Use this Instagram marketing strategy to save both time AND money! We love it when we can do both.
I haven't seen anyone else talk about this exact combination and strategy yet!
Listen to the podcast below or find it on your favorite pod platform
4 tips for making good Instagram Reels
First let's start off by talking about Instagram reels. I've got 4 tips for you for making good Instagram reels.
Again, if you don't want to make reels you don't have to at all. Don't make this feel like pressure or like a “should” but if you're so inclined, or you're already doing it, then you're really going to like this.
Tip #1- Have fun doing reels.
I think they're extremely fun. That's why I've started doing them more often. And I have seen 1,000% increase in the amount of accounts that I'm able to reach by creating reels. Which also is fun for me. I'm a data geek and I love seeing those charts on my insights go higher and higher and higher.
So, I can have a lot of fun making the reels, and I have fun seeing the results of them.
My bonus tip that goes along with this one - if you can’t make it fun, don’t do it at all.
Tip #2 - Follow trends, but not obsessively.
If you start watching business-related reels, there are lots of accounts that make Trend Alert reels.
They show you a sound that they feel is on the upswing and encourage you to jump on it and create a reel with that sound so that you can get more views.
I've done some of these and it's been really fun. And one of them was my second highest viewed reel in the last month.
You have to think about how you can apply these trends to your niche and business.
However, the word of caution with trends is that they can start to feel like a hamster wheel. Everytime I look at Instagram, I see someone telling me about this trend or the other.
But if I tried to do every single trend in the world, I would want to pull my hair out. Trying to keep up with trends can give you FOMO and also be really distracting.
So tread lightly with trends and don’t take them too seriously. You don’t have to do them at all.
Tip #3 Create an aha moment
My best reel in March was not a trend sound or anything viral like that. It was just me talking about how you can retarget your reel viewers with Facebook and Instagram ads.
This is something that's an aha moment for a lot of my audience because most of them didn't know this was possible. In fact, I just discovered it was possible the day I made the reel!
Reels have to be a minute or less. So think of something that you can teach your ideal future clients that would make them think, “Wow!”
If you can do that, then people will share it. I had people share this reel 36 times!
So I think that is a more solid strategy than chasing trends. But trends are fun. So I'll do it maybe like a couple a week. So you can kind of find a balance there of doing some trends versus doing some aha content.
One other mini-tip is to take some of your best content from other social media posts. And then find a way to make that into a reel! Reuse stuff that’s worked in the past and give it new life with a new format. It’ll save lots of time and help reinforce your message to your audience.
Tip #4: Repost your TikTok videos over to Instagram
This can be a big timesaver.
I like to start on TikTok to make the video and then download it and post it over to Instagram reels.
Now, the video does end up with a TikTok watermark on it. And the algorithm on Instagram may punish you for that by not showing your reel to as many people.
I’m not totally sure if this is true or not but I’ve been playing with it. So I’ll keep you posted if I see a significant dip.
But it doesn't really work as well to go the other way where you save your reel from Instagram and post it on TikTok because Instagram doesn't let you save the audio when you download your reel. I’d guess it’s because of music licensing stuff.
I do see a lot of Instagram reels that have the TikTok watermark that are cross posted. The fact that I see them means that they’re not totally forced into oblivion by the algorithm.
One of my favorite accounts to follow is @showmenoodz which is Noodle the Pug with the bones day and the no bones day readings.
It looks to me like he makes his vids on TikTok and then reposts them to Instagram. And he has a huge following on both.
If you’re diving right into this short-form video stuff and trying to grow both Instagram and TikTok at the same time, I wouldn’t hesitate to crosspost. You’ll save yourself time and energy.
Why reels save you ad money
Why does creating reels save you money?
Something that’s common in the Facebook and Instagram ads industry is to run awareness ads. We call this top of funnel. A lot of times ads managers will set up a video views campaign so that they can start building an audience to retarget with more content on the same topic.
It’s a way to use ads to start the process of warming up a new audience.
The super nice thing is that reels can reach so many new people….for free!
In the last 30 days, I used reels to increase my reach by over 1,000%. I did a quick calculation on what it would have cost me to do that with ads, and I realized that making these reels saved me over $300 that I could have spent on these awareness ads!
Not a bad return on my investment of time and energy. And like I was saying earlier, people share good reels! I’ve seen people share reels more than any other types of posts that I make.
If you were to try to reach new people through your Facebook business page, you really have to spend a lot on boosting posts. FB business page posts barely reach any of your followers, let alone new people who haven’t followed you yet.
So, reels are a fun and easy way to grow your audience without spending on boosting posts.
Build Relationships with people who watch your Reels using Facebook/Instagram ads
If you're doing reels and you're getting some people to view them, how are you going to actually nurture those people into becoming clients?
Let's talk about how you can build relationships with the people who are watching your reels using Facebook and Instagram ads.
If somebody watches your reel on Instagram for three seconds or more, they will be in a video views audience that you can create and then use to do some retargeting ads.
And, spoiler alert, you can start by spending $1-$3 a day on these ads.
If someone has just seen 3 seconds of one video, it’s barely a blip. They haven’t even registered who you are, what you stand for and how you can help them.
So, this is an excellent opportunity to retarget them and show them some of your best content that will make them remember you!
I’m running this type of ad right now. Earlier I mentioned my most successful reel in March that people were liking and sharing. Well, now I’m spending just $1 a day on that content to show that reel to more people.
This is a way you can stay top of mind so that people will know you. And running ads like this helps with referrals too! Because people will be like, “Oh yeah! There’s the girl who does that.” And if they have a friend who needs what you do, who do you think they’re going to recommend to their friend?
Running ads with your best content builds authority and leadership in your niche. And it increases familiarity with your face, your voice, your vibe and your brand.
This blog post and podcast episode are brought to you by my revamped course - Magical Facebook and Instagram Retargeting Ads. This course is the perfect place to start if you’re new to ads. I screenshare and walk you through all the steps in-depth so that you can set this up without getting overwhelmed. And you can get started with just $1/day.
Ads to retarget your Instagram reels viewers
I'm going to give you a quick rundown of how you can set up these ads to retarget your reel viewers.
If you’ve never been inside Facebook Ads Manager, then this may not make a lot of sense to you, and that's okay. This is for people who have some familiarity with Facebook ads manager. If it sounds like nonsense to you, then you can grab my course for a thorough overview and step-by-step explanation.
With these retargeting ads, you’re going to plan to set them up once and let them run for 2-3 months. If you’re posting Instagram reels several times a week, you don’t have to go in and change your ads every time you have new content. Let these ads focus on your best content and make sure that everyone sees it.
If you change your focus on your content and start launching a different program, then you may want to update these ads so that they coordinate with your current topic.
For example, I talk a lot about list building ads. But right now, I’m focusing on retargeting ads with my content. In a couple of months, I’ll be talking more about list building ads again and I’ll go change my retargeting ads so that they’re focused on that topic instead.
Here’s how you can create these retargeting ads to reach your Instagram reels viewers.
Go into Facebook Ads Manager and then find the audiences dashboard. Create 2 custom audiences.
One is going to be video views from your Instagram account. You’ll see a list of all the videos in your account, not just reels. I would go ahead and include all the videos. IGTV, video posts and reels. You’ll have to check the boxes next to every single video that you want to retarget. It’s kind of a pain, but worth it!
The other audience that I suggest in addition to the video views is page engagement from your Instagram account. This audience will contain the people who like comment, share, visit your Instagram profile, and/or send you a DM.
If you're really active on Instagram, then you definitely want to retarget both of these audiences, not just reel viewers.
After you’ve set up your 2 Instagram audiences, head back into Ads Manager
Click the “Create” button and build a campaign with “Reach” as your objective.
This means that you're going to reach as many people as possible with your daily ad budget.
Then, on the ad set level, you're going to choose to target those two custom audiences that you just set up.
For your budget, you only need to spend $1 per day per post. We're going to talk about posts and how many and all of that here in a minute.
And then for placements, I would actually run these ads on Facebook as well as Instagram. Even though you're really working on your Instagram presence, some of your Instagram peeps also use Facebook. A lot of us do double duty.
So it’s really great for familiarity and visibility when your people see you on both platforms.
Now, let's talk about what the actual content is going to look like. What are people going to see when your ad comes across their feed?
I would choose 3-5 pieces of your best content and just pull them into an ad.
It’s pretty easy to utilize the “use existing post” feature and turn a post you’ve already created into an ad.
Look at your insights on Instagram and look at which posts got the most reach, likes, and comments.
Pick 3-5 of your favorites and those are going to be your ads.
I encourage you to use your best reels for these retargeting ads too! I’ve found that reels are pretty cheap to promote! I was surprised at how low cost my CPM was for promoting my reels.
Another great type of content to promote with retargeting ads is testimonials, case studies and success stories. This really helps you to build relationships with potential clients who want those same transformations.
FYI, you don’t need to worry too much about giving a call to action with these posts ie sign up for your lead magnet, buy your course, etc.
Reach ads don’t typically get great click through rates. Although, of course some people will like your content and click if you give them the option!
Mainly, you just want to think of content that's going to give people that aha moment or build your expertise and authority that's going to just keep them on Facebook or Instagram. You're not at the stage yet to send them to the next step of booking a call or signing up for your list.
You’re going to run ads for these 3-5 posts and spend $1 per day per post.
Of course, you’re welcome to spend more if you have a really large audience and you want to reach more people faster!
I’ve definitely noticed a difference for me when I run these versus when I don't have. I get more referrals coming my way and people who book calls are more familiar with my approach.
It’s so nice to talk with prospective clients who are already picking up what I’m setting down before we even schedule our call.
So we’ve covered a lot here today. We talked about Instagram reels. Only do them if they're fun. If you can have fun with them, they can also save you a ton of money on reaching new people who may be interested in your work.
Then you can set up a retargeting ad to nurture some of those reel viewers and build the know, like and trust factor over time.
I do have my course available to take you through how to create these audiences and set up these ads in a lot more detail.
I’ve created step-by-step tutorials for this process so you can watch over my shoulder and learn how to navigate ads manager with ease.
Sign up for Magical Facebook and Instagram Retargeting Ads where I walk you through this step by step so that you can build relationships with all the new people who are viewing your Instagram Reels.
