Instagram To Sell Carousel Ads To Marketers On Self-Service Basis

Instagram has announced its plans to soon allow advertisers to buy carousel ads on a self-service basis. The Facebook-owned company will let marketers purchase ads through its Ads API, Power Editor and Ads Manager interfaces, and advertisers will be able to manage their campaigns on the platform using Facebook’s Ads Manager within the next few weeks.

“Since launching carousel ads in June, businesses have found unique and compelling ways to tell their brand story to help increase awareness and drive affinity,” wrote Instagram in its blog post announcement. “On average, Instagram carousel campaigns have performed better for ad recall than single photo campaigns, driving an additional 2.5 point lift in ad recall [based on initial results]. Given the strong performance, we’re extending the ability to buy Instagram carousel ads through our self serve interfaces: the Ads API, Power Editor and Ads Manager. By opening up the way advertisers can buy, businesses of all sizes around the world now have more flexible targeting, call-to-action button options, and can customize their offsite links to help drive maximum return.”

Brand partners will now be able to buy against reach and frequency to better manage the number of people that their ads reach, as well as how frequently their ads are shown. Additionally, advertisers can now target consumers who, based on Instagram’s algorithms, are more likely to take actions on their web properties.

These changes are part of a broader effort to accommodate brands as Instagram assumes an ever-larger share of Facebook’s total ad revenue. The network’s global mobile ad revenue will reach $2.81 billion by 2017, thereby accounting for approximately 10 percent of Facebook’s global ad revenues, according to a recent eMarketer forecast. If this prediction is accurate, Instagram will then have a higher net mobile display ad revenue than both Google and Twitter. In 2015, Instagram will earn $595 million in mobile ad revenue worldwide, according to eMarketer’s forecast.

Instagram only recently started to offer advanced targeting capabilities to advertisers. Brands had long asked for its ad technology to leverage Facebook’s ads infrastructure, and the company decided to make this move about two months ago.

The network is also testing new ad formats that are intended to achieve various objectives, from website clicks to mobile app installs. Recently, Instagram started allowing brands to serve video ads of up to 30 seconds in length as part of its enhanced advertising offerings.

The company’s efforts appear to be paying off. According to recent findings from eMarketer, this year, 32.3 percent of U.S. companies with 100 employees or more will use Instagram for marketing activities. That number will increase to 48.8 percent in 2016, and by 2017, grow to 70.7 percent of U.S. companies, based on eMarketer’s predictions. If this forecast is correct, Instagram will then overtake Twitter for the first time in terms of popularity among marketers.