Instagram ads to sell your online courses. 

Why should you advertise on Instagram? 

Instagram is the third largest social media platform in the world, reaching two billion monthly active users. With such a large number of users, you’re able to reach targeted audiences who are most likely to interact with your content and brand. 

As mentioned, Instagram also uses Ads Manager from Meta. This ad platform allows you to create and manage multiple campaigns in an intuitive three-step process. You can even run the same ads on Facebook and Instagram, but more on that later. 

Besides a large network and robust platform, Instagram also offers:

• More engagement. According to Instagram, 90% of people follow a brand on Instagram and 87% say they take action after seeing a product on Instagram. 
• High return on investment. In a recent HubSpot report, Instagram was the social media channel that provided the highest ROI. 
• Flexible targeting. All ad campaigns are based on a single objective that drives users to take action. Plus, you can target based on demographics, interests, and behavior. 

If it’s done right, advertising on Instagram can greatly increase your brand awareness, course signups, and revenue. 

Types of Instagram ads 

Before advertising on Instagram,  you must first understand what it has to offer. Like Facebook, Instagram uses objective-based targeting so you can align ads directly with your business goals. For example, if you want traffic to your course landing page, choose the Traffic objective. 

Here are the six ad objectives:

Objective	Typical business goal
Awareness	• Reach the largest number of people  • Build familiarity with your brand
Traffic	• Increase traffic to a destination, such as your website or course landing page
Engagement	• Increase engagement with your brand and business • Find people who will take a desired action, such as messaging you, clicking your ad, and more
Leads	• Obtain more leads  • Get more signups or messages
App promotion	• Increase installs to a mobile app  • Increase in-app purchases
Sales	• Find people who will likely purchase your course or other offerings

In addition to these objectives, Instagram has multiple ad formats to choose from: 

• Images: Single images shown in square, landscape, or vertical format. 
• Videos: Videos may appear in landscape or square format. 
• Carousel: These ads may include images, videos, or both shown in a square or vertical format on Feed and Stories. 
• Instagram Stories: Stories ads can be a fullscreen vertical image or video, but they can support other sizes. 
• Reels: These ads must be fullscreen and vertical. 
• Instagram Shop: These ads will appear square and must be in a single-image, carousel, or collection format. 

Ads will appear in Instagram Feeds and Stories, plus the Explore grid. The exact ad appearance will vary depending on the format you choose and what placement you select. (The ad placement refers to where ads appear, such as the Instagram Feed, Reels, or Stories.) 

How to set up your first ad 

Now, you have a clear understanding of what Instagram ads have to offer. Let’s explore what you need beforehand. Then, we look at how to create your campaign, ad set, and ad. 

Before you start 

Before you begin advertising, you must first check a few things off your list. 

First, you’ll need a professional account on Instagram. You can choose from Business or Creator accounts – both offer advertising capabilities. 

Then, you’ll need a Facebook Page, which is for your business. To set one up, you must have a personal Facebook account and information about your business. Once you have a Facebook Page, you’ll automatically have an Ads Manager account. 

Lastly, have a payment method on file. Be sure to have an idea of your objective, budget, audience, and offer. You’ll also need your ad creative ready to go. 

Create a campaign 

To start advertising, you’ll need a campaign. The campaign drives the objective of your ad. Campaigns can have multiple ads sets and ads, and they’ll all have the same goal and objective. 

1. Go to Ads Manager, and then click Create.
2. Next, choose a campaign objective: Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App promotion, or Sales. 
3. Pick a buying type. Auction, the default buying type, will most likely be the best option for your campaign. 
4. Choose a campaign setup. “Recommended settings” is automatically selected. However, if you want to run ads exclusively on Instagram, select Manual campaign. This will allow you to control the ad placements and exclude Facebook. If you’re going to run the ads on Instagram and Facebook, you can proceed with Recommended settings. 
5. Fill in campaign details, like the campaign name. 

You also have the option to add a special ad category and A/B test or turn on the Advantage campaign budget. The Advantage campaign budget setting distributes your budget across your ad sets and helps optimize your overall campaign spending. If this setting is left unchecked, you’ll need to set a budget on the ad set level. 

Once you’re done with these sections, click Next in the bottom right corner to create an ad set. 

Create an ad set 

Now that your campaign is created, it’s time to make your first ad set. An ad set must be part of a campaign and consists of ads that share similar audiences and other settings. Its settings mostly include where, how, and when your ad will be shown. 

1. Give your ad set a name. 
2. Depending on your campaign objective, you may have to identify a conversion location. This can be your business Page, ad, website, or other destination. You may also need to specify a goal and when you get charged. 
3. If you didn’t select the Advantage campaign budget, you’ll need to set up your daily or lifetime budget for this ad set. 
4. Audience controls lets you choose where your ads will be displayed. Choose your preferred geographic locations and the audience’s minimum age and languages. 
5. You can further customize your audience in the Advantage+ audience section. Pick from audience demographics, interests, and behaviors, as well as age and gender. 
6. If you prefer to add block lists, topic exclusions, or other brand suitability controls, you can do so in the Placements section. 

Once you complete these steps, click Next in the bottom right corner to create an ad. 

Create an ad 

Once your campaign and ad set are complete, you can upload the ad creatives you want shown and create an ad. You can have a variety of ads in one single ad set. 

1. Give your ad a name. 
2. Select Partnership ad, if it is one. 
3. Select your associated Facebook Page. 
4. ​​Choose if you’re setting up a new ad (Create ad) or using an existing post. If it’s an existing post, you’ll need to choose which one. If you’re creating a new ad, you can choose its format. 
5. Now, choose your ad creative. Add media or video, text, headline, description, and call to action. 
6. Depending on your ad type, choose a destination for your ad. This is where people will go after they click on your ad. 
7. Add language translations to reach more people if you desire. 
8. Add tracking to monitor conversions from your ad if you desire. 
9. Preview your ad. 

Review this page and your ad a final time. If everything looks good, hit Publish in the bottom right. Your ad is now live! 

Instagram advertising tips for course creators 

After learning why and how to advertise on Instagram, here are some extra tips to make it easier and more effective:

• Check your analytics. Ads Manager comes with built-in reporting, so you always know how your ads are performing. You may find ones that could be tweaked or use a budget boost if they’re performing well. 
• Run the same ads on Facebook. Ads Manager was designed to run ads on Facebook or Instagram, so why not do both? Try running the same ads on both platforms for maximum results. You can even A/B test those placements to see which ones work best. 
• Be mobile-first. Instagram is a platform with a mobile-first design, so your ads should be, too. For the best results, make your ads look authentic to fit in with your selected placement. 
• Boost posts for quick promotion. We’ve covered how to create ads with Ads Manager, but you can also boost a post from your Instagram feed. However, it won’t have all the features Meta Ads Manager offers.  
• Experiment. After you start advertising, you can start experimenting with different placements, formats, creative, and targeting. You’ll be able to optimize your campaign further and achieve greater results. 

Build on LearnDash to advertise on Instagram  

Advertising is a quick, effective way to sell online courses. It should be a part of your overall course promotion strategy, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned course creator. So, start advertising on Instagram and see what it can do for you! 

Do you need a great course to advertise? Create one with LearnDash LMS, the ultimate learning management system for WordPress. It has everything you need to engage learners and grow revenue. Don’t have a WordPress site? Get StellarSites Learning to have a turnkey, fully-hosted website loaded with LearnDash LMS and other premium plugins. 

Try the LearnDash LMS demo for free today!