In 2023, Instagram renamed “Branded Content Ads” as “Partnership Ads,” kicking off a new era of authentic collaboration between brands and creators.
If you’re looking to amplify your reach and engagement, you've come to the right place. This article is packed with actionable tips, best strategies, and the right tools to take your branded content on Instagram from good to revenue-boosting great!
From how to add paid partnership on Instagram posts to how to select creators and monitor performance — we’ve got answers to all your Instagram branded content ads questions.
What Are Branded Content Ads?
On Instagram, Branded Content Ads are one of the ad formats that allows brands to promote posts turned into an ad when you work with influencers or content creators.
Essentially, these ads take organic branded content — a post created by a creator when you work with influencers and tagged with the business partner — and turn it into a paid ad.
Think of Branded Content Ads as the ultimate mashup of influencer marketing and traditional advertising.
They let brands ride the wave of trust and engagement that influencers have with their followers, while also supercharging the message to reach far beyond the influencer’s usual audience.
This combination turns branded content ads into a powerhouse for boosting brand awareness, ramping up engagement, and driving conversions.
Should your business use Branded Content Ads on Instagram?
If you’re wondering if your business should consider paid partnerships on Instagram to achieve your Instagram marketing goals, the short answer is yes, absolutely.
There’s a vast array of benefits Instagram branded content ads offer to businesses:
Enhanced trust and credibility: According to data from MuseFind, 92% of consumers trust influencer recommendations more than traditional advertisements. By using Branded Content Ads, your business can piggyback on the trust Instagram influencers have established with their followers.
Increased engagement: Instagram’s internal data reveals that 68% of users come to the platform to interact with creators. Branded Content Ads typically get higher engagement rates due to influencer resonance, leading to more likes, comments, and shares.
Higher conversion rates: According to Shopify, influencer-generated, content-based ads on Instagram boast 4x higher click-through rates which makes this one of the most effective ad formats.
Broader reach and higher brand awareness: Target a wider audience beyond an influencer's followers using Instagram’s advanced targeting options, increasing brand visibility.
Diversified content: Experiment with various content types through influencer collaborations, keeping your social media presence fresh and engaging.
However, just like with any other marketing tactic, the Instagram branded content tool comes with a set of limitations:
High cost: Big-name influencers might charge hefty fees upwards of $100,000 per post.
Possible authenticity concerns: If a partnership feels fake, it can backfire, leading to trust issues.
Risk of negative publicity: If an influencer you’ve partnered with gets caught up in a scandal, it can drag your brand down too.
What content types are eligible for partnership ads?
According to Instagram, content creators must indicate paid partnerships using the paid partnership label when:
The business pays the creator to feature or mention their brand or product.
The creator receives free products or services and posts about them.
Instagram lets advertisers boost various organic content types as partnership ads, including:
Branded content on Instagram: Posts with paid partnership labels.
Instagram collab posts: Joint posts with both creator and brand tags.
Mentions and tags: @mentions, people tags, and product tags.
Non-branded content: Any content without the paid partnership label.
New partnership ads: Created directly in Ads Manager without an existing post.
Content format-wise, you can turn the following into paid partnerships:
Feed: Single image, video and carousel posts.
Stories: Videos under 60 seconds with @mention for the creator or partner featured in the partnership ad, countdown sticker, location sticker, hashtag, or tappable text that uses royalty-free music from Sound collection or original audio.
Reels: Videos under 15 minutes posted after October 15, 2021 that use royalty-free music from Sound collection or original audio.
How to Create Partnership Ads on Instagram
Creating Instagram paid partnerships starts with ensuring both the brand and the creator meet the eligibility criteria.
| Brand eligibility | Creator eligibility |
|---|---|
| The brand must have an Instagram Business Account. | The creator must have an Instagram Creator or Business Account. |
| The brand must link their Facebook Page to access Ads Manager. | Creators must adhere to Instagram’s community guidelines and terms of service. |
| The brand must comply with Instagram’s advertising policies, including branded content guidelines and community standards. | The creator must enable the “Allow brand partner to boost” option in their account settings. |
| For existing content, the creator must tag the brand using the paid partnership label or other eligible tags (e.g., @mentions, people tags, product tags). |
Once confirmed, you can either boost existing content or create a new ad from scratch using Ads Manager.
Boost existing content
To turn existing Instagram content into a branded content ad…
Get the creator to enable the “Allow brand partner to boost” option and tag your brand.
Open Ads Manager
Click "Create" to start a new campaign and choose your campaign objective (e.g., Awareness, Traffic, Engagement)
Define your target audience, set your budget and schedule, select your ad placements (e.g., Instagram Feed, Stories)
Choose "Use Existing Post” and select the creator’s post tagged with the paid partnership label
Add the relevant text, links, and call to action
Review your settings and click “Publish” to start your ad campaign
Create a new ad with Ads Manager
To create a new paid partnership ad from scratch…
Open Ads Manager
Click "Create" to start a new campaign and choose your campaign objective
Define your target audience, set your budget and schedule, select your ad placements
Choose "Create Ad," upload new creative content or use the branded content tag
Add the relevant text, links, and call to action
Review your ad settings and click "Publish" to launch your branded content ad
Tips and Best Practices for Creating Effective Branded Content Ads
Branded Content Ads offer lots of benefits—that’s true. But to get the most out of them, you need to know and apply the best practices for creating effective paid partnerships.
Understand your target audience
Knowing your target audience inside and out is crucial for launching successful paid partnerships. When you understand who you're trying to reach, you can tailor your messaging, work with influencers who can deliver results, craft compelling calls to action, and optimize ad spend effectively.
So, before you launch your first paid partnership on Instagram, answer the following questions about your audience:
You can learn more about the segments you’re looking to target by:
Analyzing competitors: Look at the content types and formats your competitors use in their paid partnerships and see which influencers they partner with.
Studying influencer audiences: Review the followers of potential influencers to gauge interests and behaviors.
Using Instagram insights: Utilize Instagram’s analytics to understand your followers’ demographics and engagement patterns.
Engaging directly: Conduct Q&A sessions, polls, or surveys on Instagram to gather insights about your followers’ preferences.
Listening to feedback and comments: Pay attention to feedback and comments on your posts to understand what resonates and what doesn’t.
Set specific goals for your Instagram branded content ads
Instagram allows businesses to choose from objectives like Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App Promotion, or Sales.
But setting goals goes beyond selecting an objective in Ads Manager; they should align with your broader social media and business objectives and be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
✅ Here’s an example of a good Instagram paid partnership objective:
Select creators wisely
According to Instagram, partnership ads are 25% more relevant when the brand and creator are a natural fit.
Here’s how to select the best creators for branded content ads:
Ensure there’s a good audience alignment
Ensure the creator’s audience demographics (age, location, interests) match your target market.
Look at the types of followers engaging with the creator’s content.
Prioritize creators with high engagement rates over sheer follower numbers.
Evaluate the quality of comments and interactions, looking for genuine engagement.
Assess content quality
Look at the creator’s past content to see if their style and quality align with your brand.
Ensure their content consistently meets a high standard.
Evaluate authenticity of the possible partnership
Choose creators whose values and lifestyle naturally align with your brand.
Look at previous brand partnerships to gauge authenticity and effectiveness.
Combine large creators with broad reach and micro-influencers with highly engaged niche audiences to balance out the costs.
Conduct A/B testing, experimenting with content formats
Different content formats can yield varying results for Instagram branded content ads.
For example, carousel posts have a 1.4x higher reach and 3.1x higher engagement compared to regular posts. Instagram Reels outperform all other content types, generating 55% more interactions than single-image posts and 29% more than standard video posts.
However, these stats are not set in stone.
Performance can vary based on your specific target audience, brand, and products or services.
Don't limit yourself to just one format. Experiment with various types of publications and tagging methods, and A/B test to find what works best for your brand.
Develop high-quality content for partnership ads
To help creators craft content that aligns with your vision and resonates with your audience, start by providing them with specific, detailed briefs that outline:
Brand guidelines
Target audience
Campaign goals
Key talking points (how to present your product or service)
Post requirements (CTAs, hashtags, brand mentions)
Deliverables
Production and publication timelines
Make sure the visuals are trendy, bold, and visually appealing.
If you’re focusing on Reels, design them for sound-off viewing by adding captions and text labels.
Use compelling storytelling to connect with your audience:
Also, highlight your brand early in the content. According to MetrixLab, showing the brand in the first three seconds drives 44% more brand interest compared to showing it at the end.
Create savable and shareable content to increase the reach of your paid partnerships and encourage organic sharing. For example:
How-tos
Lists of trends
Routines
Recipes
Add a solid CTA
Including a solid CTA in your branded content IG publications is the key to achieving your campaign goals. Depending on the key objective of the paid partnership, add…
Transactional CTAs to drive sales or sign-ups: "Get Now," "Shop Today," "Sign Up"
Engagement-driven CTAs that prompt discussions in the comments section to encourage interaction: "What do you think?", "Have you tried it? Share your experience!"
Awareness-boosting CTAs to guide your audience to additional resources: "Learn More"
Use Instagram’s functionalities strategically
Leverage Instagram’s native features to significantly enhance the effectiveness of your paid partnerships:
Product tagging: Add product tags on Instagram publications to make it easy for users to view the product and make purchases without leaving the app.
Collab posts: These posts could be turned into an ad on Instagram and therefore it appears on both the brand’s and creator’s profiles, maximizing reach and engagement.
Tags and mentions: Have influencers tag your brand in posts and mentions to enhance exposure and interaction.
Time your branded content posts
Timing is everything when it comes to maximizing the impact of your Branded Content Ads. To ensure your paid partnerships reach the largest possible audience, boost your posts during peak periods when your target audience is most active on Instagram. Here’s how to do it:
Use Instagram’s analytics to identify when your followers are most active.
Plan your content to go live during these peak times for maximum engagement.
Stay updated on industry trends and seasonal peaks to capitalize on increased activity.
Monitor performance of your paid partnerships on Instagram
Regularly analyzing the performance of your Instagram advertising and especially branded content ads is crucial for understanding what works and what doesn’t.
By monitoring key metrics, you can scale successful strategies and discontinue ineffective ones. This analysis helps you identify the most effective content formats for each Instagram ad campaign goal and determine which influencers drive the most engagement and conversions.
Tools for Measuring and Managing Partnership Ads
In order to manage and assess the performance of your paid partnership ads, you can use both native Instagram Branded Content Ads tools and third-party tools dedicated to branded content ads management.
Built-in tools:
Instagram’s Analytics to track engagement, reach, impressions, and other key metrics.
Ads Manager to manage and optimize your ads directly within Instagram, allowing for precise targeting and performance tracking.
Third-party tools:
Analytics: Tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Coupler.io's Instagram dashboards provide in-depth analytics and reporting to help you understand your campaign performance.
Scheduling: Buffer and Later allow you to schedule branded content posts in advance, ensuring your content goes live at optimal times.
Influencer discovery: Platforms like HypeAuditor help you find and connect with influencers that best align with your brand.
Content creation: Canva and VistaCreate offer user-friendly design tools to create high-quality visuals for your branded content ads.
Conclusion
Branded content ads on Instagram are a game-changer for businesses looking to leverage the power of influencer marketing.
By strategically using Instagram’s features, setting clear goals, creating high-quality content, and monitoring performance, you can significantly boost your brand’s reach, engagement, and conversions.
The best time to harness branded content ads? Now! Dive in, collaborate with the right creators, and watch your brand’s presence on Instagram soar.
