The Best Instagram Ads on the Gold Coast

Why Instagram Advertising Works — and What to Know Before You Spend a Dollar

If you’re a Gold Coast business looking to grow your brand, attract new customers, or generate more leads, there’s one platform that continues to outperform nearly every other: Instagram.

With a highly engaged user base, powerful visual storytelling tools, and laser-targeted advertising capabilities through Meta’s platform, Instagram Ads offer one of the most cost-effective and scalable ways to grow a local business — provided you have the right strategy behind it.

Why Instagram Ads Are So Effective

Instagram isn’t just a social platform — it’s a visual search engine, a storytelling tool, and a community builder all in one. Users scroll with intent, engage visually, and respond quickly to compelling creative.

What makes Instagram especially powerful for Gold Coast businesses is the ability to hyper-target by location, interests, behaviours, and even recent online activity. Whether you’re a health clinic in Burleigh, a boutique in Broadbeach, or a tourism operator in Currumbin, you can put your brand in front of the exact audience you want — right when they’re most likely to take action.

And unlike traditional media, every cent is tracked and measured. No guesswork. Just data, performance, and results.

Picking the Right Instagram Ads Manager (It Matters More Than You Think)

The effectiveness of your campaign doesn’t come down to the algorithm — it comes down to the person managing it.

A skilled Instagram ads manager does more than run promotions. They:

• Define and align your campaign goals with business outcomes
• Build target audiences that go beyond basic demographics
• Optimise creative and copy for attention and action
• Monitor performance daily and adapt quickly
• Provide clear reporting you can understand and act on

At David Hannah Marketing, we don’t run “set and forget” campaigns. We work closely with you to understand your goals, refine your messaging, and continually improve performance based on what’s actually working. It’s hands-on, high-touch, and built for results.

What Metrics Actually Matter?

When it comes to tracking success with Instagram ads, there are three key performance metrics that we focus on:

1. Cost Per Click (CPC):
This tells us how efficiently we’re driving people to your website, landing page, or booking form. A low CPC means your ad is relevant, engaging, and well-placed.

2. Engagement (Click-Through Rate / CTR):
High engagement is a signal to Instagram’s algorithm that your ad is valuable — and it rewards you with more reach at a lower cost. CTR also tells us how effectively your creative is cutting through the scroll.

3. Server-Side Engagement (Website Behaviour):
Clicks are one thing. What people do once they land on your site is another. We track form submissions, purchases, scroll depth, and session duration using server-side tracking to get the full picture.

These metrics help us move beyond vanity numbers and focus on real outcomes — whether that’s bookings, sales, or leads.

What Does It Cost? Typical Monthly Pricing Options

Instagram advertising isn’t one-size-fits-all — and neither is the budget.

Here’s a rough guide to what you can expect depending on your goals and the scope of the campaign:

Brand Awareness & Engagement Campaigns:
From $1,500–$3,000/month
Ideal for businesses looking to grow local visibility, increase followers, and boost engagement on organic posts. Includes audience targeting, ad creative, and weekly optimisation.

Lead Generation or Website Traffic Campaigns:
From $2,500–$6,000/month
Includes funnel strategy, pixel or server-side setup, A/B testing, retargeting, and regular conversion reporting. Best for service-based businesses, clinics, consultants, or local trades.

Full Funnel Campaigns (Awareness + Engagement + Leads):
From $6,000–$15,000/month
Includes a complete advertising strategy, multiple campaign objectives, custom audiences, creative direction, and reporting. Ideal for brands looking to scale or launch a new product/service.

Larger campaigns with dynamic creative, influencer integration, or extensive video production may sit above this range — and we’re happy to scope those out on request.

Strategy Comes First (Always)

We never run a campaign without a clear, shared understanding of why we’re running it.

That’s why we always recommend starting with a strategy session — a 60-minute deep dive where we:

• Define your business goals
• Review your current online performance
• Identify your customer personas
• Map a campaign approach aligned to budget and timeline

This gives us the clarity to build Instagram campaigns that are not only well-targeted, but purpose-built to move the needle for your business.

Things to Keep in Mind — And Why You Should Never DIY This

Instagram Ads can generate incredible returns — but only if they’re set up correctly. Trying to run these campaigns yourself, without the right training or experience, often leads to:

• Wasted ad spend on poorly targeted audiences
• Ads that look good but don’t convert
• Inaccurate or missing data due to tracking errors
• No clear funnel or follow-up strategy
• Misreading performance metrics (and scaling the wrong thing)

Even small mistakes — like using the wrong campaign objective or sending traffic to a slow-loading landing page — can sabotage performance. This is where having an experienced campaign manager isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity. You’re not just paying for setup. You’re paying for oversight, refinement, and protection of your ad budget.

And Please — Never Boost a Post

We say this with love: never use the “Boost Post” button.

While it may seem quick and easy, boosting posts is the most inefficient way to spend your ad dollars. It gives you limited targeting, minimal control over performance tracking, and usually drives low-quality engagement that doesn’t lead to sales.

Instead, use the Meta Ads Manager — where we can:

• Customise targeting to real business goals
• Split test ad creative and placements
• Track conversions accurately
• Build retargeting and lookalike audiences

Boosting a post is like handing out flyers and hoping for the best. We prefer blueprints, data, and precision.

Ready to Get More From Instagram Ads?

If you're serious about using Instagram to drive business growth — and tired of boosting posts with no return — we’d love to talk.

At David Hannah Marketing, we build Instagram ad campaigns that look beautiful, perform better, and integrate with your wider strategy. Whether you're chasing leads, growing a brand, or launching something new, we’ll build a plan that delivers.

Let’s book a strategy session here and get things moving.