Instagram is set to go the way of Facebook and ramp up its advertising in the coming weeks.
The firm said in a blog post that they aim to do three main things:
- Expand the types of adverts they offer to businesses, including those that result in ‘actions’, like getting the user to sign up to a website, shop, install an app, or click to find out more about a website.
- Increase the options in terms of targeting, so advertisers can put their ads in front of their precise target audience.
- Create an advertising network that accommodates both large and small businesses.
Instagram revealed that a study by Nielsen Brand Effect found that sponsored posts on their platform result in a retention rate almost three times higher than the internet advertising average.
The firm, bought by Facebook for around $1billion in April 2012, said they would be using Facebook’s infrastructure
to help deliver better-performing and more targeted ads, and better feedback.
And as well as Instagram’s own Ads API they said they would even be making Instagram ads available on the Facebook ad-buying platform as well.
The move paves the way for users seeing an increase in sponsored posts and ads in their feeds, as has been seen on Facebook.
Facebook currently has more than two million businesses advertising on its site, and in January 2015 reported an increase of 34 per cent in fourth-quarter profits to $701m (£462m) compared to a year ago.
Facebook has around 1.4billion active users each month, while Instagram has over 300 million.