How to Run Instagram Ads in 2026

The short version

Boosting from the Instagram app is quick but limited: you get three goals and automatic audience and placement settings. For sales or qualified leads, connect your account to a Facebook Page and run the ad in Ads Manager.
Plan creative for Reels and Stories first: 9:16 vertical video, the key message clear of the top and bottom of the frame, original or Meta Sound Collection audio instead of licensed music, and a hook in the first second or two.
Judge Instagram ads on purchases, leads and DMs that become paid orders, not followers or likes, and if you boost, do it from a browser rather than the iPhone app to avoid Apple's service fee.

Instagram ads run on the same Meta system as Facebook ads, but they live in a different place: full-screen Reels and Stories, the Explore grid and a feed people scroll quickly with their thumb. The setup is shared; the creative and a few of the steps are not.

This guide covers the Instagram-specific parts. For the shared Ads Manager setup (business portfolio, payment method, pixel and Conversions API, objectives and bidding), read how to run Facebook ads alongside it.

What you need before you start

An Instagram professional account. Advertising needs a business or creator account. Switching is free in the app's settings.
A Facebook Page connected to it, in the same business portfolio. Not strictly required for a simple boost, but you need it for Ads Manager and everything that comes with it.
An ad account with a working payment method. From Pakistan, use a card your bank has enabled for international online payments. The Facebook guide covers this.
Tracking or a chat destination. The Meta pixel and Conversions API if you sell on a website, or Instagram Direct or WhatsApp if orders happen in messages.
A landing page that works on a phone. Instagram is used mainly in the mobile app, so test every link on a phone before you spend.

Connect Instagram to your Facebook Page

In the Instagram app, go to your profile and tap Edit profile. Scroll to Public business information (business accounts) or Profile information (creator accounts), tap Page, then Connect or create, log in to Facebook and choose the Page. The Instagram account must be in the same business portfolio as the Page, and it can only belong to one portfolio at a time (Meta Business Help Center). Once connected, anyone with access to either the Page or the Instagram account can manage both, so check who has access.

Boost from the app, or use Ads Manager?

There are two main routes, and they suit different jobs.

Boosting a post

From your profile, tap Professional dashboard, then Ad tools, then Choose a post. Pick a post, Reel or story, choose a goal (more profile visits, website visits or messages), then set the audience, daily budget and duration, and tap Boost post (Meta Business Help Center). When you boost from the app, audience and placement options are set automatically. Meta says you do not need a Facebook account to boost from your professional account for the first time, though you miss features an ad account gives you.

Do not boost from an iPhone if you can avoid it. Boosting in the Instagram iOS app means paying with available funds, and in most regions Apple may keep a service fee of 30% of the ad payment. Meta's own advice is to boost from instagram.com in a browser instead (Meta Business Help Center).

Boosting is fine for pushing a post that is already doing well to more people, or for getting more DMs from a local audience. It is not built for selling at scale.

Ads Manager

Ads Manager gives you every objective, including Sales and Leads optimised against your pixel, all the Advantage+ features available to your account, custom audiences, several creatives per ad set and proper reporting. You can still turn an existing Feed post, Reel or active story into the ad: at ad level, choose your Instagram account under Identity and select Use existing post.

To run the ad from Instagram: click + Create, choose an objective that supports Instagram placements, set budget, audience and placements, then in the ad choose your Instagram account as the identity so it runs from your handle (Meta Business Help Center). Add your creative and destination, preview every placement, and publish. The ad goes through the same review as any Meta ad.

Choose the objective

The objectives are the same six as on Facebook, and the same rule applies: pick the one that matches the result you want, not the one that produces the cheapest-looking numbers. On Instagram, three choices come up most:

Sales, for stores with purchase tracking working, including catalogue ads that show people products based on their interests and actions.
Engagement or Leads with a message destination, for businesses that sell in Instagram Direct or WhatsApp. Many Pakistani clothing, food and beauty brands take orders this way.
Awareness, for launches and new brands, where you want Reels seen by as many relevant people as possible.

Traffic campaigns that send people to a profile or a website without tracking are the ones most likely to produce activity without sales.

Audience targeting

Targeting works as described in the Facebook guide: use Advantage+ audience with tight audience controls (location, minimum age, exclusions, language) and treat interests as suggestions. Instagram adds a useful source of custom audiences: people who followed or engaged with your professional account. In Ads Manager, go to Audiences, create a custom audience and choose Instagram account as the source, looking back up to 365 days.

Build three audiences early: profile engagers, people who watched your Reels ads, and website visitors. Use them to retarget warm people with an offer, and exclude existing customers from ads aimed at new ones. If you sell internationally, split campaigns by country so prices, currency and delivery promises match the person seeing the ad.

Placements: Reels, Stories, Explore and Feed

Instagram placements include Feed, profile feed, Explore home, Stories, Reels and search results (Meta Business Help Center). Explore ads appear as a tile in the Explore grid; profile feed ads appear while people scroll through other public profiles.

Meta recommends keeping all placements on, because it can then find the cheapest results across Facebook and Instagram, and adding placements does not raise the cost of your ad. To run on Instagram only, open the placement settings and select Instagram under Platforms. Do that only with a good reason, such as a brand that only exists on Instagram or creative made purely for Reels, because a smaller pool of placements gives the system fewer options.

Reels and Stories are full-screen and vertical, so plan creative for them first and adapt it for the feed, not the other way round.

Creative for Instagram

The specs that matter

Shape. 9:16 vertical for Reels and Stories, with a recommended resolution of 1440 × 2560 pixels. For feed images, 4:5.
Safe zones. Meta suggests keeping roughly the top 14%, bottom 35% and 6% on each side clear of text and logos, so the profile icon and call to action do not cover them (Meta Ads Guide).
Audio. Reels ads should not contain licensed music. Use original audio or royalty-free tracks from Meta Sound Collection. Sound is strongly recommended for Reels; captions are recommended everywhere.
Text. Keep the primary text short; on Reels, most of the message has to be in the video.

What works on Instagram

A hook in the first second or two. Open on the product in use, the finished result or a line aimed at a specific person. Logo intros get skipped.
Content that looks like Instagram. Phone-shot video, a person talking to camera, real light. An ad that looks like a TV commercial is easy to scroll past.
Creators and customers. Partnership ads let you run a creator's post from their handle, with their permission through a partnership ad code or account-level permission. Customer videos and try-ons do the same job for less.
Stories as a short sequence. Two or three frames that build to one clear tap: shop, message or visit.
Carousels for ranges. Several products, colours or steps in one ad, each frame able to stand alone.

Instagram ads wear out quickly, so plan a steady supply. Shooting several ads in one session is the efficient way, and it is a large part of our content production work.

Budget and bidding

The mechanics are shared with Facebook: daily or lifetime budgets, Advantage+ campaign budget across ad sets, and Highest volume as the sensible default bid strategy. The Facebook guide explains how to size a test from what a result is worth to you and how many results the learning phase needs.

Two Instagram-specific points. A boost asks for a daily budget and a duration, so decide the total you are willing to spend before you tap. And if you restrict an Ads Manager campaign to Instagram only, expect the system to have fewer cheap opportunities to choose from. Test a few genuinely different Reels rather than many audiences, because on Instagram the creative usually decides the result.

Tracking and measuring

Followers, likes and profile visits feel like progress. They are only worth something if they turn into sales or enquiries. Decide before launch what counts: a purchase, a lead, or a DM that turned into an order.

Website sales: pixel and Conversions API, judged on purchases and cost per purchase in Ads Manager, checked against your real sales.
DM sales: label each conversation by where it came from and record which ones became orders. Ad tools insights will not tell you which chats became sales.
Cash on delivery: measure cost per delivered, paid order, not orders placed. Our clothing brand guide covers confirming COD orders on WhatsApp.

For which numbers deserve your attention, see which numbers actually matter.

Common mistakes

Boosting from the iPhone app and paying Apple's fee on top of the ad spend.
Square or landscape video in Reels and Stories, or text hidden under the call to action.
Using trending licensed music in a Reels ad.
Running the ad under the Facebook Page identity when you meant to use your Instagram handle.
Judging success on follower growth.
Running the same Reel for months after it stopped working.
Leaving your Instagram account in a freelancer's business portfolio.

When to hire help

Boosting a good post now and then is something most owners can do themselves. Consider help when you want Instagram to produce sales rather than reach, when tracking DMs, WhatsApp orders or COD deliveries has become guesswork, or when you cannot keep up with the volume of creative Instagram needs. Our Meta Ads team runs Instagram campaigns end to end, and our social media marketing work keeps the organic side consistent with the ads.

How to Run Instagram Ads in 2026: A Step-by-Step Guide