Instagram is quickly becoming ad spending’s new Cinderella, and it’s no wonder. The photo-sharing app exceeds 500 million users and shares access to Facebook’s pool of three million advertisers who have the option to extend Facebook ad campaigns to Instagram. Ad targeting is improved by a user’s age, gender and interest data on Facebook, allowing brands to connect with their target audience directly. Since May, advertisers now have access to carousel ads, which is already being utilized by the likes of Samsung, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Showtime, who used thesel ads to promote the second season of Penny Dreadful.
A recent report by automated advertising platform Nanigans demonstrates Instagram’s continued growth as an ad platform for mobile game developers. According to the report, eCommerce and gaming represent the two dominant verticals among Nanigan’s clients advertising on Instagram. In April, 54 percent of Nanigans’ clients who advertised on Facebook also spent on Instagram, and top-spending eCommerce brands have collectively driven 62 percent higher return on Instagram ad spend. (Comparing August through October 2015 and February through April 2016.) It’s not just that more companies are spending on the social platform, they’re also spending more money in general—average campaign spend was up 29 percent between February and April.
This month Instagram implemented a full-width, call to action (CTA) button below an ad’s photo or video, replacing the overlay behavior and prior CTA design. “Instagram found that a majority of ad clicks occurred not on the overlay, but on the CTA button itself, which now highlights in blue upon tapping an ad’s image,” Nanigans reports. “This new behavior further confirms a person’s intent to click through to a website, mobile app, or app store. When someone first clicks directly on the CTA button, their intent is clear and they are driven offsite.”
Communicating through images is a primal and universally understood method of storytelling, as taught by the adage, “a picture tells a thousand words.” Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom attributes this fact to overwhelming success of their social platform.
“It’s grown to be very global, which I believe comes from the fact that images are a universal language,” Systrom told Forbes in a recent interview. “It’s not just photographers or tech mavens in Silicon Valley using it.”
