Chapter 5: Best Practices for Future Usage of Advertising Elements in Instagram Ads & Conclusion

From this research, best practices can be posited for D2C brands seeking to strategically utilize advertising elements in the rhetorical context of Instagram. Advertisers looking to enhance their Instagram advertising strategy can use this research to increase the depth of their knowledge about the mechanics Instagram constructs to curate a rhetorical context and habitual user/consumers. Below, best practices are synthesized to suggest ways advertisers can modify their usage of traditional advertising elements to increase user/consumer engagement with their Instagram Post and Story ads.

To understand how Instagram as a rhetorical context has influenced the usage of traditional advertising elements in Post and Story ads, this study used a research model of Joseph Sugarman’s 10 advertising elements from The Adweek Copywriting Handbook to analyze 20 Instagram ads (10 Post ads and 10 Story ads). These ads were examined to determine if and how these advertising elements (headline, subheadline, photo or drawing, caption, copy, paragraph headings, logo, price, response device, overall layout) were present in Instagram ads at the time of this study. From this, the following research questions were asked and answered in Chapter 4:

1. What traditional advertising elements are still in use in Instagram ads?
2. What traditional advertising elements are being removed from Instagram ads?
3. What traditional advertising elements are being innovated upon in the rhetorical context of Instagram?

Post Ads Best Practices

D2C brands looking for best practice guidelines should test the following strategy: Visual media (image or video) with a headline that features a response device (such as a promotional code) and a product-related photo or vide. In the caption section, include copy that entices the reader and reiterate the response device. Copy can be longer if desired, but the main point should be in the first 1-3 lines of text, as Instagram shows those as a preview. If advertisers choose to forgo a headline and response device, they should use product-related visual media (versus a text-only ad) with a caption with copy that provides additional product information and/customer reviews.

Advertisers can test whether or not a response device in the caption affects their success metrics for the ad campaign. Additionally, if advertisers want to test using long-form copy, the dedicated caption section in Post ads is regulated to text-only and emojis can be used as “paragraph headings” as demonstrated by Function of Beauty. An A/B test of short- and long-form copy in the caption can determine if one is more successful than the other.

Story Ads Best Practices

D2C advertisers looking for best practice guidelines for Story ads should test the following strategy: a designed brand creative with a logo, headline, product-related visual media (e.g., a photo or video), copy, and a response device that calls attention to Instagram’s “Swipe Up” mechanism and/or offers a promotional code or discount offer. Similar to Instagram’s caption feature, Instagram will cut off copy so care should be taken to keep word count around 20 words to ensure it is completely visible to the reader. Copy can be longer if desired, but the key point should be in the first few lines to text,

Revised Advertising Elements Model 

Based on these findings, below is a potentially revised model of Joseph Sugarman’s advertising elements, updated to accommodate for Instagram’s influence on traditional advertising elements in both Post and Story ads for D2C brands.

New Advertising Element	New Definition
Headline	To get your attention and direct you to the copy. Can potentially offer a response device to attract the reader.
Subheadline	Not necessary for either Post or Story ads; deadlines can direct consumers directly to the copy. If desired, subheadlines can be used to offer more information regarding a response device, describe any visual media, or at part of the copy.
Visual Media	Can be an image that shows the product or a person wearing/using product, a video (e.g., a customer review), mixture of both, or a text-only graphic (for Posts only). Additional graphic elements can be used in Post or Story ads (such as shapes) to provide a more branded experience.
Caption	In Post ads, use the dedicated caption space to provide the ad copy. This space can also be used to reiterate any response device used in the Post visual media.
Copy	To convey the main selling message for your product or service. Its location is flexible, and advertisers can use Instagram Post captions and Instagram Story copy space (designed ads) to deliver the copy.
Paragraph Headings	To break up long-form copy into chunks in a Post caption section, thereby making the copy look less imposing. This can be done with emojis.   Do not use paragraph headings (or long-form copy, for that matter) in Stories.
Logo	To display the name of the company selling the product. An optional element in either Posts or Stories due to Instagram’s username/profile picture feature.   If used, logos can be displayed in the top-left or top-middle of Post ads and top-middle or bottom-middle (near the “Swipe Up” mechanism) in Stories.
Price	Price does not need to be present in either Post or Story ads.
Response Device	To encourage the reader to respond to the ad—this can be an incentive or directive.   In Post ads, use an incentivized response device that features either a promotion code or discount offer.   In Story ads, use either an incentivized response device (promotion code or discount) or a directive near the “Swipe Up” mechanism to draw attention to it.   Response devices can be a part of the headline and repeated in the caption/copy for Post ads and can be featured in the headline, repeated in the copy, or at the bottom of the ad as a stand-alone device in Story ads.
Overall Layout	Care should be taken to ensure the overall appearance of the ad is visually appealing and engaging by using effective graphic design for the other elements.   The following layouts were synthesized from ads analyzed in this study; advertisers can and should test these and additional layouts to determine the best layout for their brand. Optimized layout for Post ads: 1. Visual media (product-related) 2. Caption (product-related/customer review copy) OR 1. Headline (response device) 2. Visual media (product-related visual media or text-only graphic) 3. Caption (copy that reiterates the response device and includes additional product-related information) Optimized layout for Story ads: 1. Logo 2. Headline (response device or brand-related) 3. Visual media (product-related) 4. Copy 5. Response Device (incentive or directive)

This model incorporates the findings of this research to provide an updated definition of advertising elements and how they are being used (or not used) on Instagram Post and Story ads.

Limitations & Areas for Further Research

This research is not without its constraints and limitations. As data collection and selling becomes increasingly more prevalent across search engines and social networking sites, advertising is increasingly more targeted. This is discussed as an advertising strategy in Chapter 3. However, that also means this sampling of ads is based primarily on the researcher’s own personal and professional online activity. While this is acknowledged as a limitation, the researcher endeavored to collect a sampling of ads to provide a range of D2C brands across industries. Additionally, this study acknowledges the limitation of not having access to the conversion metrics of individual ads. However, the examination of these ads does not to speculate whether the ad is ‘successful’ or ‘unsuccessful’ but simply to gather research on the usage of traditional advertising elements in current Instagram advertising.

The results of this project contribute to the growing body of knowledge of Instagram advertising and how Instagram has influenced the usage of traditional advertising elements. However, there are still areas for further research. For example, to overcome the limitations of targeted ads, further research could be conducted to examine a broad range of Instagram D2C ads across a wider demographic of user/consumers to account for personalized, targeted ads. While this study intentionally did not compare a brand’s Post and Story ads, further research could run comparisons of a brand’s Post ad versus their Story ads to understand how they use advertising elements similarly or differently within a company’s own campaign. Additionally, this study focused on D2C brand; further research could be conducted to analyze how Instagram influences traditional advertising elements on other business brands and how that compares or contrasts to D2C brands. Finally, this study analyzed only one ad that contained video media. Additional studies should expand the collection of ads to determine if these findings remain true for Instagram Post and Story ads that use video or mixed media.

Discussion & Conclusion

Instagram influences traditional advertising elementsbecause advertisers adapt content to match context. This study analyzed 20 Instagram ads to determine how usage of traditional advertising elements in Post and Story ads content is influenced by Instagram as a rhetorical context. Using Joseph Sugarman’s ten advertising elements as outlined in The Adweek Copywriting Handbook (headline, subheadline, photo/drawing, caption, copy, paragraph headings, logo, price, response device, and overall layout), ads were coded and studied for usage, innovation, and elimination by Instagram platform conditions. As shown in Chapter 4, advertising elements like headlines, subheadlines, photo or drawings, captions, copy, logos, and response devices are still actively used to varying degrees in Instagram Post and Story ads. These elements can be used in both the traditional sense, but also in innovative ways to accommodate for Instagram’s rhetorical context. For example, advertisers can use a response device in Story ads to draw the user/consumer’s attention to the “Swipe Up” feature. Traditional advertising elements like price are non-existent in both Instagram Post and Story ads. Emojis were used in an evolution of traditional text-paragraph headings. Overall layouts of Instagram ads typically revolved around visual media, and usually incorporated a headline and copy. Logos and response devices were also frequently found in these layouts. D2C brands can incorporate these modifications in their own Instagram advertising strategies following the best practices outlined above and should continually test adaptations to improve ad performance and account for changes to Instagram as a platform.

As demonstrated in Chapter 3, native, targeted ads have been shown to effectively reach user/consumers on Instagram via less intrusive ads that utilize demographic targeting (Zulkifly and Firdaus, Liu-Thompkins, Majeed et al.). Native and targeted ads in Instagram must still contain persuasive and executional advertising elements that directly accommodate for Instagram-specific engagement and context. This accommodation is best defined by context-specific engagement (Voorveld et al.) and ad-context congruity (Zhang and Mao) which effectively demonstrate that how users engage with user-generated content on Instagram is predictive of how consumers engage with native ad content—if that content is thematically similar. The more ad content reflects the user’s experience, the more it will positively influence the consumer’s experience on Instagram. Thus, advertisers can expect that a deeper understanding of how Instagram’s rhetorical context influences user engagement will strengthen their ad performance and consumer engagement. 

The power of Instagram to influence traditional advertising elements is derived from its ability to design a rhetorical context—which extends to its users and its advertisers. Native, targeted ads in Instagram continuously influence advertising elements because brands must accommodate for context-specific engagement and ad-context congruity. Efforts made by advertisers to ensure thematic congruity and account for Instagram-specific engagement result in the modifications to advertising elements. Advertisers should use this research to increase the depth of their knowledge about Instagram as a platform, its user/consumers, and how to modify ad content to accommodate Instagram as a rhetorical context.

Instagram is a rhetorical context that strategically designs user experiences, interfaces, features, and algorithms to intentionally produce Instagram-specific participation, engagement. and habitual usage (Edwards and Gelms, Chun). Habitual users are created and encouraged to spend a significant amount of time on Instagram engaging with content and interacting with other users to collect data. This user engagement and information is monetizable by targeting them as consumers with native, personalized ads within Stories and Posts. From this, Instagram can generate $9.5 billion in social media advertising revenue a year and remain a forceful influence over its users, consumers, and advertisers.