It isn’t news that Instagram is popular and is still gaining popularity in the form of new users. What is interesting however, is that Instagram, who opened up its doors to business accounts just months ago, has more than doubled it’s advertising base since February. While there are many businesses out there who don’t have Instagram accounts, because it might not necessarily make sense for their social media marketing plan, there is one question that remains: should they be advertising on Instagram?
Instagram’s director of market operations, Jim Squires, attributed the photo-and-video app’s advertiser base more than doubling over the last seven months to the ad business’s grand opening, as well as a wave of new capabilities like the roll-outs of direct-response ad formats, a self-serve ad-buying platform and ways to buy ads through third-parties’ automated tools and using Facebook-level targeting.
Of course, it also helps that more than 500 million people use Instagram each month, including 300 million who use it daily. And that those people aren’t averse to Instagram’s ads as more marketers hop on its service. Half of Instagram’s users follow at least one business on the service, according to Instagram.
And while Instagram’s path to establishing its direct-response ad business hasn’t been entirely smooth, Squires said the company has counted more than one billion instances when people took action on one of these ads, such as by clicking on a link, installing an app or visiting an advertiser’s site to do something like register an account. But he wouldn’t say what share of Instagram’s advertisers have run at least one direct-response ad on its platform. He also wouldn’t say what share of Instagram’s ads are photos versus videos, a newer format that Instagram and Facebook have been successfully pushing to advertisers.
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While we would love to see more big data to support the success of the half million advertisements running on Instagram right now, it is pretty safe to say that with 300 million daily users that there is an audience out there for many. We keep our eyes on Instagram and it’s new advertising offerings to see what kind of marketing opportunities are to come. In the meantime we still highly support pay-per-click advertising in other ways and other social media channels. If you aren’t sure what social media platforms are right for your business or need help advertising online, contact us and let our internet marketing team help.