Most clinics today have understood the advantages of using social media for their businesses. As a result, countless big and small businesses are turning to social media for marketing purpose. On the other hand, social media channels are consistently innovating their offerings and introducing several useful features and tools for businesses. Instagram is one social media channel which has grown from a single photo-sharing application to a massive advertising and marketing channel. Instagram for businesses is much more than just a picture and video-sharing platform on business profiles; it’s now more about Instagram ads. Instagram ads are resembling more and more of what Facebook ads are like. Simply put, like parent like child!

Instagram ads are effortlessly making their way into the paid social media space. And the repeated refinement and introduction of newer types of Instagram ads is a clear indication that businesses are now using this platform to advertise. With more than 800 million active users, advertisers of both large and small businesses globally can increase their brand awareness and acquire new clients on a regular basis. This also means that as an optical clinic, you have a great opportunity to get new clients for your practice using Instagram ads.

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Planning to start with Instagram ads for your optical clinic? That is a good decision. But first, you must understand various types of Instagram ads for the optical clinic so that you can make the right decision.

Photo Ads

Single photo ads are Instagram’s oldest and simplest ad format. These ads are also known as sponsored posts on Instagram as they are nothing but image posts that are served to the selected target market. Photo ads look exactly like a typical Instagram post with a photo, caption, and a set of hashtags. The only difference is that you will see “Sponsored” next to the profile name and a call-to-action button below the caption. If you are already creating outstanding Instagram posts for your optical clinic, Instagram photo ads give you the platform to share it with even more people. As a bonus, you will be able to provide a call-to-action to your audiences so that they can take action and visit your website or Instagram profile, or download your clinic’s mobile application. If you wish to promote your Instagram profile through photo ads, the call-to-action button will be ‘View Instagram Profile.’ You won’t be able to change this CTA. But if you choose “More Website Traffic” as your goal, you can choose from a number of options such as “Learn More” and “Book Now”.

CTA options for getting more website traffic

If you are wondering how can these photo ads help you advertise or market on Instagram, you must know that there are plenty of opportunities. Photo Instagram ads for an optical clinic can be utilized to advertise your existing or new optometry services, existing or new range of eye accessories, eyeglasses, sunglasses, lenses, some new treatment method, etc. You can also advertise using nicely-shot pictures of your eye clinic or simply promote using pictures of an event you organized or attended.

Image Guidelines for Photo Ads

Instagram square photo ad size is up to 1080 x 1080 pixels with 1:1 aspect ratio.
Instagram landscape photo ad size is 1200 x 628 pixels with 1.9:1 aspect ratio.
Vertical photo ad size is 600 x 750 pixels minimum resolution and 1936 x 1936 pixels maximum resolution with 4:5 aspect ratio.
All formats should be either JPG or PNG.
The image size is 30MB max.

60-second Video Ads

Just like how photo ads are promoted or sponsored, video ads too are nothing but promoted video posts. Video ads were introduced in 2015, and since then they have been one of the leading choices of businesses and marketers. These videos too appear in the Instagram feeds of targeted audiences, and just like photo ads, you can see “Sponsored” next to your profile name. Talking about the duration limit, you can use a video of up to 60 seconds in your ads. You can also use creative and engaging GIFs in your Instagram ads for an optical clinic. You can consider shooting a 360° tour of your eye clinic including your high-end optometric machinery. Your potential customers would be impressed by an appealing tour of your clinic and would want to book an appointment as and when they need your services. Coming to the CTA buttons, as mentioned above, you can choose them depending on the goal you opt for.

Video Guidelines for Video Ads

Instagram square video ad is 600 x 600 pixels (minimum).
Instagram landscape video ad is 600 x 315 pixels (minimum).
Instagram vertical video ad is 600 x 750 pixels (minimum).
Recommended video formats include MP4 and MOV.
Max video size for all formats is 4GB.
Max video length for all formats is 60 seconds.
Video max frames are 30fps for all formats.

Multi-carousel Ads

Ever seen an advertisement consisting of a series of pictures or videos while scrolling through your Instagram feed? That is exactly what carousel or multi-carousel advertisements look like. Carousel ads let users swipe through a series of images or videos. These ads have one single call-to-action button based on the objective you select. You can add up to 10 cards consisting of pictures and videos to one carousel ad. This type of Instagram ad is ideal for business who wish to tell a story or market their range of products. So, as an optical clinic, you can share a variety of glasses or contact lens in the form of multi-carousel ads. And the best part is that the call-to-action will help your target audience to take a step ahead. You can either have a ‘Buy Now’ button so that your audience can book and order their preferred glass or contact lens online. Some common call-to-action buttons include Apply Now, Contact Us, Call Now, Download, Shop Now, Visit Profile, etc.

These ads are beneficial for both businesses as well as potential customers. These ads allow you to showcase your products or a particular optical service each with different editing and effects options. On the other hand, carousel ads allow the potential customers to retain more visual information on a product that they are likely interested in. For instance, in our example, if you want to market your new range of eyeglasses or sunglasses, you can make the best use of this type of ad to showcase the entire range.

Image and Video Guidelines for Carousel Ads

Instagram carousel photo ad is 1080 x 1080 pixels.
All formats should be either JPG or PNG.
Max image size is 30MB per image/card.
Instagram carousel video ad is 600 x 600 pixels minimum (1080 x 1080 pixels maximum).
All formats should be MP4.
Max video size is 4GB per video/card.
Max video length is 60 seconds.

Slideshow Ads

Slideshow ads are much like carousel ads that also appear in the Instagram feeds. The major distinctive aspect between the two is that your audiences don’t have to swipe left and right to see all the cards or pictures and videos. Slideshow ads consist of images and music that play or scroll on their own. In other words, these ads combine up to 10 images into an animated sequence, letting you tell a story and market your optical clinic and it’s products. These slideshow ads are lightweight, looped videos of up to 10 pictures and background music and on-video text in a single post or card. You can use slideshow ads to market your range of products, advertise your past and upcoming event such as eye checkups, etc. If you wish to increase your clinic’s mobile application downloads or increase your profile views, you can pick your top-performing images and convert them into slideshows. Again, just like the carousel ads, slideshow ads too have the same call-to-action button options to choose from. Slideshow ads are comparatively cheaper than video ads and also load quickly for people with slow internet connections.

Image Guidelines for Slideshow Ads

Instagram slideshow photo ad is 1080 x 1080 pixels.
All formats should be either JPG or PNG.
Max image size is 20MB per image.

Stories Ads

You must have seen full-screen ads when you view the stories of people you are following. The stories ads appear between the stories when you are viewing them. The image, video, and GIF ads in between the Instagram stories are known as Story ads. These ads look just like a non-ad Instagram story with a small “Sponsored” mentioned at the top of the ad. The biggest advantage of these ads is that they catch a lot of attention. Because they appear in between Stories, you gain the audience’s full attention without the distractions or ability to scroll down past your ad that’s possible in the standard news feed. Although the story ads lack customization as you cannot add headlines, body text or CTA buttons, it is still one of the best ways to grab the attention of a large target market and that too at lower costs. The call-to-action takes the form of a swipe-up feature that takes audiences directly to your website or other landing pages. These story ads expire after 24 hours, and thus, they are the ideal format for sharing limited-time offers and promotions of your optical clinic. You can advertise anything and everything about your eye clinic through these ad stories and select your target audience just as you would for any other type of Instagram ads for the optical clinic.

Image Guidelines for Stories Ads

Instagram Stories photo and video ad are 1080 x 1920 pixels.
The proper aspect ratio is 9:16.
All formats should be either JPG or PNG.
Max image size is 30MB.
The Canvas video story ads can have a video that’s up to 15 seconds long.
All video formats should be either MP4 or MOV.
Max video size is 4GB.
Must have a resolution minimum of 720p.

Objectives of Instagram ads for the optical clinics

While creating your Instagram ads for the optical clinic, you will be asked to select the business objective that you wish to achieve through advertising. The objectives are broadly divided into three categories – Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.

Awareness, as the name suggests, helps in elevating your optical clinic’s reach on Instagram and growing your brand awareness. Consideration is one step ahead of awareness, to let people memorize your optical clinic’s name. When you choose this objective, you either get more views for your videos, more website clicks, etc. Conversions help your prospects or leads to take a favorable action and convert into customers. By selecting this as your objective, you can increase your website conversions, mobile application downloads, subscription to emails, and other lead-oriented benefits.

How to Set-up Instagram Ads?

Here’s how to get started with Instagram ads for the optical clinic.

Create a Facebook business Page and Instagram profile for your optical clinic.
Upgrade to Instagram Business.
Connect your Instagram profile to your Facebook Page.
Set up your ad. Select your ad objective, the call-to-action, target audience and determine your budget.
Decide how long your ads will run for.
Complete the payment and publish your ads.

Instagram doesn’t provide all the advertising features as Facebook’s Ad Manager does. Therefore, you can still use Ad Manager to create Instagram ads from Facebook for multiple options and better customization.

Instagram is one of the leading social media channels, and you simply can’t miss out on claiming the benefits of that this channel provides for your optical clinic. Now that you know about various types of Instagram ads available, you can choose your best fit and get started. If you need any assistance in running Instagram ads for your optical clinic, or if you aren’t sure which type of ad will be suitable for your products and services, reach out to us. Our qualified social media marketers can help you get the best results from Instagram ads.

Opticians: Types of Instagram ads for optical clinics