In this article we describe the steps in order, so you can launch ads yourself. At the end: what the cost of ads depends on and how to plan your budget.
What do you need before you start?
- A professional account: in Instagram settings, switch your account to “Business” or “Creator”.
- A Facebook Page: your Instagram must be linked to it. The ad account works through it.
- A payment card: Meta accepts international cards, usually Visa or Mastercard. Many banks issue such a card quickly, including virtual cards.
- A ready profile: after the click, people land on your profile. It should show what you do, the price or how to find it out, and your work.
Step 1. Open an ad account
Create an ad account through Meta Business Suite or Ads Manager. Choose the currency and time zone carefully: you can’t change them later in this account, and you would have to open a new one.
Check: who has access to the ad account? The owner of the account and the page should always be the business owner. A specialist gets a role, not your password.
Step 2. Choose the campaign objective
This is the most important decision. Meta delivers the result you ask for:
- Messages: if you want people to write to your DMs. The best starting objective for many businesses selling services and products.
- Leads: if you need a request with a name and phone number.
- Traffic or Sales: if you need website visitors or purchases on your website. To measure sales, Meta Pixel must be installed on the website.
- Reach and Views: for brand awareness. Don’t expect requests from this objective.
Step 3. Set up the audience
Start with location: if your service is available only in Tashkent, showing ads to all of Uzbekistan is throwing money away. Then age and, if needed, language. Don’t narrow the audience with dozens of interests: leave the system room to find the right people.
Check: where will the ads be shown? With automatic placements, they can appear on Facebook and elsewhere. If you only need Instagram, choose placements manually.
Step 4. Prepare the creative and copy
Your ad appears in the feed among other posts, and a person gives it one or two seconds. The product and the benefit should be visible in the first frame. The copy should have a concrete offer and a next step: “Message us in Direct to find out the price.”
Prepare not one but 3–5 different creatives: an image, a video, Reels. Nobody knows for sure in advance which one will work best. The test will show.
Step 5. Set the budget and schedule
You choose a daily or a lifetime budget. After launch, each ad set goes through a learning phase of a few days. During this time, don’t change the ads every day, or results won’t stabilize.
Check: wait at least a week, then draw conclusions. Turn off the creative with the worst result and move the budget to the one that performs better.
Step 6. Track the results
Look not only at the numbers in Ads Manager, but also at sales. Keep a simple weekly table: how much was spent, how many requests came in, how many of them became sales. This is the only way to see whether the ads pay off.
The job of ads is not views and likes, but requests and sales. Measure exactly that.
How much do Instagram ads cost?
There is no single number, because the cost has two parts.
The first is the ad budget. It is paid directly to Meta. Meta ads are sold through an auction, so the same result can cost different amounts. The price depends on:
- the size of the audience and how many other advertisers compete for it;
- the season: during holidays and at the end of the year competition grows and ads get more expensive;
- the quality of the creative: ads people like are shown at a lower cost;
- the chosen objective: a request costs more than a view.
The second is the setup and management service, if you hand this to a specialist. At Damar, targeted ads start at $500. This includes competitor ad analysis, defining the audience and the offer, creatives, ad account and Pixel setup, A/B tests and regular reporting. The ad budget is separate.
The main planning rule: the budget should be enough to test several creatives and collect results for at least a week. With too small a budget, the system doesn’t have time to learn, and you reach the wrong conclusion that “ads don’t work”. If your ads are already running without results, read our article on 7 reasons your ads bring no customers.
Whether you launch ads yourself or hand them to a team, the first consultation is free: together we’ll decide which objective and what budget your business should start with.