Let's talk Advertising on Insta

[LunaRing]

1; Have you done it? I'm talking Paid adds on one of the Biggest visual platform of our time.
2: If you did do Paid Adds on Instagram what did you learn?
3: Even if you haven't what are your thoughts on paying to get your content in front of readers? I kinda feel like its cheating, I kanda feel like it the system we live in... shrug

why am I bringing this up now? well obviously insta wants us to spend our money on adds (it's how they make income) so I've been seeing the prompts a lot and did a quick( I mean quick) look around at it and they can get my somewhat focused post in front of around 2,000 people for about a $1 a day. that doesn't seem crazy but as I'm not making anything off of this comic, spending is silly but if it get you a Parton you could theoretically pay for the adds... and to be completely honest I Know it works, because adds ( I mean a lot of adds) on FB is what got me to try webtoons and got me in to webcomics in the first place, to making my own comic and getting on tapas.

soooo 4:Thoughts? Mine are somewhere in the "people like what others have liked" so paying upfront for subs may prove to get more subs the whole way through your comic (ugh I hate the term but it applies) "groundswell" is really important and many of us don't have a huge fallowing online to get us going... for me right now my art isn't good enough to spend the money on but once I know I can hook people once they see it, I think I may try like $10 and see.....

5; If I did try it would you want to know how it turns out? would that be worth making another thread about and witch category would that go under? I keep a spread sheet on my daily webtoons like/sub/view so I have data to show the change if I try it.

[IamKeeks]

I'm not sure how it works, but it's probably not super worth it. Of the 2000 who see the ad, how many will actually click and take a look? You'll probably get a nice number of views, but out of that number, how many people will like our work enough to create an account (because they likely won't have one) and subscribe.

But that's just my opinion.

I don't think it's cheating, but it's a gamble. I'd probably do it once I hit 100 subs and start getting ad revenue.

[LunaRing]

I don't really know. however you can target to things like age, sex, region and interests like comics. so theoretically if you did some research on the demographic that reads this kind of comics you could be much more successful.

[doublemelon]

I have never done it, would love to see people's experience as well. But I will probably pay for ads once I actually get money from Patreon and such lol.

[joannekwan]

I'm interested in doing instagram ads, but I'm waiting until there's the option of not needing a linked facebook page for it. Or I'm waiting until I get the motivation to create a facebook page. Whichever comes first. ¯l_(ツ)_/¯

[darthmongoose]

I've tried it! Here are some things I've learned from experience and other things I've been told by friends:

1. Don't go through Insta. This was a mistake I made and I've been told by a reliable friend that it's better to make a Facebook business account and run your campaign through that, which will run your ad on Facebook, Insta and Messenger, hugely increasing audience reach.
2. Experiment with small campaigns with different ads, audiences and tags. I found with some iteration that my audience wasn't what I expected at all. I thought my work would appeal to people in their thirties because I'm in my thirties, but it actually got the most engagement from teens. My engagement from people my own age on Insta was so poor that I was able to increase reach hugely by just cutting that thirtysomethings demographic entirely.
3. So far I've tried a few campaigns, and the most successful was this one that's kind of aping the format of Tapas' campaigns:
   https://www.instagram.com/p/CJx8w8yBMya/
   From this, I'd assume that ads that describe the premise and tone more and show more content are more effective, which is probably why Tapas ads have this format. This one was vastly more effective than my animated ad and waaay more effective than just a single illo.
4. Be ready for a horrible clicks to subs ratio because nowadays apps don't like sending you to other apps, or even to your browser of choice. Links to Tapas from insta will open in a browser inside insta, and it will really make things annoying, but there's not much can be done about it.
5. Keep trying. People are more likely to actually try a thing if they've seen it a few times.

[joannekwan]

Thanks for the juicy advice!

Guess I will wait for the motivation to make a fb page then.

[doublemelon]

I have never really browsed instagram so I didnt know what Tapas ads look like. But thank you for the example, now I know how to format my future ads!

[crowstories]

Damn, you are, as ever, a fount of knowledge.

[DiegoPalacios]

I'm not sure how it works, but it's probably not super worth it. Of the 2000 who see the ad, how many will actually click and take a look? You'll probably get a nice number of views, but out of that number, how many people will like our work enough to create an account (because they likely won't have one) and subscribe.

Choosing the site you are linking users is key. Some creators host their own website with their comic and merch, so they may have an easier time getting results like new readers and people buying merch.........

[thecrystalrook]

Don't do it, it's not worth it unless you can guarantee people will jump for your content. I had my stuff in front of about 3000 people per day and it really only amounted to a lot of likes, but only a handful of clicks (none of which turned into sales).