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Instagram Adds Advertising Tools | DrivingSales News

Instagram Set To Ramp Up Ad Offerings In The Coming Months

June 3, 2015 0 Comments

 

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Instagram is ramping up its ad business thanks to a boost of new technology from Facebook. The popular photo-sharing app, with more than 300 million users, is now opening up to potentially millions of advertisers with the addition of sophisticated targeting tools and enhanced ad types.

The company has announced that in the coming months it will be launching ads with “Shop Now” buttons and other messages that link outside the app, allowing users to take marketable action. Additionally, there’s a new platform that lets marketing partners automate the advertising process. This marks a big change in the ad offerings on the social platform, and marketers are certainly taking note of the new possibilities.

In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion. James Quarles, Instagram’s global head of business and brand development, explains that the new API utilizes technology and lessons that have been learned from Facebook. Advertisers are able to reach users based on more than just their ages and genders, by targeting interests from their Facebook profiles.

“We have benefited greatly from being a part of Facebook,” said Quarles. “It would have taken us years to build this tech stack for ourselves. So, we’re fortunate to be able to take select pieces of Facebook’s tech stack.”

Ads were first launched on Instagram in late 2013, and have since been an exclusive offering for select brands. The ad design has been focused on customizing commercial content that blends as seamlessly as possible with people’s photo feeds, with care being taken to try to avoid turning users off with the introduction of ads. Initially, there was a fairly significant amount of backlash from users who didn’t appreciate seeing sponsored images from brands that they hadn’t chosen to follow on the platform. However, until now, Instagram never allowed for links that took users outside of the app to buy products.

“It’s an ideal platform to shop on as it’s so visual and fashion oriented,” said Old Navy media director Michele Schuh to Adweek. “We’re thrilled that Instagram is now offering users the ability to click directly through to a product, creating instant gratification without any cumbersome steps.”

There’s no question that the potential for Instagram to be a shopping platform has always been there, with the real question being whether or not the company would allow this type of marketing to be utilized.

“We always felt Instagram could be a really useful platform for performance advertising,” said Kfir Gavrieli, founder of Tieks, a fashion brand with a powerful social footprint. “Honestly, it wasn’t clear that they ever would do this, because Instagram was all about beautiful photos and imagery. So this was a surprise to us.”

Quarles explains that consumers have shown wide interest in shopping via Instagram, with many users grabbing screenshots of posts, which could potentially be used to learn more about the featured products. Now, with the company’s new ad offerings, posts can have Shop Now, Book Now, Download, Learn More and Sign Up links.

“It’s not enough to just inspire; you want people to be able to take action,” said Jason Stein, CEO of Laundry Service, which works with brands such as Beats by Dre, Jordan and Amazon on Instagram marketing campaigns. “I can’t tell you how many people are saying on big brands’ posts, ‘How do I buy this?’. There is a demand that people want to take action.”

About the Author:

The DrivingSales News team is dedicated to breaking the relevant and the tough stories affecting car dealers. Have questions for DrivingSales News? Reach the team at news@drivingsales.com.

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