Beyond increasing awareness, how does running ads affect the discoverability of your content within the Explore Page?

Running ads, beyond increasing awareness, can significantly affect the discoverability of content on the Explore Page by providing valuable data to the Instagram algorithm about audience engagement and interests. When an ad is shown to a user and they interact with it (e.g., like, comment, save, share, or visit the profile), the algorithm learns more about their preferences and how your content aligns with those preferences. This data informs the algorithm's decisions about what content to show the user on the Explore Page. If an ad performs well and generates high engagement among a specific audience segment, the algorithm is more likely to show organic content from that same account to similar users on the Explore Page. Essentially, running ads can act as a signal booster, helping the algorithm understand who is most interested in your content and increasing the chances of organic discoverability. Also, if the ad leads to a follow, then the subsequent posts have a higher likelihood of showing in the follower's Explore page, since Explore page is personalized based on the users already followed.