Instagram advertising costs for small businesses in South Africa (2023)

Instagram ads cost | Things to know before you start

Countless small businesses operating online miss out on reaching bigger audiences through Instagram advertising because they simply do not have enough information. But once you have an idea of how much this will cost you and how beneficial it is, you’ll want to start planning your next Instagram ad campaign in no time.

But first, here are some essential things you should be clued up on before investing in Instagram marketing.

What are Instagram ads?

Simply put, Instagram ads are posts that promote a brand/business’s products or services. If you have an Instagram account, you’ll have likely come across many paid advertisements. From a post made by your local coffee shop to a professionally launched ad campaign created by Nike or Maybelline, ads are virtually all over the platform.

These will display the word “sponsored” at the top, which helps differentiate them from normal, organic posts.

How do Instagram ads work?

Ads appearing on Instagram usually contain some form of a call-to-action button that links to your website, allowing users to shop your online store. These ads appear in users’ feeds, stories, or explore pages in the same way organic content shows up from other accounts on the platform. You can post ads directly from your own account unless it’s sponsored posts or paid partnerships.

Usually, only Instagram users who follow your business page will see your posts on their feeds. But sponsored ad posts are shown to a specific audience, including those not yet following you, putting your content in front of new eyes.

Why should you run Instagram ads for your online business?

All online businesses looking to grow should consider advertising on Instagram. Whether these are stories, posts, videos, or images – the visuals can help drive awareness and increase your customer base.

Let’s consider more reasons why investing in Instagram may be beneficial to your business.

1. You can reach a larger audience: Instagram currently has over one billion monthly users, ranking only second after Facebook. With so many users, your brand or business will no doubt reach more potential customers.
2. Instagram advertising utilises advanced targeting: Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram have a vast array of targeting data. This includes comprehensive demographic and geographic data that allows you to target various audiences since you know their interests, locations, behaviours, and more.
3. You’re guaranteed higher engagement rates: Instagram has such high engagement rates that images on the platform receive an average of 23% more interaction than when shared on Facebook. Whether organically or paid, this is good for any online business that needs to reach a wider audience.
4. Facebook and Instagram are connected: If you’ve already used Facebook marketplace , it’s straightforward to start advertising on its sister platform since the two are connected. You can find your target audience based on Facebook’s data and use features such as budgeting, ad creation, and scheduling tasks to start advertising on Instagram.
5. Instagram ads are non-intrusive and less likely to annoy your audience.
6. E-commerce stores can easily integrate with the platform, instantly allowing you to start selling.
7. The platform determines the success of an ad campaign depends on reach and recall instead of likes, comments, and follower counts: This means that you don’t need millions of followers and thousands of likes or comments to run a successful ad campaign on Instagram, which is ideal for small or start-up businesses.
8. Instagram is cost-effective and less time-consuming than other online marketing channels.

How to start advertising on Instagram

To start advertising on Instagram, you can choose one of two methods: free or paid marketing.

Free Marketing

Before you start, set up a new account for your small business. Instagram allows you to have two accounts, one for personal use and the other for business purposes. Then, you can integrate your Instagram, Facebook, and e-commerce store and instantly start selling to your followers.

Paid Marketing

You can pay to promote your content on Instagram, and since 2015, the platform has offered ad spots to all businesses. This is the most profitable way to advertise on the app, and there are four main types of ads you can choose from, which we’ll cover in the next section.

Different formats for Instagram advertisements

1. Instagram photo ads – Use the image format and post visually engaging content to promote your small business or brand.
2. Instagram carousel ads – This type of advertising draws attention to your products and prompts users to swipe to see additional images and call to action on your official website.
3. Instagram video ads – Video ads can play for up to 60 seconds, allowing you to show off products or services engaging and effectively. An example is showcasing new merch or a fashion collection with a short video.
4. Instagram stories ads – This in-app feature allows you to post images or videos within a 24-hour window period. These are excellent ways to remain active and engage with your followers on the platform.

What is required to start advertising on Instagram?

Here are some steps you can follow to start advertising on Instagram:

1. Set up your Instagram business account and integrate it with your online shop.
2. Choose your target audience. Defining your audience helps with more intelligent ad targeting, enabling you to determine how to present your ads to appeal to your ideal customer.
3. Decide on your budget, and adjust your ad campaign on Facebook Business Manager.
4. Create ads that match your objectives and fit your business goals. This includes writing ad copy, reviewing how ads display on different devices, etc.
5. Link your Instagram business account with other social media apps like Facebook and Pinterest to boost reach and visibility.
6. Test which ads perform the best to get insight into what works for your business. Create an A/B test to determine which ad type receives the most engagement and clicks. This will also help you narrow down the best target audience, how to further optimise content, and which product earns more attention.

Are Instagram ads a good option for small businesses in South Africa?

Yes. Small South African businesses can benefit from using Instagram’s paid advertising. Brands and companies can use the app’s targeted ads feature to reach new customers and spread awareness. As of May 2023, South Africa has about 7.15 million Instagram users, nearly 12% of the population.

You can reach thousands, if not millions, of users in South Africa alone if you launch a successful ad campaign. Advertising on Instagram is a much cheaper and more effective option in the country than TV/newspaper ads or outdoor media.

Also, Instagram Business is free to use, and the app offers deeper insights into followers’ demographics, how they engage with your content, and even how well your posts are doing.

Cost of Instagram ads in South Africa | A full breakdown

Here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for – how much it’s going to cost you to advertise on Instagram.

Can I advertise on Instagram for free?

Posting and promoting your products on Instagram does not have to cost you a penny. This is excellent news for small businesses that do not have the funds for online marketing or are just starting up. How is it possible to advertise on Instagram cost-free?

Instagram used to have a ‘shopping tag’ feature on your post that users may click on. After clicking the tag, viewers can access more details about your products and even purchase them immediately. While this sounds ideal, this feature is no longer available since March 16, 2023.

So, what other option do you have to advertise on Instagram for free? Here’s how:

• Run contests or giveaways: This is one of the quickest ways to promote your brand on Instagram and will excite your target audience, prompting them to take action for a chance of winning a prize.
• Use hashtags: Use relevant hashtags efficiently to attract the right audience, leading to an increased following and potential customers.
• Create savable content: These are things like helpful tutorials, tips or even funny memes that users would want to save. Having content that prompts users to tap the “save” button boosts engagement.
• Add Instagram content to your website: If you have Instagram images or videos on your sites, this may encourage visitors to explore your Instagram content and hit the “follow” button. So they’ll be able to follow you without leaving your site.

How much does an Instagram ad cost in South Africa?

Already established and looking to grow your small business exponentially? It might be a great idea to start investing in Instagram advertising.

If you’re familiar with Facebook Ads, you’ll be happy to know that Instagram’s ad system is similar. So, if you know how to run Facebook ads, you’ll also have an easy time running Instagram ads – plus, they both operate on the Facebook Business Manager platform.

Regardless, there’s still a fee you need to pay to run your ads on these platforms. For Instagram, it’s tough to say precisely how much it’ll cost you, as this figure will depend on many variables.

Instead, we’ll give you an average estimation of how much Instagram-sponsored ads cost.

Instagram cost-per-click (CPC)

Expect to pay between R7.66 – R13.40 per click — it’s about R12 on average in South Africa. This accounts for all clicks on your posts, whether likes, comments, or shares. The price will increase slightly to about R9.57 – R19.15 for clicks with a destination URL.

You’ll also pay much more if your business competes with highly competitive industries like apparel. To give you an idea, expect the price of Instagram ads to soar up to R57.44 per link click if you’re wanting to promote a post about fashion items like shoes, clothing, and accessories.

Instagram cost per thousand impressions (CPM)

The typical cost for Instagram per thousand impressions ranges between R47.87 to R67 for campaigns that perform well. However, this price may shoot up significantly based on your target market, your competition, and other variables. This explains why the current average Instagram ad cost per month is around R110 in South Africa.

How much should a small South African business spend on Instagram ads?

Small businesses generally pay for clicks, likes, video views, or post engagement when advertising on the app. This means you’ll need a daily minimum budget of at least R47.87. Budget for a minimum of R9.57 per day for ad sets charged for impressions and no less than around R47.87 daily

Factors that influence Instagram ad prices

As you’ve seen above, Instagram ad costs depend on your bidding model, such as cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand-impression (CPM). However, how much an Instagram ad costs will rely on other variables as well. These follow the same rules as its parent company, Facebook, when calculating ad costs.

• Bid Price: Before paying for advertising, you’ll choose a bidding amount that tells the platform how much you’re willing to pay for your ad to be placed. Manual bidding shows the app how much you’re ready to pay, and automatic bidding lets it choose your bid to match the best price for the most engagements.
• Targeted audience and competition: Instagram ad pricing increases when other businesses compete to show ads to your target audience.
• Ad quality and relevance: Facebook and Instagram score ads based on how relevant they are to your targeted audience and how they react. Your ad’s score increases when users respond positively to it and, naturally, decreases when the response is negative. Ads with high relevance scores are placed over those with lower scores.
• Time of year: The price will increase during heavier advertising periods like Christmas, New Year, or Valentine’s Day. This results from all advertisers fighting for ad space, which pushes prices due to the level of competition. This is something to keep in mind before preparing your budget.

How to make the most out of Instagram ads for your budget

Advertising on Instagram is not a one-size-fits-all since each brand or business will have a unique ad campaign and distinct objectives. But there are some neat tips and tricks you can implement to boost engagement and encourage sales. There are also ways to help lower ad costs and some marketing trends to stay ahead of your competition.

This allows you to make the most out of the feature so you don’t waste your time and marketing budget.

Top tips and tricks for Instagram ad costs

As with most small business owners, you want to make sure your money spent on advertising pays off – and the following tips might help with that.

Post as many videos as possible.

Any form of visual content performs well on Instagram, but brands often see more engagement from posting videos. To be more precise, that’s about 38% more engagement than images.

Also, Instagram Feed and Explore videos can last up to one minute, while Stories can be added for 15 seconds. This allows you to run ad placements that are long enough to convey your brand, show off products, explain their benefits, how users can purchase your products, and much more.

Add links to your captions

When creating a new post for your feed, make sure to add external links in the caption, description, or message. Note that Instagram does not allow clickable links in organic posts. You can get around this by adding it to your caption, but users must copy and paste the link into their browser.

Alternatively, you can direct the recipient to visit the link in your Instagram bio. Either way, users will land on your website or online store by clicking on the external URL.

Optimise your Instagram bio

Optimising your Instagram bio is one of the first things to do when creating an Instagram Businesses account. Adding an external link is one way to ensure that customers reach your online store, as mentioned above, but there are more details you can add to improve your bio. These include your email address, physical address, contact details, and a short business description.

Use high-quality Images

Instagram is strictly a visual medium, and you need to capitalise on that by showing off your merchandise with superb photography. This will help showcase the quality of your products as most people shop with their eyes. Many users may simply follow your page because they appreciate eye-catching Instagram grid posts.

Professional-looking and aesthetically pleasing visuals will make a good first impression on new followers (potential customers).

Write appealing captions

The copy you add to your captions is much more important than you think. Engaging or intriguing captions can lead to more users interacting with your posts. Excellent captions can generate comments and start conversations that tell Instagram to promote your content to its users.

Ensure your copy is engaging from the first word since the app crops text previews to the first two lines. Utilise recent hashtags, trendy words, phrases, emojis, bullet points, numbers, and action verbs like “tap” and “share” to encourage engagement and keep things fun or exciting.

How to lower your Instagram ad cost

Let’s look at ways you can reduce your Instagram ad costs.

• Optimise your ad delivery: Try optimising your ads for desired results. A great targeting plan ensures that your ads end up on the right screens, increasing relevancy and your chances of having your ad placed over others. This will help drive down your advertising costs.
• Allow Facebook to place your ads on other networks: If your online business is integrated on both Instagram and Facebook, you can allow the latter to place your ads on the main Facebook platform and the Audience Network. Doing so can help reduce the average cost of your ad.
• Split-test your ads: You can determine precisely what ad type to run and who to target by split-testing your ads based on audience age, location, and other data sets. This helps you avoid spending your ad budget on an audience who’s not interested.
• Use landing pages: These are the site pages that users land on after clicking on your ad. When people spend more time on your landing page, it will positively impact your ads as it increases your relevance score. This can help reduce ad costs and increase advertising return on investment (ROI) in the long run.

Top trends for Instagram advertising in 2023

Keep up with the fast-paced social media world by incorporating the latest and most popular trends into your advertising.

Here are the top Instagram trends for 2023 to look out for:

• Be authentic and genuine. Authenticity sells like hotcakes on all platforms because it shows your passion and care towards your brand. People are more likely to trust you and could become loyal customers.
• Reels are dominating the app. Instagram Reels have been trending hugely since 2022, and for a good reason. They are interactive, informative and entertaining, vital to growing a following/audience.
• Partner with other small businesses. Brand collaborations are a win-win situation for both parties who choose to work together. If you collaborate with a more popular brand, you can increase your exposure and get more visibility. These collabs can also send more authority your way, urging people to trust your brand more since an already trusted business decided to work with yours.
• Boost your quality organic content. Make it a priority to boost the organic content that performs well on your page, this may help increase visibility and reach on the app.
• Start posting video memes. Silly as this sounds, memes are funny and relatable and have great potential to go viral. Posting something someone can relate to or laugh at can bring you a higher engagement rate and followers who appreciate your brand’s humour and human nature.

Cost of advertising on Instagram vs. Facebook

Generally speaking, you’re looking at paying around R8 to R30 per click on Facebook ads, which is not far off from what you’d pay on Instagram. Of course, regarding Facebook Advertising, the costs vary significantly due to the sheer volume of users on the platform.

The average cost per click based on advertising objective is as follows:

• Impressions: Facebook ± R20 / Instagram ± R11
• Link Clicks: Facebook ± R2 / Instagram ± R14.50
• Reach: Facebook ± R16 / Instagram R0.19 – R0.96
• Conversions: Facebook ± R100 / Instagram ± R68
• Lead Generation: Facebook ± R10 / Instagram ± R14.50
• Story ad: Facebook ± R10.53 / Instagram ± R12.64
• Feed ad: Facebook ± R100 / Instagram ± R35.61