Following up on my former post which was half paranoia and half reality- I've often wondered how Instagram ads or sponsored posts get to me? And how are they so accurate to what I would want to buy! Well it appears that the targeted ads follow similar formulas to the organic ads of google and the demographic data compiled by Facebook...aka...we are all being watched as I thought...but moving on...
According to the platform, over 60% of users have said they discover new products on the platform and 75% actually do something about it after seeing the post. Those numbers make it clear to see the value in the social networking platform as a digital marketing forum. So how does it happen?
Instagram uses the same demographic data as Facebooks to align ads to the right parties. Downside? Instagram ads can be slightly higher in cost than Facebook ads - going as high as $5 a CPM. To touch further on this "Facebook demographic data" - you have the ability to set up your target audience based on age, gender, languages, interests, demographics etc and since Facebook already has formulated that information based on locations - you can accurately target who will see your ad. There are many more inputs that a digital marketer could select - frequency of the ad, the hours which your ad are shown, the mechanism your ad is delivered (via story, via post) and the links between your ad and other attributes of Instagram such as #hashtags.
With all of that said, I was unaware of how shoe brands, jewelers, and subscription based companies like Birchbox reached my feed and getting more educated about how I am targeted is certainly eye opening. As consumers, we naturally think of ourselves as unique not realizing how we could easily be put into boxes by those that are looking to sell to us.
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