Track the performance of your Instagram Growth campaigns

• Cost Per Follower (CPF)
• Cost Per Click (CPC)
• FAQ

Cost Per Follower (CPF)

CPF is calculated based on the spend at the end of the previous day and your follower count on a daily basis. Spotify and Instagram usually update their follower count every 24 hours whereas YouTube tends to update every 1,000 followers once you reach a certain number of followers.

Your CPF metric is a good indicator that audiences know what to do when they land on your Spotify, Instagram, or YouTube page.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

CPC is measured when an ad leads a user to click. You can track performance by looking at your overall performance data to make sure users are being reached with your ad and that they are clicking on it.

Your ad creative should prompt action. CPC is a good indicator if your ad prompts the end-users to ‘swipe up’. A good CPC to aim for is around $0.20 USD per click.

FAQ

Which of my new followers came directly from this campaign?

There is no direct attribution (someone swipes up on your Growth campaign and then follows you) since you can’t place a pixel on Spotify, YouTube, or your Instagram profile directly.

Keep this in mind:

• We track the net. This means other organic followers will show up in the campaign reporting as you can't distinguish whether the follower came from the ad or not.

• Unfollows on Instagram will bias your reporting. As we track the net, let's say you got 10 new followers with your ad and you had 10 people unfollow. This would show that we've technically had 0 growth in the reporting, but we actually did grow 10 followers. If you dive into your Instagram Business insights you can actually get a breakdown of new follows versus unfollows.

This is basically the best tracking for this type of ad technically available, but it's very important to try to account for any organic growth that creeps its way into the reporting.

How does CPC affect the Overall Performance section of my dashboard?

If you are running your campaign globally, it’s normal to see spend vary amongst the 3 Tiers within the Overall Performance section, as the spend is proportional to the cost of advertising within each Tier. As such, Tiers 1 and 2 typically see a higher CPC than Tier 3. As long as the CPC across all Tiers is under $0.20 USD, you’re in a good spot.

For all other campaign types ("Recommended," "English Speaking," and "Custom") you still want to aim for a CPC under $0.20 USD and a clickthrough rate (CTR) above 0.20%.

Does custom geo-targeting impact CPF or CPC?

For users running ads with "Recommended" or "Custom" location targeting, metrics like CPF and CPC are subject to increase, as the total pool of individuals decreases (from a global campaign) and the areas served are generally more expensive to advertise in. However, these areas are more likely to include the intended audience (instead of hitting a broad, global objective). Thus, increasing the likelihood that you'll see better CPF and CPC.

My CPC is low, but my CPF is high. What does that mean?

If the CPC is below $0.20 USD but your CPF is skewing higher than you’d like, it could be that people find your creative intriguing but aren’t following when they land on the Spotify, YouTube, or Instagram profile. In this scenario, adjusting the targeting can help you reach people who like your ad. Also, review the ad to make sure the end-goal is clear (e.g., there is a call-to-action to follow or subscribe).

I’m running multiple campaigns. Can we aggregate my CPF results?

As the CPF per campaign is pulled from the profile’s overall follower count, running multiple playbooks simultaneously that lead to the same profile should be understood in aggregate. In this event, you would divide your total spend across all playbooks by the number of total followers gained since launching the first campaign to understand your aggregate CPF.

My CPF is all over the place. What causes the CPF to vary?

If you notice a great deal of changes in CPF on a day-to-day basis, understand that this is normal and can be due to harmless factors, such as a delay in reporting. Other times it can be seasonal, such as during the holidays, when advertising costs tend to go up. Ultimately, it’s more valuable to keep an eye on the overall CPF instead of fixating on day-to-day stats.

Only scale up your daily spend once you’ve validated your CPF and CPC/CTR are in a good spot. If you start spending more without ensuring your strategy is working, you will see a spike in CPF.

I’m nervous about my CPF. When should I go back to the drawing board and launch a new campaign?

First, take a look at your ad creative and the targeting in your current campaign. Typically, a high CPC / low CTR suggests the creative could use work. If you're using the best possible creative or have already tried multiple creatives, look into the targeting to be sure it follows our targeting guidelines. If the CPF is still too high, it may be time to launch a new campaign with adjustments.