With Instagram’s expansive ad reach and creative marketing solutions, many brands rely on the platform to attract potential buyers. The latest Instagram stats even reveal that 84% of users who see an ad on the platform visit the brand’s website or app. Plus, 71% go on to make a purchase – so who wouldn’t want to advertise on Instagram?
That said, the effectiveness means there’s significant competition. When you’re competing against hundreds and thousands of brands similar to yours, you need a marketing campaign that stands out. So check out these x best Instagram marketing campaign examples to give you inspiration.
- 1. Moxie Beauty: Stats and Reviews in Ad
- 2. Mubi: Halloween Paid Partnership Campaign
- 3. d’you: Bottle Redesign Campaign
- 4. Asana: New Year Ad
- 5. Nie Ize: Influencer Marketing Campaign
- 6. Nourish Organics: Real Comments as Ads
- 7. Pact: Fall Campaign
- 8. ColourPop Cosmetics: Pokemon Collection Campaign
- 9. GoPro: Earth Day GoPro Awards Challenge
- 10. It Cosmetics: Sun Blush Teaser Campaign
- 11. The Postbox: How It Started vs. How It’s Going Ad
- 12. Glow Recipe: Glow Gang Ambassador Campaign
- 13. Under Armour: Flow State Challenge
1. Moxie Beauty: Stats and Reviews in Ad
While eye-catching Instagram ads are well and great, product photos and great copy alone may not always be enough to drive clicks. There’s already an abundance of ads with those characteristics, so you need something to make it stand out. That’s exactly what Moxie Beauty did with ads that feature numbers and reviews to boost credibility.
The haircare brand created an Instagram carousel ad where the first image instantly catches attention with a powerful statement about the product. Hyperbolic expressions like “liquid gold” offer a promising solution while “dry and frizzy hair” addresses the pain point. They even include a star rating and a review from one customer so it instantly catches the eye.
As you scroll through the carousel, the ad highlights features and characteristics in an attention-grabbing format. Visuals illustrate the key ingredients while graphics illustrate the key benefits.
Additionally, one of the slides includes stats highlighting the results for proof of what the product is capable of. The numbers are enlarged to make them stand out so people would pay closer attention. Finally, the last slide includes additional reviews from other customers. This serves as social proof and adds credibility to their claims, allowing them to generate trust among people who come across the ad.
2. Mubi: Halloween Paid Partnership Campaign
Mubi’s 2022 Halloween campaign is an excellent example of a paid partnership done right. As a movie streaming platform, the brand found an ideal partner in Cinephile Club – a community of cinephiles with over 2 million Instagram followers. The partnership allowed them to tap into the community’s millions of members who would be interested in the platform’s offering.
For this campaign, the Cinephile Club created a “paid partnership with Mubi” Instagram Reel providing Halloween movie recommendations, which instantly appealed to the page’s audience of movie lovers. The Reel features hand-selected suggestions for horror movies across various sub-genres, which are all available to watch on the Mubi platform.
Each suggestion included the name of the movie and the year of making as well as the sub-genres such as body horror, psychological thriller, and dark comedy. This allowed them to showcase the platform’s abundant selection of horror movie options, positioning Mubi as the perfect destination for cinephiles during Halloween.
To further amplify their reach, Mubi promoted the post so that it showed up as a Sponsored recommendation for relevant users. It was displayed to other Instagram users who didn’t follow the Cinephile Club but showed interest in similar types of content and accounts. This campaign allowed Mubi to effectively raise brand awareness among movie lovers on Instagram with the Reel generating more than 3.3 million likes and thousands of comments.
3. d’you: Bottle Redesign Campaign
When d’you – a high-performing skincare brand – launched a new bottle design for their best-selling multi-active serum, they needed to raise awareness about it. So they launched an Instagram Stories ad campaign featuring the new product bottle.
What stands out about this campaign is the use of real customer comments highlighting why the previous bottle design needed to be ditched. These comments revealed the bottle pump to be a major pain point among the brand’s customers. Many of them expressed their frustrations about how the product was prone to spilling due to the pump design.
d’you positioned these complaints in one frame along with the old bottle design. In the next frame, the brand revealed the new bottle design along with a caption from d’you saying “we heard you!!!”
This creative campaign helped the brand to not only announce their bottle redesign but also position themselves as a brand that listens to their customers. It allowed them to showcase how they incorporate feedback instead of simply ignoring their customer complaints.
4. Asana: New Year Ad
There are a couple of things that stand out about the next Instagram marketing campaign – the timing and the copy. At the start of 2023, Asana targeted prospects with an Instagram Stories ad campaign that encouraged them to start using the app.
The ad featured creative use of copy where the “three” in “Twenty Twenty Three” was scratched off an replaced with the word “free.” It then encouraged people to free their team of unnecessary admin work and start delivering against their 2023 ambitions.
The timing allowed Asana to target prospects at a time when they’re back at work and gearing up for the new year. Meanwhile, the creative copy strengthened the notion that the app enables people to free up time.
5. Nie Ize: Influencer Marketing Campaign
Nie Ize is an innovative brand that designs inventory-driven products targeted at adventurers, doers, and active types. Their products include waterproof pouches for paddleboarders to hold their cellphones or rechargeable headlamps to light up an entire campsite.
When the brand wanted to raise brand awareness among adventure-seeking social media users, they turned to influencer marketing. With the help of The Shelf agency, the brand put together a year-long series of influencer marketing campaigns with the intention of producing captivating images of their products. They engaged 50+ outdoor enthusiasts across a range of verticals including fitness enthusiasts, pet lovers, and adventurers.
Each of these influencers produced stunning original images that demonstrated Nie Ize products. The pet lovers, for instance, captured photos of their dogs playing with light-up pet toys and wearing glowing collars.
Another outdoor lifestyle influencer captured a stunning photo of the brand’s flashlight against a backdrop of the star-studded night sky. With a total reach of over 6.5 million, these influencers helped the brand drive more than 100,000 total engagements across 300+ pieces of content.
6. Nourish Organics: Real Comments as Ads
Nourish Organics is a healthy snack brand that boasts vegan, natural ingredients. The brand prides itself on making snacks with “real ingredients.” As such, authenticity and trust play an important factor in their marketing campaigns.
So when they launched an Instagram Stories ad campaign, they decided to feature “real love” from real customers. They used screenshots of several comments from customers praising their products with some calling the snacks “to die for” while one explained that they’ll “blow your mind.”
With real people vouching for the products, who needs additional copy to promote how good your products are? These authentic customer comments are highly effective for establishing trust and winning over potential customers.
7. Pact: Fall Campaign
Another timely campaign to make it to this list, there are several things that Pact got right for their 2022 fall campaign. The campaign was launched during early fall, at a time when people are starting to shop for fall outfits. It focused on using Instagram ads to engage people who’ve previously visited the brand’s website.
What stands out most about this campaign is the way they highlight one of their best-selling products in attractive fall colors. The image simply showcases the same product in six different colors befitting the fall season with text overlay that reads “fall favorites” to instantly grab attention. In the caption, the brand mentions how their customers’ favorite organic waffle fabric is back just in time for fall.
Pact further sweetens the deal by providing people who see the ad with a unique code to get a 20% discount on their first order. This gives the brand’s target audience even more reason to take action as soon as they see the ad because there’s a chance the offer might not be around later on.
8. ColourPop Cosmetics: Pokemon Collection Campaign
A list like this wouldn’t be complete without a mention of ColourPop Cosmetics. The brand has regularly launched standout Instagram marketing campaigns featuring enticing teasers and eye-catching visuals. They’ve regularly managed to promote one pop culture collab after the other by speaking fandom language and making references that engage the right audience.
Even for this next collaboration with the Pokemon franchise, ColourPop Cosmetics has done another exceptional job of teasing the audience. They shared the following Instagram Reel in collaboration with the official Pokemon Instagram account. It features several screenshots of comments from excited fans asking about the collection overlaid against a background of what looks to be like red makeup pigment.
The camera then zooms out and shows an outline of a Poké Ball drawn on the pigment, serving as an announcement of the upcoming collection. This was the perfect teaser to get fans excited for the release without giving off too much info. The Reel received more than 20,000 likes within just 10 hours along with hundreds of comments from eager fans.
9. GoPro: Earth Day GoPro Awards Challenge
GoPro is a brand that relies almost exclusively on user-generated content to power their Instagram marketing strategy. This makes it only natural for the brand to launch a campaign centered around user-submitted photos to promote the GoPro Hero 12 while simultaneously supporting a good cause.
For Earth Day 2024, the brand launched the GoPro Awards Challenge, encouraging users to share their best images of Mother Nature. The five best selections would receive the new GoPro Hero 12 and have a donation made in their name to The Ocean Cleanup organization. While the submissions needed to be made through the GoPro website, the brand heavily promoted the challenge on Instagram.
The challenge helped GoPro to drive significant engagement on Instagram. The Instagram post announcing the challenge received more than 18,000 likes while the challenge itself was well-received among the public. In the post announcing recipients of the award, the brand saw tons of positive comments along with over 12,000 likes.
10. It Cosmetics: Sun Blush Teaser Campaign
Before the official launch of their Glo with Confidence Sun Blush, It Cosmetics created a teaser campaign to build anticipation for the launch. They shared an Instagram Reel showing behind-the-scenes footage of people trying out the new product and engaging in deep conversation about it.
The video ends with a close-up visual of the product in different shades and a text overlay indicating that it’s “coming soon…” This teaser video is accompanied by a fun caption telling people that “something blushing amazing is coming” and encouraging them to come back tomorrow to find out what it is.
The comments flowed in with people sharing their excitement about the upcoming product. Some were thrilled to see some of the shades they needed. One comment even expressed how they’re “adding all to cart when it’s time.” Needless to say, this teaser campaign allowed It Cosmetics to build a much-needed buzz for their new product to be a success.
11. The Postbox: How It Started vs. How It’s Going Ad
This next example showcases a brand getting with the times and following the latest Instagram trends. At one point, social media users across Instagram and other popular platforms were creating content showcasing “how it started” and comparing it to “how it’s going.”
The trend essentially allowed users to put a fun twist to their experiences and stories as they showcases before and after improvements and personal progresses. Some even put hilarious twists to the trend by sharing relatable experiences that weren’t necessarily positive.
The Postbox decided to leverage this viral trend to create an Instagram ad campaign exhibiting the long-lasting quality of their leather products. The ad features two side-by-side photos of a leather wallet. The “how it started” version shows the wallet brand new at 0 days of use while the “how it’s going” version shows the same wallet after 246 days of use.
While the two versions look fairly similar at a glance, the older version looks a bit more polished but still just as high-quality. The caption explains how the products are “designed to last long” and encourages customers to discover a range of high-quality leather goods similar to the wallet showcased in the ad.
This creative approach allowed the brand to grab attention by keeping up with the latest trends. It also created the perfect opportunity to showcase their products’ quality even after months of use.
12. Glow Recipe: Glow Gang Ambassador Campaign
As a brand that relies heavily on community engagement, an Instagram marketing campaign that activated the community only made sense for Glow Recipe. The skincare brand put together a Glow Gang ambassador program and invited real customers to sign up for exclusive perks such as monthly packages with the brand’s goodies, access to products before they launch, and many more.
Participants selected for the program would be encouraged to create content for the brand and become Glow Gang ambassadors. They would create monthly social posts and review new product launches to help amplify the brand’s reach.
Some of these ambassadors even shared original Instagram content along with unique discount codes to get their followers to buy from the brand. According to one case study, the program generates more than 150,000 impressions per month across Instagram and TikTok. This has also resulted in more than 2.5k direct website visits each month, proving the direct business value of the campaign.
13. Under Armour: Flow State Challenge
For their biggest run release of 2021, Under Armour needed to put together a powerful social media campaign to build excitement and ignite resonance among runners. So with the help of We Are Social, the brand launched the Flow State Challenge on the brand’s running app. Three individuals who manage to log 30 miles in 30 days would win a trip to take their dream run anywhere in the world.
The challenge kicked off with a remote launch video featuring 12 elite runners coming together to encourage the running community to participate. Under Armour’s regional teams were also tasked with activating talent to support the campaign and engage local communities. These influencers helped to mobilize the running community in their respective regions, encouraging them to join the Flow State Challenge.
Additionally, the agency created an Instagram AR filter to further encourage runners to create content for the campaign. The filter was intended to virtually transport runners to another place where they feel lighter, faster, and more focused as they start to run. Not only did the campaign result in participation from 54,000 runners, but the kickoff video generated 129 million views supported by paid advertising.
This campaign was pulled off exceptionally well, addressing the thirst among runners for personal achievement since it was launched during the pandemic when competition had ceased to exist. It challenged them to get back into the community and kickstart their competitive spirit. Moreover, it offered a reward that appealed to people after a year devoid of travel.
As for the campaign promotion, the talent activation coupled with the Instagram AR filter encouraged more participation and user-generated content. This helped amplify the campaign’s reach and contributed to the overall success.
Taking Your Instagram Marketing Campaigns to the Next Level
This is only just a small selection of some of the best marketing campaigns on Instagram to inspire you. While they all vary greatly in terms of details and approaches, creativity plays a central role across every campaign. Take a closer look and get inspired for your next Instagram marketing campaign.
