Instagram advertising guide: formats, costs and set-up (2026)
TL; DR: Quick Summary
- If you're new to Instagram ads, build them in Meta Ads Manager by choosing an objective, audience, placements and budget before a format.
- According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram reached 3 billion monthly active users in September 2025, so the audience is large.
- IGTV ads ended in 2022 and branded content ads became Partnership ads in 2023, so update any old media plan.
- Because Instagram ads are sold at auction, published cost benchmarks vary, so track your own Ads Manager results instead.
- Click to Instagram Direct ads turn ad taps into chats, so decide who replies before you spend.
A Reel is ready, and Ads Manager asks for an objective, placements, a format and a budget. Two formats you'll still see in older guides, IGTV ads and branded content ads, have since been retired or renamed, so it's easy to plan around options that no longer exist.
Instagram advertising works best when you decide three things in order: what the ad should make people do, which format fits that action, and who answers when people respond. Some ads now open a chat instead of a web page, which makes that third decision matter.
In this guide, you'll get the formats, what moves your costs, a 7-step set-up, and how to handle replies to click to Instagram Direct ads. You'll also know what to have ready before your first chat arrives.
What is Instagram advertising?
Instagram advertising is paid promotion that shows your photos, videos and offers to targeted people in Feed, Stories, Explore, Reels and Shops, or opens a chat with your business. You buy it through Meta Ads Manager, the same tool you use for Facebook ads.
By September 2025, Instagram had reached 3 billion monthly active users, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Types of Instagram ads
Instagram ads come in 8 common formats: Reels, Stories, photo, carousel, feed video, Partnership ads, shopping ads and click to Instagram Direct ads. Start from your objective, match it to a format, and check the current specs in Ads Manager, because Meta adds and retires formats.
Reels ads
Reels ads are full-screen vertical videos that Instagram inserts between other Reels. Meta recommends adding music or sound, but Reels ads can't use licensed music, so use original audio.
If you only have a still image, an image to video tool can turn it into a short video for Reels.
Partnership ads (formerly branded content ads)
Partnership ads promote content from a creator's or partner's handle. Instagram says advertisers can boost Collab posts, @mentions, people tags and product tags, as well as content without the paid partnership label. Instagram renamed branded content ads to Partnership ads in May 2023.
Meta says partnership ads need public content from a professional account or profile. Read Meta's eligibility requirements first. Instagram's Terms of Use also say branded content must follow its Branded Content Policies, and ad disclosure rules differ by market, so ask local counsel.
What happened to IGTV ads?
IGTV ads no longer exist. In February 2022, Instagram ended support for IGTV in-stream video ads, which were previously known as IGTV ads, as it shifted its focus to Reels. If an old media plan still has an IGTV line, delete it.
Click to Instagram Direct ads: turning ad spend into conversations
Click to Instagram Direct ads appear in Instagram Feed or Stories, and a tap opens a chat with your business in Instagram Direct instead of a landing page. They suit purchases that raise questions first, like pricing, availability, sizing, booking or eligibility.
For these campaigns, cost per click says little, so count how many chats start, how many qualify and how many reach a sale.
How to set up a click to Instagram Direct ad
Meta's Help Center lists the steps for a click to Instagram Direct ad in Ads Manager, from choosing an objective to building your message template.
Go to Ads Manager and choose an objective: Traffic, Engagement, Leads or Sales, then click Continue.
Choose your conversion location. For Traffic, Engagement or Sales, choose Message destinations. For Leads, choose Instagram.
In the Message destination section, select Instagram, then set your audience, placements, budget and schedule.
Pick your ad format. Under Message template, create a new template or use an existing one, and make the greeting a specific question like "Which size are you looking for?"
Meta also notes that certain messaging features and campaigns are unavailable for ads delivered to and from Europe and Japan.
What happens after the tap?
After the tap, someone has to reply, and the reply window sets the pace. Meta says the standard window is 24 hours but can run longer after a click to Direct ad, to a maximum of 7 days, while SleekFlow's Help Center says you have 24 hours from the customer's last message.
A message sent after that isn't delivered, and SleekFlow doesn't support Instagram's Human Agent tag. You can send and receive Instagram Direct messages in the SleekFlow Inbox and use Instagram in Flow Builder workflows.
The Help Center doesn't list click to Instagram Direct ads as a supported feature, so check with SleekFlow before you build a campaign around them.
Aura Afro, a Brazilian e-commerce company that sells wigs made with bioprotein fibers, was getting more than 100 new leads a day through WhatsApp and Instagram. It paused paid campaigns because it didn't have the capacity to serve them all.
It brought WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger into one environment and built an AI agent, AurIA. Aura Afro reports:
More than 70% reduction in average wait time
42% reduction in average handling time
88% first contact resolution
How much does Instagram advertising cost?
Instagram ads are sold at auction, so there's no fixed price. Meta says its auction picks the ads to run based on maximum bids and ad performance.
Four things shape your costs.
Competition. All ads across Meta compete, so more advertisers chasing your audience can push costs up.
Your bid. Meta recommends entering your true maximum bid, because the winning bid can be lower than your maximum.
Ad performance. The auction favors ads Meta expects to be successful.
Audience relevance. Meta recommends refining targeting so you reach people likely to engage.
How to advertise on Instagram: set up an ad in 7 steps
To advertise on Instagram, set up an ad in Meta Ads Manager in 7 steps, from choosing an objective to publishing. You build the whole campaign in Ads Manager, so have your Instagram account ready before you start.
Open Meta Ads Manager. Click + Create, and have an Instagram account ready, added to a business portfolio or connected to your Facebook Page.
Choose your objective. Pick Awareness, Engagement, Traffic, Leads, App promotion or Sales. Some only run on Instagram with certain conversion locations.
Define your audience. Choose details such as age, gender and interests. If you upload a customer list, Meta's terms say you need the rights and a lawful basis to use it, and rules differ by market.
Choose your placements. Meta recommends Advantage+ placements, which include Reels. To choose placements yourself, click Show more settings in the Placements section and keep only Instagram.
Set your budget and schedule. Start with a budget you can sustain.
Build your creative. In the Creative section, pick your Page and Instagram account, then add your headline, text and call to action. Use 9:16 for Stories and 4:5 for tall feed media.
Check the destination, then publish. Test a landing page on mobile data. For a DM, make sure someone or something answers, then publish and wait for Meta's review.
Instagram advertising best practices
Build these three habits into every Instagram campaign: design for motion, automate comment replies and plan who answers each chat. Each works with any format and budget.
Design for motion. Add a slow zoom or a product turn so the ad stands out in a fast scroll, and caption every video.
Automate comment replies. SleekFlow's Help Center says businesses can send only one DM per comment, inside Instagram's 24-hour window, and a customer reply opens a new window. Meta's own private reply rule is one message within 7 days of the comment, so plan around the shorter SleekFlow window. The Help Center doesn't say whether comments on ads are covered, so check first.
Put a reply plan behind every message destination. Decide who answers, how fast, and when the chat passes to a person.
Where should you start with Instagram advertising?
Start with one objective, one format and one plan for the replies. Set a budget you can measure, judge results on your own cost per result, and if your ads open chats, make sure someone or something answers before the reply window closes.
See how the Instagram channel in SleekFlow brings Instagram Direct chats and comment replies into one place for your team.
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