Instagram Ads in Columbus
For the businesses where the photo makes the sale.
Who it suits
A restaurant in the Short North, a salon in German Village, a remodeler with great before-and-after shots. If customers choose you by how your work looks, Instagram earns its spend.
If they choose you by who answers the phone fastest, put the budget into search first.
Targeting Columbus by area
Instagram lets us show ads to people who live in, or spend time in, a chosen area. For a Columbus business that might mean the blocks around Short North and Victorian Village on Friday evenings, or households in Westerville and Worthington for a home service.
Instagram Ads by type of Columbus business
Instagram is the most visual part of online marketing, so how well it works depends heavily on what you sell.
Restaurants
The ad has one job: make someone hungry before dinner. Short clips of food leaving the pass, shown around the Short North and Brewery District in the late afternoon, fit how people decide where to eat. The result to track is reservations and directions requests, not likes.
Salons and studios
Clients choose a stylist by their portfolio, and Instagram is where they look at it. Ads work best as a route to the booking page, aimed at people near the salon, with retargeting for those who viewed the work but did not book.
Landscapers
Demand is seasonal, so the spend should be too: heavy in early spring, light in winter. Before-and-after footage does the selling. In our scan, 9 of 40 landscapers had no website, which makes a lead form inside Instagram useful for them.
Remodelers
A kitchen or basement is a big decision, about $28,600 by our regional estimate for Columbus, and nobody books one from a single ad. Instagram here is the slow part of the digital marketing: keeping finished projects in front of homeowners in Upper Arlington or Worthington until they are ready, while search catches them when they start comparing companies.
How we build it
- 1
Collect
Your best photos and short clips, plus a list of what to shoot next.
- 2
Cut
Each creative sized for Reels, Stories and feed.
- 3
Launch
Shown to people in the areas you serve, tested in pairs.
- 4
Refresh
New creative every month, because the feed rewards it.
Included
- Reels, Stories and feed placements
- Targeting by area and interest
- Retargeting of visitors and people who engaged
- A booking or lead form connected
- A weekly report and a monthly refresh
Cost
Management is $1,000 a month, with ad spend paid straight to Meta. It often runs alongside Facebook Ads from the same account.
Is Instagram right for your business?
The audit gives you a straight answer.
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