How to Run Campaign Ads on Instagram

Social media platforms like Instagram have become indispensable tools for reaching potential voters. Candidates who learn to leverage Instagram for advertising can significantly boost their campaign's visibility and engagement. 

However, navigating the process and understanding the platform's requirements for political advertising can be challenging. 

This guide will offer a practical, step-by-step approach to running political ads on Instagram. We’ll also go over the platform's specific requirements for political advertising.

Why Use Instagram for Campaign Ads? 

Instagram is known as a platform for influencers. While politicians certainly want to influence voters to act, the storytelling aspect of this social media platform is what resonates with the public.

Instagram Stories provides independent candidates with the ability to connect with voters on an emotional level by detailing their political journey in short, inspirational bursts. 

Following a candidate’s personal and professional journey is one of the ways the platform is able to help you build an audience quickly and keep them invested in your success. As a mainly visual platform that relies heavily on images and short reels to tell a story, you’re able to:

• Demonstrate to potential voters how you interact with your community in person and at campaign events

• Present behind-the-scenes glimpses of your political campaign

• Provide content that keeps voters engaged and connected on an emotional level 

In short, Instagram helps the public feel like they’re really a part of the campaign. It’s good for pre-campaign brand building and policy sharing, for demonstrating campaign momentum and building enthusiasm, and for making supporters feel a part of your campaign’s successes along the way. 

With a reach of more than 2 billion active users every month, you’ll have access to a wide range of voters who can be converted to supporters when you come in with a compelling story and strategy. 

Understanding Instagram's Requirements for Political Advertising

Before diving into the how-tos, it's crucial to familiarize yourself with Instagram's content guidelines and requirements for political ads. These rules are designed to promote transparency and accountability, ensuring that users can identify the source and motive behind political content. 

Instagram, owned by Meta (formerly Facebook), mandates that advertisers running political ads follow these steps:

1. Get Authorized: Advertisers must undergo an authorization process, verifying their identity and location. This involves submitting various documents and information to confirm your identity as a legitimate political entity.

2. Include Disclaimers: All political ads must include a disclaimer provided by the advertiser, stating who has paid for the ad. This ensures transparency about the source of the ad.

3. Ad Library: All political and issue ads will be stored in the Ad Library for seven years, including information about the ad's reach, spend, and the demographic details of the audience engaged.

4. Geographic Restrictions: Advertisers can only target ads based on the authorized locations, ensuring that political messaging is directed appropriately according to electoral laws.This also helps local independent candidates reach the people they hope to represent on a more granular level. 

Adhering to these requirements is non-negotiable; failure to comply can result in your ad being rejected or your account being restricted from running further political ads.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Running Political Ads on Instagram

Now that you have the particulars in hand regarding IG-specific rules and guidelines, you can feel free to create compelling campaign content. Here’s a roadmap for creating Instagram content that converts:

Step 1: Prepare Your Instagram Account

Before you can run ads, ensure that your Instagram account is set up correctly and linked to a Facebook page representing your campaign. Since Instagram ads are managed through Facebook's Ads Manager, having a Facebook page is a prerequisite.

Step 2: Get Authorized to Run Political Ads

This is a three-step process, but you’ll only need to do it once:

1. Verify Your Identity: Log into your Facebook account and go to the 'Settings & Privacy' section. Under 'Settings', find 'Authorizations' to start the verification process. You'll need to provide a government-issued ID and possibly additional documentation proving your association with a registered political party or campaign.

2. Set Up Two-Factor Authentication: Enhance the security of your account by enabling two-factor authentication, a mandatory step for running political ads.

3. Confirm Your Location: You'll need to confirm your location through a code sent to your physical address, further validating your identity and eligibility to run political ads.

Step 3: Create Your Disclaimer

After authorization, create a disclaimer for your ads. This disclaimer must include information about who is paying for the ads. Go to the 'Page Settings' of your linked Facebook page, select 'Political Ads Disclaimers', and follow the prompts to create your disclaimer.

Step 4: Craft Your Ad

With the preliminaries out of the way, you can start crafting your ad. Here are the key steps:

• Design Your Ad: Choose images, videos, or text that align with your campaign message. Ensure your content complies with Instagram's advertising policies.

• Target Your Audience: Use Instagram's targeting options to reach specific demographics, locations, and interests that align with your campaign strategy. Remember, your targeting must adhere to the geographic restrictions associated with political advertising.

• Set Your Budget and Schedule: Decide how much you want to spend and when you want your ads to run. Instagram offers flexibility in budgeting, allowing you to choose between a daily budget or a lifetime budget for the ad campaign.

Instagram ads have variable costs that are dependent on your goals, which should factor into your budget for ad spend on the platform. According to WebFX, Instagram ads will run you an average of: 

• $0.00 - $0.25 per click

• $0.00 - $4.00 per impression

• $0.03 - $0.08 per engagement

Impressions are the number of people who actually see your ad. Instagram charges for every 1,000 impressions (CPM). Engagement on Instagram relates to the different ways that people interact with your content. That could mean likes, saves and shares, mentions, or comments. Instagram charges for these per action, which means you’re charged each time someone clicks an ad, likes or comments on a post, or performs some other measurable action that’s related to your content. 

Step 5: Launch and Monitor Your Ad

Once your campaign ad is ready, submit it for review. Instagram will review your ad to ensure that it meets all guidelines for political advertising. This process can take up to 24 hours.

After approval, your ad will go live according to the schedule you set. Use Instagram's ad analytics tools to monitor the performance of your ad. This data is crucial for understanding your ad's reach, engagement, and overall effectiveness. Adjust your strategy as needed based on these insights.

In addition to social media reach and user engagement, the most important metrics to watch for on Instagram are:

• Follower Growth Rate: How fast is your IG community growing? To calculate this, divide the number of new followers within a specific time frame by your total number of followers, and multiply by 100. 

• Hashtag Performance: Think of these as SEO keywords for your IG profile. Which hashtags are getting the most traction toward building an audience? 

• Sentiment Analysis: How do your posts make your audience feel? Are they generally positive and upbeat, bored, or negative? 

• Best Performing Reel: This can help you double-down on what works. 

• Accounts Engaged: This metric provides important demographic information about your audience. 

Running political ads on Instagram can significantly enhance your campaign's reach and impact. However, the key to success lies in understanding and adhering to Instagram's requirements for political advertising. 

By following this step-by-step guide, you can effectively navigate the complexities of political advertising on Instagram.

Final Thoughts

The landscape of social media advertising is always evolving. Stay updated with Instagram's policies and guidelines to ensure your political advertising efforts remain compliant and effective. By doing so, you'll not only broaden your campaign's visibility but also foster a transparent and trustworthy relationship with potential voters.

Another great way to gauge your campaign's reach and effectiveness is through campaign tools like GoodParty.org’s free AI Campaign Manager. With the AI Campaign Manager, you can track your campaign activities, create social media posts, and run insightful analytics.

Contact us to book a free demo today and learn more about how the AI Campaign Manager can streamline your campaign strategy.

Photo by Deeksha Pahariya on Unsplash