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

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

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

To ensure their campaigns would reach people 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 their current customer base. Then, with Instagram’s precise targeting insights, was able to target new people with similar behaviors and attributes.

With multiple ad objectives and formats to choose from, Bloom & Wild decided to run website click campaigns to drive traffic to their website. They tested image and video ads that included the call to action button Shop Now linking people directly to their site where they could order a bouquet.

To see which ad creative would resonate best with the people seeing their ads, Bloom & Wild uploaded several images, including product shots of their bouquets, their unique packaging and customers enjoying the flowers. They also tested out different videos showing how their flowers get delivered and unwrapped. With Instagram’s ad interface, they were able to easily see which creative got the highest interaction and drove the most sales.

With the use of Instagram ads, Bloom & Wild saw more engagement on Instagram and more action on their site. They increased their bouquet orders by 62%, and saw many new customers commenting on their account and buying bouquets from their shop. With real time results in Power Editor, they were able to track each ad throughout the campaign run.

We’re excited by the customer engagement and sales Bloom & Wild achieved using Instagram ads, and can’t wait to hear success stories from more members of our small business community.