Create an Instagram video advert

Business Benefits

Promote your products or services with an Instagram video advert.


Write down the goal you want to achieve with the video ad, such as a specific number of sales.

One video should equal one goal so be clear on what’s the one thing you are focusing on. For example, advertising an event, or selling a pair of shoes.

Select your target audience for your Instagram video ad based on your buyer persona research.

In a later step you’ll be able to target it at them specifically, so you need to know who they are now to create an ad that will speak to them. For example, “Freelancers aged 24-44 years old living in London.”

Use software like Canva to create a video in the correct format for Instagram.

Canva has a specific Instagram Ad format with templates which will save you time.

After creating a new design with the “Instagram Ad” format, build your ad using one of Canva’s templates.

  1. Search through Canva’s templates to find the right one for your company.
  2. In the left-hand column type a word relevant to your business. For example: “corporate” or “art” or “fashion”.
  3. Look through the templates and select one with a play button in the upper left-hand side. This indicates that it’s a video.
  4. Choose a video whose style matches your target audience. You will be able to change the footage, text and colors in the next steps.

Replace the text in the image with a new caption that reflects your video ad strategy.

Keep the text short as the Facebook ads penalizes videos with too much text.

Replace the template’s font and colors with those of your brand.

You can obtain these in your company’s brand assets.

Replace the video with footage from Canva’s library.

  1. In the left-hand column click on Videos and type a keyword relevant to your business.
  2. Hover your mouse over a video result for a preview.
  3. Once you’ve found the right video, slide it on to your design for the video to swap.
  4. Alternatively, to upload your footage, go to Uploads, and click Upload an Image or Video.

Download your video by clicking the Download button in the upper right of the screen.

Create an advert on Facebook Ads Manager.

You will need a Business Instagram account.

  1. Go to Facebook Ads Manager and click Create Ad. Select a campaign objective, then click Continue and give your campaign a name.
  2. Click on New Ad Set to add your budget, the dates for which the advert will run, and your target audience.
  3. In the Placement section, select Manual placements. Scroll down and uncheck everything except for Instagram for the ad to only be shown on that network. You can be more precise and choose precisely where it will be shown on Instagram also. For example, in the main feed and not stories or IGTV.
  4. Click Publish when you are ready to launch the ad.

Review your video campaign after publishing to see if your objectives were reached and take note of what worked and what didn’t to learn for your next video ads.

For example, check if you have achieved an increase in the number of sales. If the video was viewed a great deal, but conversions were low, you could change your approach in the next ad with different footage.

Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T12:20:42Z