When Mark Zuckerberg acquired Instagram two years ago, it was anybody’s guess where he would take the photo-sharing networking channel. Now we know. As Instagram has increased in popularity with everyone from teens to boomers, it has emerged as the perfect place to advertise. How else was Zuckerberg going to monetize his billion-dollar purchase?
Brands of all shapes and sizes are queuing up to drop major coin on mobile Instagram ads. Reports are that Instagram has been beta testing with select brands for the last 8 months. According to Adweek.com, industry experts are cautiously optimistic. The trick is getting advertisers to embrace this social media channel on a wholesale level.
“It won’t grow into Facebook’s next billion-dollar business unless Facebook can convince advertisers to buy the units on a cost-per-thousand basis,” says Corey Weiner, CEO of HprMX. “The key to Instagram’s monetization efforts is if Facebook can really scale a video business on a CPM basis.”
Dinesh Boaz, managing director and co-founder of Direct Agents, also has weighed in: “At this stage, Instagram’s ad value is in its exclusivity and hyper-engaged audience that is still excited to engage with new content—a stark difference from the audiences of Facebook and Twitter who are already beginning to develop a numbness due to the sheer volume of ads in posts.”
My prediction is this thing will succeed, especially if they can get the retargeting capabilities right. Check out the stats*:
– 20,000,000 Instagram users
– 493,000 brand posts on Instagram (up 49% year-over-year)
– 3.4 billion actions (likes, comments) on Instagram
– 6,932 actions per post on Instagram
*Source: Adweek
Those numbers plus a few Fortune 500 advertisers sound like a heck of a start. If your business is looking for expert help with your digital marketing, give us a toll-free call at 866.642.7559.
We are a Dallas Advertising Agency with expertise in digital marketing.
