Now that all businesses around the world can run adverts on Instagram, small businesses have been taking advantage of the easy and effective way to reach and engage with their consumers.

Since starting its account, UK-based flower shop Bloom & Wild has attracted a highly engaged community to its account by sharing content that reflects its business's story and interacting with interested people on the platform. So when Instagram launched adverts for all businesses in September, Bloom & Wild jumped at the opportunity to reach and engage with an even larger audience of those who are most likely to be interested in its bouquets. It was especially excited about having the ability to place call-to-action buttons on its adverts and drive consumers to its website.

To get started, Bloom & Wild set up, ran and tracked its Instagram campaigns on its own using Facebook's do-it-yourself advert interface, Power Editor. It was able to quickly jump into Power Editor, import its own images and launch an advert. In order to get the results it wanted from its campaigns, it focused on three key areas: targeting the right people, testing formats to see which worked best and sharing content that represented its business's story.

To ensure that its campaigns would reach people who were most interested in their business, Bloom & Wild targeted a new customer base using Lookalike Audiences within Power Editor. To create a Lookalike Audience, Bloom & Wild simply uploaded the email addresses of its current customer base. Then, with Instagram's precise targeting insights, it was able to target new people with similar behaviours and attributes.

With multiple advertising objectives and formats to choose from, Bloom & Wild decided to run Website Clicks campaigns to drive traffic to its website. It tested image and video adverts that included the "Shop Now" call-to-action button that linked people directly to its site where they could order a bouquet.

To see which advert creative would resonate best with the people seeing its adverts, Bloom & Wild uploaded several images, including product shots of its bouquets, their unique packaging and customers enjoying the flowers. It also tested different videos showing how its flowers are delivered and unwrapped. With Instagram's advert interface, it was able to easily see which creative got the highest interaction and drove the most sales.

With the use of Instagram adverts, Bloom & Wild saw more engagement on Instagram and more action on its site. It increased its bouquet orders by 62% and saw many new customers commenting on its account and buying bouquets from its shop. With real-time results in Power Editor, it was able to track each advert throughout the campaign run.

We're delighted about the customer engagement and sales Bloom & Wild achieved using Instagram adverts, and can't wait to hear success stories from more members of our small business community.