If you’re a business owner or a freelancer, you might be asking yourself – “What is the cost of Instagram marketing?” And it is simple…
From the side of money, it can be $0. You don’t have to spend a penny, cent, or a shekel.
Why? Because on Instagram you can grow organically.
But even though most experts say organic Instagram marketing is free…there’s a hidden cost behind it.
And you’ll have to decide whether “to pay or not to pay”...
The Hidden Cost Of Instagram Marketing
As I said earlier even organic Instagram marketing is not free.
You will have to pay for it with something different than your money – your time, effort, and energy.
That’s it.
Of course, you can do organic Instagram marketing without those three things – but you would have to hire a social media manager.
And what does that cost?
Exactly – MONEY.
So, in the end, you will have to pay in one way or another.
And even if you would decide to buy ads, shoutouts, and other stuff to boost your Instagram growth without giving in the time…
…you will still have to manage the account.
And that is why the “time” cost just can’t be 100% eliminated.
However, the decision-making process for you as an entrepreneur or a freelancer is really simple.
First, ask yourself, “Do I have more money, or do I have more time?”
Second, make a decision.
More money = advertising.
More time = organic Instagram marketing.
And that’s it.
But even though I would love to say that this is the period, end of the story…it is not.
You need to have the right knowledge to succeed on Instagram using ads or organic Instagram marketing tactics.
That way, you can minimize the overall Instagram marketing cost and get some real results.
Let’s take a look at how to do both of these ways.
How To Reduce The “Time” Cost Using Paid Way Of Instagram Marketing
If you have no time to spend on reducing the money cost using organic Instagram marketing, you will have to start using advertising.
There are many ad types that you can use to promote your Instagram page and your products or services:
- Stories ads
- Photo ads
- Video ads
- Carousel ads
- Collection ads
- Ads on the Explore page
There’s also no off-the-shelf pricing for ads. You can’t just look up the cost of an Instagram story ad or carousel ad.
Rather, the type of ad and the quality of the ad you create will affect your costs.
How To Create A High-Converting Instagram Ad
There are many frameworks that you can use to create an ad that converts.
But I am going to show you the one I learned from Russell Brunson.
It is called the “Hook-Story-Offer” framework.
It works anywhere, anytime, and on anyone.
Let’s see how it works…
1. Hook
Every ad has a hook. It doesn’t matter whether you are using a video, image, carousel, or anything else.
For example, if you are using a video ad, the hook is going to be the first 3 seconds of the video and whatever you say or do there is absolutely crucial for the success of the ad.
With image ads, the hook is the image itself and the headline that you use in it.
To be successful and actually hook their attention you need to do one thing – talk to their emotions.
It can be greed (special sale, discounts, etc.), fear (urgency, addressing what they are afraid of), or curiosity (make them feel like “Huh? What does it mean? I need to find out more…”)
The hook is 90% of your Instagram ad success. So, NEVER neglect this step.
2. Story
Now is the time to tell a story. It can literally take a few sentences and it is done in the caption or the video.
But you don’t have a lot of space and the story has to HIGHLY resonate with your target audience, so make sure that you max out every sentence.
(By the story I mean using emotionally resonating sentences diving into their problems and increasing the value of the offer. There is rarely any space to tell a real story in an ad.)
3. Offer
At this stage, it is time to present them with your irresistible offer.
Yes, it has to be IRRESISTIBLE. If it is not irresistible, chances are nobody is going to click on the ad to discover more.
List as many benefits as you can, add some bonuses to the offer, give a discount…whatever. But you have to make it too good to say a “no” to it.
Here is a good example:
What is so irresistible about the example above?
Well, all of the people that will speak on the event are SUPERSTARS in business.
And that makes the offer incredibly valuable.
It is just too irresistible to say a “no”.
And because of that, the only thing they can do is say a “yes”!
And last, don’t forget to add a call to action.
If they don’t know what to do, nobody is going to act.
All right, now when you know how to create high-converting Instagram ads, let’s move on to the organic Instagram marketing that is going to reduce the money cost…
How To Eliminate The “Money” Cost Using The Organic Way Of Instagram Marketing
If you are a startup company with no money to spend on ads now or a freelancer starting from scratch…
…you will have to eliminate the cost of paid Instagram marketing and opt for the organic way that is going to require your time instead of your money.
The question is how are you going to grow your Instagram page effectively for FREE?
Well, there are three things that you need to pay attention to:
- Content
- Community
- Consistency
What do I mean by that? Well, let’s see…
1. Content
Creating the content is 100% necessary for your success with organic Instagram marketing.
Why? If you want somebody to follow you…you need to give them something in return.
And the thing that you will give them in return is valuable content to consume.
This step IS NECESSARY even if you pay for ads!
Your content is the only reason for them to keep following you.
But it has to be visually appealing and valuable.
And how do you make it valuable?
Well, there are three main value pillars that you can leverage to win:
- Entertainment
- Inspiration/Motivation
- Education
Your Instagram content has to be based on one or more of these pillars if you want to be successful.
Otherwise, you are doomed.
But there is way more to content creation than that. And I talk more about it in my new Elite Instagram Content Creation Cheatsheet e-book…
I highly recommend that you read it.
But now, let’s move on to the second step…
2. Community
Community is important especially on Instagram. But how are you going to expand and nurture it?
Well, once you have the right content in place, the content is going to be seen on hashtags and explore page which is automatically going to increase your Instagram growth.
But the second thing that you can do is engaging with other people.
No, I don’t mean marrying those people…but commenting on their posts, responding to stories, comments, and DMs, showing up on Instagram lives, etc.
Why is that important?
Because you are going to get a lot of exposure.
For example, when you go to a hashtag and start commenting on “recent” posts, the creator will see the comment and if it is meaningful they will decide to follow you.
And if it is really good, even the people who follow the creator and see the comment will decide to follow you.
Plus, it helps you build the relationships and trust that you need to sell your products and services.
It works.
3. Consistency
This is probably the most important thing of all.
Organic Instagram marketing takes time.
And you have to show up every single day until you get what you want.
But the rewards are way better than from buying ads.
Why?
Because once you have a community you will not lose it and you can sell to it again, again, and again.
But most importantly, you will manage to change a lot of lives. And that is what matters.
Keep showing up every single day!
Filip Konecny 