Follow these steps for creating a shop on Instagram to get access to features like product tags, checkout, create ads with product tags and more!
Step 1: Confirm Eligibility
If your business checks all of these boxes, you are eligible and able to setup Instagram Shopping.
- Your business is located in a SUPPORTED MARKET
- Your business has an eligible product
- Your business complies with Instagram merchant agreement and commerce policies
- Your business owns a website domain in which you intend to sell from
Step 2: Convert To A Business Or Creator Account
Follow these steps to convert your account to a business account. Once you have a business account, you can add in relevant business information like store hours, business address, phone number and a link to your website.
- Go to your business’s Instagram profile
- Select “Edit Profile”
- Under the “Public Business Information” section, select “Page”
- Choose a Facebook Page from your Pages that you’d like to connect
- If you do not have a Facebook Page select “Create a New Facebook Page”
- Note: Facebook Page Shop is not required, only a Facebook Page.
Step 3: Connect To A Facebook Page
Follow these steps to link your Instagram business account with a Facebook page.
Step 4: Upload Product Catalog
Instagram Shopping is powered by your product catalog. There are two ways to connect a product catalog to your Instagram Business Account:
CATALOG MANAGER is the “do it yourself” method found within Facebook Business Manager.
OR ECOMMERCE PLATFORM PARTNER is an integration through one of our certified ecommerce platform partners like Shopify or BigCommerce
Step 5: Account Review
Once you connect a product catalog to your Instagram and have products in your catalog, submit your account for review by following these steps. Account reviews typically take a few days but sometimes can take longer.
- Go to your business’s Instagram profile and tap
- Select “Settings”
- Sign up for shopping
- Follow the steps to submit your account for review.
- Visit “Shopping” in your “Settings” at any time to check your status.
Some businesses may be notified that additional information is necessary to prove ownership of your website domain. If you receive this notification, follow the steps to complete our domain verification process to submit your account for review.
Step 6: Turn On Shopping
Once your account is approved you can turn on Shopping features. Note: If you don’t see Shopping in your Settings, your account is probably still under review or it hasn’t been approved for Instagram Shopping.
- Go to your business’s Instagram profile and tap
- Select “Settings”
- Tap “Business” then tap “Shopping”
- Select the “Product Catalog” you want to connect to your account.
- Select “Done”
Step 7: Start Tagging
Now that you’ve enabled Shopping you can use product tags to highlight products in your photos and videos across Feed and Stories.
Product Tags In Posts
To tag products within an Instagram post, start by uploading a photo as you normally would and follow the below instructions before posting:
- Tap “Add Photo”
- Add a caption
- Tap on “Tag Products”
- Tap on photo
- Search for product
- Select product
- Tap “Done”
- Tap “Share”
Shopping Sticker In Stories
Right after you have chosen an image for your story follow the below instructions before posting:
- Tap the sticker icon in the top right corner
- Select the product sticker from the sticker tray
- Select the product from your catalog that you want to feature
- Move the product sticker to where you would like it to appear on your story
- Change the text color of the product sticker by tapping the sticker
- Share your story
Shopping Tips
Make Content Actionable
People engage with shoppable photos and videos all throughout the app. Use all available touchpoints across Stories, Feed and Profile to build shopping behaviors.
- Use clear CTA’s like this Perricone MD example to tell people how to shop your products on Instagram.
- Update your Profile bio to communicate how to shop your content now that you are on Shopping.
Own Your Brand Voice
Unlike other ecommerce sites and apps, there is no Instagram Shopping template your brand and content has to fit into.
- Maintain the same tone and voice your followers love. Shopping features shouldn’t change who you are as a brand.
- In this example, Outdoor Voices uses product tags with authentic non-commercial content consistent with their brand.
Plan Ahead
Build a calendar of moments that are important to your brand and plan your products and content in advance.
- Choose cultural moments that are important to your brand and your followers similar to how the NFL chose Draft Day and featured players in content selling their new team’s caps.
- Don’t be afraid to create your own moment like Julian Edelman who turned his epic game-winning pass into a shoppable moment for fans to embrace.
Ads With Product Tags
Ads with product tags drive people directly to a product detail page to learn more. From there, people can go to your website to purchase.
Ads With Product Tags And Checkout
If you are a U.S. checkout enabled business, people will be driven to purchase directly in-app.
ADS WITH PRODUCT TAGS RUN IN FEED OR EXPLORE USING SINGLE IMAGE, CAROUSEL OR VIDEO FORMATS
Ads With Product Tags In Feed
Ads With Product Tags In Explore
New Ways To Reach People Who Love To Shop
Shopping Engagement Custom Audiences
These are segments of shoppers who have taken certain actions, like tapped on a product tag to view a specific product. Businesses can re-engage these high- intent shoppers with any type of ad.
Shopping Lookalike Audiences
These are shoppers that have similar interests to your existing shoppers. Businesses can use ads to find and engage these potential new customers.
*Available to businesses that use checkout on Instagram.
How Shopping Businesses Can Use These Tools
Expand Reach
Use ads with product tags to expand the reach and drive engagement of your shoppable content and products.
Re-Engage Shoppers
Re-engage people that have shown interest in your products by using Shopping Engagement Custom Audiences to pull them back into the shopping journey.
Find New Shoppers
Find net-new shoppers who are similar to your existing shoppers by using Shopping Lookalike Audiences.
Success Stories
What They Did
With millennials as their main audience, a Korean skincare brand wanted to test new ways to engage its audience and drive sales. They ran an Instagram campaign using a combination of ads with product tags (to make it easier for people to discover and engage with the products) and Branded Content ads.
What They Delivered
- 1.8X higher return on ad spend
- 45% decrease in cost per purchase
- 42% decrease in cost per add to cart
- 41% increase in number of people reached
Strategy Recommended
Run existing shoppable posts as ads or setup new ads with product tags in Ads Manager.
What They Did
Hollister already ran a successful campaign that tested using ads with product tags to scale its shoppable content and drive sales. They wanted to also test whether showing these shoppable ads to the newly-available Shopping Lookalike Audiences would be effective. They compared running ads with product tags that targeted Shopping Lookalike Audiences to their “business as usual” prospecting audiences.
What They Delivered
- 32% higher click-through rate
- 47% lower cost per click
- Over 90% increase in traffic
Strategy Recommended
Create Shopping Lookalike Audiences to find shoppers that are likely to enjoy your products but have not engaged with your content yet.
NexLaunch: we are a digital marketing agency specialized on Direct Selling companies and leaders with over 20 years in the digital marketing and systems world, we have built systems that have transformed online businesses and launched companies around the world. Schedule a Call here
