How to improve your Instagram ads (and stop wasting money)

Are you investing in Instagram ads and not seeing results? Promoting your content on Instagram and unsure whether it’s working?

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Instagram remains one of the most powerful platforms for growing a brand, generating leads or driving sales, but also one of the most competitive and increasingly saturated with ads. If your ads aren’t converting, the problem isn’t the algorithm: it’s usually the creative, the approach or the targeting. Without even considering the double P: price and product.

In this article, we explain how to improve your Instagram ads step by step, which mistakes to avoid, what type of content works best (yes, UGC Ads) and how to measure whether you’re actually getting a return on your investment.

First of all, this may interest you: how to grow on Instagram in 2026.

Creative accounts for more than 75% of ad performance. An ad may feature the ideal product or service, but if the video or image doesn’t capture attention in the first 3 seconds… scroll and goodbye.

• Short, vertical videos of 10–20 seconds
• Strong hooks in the first 2 seconds (“Don’t buy this until you see this…”)
• UGC -style creative recorded by real creators
• Fast storytelling and a natural tone, without seeming like an ad

• Static images of the promotion / offer / product
• Corporate videos
• Failing to empathise &/or tell an engaging story. Because the lives we all lead are boring enough… people on social media are there to be entertained, moved, laugh, and share content with their friends or family.

Not every Instagram ad has to sell. Some generate awareness, while others drive traffic or leads.
Define a clear conversion funnel based on Instagram’s options:

Tip: “a combination of actions” is usually not a good objective. It’s preferable to create several campaigns with different objectives.

Forget Instagram Ads’ “Suggested Audiences”. Create and customise your own, and target by interests, location, age, behaviour, lookalikes or even your own lists (CRM or emails).

Enable the Advantage+ option only if:

• You have doubts about the audience you created and think Meta’s AI could help suggest potential related audiences based on your audience and similar ones.

Tips:

• Use lookalike audiences (lookalikes) based on your actual customers (you can only do this from Business Manager, not by promoting content from the app).
• Create separate audiences for each funnel stage (discovery, consideration, conversion).
• Avoid audiences of more than 1M people if your budget is small: they spread your spend too thin.

The most common mistake: launching a single ad and waiting for results. Always test and try different ads with different:

• Creatives (UGC vs static image vs promotional video)
• Hook variations (“What no one tells you about…” vs “3 tricks to…” vs “the other day a friend…”)
• Calls to action (“Buy now” vs “Discover it today”)
• Different creators (when they are UGC videos)
• Other hooks (such as Lead Magnets)

To do this, you’ll need to access Meta Ads Manager from a PC.

It’s the most reliable way to check whether the ad’s quality is influenced by the content, audience, placement or other variables, since performance will be compared according to the KPI we choose, such as CPC, CPA, CPL or simply likes, among many other options.

UGC videos are the driving force behind performance marketing today. And some people don't want to see that because it's much more convenient, simpler and even cheaper to create an ad using a Canva template.

Here's an example of UGC Ads:

But of course, just as you do it, thousands of other people do too… you’re not differentiating yourself at all. Your ad is a picture of a sun drawn by an 8-year-old in a sea of pictures of suns. Think about it.

• They look organic, not like ads.
• Although they are published under the brand’s account, they aim to imitate the customer’s voice more closely, not the brand’s.
• They generate instant trust

HICARI is a UGC platform where you can produce videos with real creators from 350€/month, with 3–6 videos ready for social media, supported by an account manager who helps you with strategy, briefing and creator selection.

Yes, people don’t read… we can vouch for that. Even less so on social media. But if 1% reads this copy, it will already have been worth it. A good ad isn’t just seen, it’s felt. Make sure the text:

• Is brief and focuses on the benefit (“Get more without spending more”).
• Uses a clear CTA (“Request your quote with no obligation”, “Try it for free”).
• Uses emojis to break up visual blocks and keep the text from looking so flat—after all, you’re on a social network, don’t forget it.
• Adds urgency: “Until Sunday”, “Last spots”.

You’ll probably find this useful: How to do SEO on Instagram + Checklist

There are no perfect ads, only ads that are optimized better. Use the Meta Ads Manager dashboard to review:

• CTR (Click Through Rate)
• ROAS (Return on ad spend)
• Cost per result (CPA)
• Video retention rate (VTR) > this is key to knowing whether the video content is good, whether you should work on another script or use different actors, or change the opening hook, since viewers aren’t even watching those first 3 seconds.

Tip: If CTR < 1%, your creative isn’t engaging. If CPC rises too much, review your targeting.

First, here’s how NOT to make an ad:

The best ads look organic, not corporate.

This UGC video was recorded on HICARI and the company uses it in Meta campaigns on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s a real example showing that any type of company can create a good ad that drives sales and conversions. You can watch the full video here: types of UGC content.

Improving your Instagram ads isn’t about spending more, but about understanding your audience better, creating authentic content and optimizing with real data. If you combine strategy + testing + UGC videos, you’ll be well above average. And remember: the best ad doesn’t look like an ad.

Oh, and don’t forget to take a look at our free Instagram engagement calculator.