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How to advertise on Instagram properly
Almost every business here starts with the blue Promote button under a post. It works, in the way that throwing money out of a window works: something happens, but you cannot say what.
Promote versus a real ad
Promote gives you a handful of choices. Meta Ads Manager, the free tool behind it, lets you choose who sees the ad, what they should do next, and how success is counted. The same budget does more there, and you can see which picture or line actually brought messages.
If you only ever press Promote, stop boosting everything. Boost the one post that already got real comments and saves, and send it to the town you actually sell in.
What to set in Albania
Target the town, not the country: "Tirana + 10 km" beats "Albania" for a shop people have to reach. Age range matters more than interests for local businesses, because the interest lists here are thin.
Send people where they can act: WhatsApp for services, the product page for shops. Sending everyone to your homepage is how budgets disappear.
Fix the free things first
An ad does not make a bad page good; it sends more people to it. Before spending anything, check what happens after the click: are the prices visible, do the photos look like the real product, does anybody answer the message within the hour?
Most shops here pay to send people somewhere that loses them. That is not an advertising problem, and more budget will not fix it.
When not to advertise
If nobody searches for what you sell and nobody needs it urgently, ads are a slow way to buy attention you cannot keep. Put the money into photos, your Google profile and answering messages faster.
We will tell you when that is the case. We would rather say it than take the money and show you a report full of reach.
Still want somebody to do it?
Send us your business name on WhatsApp and you get a free page back within two days: what customers see when they search for you, and what to fix first.
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