The Lowdown on Instagram Video Ads
Instagram users watch a lot of videos. Over the last couple of years, viewing rates for videos on Instagram have increased by 80%. With this in mind, Instagram has now made it very easy for businesses to create Video Ads to promote their brands and their products and services.
Right now 25% of Instagram Ads are Video Ads and the number is growing. With Instagram being a visual platform, it makes perfect sense for you to create compelling videos in order to increase your following, drive traffic to your website or online store and increase your conversions.
You can create a real attention grabbing video ad with a video file or an animated GIF. Videos are a really great way to showcase your business, and the best ones have very high engagement levels. Here, we will provide you with the complete lowdown on the specifications for video ads.
General Video Ad Specifications
There are different sizes of Video Ad, which we will discuss in detail a little later. There are a few general specifications that you need to know about:
- All popular video formats supported, such as MP4 and MOV. You can also use GIF format
- The maximum video file upload size is 4 GB
- The maximum duration of a video is 120 seconds
- 30 frames per second is the maximum for all video formats
With a video ad, you can use the following calls to action:
- Apply now
- Download
- Contact us
- Call now
- Book now
Different Video Ad Sizes
It is very easy to make a mess of things when you are creating Video ads, so it is essential that you pay attention to the right sizes and specifications. Some people find getting Video Ads right pretty tricky, but you will be fine if you follow the information below on different sizes and specifications.
The Landscape Video Ad
Just like a landscape image, you can use a Landscape Video Ad to feature wider videos. This is a good idea if you want to use a cinematic approach to some of your videos. The wider Landscape Video Ads can have a greater impact on Instagram users than other video sizes.
Here are the important specifications for a Landscape Video Ad:
- The minimum resolution for a Landscape Video Ad on Instagram is 600 X 315 pixels
- The correct aspect ratio for a Landscape Video Ad is 1:91:1
The Square Video Ad
When you choose the Square Video Ad for Instagram, you will not notice many changes. It is very important that you check to see how everything will appear on a mobile device, including the call to action. Sometimes with this video size, you can crop important aspects.
Here are the important specifications for a Square Video Ad:
- The minimum resolution for a Square Video Ad on Instagram is 600 X 600 pixels
- The correct aspect ratio for a Square Video Ad is 1:1
The Vertical Video Ad
The Vertical Video is a common sight on Instagram. When you take video with your smartphone, it will be in this format. It is very important that you pay particular attention to the aspect ratio and the resolution with vertical video.
Here are the important specifications for a Vertical Video Ad:
- The minimum resolution for a Vertical Video Ad on Instagram is 600 X 750 pixels
- The correct aspect ratio for a Vertical Video Ad is 4:5
Getting The Best from Instagram Analytics
Do you really know what is going on with your Instagram account? We are not just talking about Instagram Ads here, but your overall marketing performance with the platform. The good news is that you can learn a great deal about how things are working out for you with Instagram Analytics.
A lot of businesses that use Instagram don’t really know what is going on with their accounts. You need to know how many views your Instagram Ads are getting as well as how well your stories and conventional posts are doing.
Potential Problems With Your Instagram Account
If you are running your Instagram account blind and don’t know what is really going on, then you could have all kinds of issues that you could do something about. One of the biggest issues you could face is targeting the wrong audience. You are not going to get optimum results from your Instagram Ads if you target the wrong people.
How about your posting frequency? Are you making too many posts or not enough? With your Instagram Ads, are you driving the right visitors to your website? If the ad is driving the right kind of visitors from Instagram, are you using this ad enough to get more good traffic?
Getting the most from your Instagram Ads and conventional posts is all about engagement. So do you know how well you are doing from an engagement point of view? You need to know the number of comments, shares and likes that your posts are receiving.
There are more things that you need to know when using an Instagram account for marketing. By taking a look at your Instagram metrics, you will discover what is working and what isn’t, and then you can take the appropriate action.
Important Areas to Check with Instagram Analytics
There is a vast amount of information available to you from Instagram Analytics, and it can be quite overwhelming if you are new to it. So to help you, we have identified the most important areas that you should focus on as a minimum.
Audience Analytics
If you don’t get your target audience right, then you will never get the results that you want. You can find out a great deal of information in Instagram Analytics about your audience.
Here’s what we recommend you take a look at first:
- Best locations – here you can see the top 5 locations where your followers live
- Age ranges – what is the age range of your followers? Within Analytics Instagram breaks age ranges down by 13 to 17, 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, 45 to 54, 55 to 64 and 65 and over.
- Gender – here you can see how many of your followers are male or female
- Follower hours – with this, you can see the average time of day your followers are logged on
- Follower days – the days of the week your followers are active
Post Analytics
You can see the following about your posts:
- Interactions – what did users do e.g. visit your profile, visit your website etc
- Discovery – are users finding your content using the Discovery feature?
- Follows – the number of new followers you get from a post
- Reach – unique users that the post reached
- Impressions – views to your posts
- Comments – how many comments on your posts
Stories Analytics
You can use Analytics to see how your stories are doing:
- Impressions – number of views to your stories
- Reach – unique users that viewed your stories
- Exits – number of exits from your stories
- Replies – the number of replies to a specific element of your stories
