The photo sharing network Instagram continues to grow in popularity. As of the end of 2014, the network claims to have achieved 300 million active users, which constitutes a 50 per cent increase from figures much earlier in the same year. This level of growth is sure to spawn an increase in unwanted ads and solicitations.
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has just released a statement saying that it plans to expand its advertising offerings. The network posted a statement to its blog on Tuesday 2 June saying that it plans to introduce so-called ‘action-oriented ads’ that will enable more targeted advertisement across the social platform.
In short, this will make it easier for businesses to buy ads on Instagram.
Specifically, the blog post stated the following: “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.” It went on to say, “We will also improve the feedback mechanisms within Instagram to give people greater control and improve the relevance of the ads they see.”
Ads are an increasingly intrinsic part of using social media. They have present on Instagram since 2014, but this new release promises to increase their prevalence across the social network. As a result, users are likely to encounter more (and more targeted) ads while browsing photos on the social platform.
The company says that it intends to leverage Facebook’s infrastructure for “buying, managing and measuring the success of ads”. In doing so, Instagram hopes to make it much easier for businesses to advertise on the platform.
Whether or not users would like to look at more ads in order to enjoy the service appears to be beside the point, as the social network plans to start testing its new ad formats in the next few days.