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Tag: Instagram Ads

  • Marketing Insights on a Key Instagram Demographic

    Marketing Insights on a Key Instagram Demographic

    Instagram commissioned a study to analyze how moms use its service, presumably to help advertisers plan their Mother’s Day campaigns.

    It found not only that moms are active on Instagram in general, but one in four women over 18 on the platform in the U.S. are moms. Of this group, 93% use Instagram at least once a week. 68% use it daily.

    “With their hectic schedules, moms are using mobile devices to manage their entire lives—from work to personal,” the company says. “In addition to managing their schedules, the average mom checks social media 15 times a day and checks Instagram six times every day.”

    “Moms follow content based on their interests,” it says. “Looking at internal data, we discovered that moms are 5x more likely to follow accounts about cosmetics, 3x more likely to follow fashion, 2x more likely to follow hair accounts and 1.7x more likely to follow animal accounts when compared to dads.”

    Over half of moms on Instagram follow businesses, the company says. 56% say Instagram is where they learn about products, and 78% of moms take action from business posts after seeing content on Instagram, according to the company.

    In the U.S., ads shared from department stores convert 2.8x more often among moms, and with retail, apparel and accessories ads, moms convert 2.1x more often, it says.

    For what it’s worth, Father’s Day isn’t really that far away either, and Instagram says dads are just as active with nearly half of them following businesses and 69% of those taking action from the content they see. Dads are 4.3x more likely to follow auto brands and 2.5x more likely to follow “leisure” accounts.

    What are you supposed to do with all of this info? Adjust your targeting, of course. Mothers, New Moms, Dads, Fit Moms, Moms of Grade Schooler Kids, etc. are all available segments for Instagram ads. In a blog post, Instgram shares some examples of effective campaigns from Campbell’s and GapKids.

    There’s been a lot happening with Instagram in the news this week. Rumors that its new algorithmic feed would go into effect this past Tuesday emerged, though the company said it was still a ways off (you may want to consider this in advance). The company also announced that sixty-second videos are on the way, and they’ve updated the overlay that appears on ads.

    Instagram recently announced it surpassed 200,000 advertisers. Mother’s Day is on May 8th. Here’s a helpful infographic from WebpageFX that shows Facebook and Instagram ad specs for 10 different objectives.

  • Instagram Ads Get Overlay Update

    Instagram Ads Get Overlay Update

    Instagram announced an update to the overlays that appear on its ads. Rather than a generic “Go to Website” or “Go to App Store” message, it will provide the advertiser’s Facebook Page name and the display or destination website URL selected at set up.

    The overlay has been around to help users understand what action to take with an Instagram ad since Instagram launched ads to all businesses in the fall. It appears when the ad is first tapped on. As the company notes, this helps ensure quality traffic. Advertisers are only charged for clicks that come from the overlay as opposed to the initial tap.

    “Consumers can take action on your ads one of two ways—either by tapping once on the ad’s photo to reveal the overlay or by clicking on the call to action button,” Instagram says in a post on its business blog. “The majority of clicks occur on the call to action button you select, which will take users either directly to your website, the app or deep link them directly into your app experience.”

    For mobile app installs, a View in App Store message appears for iOS ads and a View in Play Store message appears for Android ads.

    The overlay is automatically included on all photo and carousel ads. Advertisers don’t have to do anything different to take advantage of the update. You can edit your campaigns to include specific display URLs. If one isn’t selected, it will default to the destination URL.

  • Infographic Shows Facebook and Instagram Ad Specs For 10 Objectives

    Infographic Shows Facebook and Instagram Ad Specs For 10 Objectives

    In the past week or so, Facebook has revealed how many active advertisers it has on both Facebook and Instagram.

    Facebook has surpassed 3 million after just passing the 2.5 million milestone 6 months ago. Instagram has surpassed 200,000 after only making ads broadly available in the fall.

    WebpageFX has put together a helpful infographic (via AdWeek) looking at ad specifications and dimensions for Facebook and Instagram across ten different objectives. These include: clicks to website, website conversions, page post engagement, page likes, app installs, app engagement, local awareness, event responses, offer claims, and video views.

    Take a look.

    facebook-specs

    Facebook and Instagram have both gotten some pretty important new ad tools in recent months. You can read about what Facebook has added recently here. We look at recent additions to the Instagram toolbox here.

    Images via Facebook, WebpageFX

  • Instagram Already Has Over 200,000 Advertisers

    Instagram Already Has Over 200,000 Advertisers

    Instagram announced that it has over 200,000 advertisers with 75% of them outside of the U.S. The company says this includes businesses of all sizes in over 200 countries.

    It’s not a bad start considering that Instagram only opened up ads to all businesses this past fall.

    “Instagram is a place where people come to be inspired and discover things they care about, and that includes content from businesses,” a spokesperson said in an email. “In fact, 60% of Instagrammers say they learn about products and services on Instagram and 75% say they take action after being inspired by an Instagram post—like visiting a website, searching, shopping for or telling a friend.”

    Instagram considers itself a “home for small businesses”.

    “It’s not just major brands that are seeing success on Instagram,” the company says in a blog post. “PetLove, an online store for pet products based in Brazil, wanted to increase downloads of its mobile app. After seeing success with Facebook ads, they ran a mobile app install ad on Instagram using the same targeting as their Facebook campaigns. After the campaign ended, PetLove saw a 30% lower cost per install compared to other digital channels.”

    We recently looked at a report from Brand Networks, which found increasing demand sending Instagram ad prices up. Nanigans found Instagram ad clickthrough rate to be comparable to Facebook ads.

    Read about some of the recent marketing improvements Instagram has made here.

    Images via Instagram

  • Instagram Launches 60-Second Video Ads

    Instagram Launches 60-Second Video Ads

    Instagram has begun rolling out sixty-second video ads to marketers.

    “We recognize that advertisers have a variety of creative resources and want to bring more choice to help them reach their business goals,” a spokesperson for the company tells us in an email.

    “Instagram allows brands to amplify campaigns and build anticipation heading into key moments in time, such as this weekend’s big game or a highly anticipated movie premiere.”

    T-Mobile is one of the first to take advantage of the new sixty-second ads, promoting their extended Super Bowl spot, which features Drake. Warner Brothers was also part of the initial test for the format with its upcoming film How To Be Single.

    T-Mobile’s Instagram video is an extended version of a 30-second ad that will run during the Super Bowl. It was first teased on Facebook on 02/01 with a thirty-second video.

    Instagram tells us the company will continue to leverage both platforms in the lead up to the Super Bowl to “extend reach on digital and build brand awareness heading into the game.”

    In other Instagram marketing news, Facebook announced that both Facebook and Instagram now support longer reach and frequency campaigns.

    Image via Instagram

  • Facebook And Instagram Now Support Longer Reach and Frequency Campaigns

    Facebook And Instagram Now Support Longer Reach and Frequency Campaigns

    Facebook announced that marketers can now book reach and frequency campaigns up to 90 days in length on both Facebook and Instagram. The feature allows marketers to run de-duped campaigns over a longer period of time.

    The feature comes as the result of feedback, so this was presumably a popular request.

    Facebook says on its Marketing Partners website (h/t: AdWeek), “When running longer campaign lengths, we suggest that you also utilize the frequency cap interval feature. Currently, if you do not break up your longer (90-day) campaigns into frequency capped intervals then there will likely be very low delivery on some days (we will look to improve our pacing with this in the future).”

    “Instead, you should break up the campaign into the interval that you think is right for you,” the company adds. “Many advertisers use an interval of 1-2 weeks. Once you know the interval that is right for you, campaigns up to 90 days in length allow you to set-up 1 campaign which will last for the entire quarter.”

    Facebook is urging marketing partners to update their interfaces to support the new campaign length and advertisers looking to book longer campaigns.

    The feature doesn’t come with any API changes.

    Image via Facebook

  • Increasing Demand Sends Instagram Ad Prices Up

    Increasing Demand Sends Instagram Ad Prices Up

    Instagram marketing partner Brand Networks released a new report looking at pricing and the effectiveness of the image and video sharing service’s advertising and how these have changed since it opened its Ads API up last year.

    Do you think Instagram ads are worth paying for? Have you seen success with them? Discuss.

    The report shares the findings of a six-month study of over 1.6 billion Instagram ad impressions served in 2015. It found that advertisers (especially in CPG, fashion, and retail) are flocking to the platform. Advertisers have been heavily experimenting with video ad formats and took advantage of significant dates throughout the holiday shopping season.

    Brand Networks CEO Jamie Tedford said, “We anticipated that pent up demand for programmatic, native advertising solutions on Instagram would drive rapid adoption and eventually scale. However, the pace and scale of investment from our clients in key verticals exceeded our expectations dramatically. This year, we expect to brands from a wider variety of industries will invest heavily on the platform, and experiment with a variety of ad formats—especially video—to stand out in the Instagram feed and reach valuable audiences. In addition to brand-building objectives, we’re also enabling more testing with direct-response ads, as social media users become more accustomed to CTA buttons and more apt to engage in social commerce.”

    The study found that increasing demand caused a surge in pricing.

    “Cross-industry benchmarks for cost-per 1,000 impressions (CPM) on Instagram have climbed, as advertiser competition has increased since the platform first opened its API to advertisers in August 2015,” Brand Networks says. “As part of the mounting groundswell of Instagram advertiser interest, Brand Networks witnessed a fluctuation across industries in cost-per-thousand views (CPM), as global average costs grew from $5.21 in September to a peak of $7.20 in November, before cooling off at $5.94 in December.”

    Total impressions served on Instagram through the firm’s platform increased to 50,000,000 in August (during the beta), then doubled to 100,000,000 in September, and again to 200,000,000 in October. The company expects to deliver over a billion Instagram ad impressions per month by the end of the quarter.

    You can find the full report here.

    A recent report from Locowise analyzed fan growth and engagement on Instagram in 2015, finding that both have been on the decline. The main takeaway from that is that much like parent Facebook, Instagram appears to be headed in the “pay to play” direction.

    According to that report, follower growth was down 88.21% in 2015 while engagement was down 61.43%.

    “In the nine months of studies the follower growth on Instagram has declined 88.21%. From the high of 1.95% in April to the low of 0.23% in December,” wrote Locowise’s Marko Saric. “Engagement rate has decreased as well. From the 2.8% engagement high in April to the 1.08% engagement low in December. This is a 61.43% decrease.”

    “Instagram has gone from one of the most ‘viral’ social networks to a pay-to-play platform during the year,” he added. “If you want to achieve a great growth on Instagram you do need to consider alternative tactics. Organic growth will not get you far.”

    Marketers are of course familiar with similar issues presented by Instagram’s parent company.

    On Facebook’s earnings call this week, COO Sheryl Sandberg said they’re pleased with the growth in advertise adoption of Instagram and the “positive results” advertisers are seeing from it.

    Later in the call, she said, “On the Instagram question, certainly in the short-run, some of the spend is incremental and some of it isn’t. Some of our clients approached us where they have a social budget or Facebook budget and some of that moves to Instagram and some people, it’s incremental spend. In the medium to long-run however, we believe that we’re really well-positioned to take share from other platforms out there. We believe both Facebook and Instagram have this combination of an ability to do great creative with the best targeting in a most sophisticated measurement which shows businesses how we help them move products off shelves.”

    “And we want and we tell our clients we want to be the best dollar, the best euro, the best pound and the best minute you spend. And we really encourage them to measure their ROI and compare us to other platforms. We think that comparison bodes very well for our growth. We also think that continued consumer shift to mobile devices bodes well for our growth as well. That said, we have to continue to execute. We know this won’t be easy. We have to continue to build the right products. We have to continue to measure all the way through from seeing an ad impression to sell. And so it’s up to us to stay focused in the coming year and years.”

    Do you think Instagram ads are worth paying for? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via Instagram (Facebook)

  • Instagram Ad CTR Comparable To Facebook Ads

    Instagram ads deliver clickthrough rates comparable to Facebook ads according to a recent study from Instagram and Facebook partner Nanigans.

    Have you tested the Instagram ad waters yet? What are your thoughts? Discuss.

    Nanigans is a good source for this data as it is both a Facebook Marketing Partner and a member of the Instagram Partner Program. It analyzed data from its clients for three months and came up with the following numbers for clickthrough rate, cost per thousand, and cost per click(via AdWeek):

    Here’s what the numbers looked like for mobile app install ad performance:

    “In-house marketing teams leveraging Nanigans advertising automation have been quick to adopt the company’s Instagram advertising solution, and are seeing promising early results,” says Nanigans. “While Instagram’s advertising ecosystem launched in 2014 with a focus on brand awareness, direct response advertisers are now benefiting significantly from recent innovations on one of the world’s largest mobile advertising platforms.”

    “Nanigans finds that Instagram is driving click- through rates very close to those of Facebook, with ad costs that vary across industries,” it adds, saying that powering real revenue growth with direct response advertising on Instagram has just begun. “However, Nanigans has already observed advertisers testing creative and targeting strategies to achieve strong positive return on their investment,” it says.

    You can get their whole report here.

    Instagram itself is also sharing some stats.

    “Across more than 700 campaigns that have run on Instagram between September and November, 98% have generated significant lift in ad recall – with an average ad recall of 18 points (2.8 times higher than Nielsen norms for online advertising),” a spokesperson for Instagram tells WebProNews.

    “We currently offer objectives and tools to help advertisers drive brand results through Instagram’s self-serve interface,” the company says in a post on its business blog. “With the brand awareness objective, advertisers can deliver their ads to people who are more likely to remember seeing their ads. And with the video views objective, advertisers can optimize to reach people most likely to view videos on Instagram. Across both of these objectives, advertisers can predictably reach a significant number of people and control the frequency of the message through our reach and frequency buying tool. And, with our best-in-class targeting capabilities, brand advertisers can also drive greater personal relevance on the platform.”

    The post looks at how Sony and BlackBerry saw success with the platform. The former used it to drive awareness and intent to see The Perfect Guy.

    The company says with Instagram’s self-serve buying, “We were able to invest and see incremental people reached. Being an early adopter on Instagram was important, as The Perfect Guy was launching prior to key fall premieres. Now that Facebook has Reach & Frequency buying on Instagram, we plan to control the frequency, so that each dollar invested can reach more people on both Facebook and Instagram.”

    BlackBerry used it to market the launch of its PRIV Android phone.

    “The BlackBerry community is essential to our brand, and Instagram allows us the privilege to create an experience just for them,” said David Wiseman, Head of Product Marketing at BlackBerry. “We utilize the platform to showcase our products and bring value to our users lives. Instagram’s medium for expressing creativity is unrivaled, and we’ve found it to be one of the most influential channels for reaching and engaging with our target audience.”

    Before Instagram opened the platform up to businesses of all sizes, Salesforce shared some early performance data finding an overall clickthrough rate of 1.50%, compared to a CTR of 0.84% in Q1 2015 on Facebook. More from those findings here.

    Facebook recently said that 63% of Instagrammers say they use Instagram to document their lives (so they’re always on it) and that 74% of Millennials on Instagram take action based on posts.

    Do you expect to make Instagram a significant part of your marketing mix in 2016? Is it already? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via Instagram

  • Facebook And Instagram Stats To Consider This Holiday Season

    Facebook And Instagram Stats To Consider This Holiday Season

    Facebook is sharing some new research from FBIQ about how people are shopping online for the holidays these days. Naturally, they’re also reminding businesses that they have various ads and marketing tools that can help them take advantage of these habits.

    Do you expect Facebook and/or Instagram to play a significant role in your holiday efforts this year? What specific tools/features? Let us know in the comments.

    “Last year’s holiday season signaled a major shift in the way people shop,” a Facebook spokesperson tells WebProNews. “More people started their shopping online, even when intending to buy in store, and mobile traffic also rose. And this year, more people are shopping on mobile – nearly one-third of online transactions are on mobile and the percentage of online purchasers who buy on mobile will grow 30% by Q4 (as shared by FBIQ last week).”

    For reference, FBIQ released data on growth in engagement and purchase behavior via mobile devices. Some key takeaways from that were:

    – From January to May 2015, 3 in 10 online purchases took place on mobile and the frequency of mobile purchases increased 35%

    – Over the course of the year, those purchasing on a mobile device steadily increased and in Q4, Facebook IQ predicts that the percentage of online purchasers who buy on mobile will grow 30%

    – 73% of people say mobile devices are always with them

    – 45% of all shopping journeys contain an action on mobile—everything from discovering to researching to buying (57% for Millennials)

    – In the year ahead, 64% of omni-channel shoppers anticipate doing more research on their smartphones and 61% expect to be using their smartphone more while in physical stores

    More on that particular research here.

    “As people and businesses increasingly connect on mobile this holiday season, [we] wanted to recap the tools Facebook and Instagram have recently built out related to commerce and direct response that both allow brands to maximize mobile campaigns this holiday season and allow shoppers a personalized discovery experience – for reference Sheryl [Sandberg] called out the growing success of our commerce-related products leading into holiday during last week’s earnings call.”

    Facebook says its dynamic product ads allow brands to promote all of their products for the holidays with unique creative “efficiently at scale” without having to configure individual ads. The carousel format, it says, gives marketers more options for “compelling holiday storytelling” in News Feed. This now includes video in addition to images. The format drives 30 – 50 percent lower cost-per-conversion compared to single image link ads, according to the company.

    Facebook is also touting Instagram ads, which are now available to businesses globally and Facebook videos (which are seeing 8 billion daily views) as other helpful holiday marketing tools.

    To back up its claims, Facebook is sharing research about how people do their online holiday shopping. Stats include:

    – 37% plan to do most of their shopping before Black Friday

    – In the US and UK, 1 in 2 holiday shoppers plan to do most of their shopping before Black Friday

    – 53% plan to shop across channels

    – 40% plan to shop online more than last year

    – 44% of people say an activity or meal with a loved one is a gift they want, but only 34% plan to give that as a gift

    – 41% of people want the gift of travel, but only 15% plan to give the gift of travel

    – Last December, 73% of posts, photos, and videos were created on mobile

    – People share 28% more photos/videos on mobile during Holiday season vs. rest of the year

    – 63% of Instagrammers say they use Instagram to document their lives

    – 8 billion daily video views on Facebook, and the vast majority are on mobile

    – 74% of Millennials on Instagram take action based on posts

    – 2.7X more posts, photos and videos shared on mobile than desktop last December

    – Last year, 1 in 4 purchases were on mobile

    “People are shopping across more channels and devices more than ever before,” the spokesperson tells us. “Many shoppers are starting early — but many shoppers will also be on the hunt throughout the season.”

    “The opportunity for experiential gifting is on the rise—as illustrated by the gap between the experiences that many people hope to receive and what they are likely to receive this Holiday season,” they added. “Mobile has made the holiday celebration vastly more visual…Mobile is a constant companion throughout the Holidays—from discovery to consideration to action to shopping and sharing.”

    More in the following infographic:

    Do you expect to utilize Facebook’s offerings to drive sales this season? Discuss.

    Images via Facebook

  • This Should Make Instagram Even More Appealing For Marketing

    This Should Make Instagram Even More Appealing For Marketing

    A month ago, Instagram announced that its ads were officially rolling out to every marketer in the world after months of build up. The other day, the company discussed new ways for advertisers to drive a wider range of objectives and experience increased flexibility with campaigns.

    Do you see Instagram ads as a significant addition to your marketing mix? Discuss.

    “By optimizing for reach & frequency, advertisers can manage the number of people they reach with their Instagram ads and how frequently the ads are shown,” Instagram said in a post on its business blog. “To make media planning and buying even easier, advertisers can also control the reach and frequency of campaigns across Instagram and Facebook.”

    “In addition, performance advertisers can now optimize delivery of their ads to people who are most likely to take an action on their website—driving more efficient performance on Instagram, or for campaigns running across Facebook and Instagram,” it added. “Our goal is to remove friction and give businesses the most bang for their advertising buck.”

    The company says that on average, its carousel campaigns have performed better for ad recall than single photo campaigns. They have driven an additional 2.5 point lift. With that in mind, they’re extending the ability to buy these ads through the self serve interfaces including the Ads API, Power Editor and Ads Manager.

    The company recently released a 7-minute Carousel Ad “documentary” looking at how brands utilized the format to execute campaigns:

    Instagram Carousel Ad Documentary from Instagram on Vimeo.

    Industry publication AdWeek expects that Instagram will attract more marketers as a result of opening up the format to self service.

    Instagram says that by opening up the way advertisers can buy, businesses of all sizes have more flexible targeting, call-to-action button options, and can customize their offsite links to maximize return.

    If you’re thinking of dipping your toes into the Instagram ad waters, you may find this infographic from Bannersnack (via SocialTimes) helpful. It looks at some dos and don’ts and what essentially goes into an effective Instagram as:

    Courtesy of: Bannersnack

    In September, Facebook revealed that Instagram had surpassed 400 million users. For comparison, Twitter just revealed last week that it has 307 million monthly actives.

    Are you using Instagram ads yet? Do you intend to? Let us know in the comments.

  • Instagram ‘Fully Open For Business’ To Marketers

    Instagram ads are now officially rolling out to every marketer in the world. Facebook announced several weeks ago that they would become available at the end of September, and now that October is here, you – YES YOU – have the ability to run ads on the rapidly growing social media service, or at least will very soon as the launch finishes its roll-out.

    And rapidly growing it is. Instagram is officially bigger than even Twitter, which has been around significantly longer. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram surpassed 400 million monthly active users after adding 100 million just since last December.

    The next 100 million will likely come even faster as Instagram continues to gain momentum, and the availability of ads couldn’t have come any sooner for marketers preparing for a holiday push.

    You can now find Instagram ads available for purchase through Facebook’s Power Editor, the Instagram Ads API, and though select Facebook Marketing Partners. Facebook has also expanded international availability to now include Russia, South Africa, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Israel, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Spain, Argentina and Mexico.

    It’s worth noting that 75% of Instagram users are outside of the United States, which means that about 100 million are within the country.

    “Like Facebook ads, Instagram ads feature photos or videos and use Facebook targeting,” Facebook explains in a blog post. “Instagram ads that are available through Facebook ad management tools support both brand awareness and direct response objectives, including website clicks, mobile app installs and video views. And soon Instagram ads bought through the same tools will be available with more objectives, including website conversions.”

    “Let’s first understand how Instagrammers behave. We know from research that they check their feed multiple times a day to be inspired by moments captured not just by friends but also a like-minded community,” the company says. “With our new advertising offerings, we want to empower highly engaged Instagrammers to learn more and do more on the platform.”

    Facebook gets into examples and “possibilities” for using Instagram as an ad platform here.

    Images via Facebook/Instagram

  • Is It Time For Your Business To Test The Instagram Ad Waters?

    Is It Time For Your Business To Test The Instagram Ad Waters?

    Earlier this summer, Instagram said that it would open up its ads to businesses of all sizes (on a self-serve basis) this fall. Now, they’ve officially announced that this will be the case, everywhere, starting this month. This includes in over 30 new countries, with launches around the world on September 30.

    The ads utilize Facebook’s ads infrastructure and targeting so advertisers can tap into users’ interests.

    Have you looked forward to getting in on the Instagram ad action? Do you expect this to be a significant part of your marketing mix? Let us know in the comments.

    “Businesses of all sizes have been testing these new capabilities this summer with positive results, and we’re seeing significant demand, particularly in areas like e-commerce, travel, entertainment and retail,” says Instagram in a blog post. “We’re thrilled to see what brands can achieve in the months ahead using Instagram as their creative canvas.”

    Salesforce recently released some data on early Instagram ad results after integrating with the API to give capabilities to its customers.

    “Instagram is a relatively new platform for digital advertising, but initial results show it has the potential to be a powerful one,” said Salesforce Marketing Cloud CEO Scott McCorkle. “Our results show that engagement on ads is high. We are excited to be working with great brands and agencies around the world to kickstart advertising to more than 300 million Instagram users.”

    According to the data, the overall click-through rate (CTR) is 1.50%, compared to a CTR of 0.84% in Q1 2015 on Facebook. Instagram has a global CPM of $6.29, Salesforce said, adding that this is an “early indicator” and about 90% higher than Facebook’s overall global CPM in Q1. The CPC for the ads is $0.42, which is two cents higher than Facebook ads.

    “The high engagement rate can likely be attributed to Instagram’s premium, large-format ad type,” a spokesperson for Salesforce told WebProNews. “According to a recent report from eMarketer, Instagram is expected to represent over 10% of Facebook’s global revenues by 2017.”

    Instagram says:

    Now, with the addition of new formats, we’re starting to see marketers achieve a range of objectives, from web site clicks to mobile app installs. For example, Gilt Groupe turned to Instagram to win new customers, and ran a campaign that drove an 85% lift in app installs. At the same time, designer furniture retailer Made.com’s ads yielded a 10% order value increase versus its benchmark. Game developer Kabam’s campaign helped it effectively acquire new players that stayed in their game longer and purchased more. And The North Face used iconic imagery to heighten awareness of its “believe in the impossible” speaker series, with results showing high engagement to learn more.

    The API Partner program launched last month with partners like Salesforce, Hootsuite, Kenshoo, Ampush, Nanigans, SocialCode, Brand Networks, Unified, and 4C joining in.

    “Instagram is the mobile marketer’s platform of choice for a highly engaged and growing audience,” said Jesse Pujji, CEO and co-founder of Ampush. “It presents a great opportunity to deliver in-feed, mobile advertising at true scale with its user base of over 300 million monthly active users. AMP’s integration with Instagram will allow our customers to advertise across a visually dynamic environment for consumers with a highly active community. Our strategic and in-house creative expertise, paired with our marketing solutions, delivers a unique ability to bridge audience engagement with revenue.”

    In addition to the increased availability of self-serve ads, Instagram announced some new ad formats. These include landscape photo and video, video ads of up to 30 seconds, and marquee ads. These are described as “a new premium product that helps drive mass awareness and expanded reach in a short time-frame—perfect for events like movie premieres and new product launches.”

    There are also new delivery and optimization tools for managing and improving performance of campaigns cross both Instagram and Facebook.

    Instagram has over 300 million monthly active users, and is poised to be a major component of the digital marketing landscape.

    Are you ready to start advertising on Instagram? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via Instagram

  • Instagram Releases Mini-Documentary About Its Carousel Ads

    Instagram Releases Mini-Documentary About Its Carousel Ads

    There are a lot of people taking a look at advertising on Instagram now that the company announced its expansion to businesses of all sizes.

    The company launched the carousel ad unit earlier this year enabling users to swipe through up to four images and press a call-to-action button.

    Instagram followed three brands and their agencies (Toyota with Saatchi & Saatchi, Capital One with T3 and HP with Collectively) as they utilized the format, and came up with the following mini-documentary:

    Instagram Carousel Ad Documentary from Instagram on Vimeo.

    “From initial concepting sessions to well-crafted stories, these brands had two weeks to explore the new format and execute their campaigns,” Instagram said in a blog post. “Each brand embraced the ad’s unique format and pushed the envelope on what they could create.”

    Last week, Salesforce released some data looking at early performance and cost numbers related to Instagram ads over the past month. More on that here.

    Image via Instagram

  • Instagram Ads For Businesses Of All Sizes Coming In The Fall

    Last month, Instagram announced some new ad formats and ad targeting options and that it would open up its ad platform to businesses of all sizes in the coming months.

    eMarketer has a new interview with Jim Squires, the director of marketing operations at the company, and he says Instagram ads will be available to all this fall:

    We’ve spent the last 18 months establishing the platform for large brands. The next logical step is to empower businesses of all sizes. Being able to target narrower segments and achieve different types of objectives is essential. We want to offer a complete solution that allows businesses to purchase through self-serve interfaces and achieve the objectives they want to achieve.
     
    We’re testing the action-oriented formats and buying through the API now, and we will be doing that through the summer with select partners and clients. Then we’ll be opening up globally and to all advertisers in the early fall timeframe.

    In addition to the video, photo, and carousel ad formats Instagram currently has, it will let people take action directly from an ad to sign up on a website, but a product, or download an app. According to Squires, the ability to take action right from Instagram has been one of the most requested features from both users and advertisers.

    The ads will come with “algorithmic approaches” to keeping ads up to quality standards, utilizing signals like negative feedback rates, engagement rates, and comments, Squires told eMarketer. Targeting options will be expanded to mirror what’s offered on Facebook, which is pretty comprehensive.

    When Instagram made its announcement last month, it said it would also leverage the best of Facebook’s infrastructure for buying ,managing, and measuring ads.

    You can take a look at the official announcement here.

    Related Reading: Here’s Why It’s Getting Harder To Ignore Instagram For Marketing

  • Instagram To Improve Ads, Open Them Up To Businesses Of All Sizes

    Instagram To Improve Ads, Open Them Up To Businesses Of All Sizes

    Instagram made a big advertising announcement on Tuesday as it prepares to add new formats and targeting options, and perhaps most significantly start letting businesses of all sizes buy ads.

    Instagram first launched ad a year and a half ago on a limited basis, and has since expanded formats most recently to include carousel ads. The company says that across over 475 campaigns measured globally, ad recall from sponsored posts was 2.9x higher than Nielsen norms for online advertising.

    Instagram will begin testing direct response ads in the coming months. These will enable users to buy products or download apps from the ads.

    “People come to Instagram to follow their passions, from travel and fashion to cars and entertainment,” the company says in a blog post. “They want to see ads that reflect the things they care about. Advertisers also want to target their messages in more effective ways and reach people not just because of their age, location and gender, but because of the people, places and things they love.”

    “Later this year, we will continue to connect businesses to the right people through expanded targeting options,” it adds. “Working with Facebook, we will enable advertisers to reach people on Instagram based on demographics and interests, as well as information businesses have about their own customers. We will also improve the feedback mechanisms within Instagram to give people greater control and improve the relevance of the ads they see.”

    The company is working to make advertising available through an Ads API and Facebook ad buying interfaces over the coming months in an effort to open op ads to businesses of all sizes. It says it will leverage the best of Facebook’s infrastructure for buying, managing, and measuring ads.

    They’ll be opening the API to a select group of Facebook Marketing Partners and agencies at first, and will expand globally throughout the year.

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