Learn content strategies, platform-specific tips, social media advertising, and monitoring social media metrics for growth.

Social Media

Posting on your business’s Instagram page is only half the fun, the other half is looking at your insights and measuring the success of your posts and ads, and adjusting as necessary. In this blog, we will discuss Instagram insights, how to create an Instagram ad, and how to measure your success.

Instagram business accounts are great because they let you track the success of stories, posts, and promotions. Here’s how to see those insights:

Select the post, story, or promotion you would like to research

Track the insights of a particular post by going into the Insights page and clicking on the post you’d like to research. Once there you’ll find helpful metrics for your post like:

Impressions- this is how many people took an action from your post like visiting your profile or using the call/email button attached to your post

Likes- how many times people liked your post

Comments-how many comments the post received

Saves-how many times your post was saved to a user’s Saved folder

Discovery- how many people found your post from the Discovery page, how many users found your post from their home feed,

Follows- how many new followers were gained from the post

Instagram tracks audience insights as well. It tracks a user’s age demographics, gender, and location. The location can be set to a country or a specific city, so small businesses can find this feature extremely useful. This audience insights page also contains:

The hours your followers are most active each day

The Activity tab lets you track weekly Interactions, Reach, and Impressions. This can give you an idea of how well your page performs. Some other helpful features you can track in the profile analytics page include:

Profile visits- how many times users visited your profile

Website clicks- how many times people clicked on your website from your profile

Call/email clicks- how many times people clicked the call/email call-to-action buttons on your profile

Mentions- how many times people mentioned you using your Instagram handle

The quickest way to gain a following on Instagram and start achieving your goals is to place paid ads. You should be targeting your demographic with these ads to increase sales and brand awareness. Here’s a quick rundown of how to create an Instagram ad:

If you don’t have one already you will need to create a business Facebook page since the apps are connected and the Ads Manager is run through Facebook.

In the Ads Manager select the ad objective, target audience, and ad format. You can also select a post you’ve already created and tap Promote. Instagram will do the work for you of selecting an audience to view your ads. This is recommended unless you feel very comfortable and knowledgeable about your target audience and how to use the Ad Manager.

Choose your maximum budget and how long your ad should run.

Publish your ad, once it is reviewed and approved you will get a notification that indicates it’s ready to run.

When measuring success on Instagram it’s important to remember why you created it. Was it to gain followers, get more bookings, build brand awareness? Here are three important metrics to consider when measuring success on Instagram:

Brand awareness ties into previously discussed topics like posting high-quality content, posting consistently, and targeting the right audience. When you do these things well a following comes naturally. These are the metrics for measuring brand awareness:

Followers- Watch your follower count over time. This will grow slowly at first then exponentially when you start posting more frequently and running ads.

Reach- Reach tracks the accounts viewing your stories, posts, profile. The great thing about this metric though is that it only measures new accounts viewing these things. So the same account viewing your profile more than once won’t skew the data. Over time your reach should improve steadily.

Impressions- Impressions are similar to reach in that it measures how many users view your stories, profile, and posts. The only difference is this metric can be skewed because it counts the total number of impressions, so if someone views your profile more than once it will count multiple views. It’s still a helpful tool if you want to measure how your posts are affecting your profile views or how your stories are affecting if people are looking at your profile, but reach is a better metric to measure how many new people you’re reaching.

Placing paid ads is a crucial part of a business’s success on Instagram. Track how your ads are performing with the following metrics:

Website Clicks- It’s likely if your advertising a product you’ll place a ‘Shop Now’ button on the ad that brings an Instagram user to your website. Track these metrics to figure out how well your ads are doing. Visit the Activity page in the Insights to see how many website clicks you’re getting

Email/Call Clicks- If your goal for creating Instagram ads was to receive emails or calls track how many of these are coming from Instagram with your Activity tab in the Insights page.

Success of ads- What ads are generating your desired results? Ask yourself if its the content that’s accompanying your ad, the copy, the time of day you posted it. Figure out what ads work for your business and replicate that.

Follower counts and leads are great, but are you building a genuine relationship? Brands that build a genuine community have the most success long term. Here are some important metrics when considering your community engagement on Instagram:

Comments- This shows people are engaging with your content. You want to build a community and have a dialogue with your followers. It’s crucial that you have people commenting and that you respond to these comments.

Story replies- If a user is invested in your business they are likely to watch your story and reply. How many replies you get is a good measure of how good of a relationship your building with followers

User-generated content- Are people frequenting your business or using your product/service and creating content based on it? This is one of the biggest factors to look at. If a customer is really invested in your product they will advertise for you. This shows you have a quality business. It’s very important to engage with these users when they post about your business since it opens a dialogue and creates a deeper relationship.

We touched on the importance of engaging with your community earlier. It’s also important to engage with other businesses in your area and industry. Being active and commenting on other’s posts is not just showing your support, but it’s getting your business out there in another way where potential followers or customers could see it. Instagram’s algorithm also favors people who exchange DM’s, comment, and like other’s posts. So if they’re following you you’re more likely to appear at the top of their Home page. This is crucial for engagement rates.

If you would like to outsource your social media advertising to experts contact us 

 or by phone. We have two offices to serve you. The number for the Tampa location is (813) 556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas location is (702) 515-2057.

How To Successfully Advertise On Instagram

 people to/from your business and grant them permission to assets in your Meta Business Manager. These steps are for adding individual people to your Business Manager, not partners such as other businesses. Learn more 

. We recommend that you add most people as employees and only grant admin access to those who need it to perform their job.

Don't add people to your Business Manager if you don't know them

. People you don’t trust may create fake accounts and request access to your Business Manager. If you’re unsure if a request is authentic, contact the person to confirm they initiated the request and that you’re comfortable adding them to your Business Manager.

Facebook never asks for access to a Business Manager

. If a business that claims it's Facebook asks you to add them to your Business Manager, it's not a legitimate request. We recommend that you deny the request and 

Third-party businesses can't get you verified

. If a business claims it can help get your business verified on Facebook and wants you to add them to your Business Manager, it’s not a legitimate request. We recommend that you 

. You can only complete business verification through the Business info section of Business settings. It doesn't require any specific person to have access to your Business Manager. Learn more 

We strongly recommend all users of your Business Manager enable two-factor authentication

. Two-factor authentication is a security feature applied at the personal Facebook account level that requires individuals to enter a special security code each time they try to access Facebook from a browser or mobile device we don't recognize. Note that if you created your Business Manager 90 days ago or longer, we require all business admins and employees with advertising access to turn on two-factor authentication on their Facebook accounts. To help protect your Business Manager, we’ll restrict people who don’t turn on two-factor authentication from advertising with any ad accounts associated with your Business Manager.

How to add people to your Meta Business Manager

Enter the work email address of the person you want to add.

Select the role you'd like to assign them. Be sure to read the description for each role. Choose either 

Select the asset and the task access you want to assign the person.

The person will get an invitation to join your Business Manager in their email inbox.

How to Add People to Meta Business Manager

Add Instagram business accounts to your Meta Business Manager. Then associate them to ad accounts or partners that are also in your Business Manager. Like other assets you add to your Business Manager, you can assign task-based permissions for Instagram business accounts in 

To add an Instagram business account to your Business Manager, you must have the username and password for the account.

The Instagram business account you’re trying to add can’t be owned by another business. Instagram business accounts can only be claimed by one Business Manager.

 can add Instagram business accounts in the Business Manager.

If your Instagram business account is linked to a Facebook Page, you should add both your Facebook Page and Instagram business account to the same Business Manager. Learn how to 

To associate an ad account with an Instagram business account, the ad account and Instagram business account must already be in the same Business Manager. You can't associate ad accounts to Instagram business accounts in a different Business Manager.

Add an Instagram account to your Business Manager

To add an Instagram account in your Business Manager:

Enter your Instagram username and password. 

: We may send you a security code to the email or phone number associated with the account to verify your identity.

You'll have the option to select the ad accounts and Pages you'd like to assign on the next screen. Click 

. You can also click the X to skip this step.

Once you’ve added an Instagram account to your Business Manager, you can add people and assign them permissions to carry out certain tasks, such as create and manage content, manage community activity and view insights. To add people to your Instagram account:

Select a person from the left-hand column. Then toggle on the tasks you want to grant permissions for. A blue toggle means it’s on, and gray means it’s off.

You have now added and assigned permissions for your Instagram business account in Business Manager.

Add an Instagram Account to Your Meta Business Manager

If you've ever shopped online, chances are that you've seen and considered reviews for merchants you shop with and products that you've browsed. Customers prefer real testimonials to marketing fluff, so it's no surprise that reviews are the fastest growing social marketing tool for online stores. According to a 2012 study, almost 33% of shoppers trust reviews over a particular brand or its marketing. If you're considering adding reviews to your website or online store, there are a few things you should know.

Online reviews are a becoming a big factor in determining your placement in search and shopping results. Total number of reviews, review quality and length, and trust of your review platform all play a big role. A 2013 study reported that almost 85% of users considered reviews before visiting a new restaurant, hiring a contractor, or making a major purchase, so it's no wonder that search engines take reviews into account more than in the past.

In general, there are 3 different types of reviews.

 are a measure of trust in your business in general. When someone fills out a merchant review, they're reviewing your customer service, shipping time, and overall quality of shopping experience. Merchant reviews are powerful incentives to trust your brand.

 rate the quality of individual products. Product reviews help build trust in the particular brand of a product, and allow customers to read personal stories from other buyers who've used that product, as well as share those reviews on social media. In fact, 42% of all Amazon customers have left product reviews, and products with postiive review have sold 200% more than those with no ratings. The best and most trusted review programs only allow reviews from someone who has actually bought that product.

 are reviews you collect either in your physical business location or on the go (using a tablet or phone, for instance). You can then syndicate that review to many online lists and social media platforms to get you the most exposure available when someone searches your business.

While you can always install a simple review plugin or use whatever comes built-in with your e-commerce platform of choice, it's far better to have reviews collected by a Google and/or Microsoft approved third-party review company. Those reviews are guaranteed to be from actual customers, which means they can't be faked. Depending on who is collecting your reviews, can be used to boost your visibility and attractiveness in Google Adwords, Google Shopping, Yahoo and Bing ad networks.

We've found Shopper Approved to be the best review company overall. Their prices are highly competitive and their customer service is top notch. Their review management tools are easy to use, and they're one of the most trusted names in the business. Shopper Approved collected 70% more review and are historically more visible on search engines than their competitors. Most importantly, their ratings are fed to Google so shoppers will see your review stars when browsing Google shopping.

Want to get started with reviews for your website or online store today? Ventura can set you up with a 30-day free trial of Shopper Approved. For more information, 

The Importance of Online Reviews

Give someone access and permissions to manage Pages in Meta Business Manager.

You must have full control of the Business Account to add people to Pages.

The person you're assigning Pages to must be 

To add people to Pages in Business Manager:

Select the person you want to give access to.

Select the Page you'd like to share access to. Toggle on the tasks you'd like to grant permissions for. Or give them full control of the Page.

Resources for Success

Learn Social Media

How To Successfully Advertise On Instagram

How to Add People to Meta Business Manager

Add an Instagram Account to Your Meta Business Manager

The Importance of Online Reviews

Give Someone Access and Permissions to Manage Pages in Meta Business Manager

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