Instagram has gathered a lot of traction in recent years and has reached new users milestone each year.
The exponential growth of Instagram has opened doors for advertisers based across the globe along with UAE to add the platform to their advertising arsenal.
As of now, there are close to 9 million living in the region and 3.7 million of them are Instagram users. This information was made public by Nigel Sillitoe, who is the chief executive of Insight Discovery.
The research firm is giving the advertisers a chance to reach a much wider audience through their paid targeted campaigns, which are guaranteed to work.
Speaking about this in depth, Sillitoe said:
We want to help the most qualified advisers in the Middle East, especially those who are above Level 4 or the equivalent in their home country, to stand out from the crowd through a digital campaign managed by our business. These campaigns, which start from as little as $1,500 (£1,148, €1,327), will be managed in partnership with DMBB4, a digital firm we have worked with on many campaigns in the past.
Target the Right Audience
The social media has been around the block for a long while so what exactly is new about Instagram that advertisers did not know about?
Well, Sillitoe revealed that the age demographic of Instagram is much different from other social media platforms.
He said that 73% of the users are aged between 24 and 44, which is a group that is “highly relevant to financial advisory companies.”
He further stated:
Whilst we will continue to use LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media platforms from time to time, we have found Instagram to be the most successful when sponsoring new posts for whichfinancialadviser.com.
Speaking about Instagram’s value, he revealed:
Instagram is also incredible value compared to LinkedIn – for example the cost of a lead from LinkedIn might be up to $100, whereas for Instagram it could be $15.
The Digital Future
The financial advisers have always remained hesitant when it came to digital platforms; this was a result of targeting an older demographic. However, the focus has changed now which has brought a change.
Sillitoe also backed the idea that times are changing and a change in strategy is an absolute must.
“More and more advisers and firms are finally waking up to the world of digital, thankfully at the expense of cold calling.
“With just a couple of exceptions, I feel that many firms are pretty hopeless at marketing themselves; this is because they don’t allocate much budget to digital and have very few controls in place to manage what their advisers actually post.
“What’s rather frustrating is that some of the best advisory firms at digital marketing are unregulated.
“I guess this is because these firms don’t have the same running costs as a firm regulated by the Insurance Authority or [Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA)]; they certainly have no need to put down any capital.
“In my opinion, unregulated firms in the UAE should be banned from doing any digital marketing or advertising, even if they are regulated by the [Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)] or another regulator in a different part of the world,” he added.
In order to be eligible to participate in the Instagram campaign initiative, advisers need to work for a regulated firm in the UAE; be qualified to a minimum Level 4 or equivalent; have to be a member of a professional body – such as the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) or the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI); and their company needs to be listed on Insight Discovery’s aggregator website.
