The Instagram Business Show

Episode Summary: A guide to setting up and using an Instagram business profile — the conversion process, the differences from a personal account, the Insights analytics available, and the ad formats businesses could use in 2018.

What You’ll Learn

• How to convert a personal Instagram account to a business profile
• The key differences and limitations between personal and business profiles
• What Instagram Insights reveals about audience, posts, and Stories performance
• The 4 ad formats available and how to create ads directly from a phone

Instagram facts at the time (source: Instagram for Business): over 25 million business profiles, over 2 million advertisers, 60%+ of people say they discover new products on Instagram, 200 million people visit business profiles daily, video watch time up 80%, and a third of the most-viewed Stories came from business profiles. The bottom line: Instagram was (and remains) a serious platform for businesses of every size, with new features continuously rolling out.

Requirements to Create a Business Profile

The only real requirement: a Facebook Page set up for the business first, used to verify payment credentials and contact information. Since Facebook owns Instagram, converting to a business account also unlocks ad management from within Facebook’s tools.

How to Convert

Set up a Facebook Business Page, log into Instagram on a phone, go to profile settings, tap “Switch to Business Account,” link the Facebook Page, and fill in business information. The whole process takes just minutes.

Differences and Limitations

• Sharing: business profiles can only cross-post to their linked Facebook Business Page — not to other pages or a personal profile. Switching which Page it’s linked to just means briefly reverting to a personal account and reconnecting.
• Privacy: business accounts can’t be set to private, unlike personal accounts. Switching back and forth between personal and business is always possible.

Advantages and Tools for Business Accounts

• Business status — official recognition as a business, even for a brand-new account, which carries some marketing credibility.
• Contact info — phone, email, directions, and a physical address (if applicable) all become visible on the profile, plus one clickable link — a real benefit for local businesses.
• Insights — arguably the most valuable feature: detailed analytics on audience (age, gender, location, active hours), profile visits, link/contact clicks, reach, likes, comments, saves, and follower growth. For Stories specifically: views, reach, forward/back taps, and exit rate.

Advertising and Monetization

Four main ad formats at the time: photo ads (square or landscape), video ads (up to 60 seconds, square or wide), carousel ads (swipeable multi-photo), and Story ads (vertical, up to 15 seconds) — with 300 million people using Stories at the time, a meaningful audience.

Creating ads: the simplest path was promoting an existing post directly from the phone — tap Promote on any post, choose the goal (profile visits, website visits, or reach near an address), set a target audience and budget. Promoted posts show “Sponsored” under the profile name. More dynamic ad types required Facebook Ads Manager, the same tool used for Facebook advertising, available on desktop and mobile. None of this requires payment, either — creative use of content, hashtags, and tagging can drive real organic reach without ad spend; paying mainly buys more precise audience targeting.

Features Not Available to All Business Profiles (in 2018)

Swipe Up was, at the time, limited to business accounts with 10,000+ followers, letting Stories link out to a website with a swipe gesture.

Instagram Shop was available only to approved stores and e-commerce sites in select industries (like fashion) and countries, allowing brands to tag merchandise directly in photos with a price preview and purchase link — an early version of what became much more widely available shopping functionality.

Show Notes & Links

• Instagram for Business