Instagram offers exceptional advertising potential: immersive formats, engaged audiences, precise targeting. Yet many brands are struggling to get the results they want. Why? Because they make common mistakes that undermine performance. Here are the 5 most common mistakes on Instagram Ads, and more importantly, how to avoid them. You can also read our article on the fundamentals of Instagram Ads campaigns (targeting, formats, budget).
1. Poorly targeting your audience (and ruining the performance of your Instagram ads)
Instagram Ads enables you to target your prospects very finely: age, location, interests, behaviors, connections, etc. But wanting to “reach everyone” often means reaching no one. Targeting too broadly, or with the wrong parameters, dilutes the message and drives up costs without generating results.
Symptoms :
- Low click-through rate
- High cost per conversion
- Lots of impressions, little action
Solutions :
- Create several segmented audiences (by offer, by intention, by maturity level)
- Use personalized audiences (web visitors, customers, subscribers)
- Test Lookalike Audiences (1 to 3% similarity to start with)
- Exclude recent buyers or irrelevant audiences
Effinity recommendation: structure your campaigns by audience type to compare performance objectively.
2. Use visuals not adapted to Instagram formats
Instagram is a visual platform. A poorly sized, blurred, overly textual or non-immersive visual is quickly ignored. Too often, brands reuse Facebook or banner visuals, without adapting them to Instagram codes.
Symptoms :
- Low engagement rate (likes, views, clicks)
- High cost per click
- Quickly “skipped” ads in Stories or Reels
Solutions :
- Create dedicated visuals for Stories (9:16), Reels or Carrousel formats
- Use visual hooks from the very first second
- Integrate moving or animated elements (GIF, simple effects)
- Respect the rule of 20% maximum text in visuals
Effinity recommendation: carry out creative A/B tests on each format. It’s often the images that make the difference.
3. Neglect the landing page
An Instagram ad isn’t everything. If the user experience is degraded after the click, conversion won’t happen. Yet too many campaigns lead to pages that are not mobile-friendly, take too long to load, or are misaligned with the ad.
Symptoms :
- High bounce rate
- Few conversions despite good click-through rates
- Bad ROAS
Solutions :
- Check mobile loading speed (< 3 sec ideally)
- Propose a message consistent with the advertising promise
- Put forward a clear, visible call to action
- Simplify forms, buttons and purchasing paths
Effinity recommendation: track the user journey via Meta Pixel + analytics tools to detect friction points.
4. Launch an Instagram campaign without clear goals or conversion tracking
Without a well-defined objective, it’s hard to optimize anything. A common mistake? Launching a “brand awareness” campaign hoping for sales, or aiming for conversion without having installed the Meta Pixel tracking tool.
Symptoms :
- Incomplete or unusable data
- Inability to attribute results to a campaign
- Poor budget management
Solutions :
- Define a single, clear objective for each campaign: traffic, add to cart, lead, purchase.
- Install and check Meta Pixel configuration (and Conversion API)
- Create personalized conversion events (e.g. form sent, purchase)
- Analyze KPIs adapted to the objective: CPC for traffic, ROAS for purchases, CPA for leads
Effinity recommendation: create a customized dashboard with your key KPIs to drive performance-based campaigns.
5. Leave an Instagram Ads campaign running without optimization
An Instagram Ads campaign should never be left on autopilot. The algorithm needs to learn, but that doesn’t exempt it from regular adjustments. Not to optimize is to waste.
Symptoms :
- Gradually declining results
- Advertising fatigue (lower CTR, higher CPA)
- Budget consumed on the worst audiences
Solutions :
- Analyze your performance by audience, creative and placement
- Cut out underperforming segments
- Renew visuals regularly (every 2-3 weeks)
- Test different bidding strategies (lowest cost, target ROAS…)
Effinity recommendation: set up a weekly optimization routine, supported by automatic rules in Meta Ads Manager.
Why get support for your Instagram Ads campaigns?
The success of an Instagram Ads campaign depends on a clear strategy, effective creative and rigorous management.
At Effinity, we identify and correct these mistakes upstream to build campaigns focused on performance, not just visibility.
Thanks to our test & learn approach and our mastery of Meta tools, we help brands sustainably increase their ROAS.
Want to boost your Instagram Ads campaigns? Discover our Social Ads support methodology and turn your investments into growth drivers.
