Instagram has made some changes to its advertising strategy. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing app will now allow brands to promote influencer content in other people’s feeds.
Meaning, Instagram users will experience an influx of sponsored advertisements from influencers – whether they follow them or not – in the coming days.
In a statement released yesterday, Instagram said:
“Starting today, we’re introducing the ability for advertisers to promote creators’ organic branded content posts as feed ads. Branded content is an evolving ecosystem. As we’ve worked to build the right tools for both business and creators involved in branded content deals, one of the biggest requests from brands to date is the ability to incorporate branded content posts into their advertising strategies.”
The company noted that allowing branded content into their advertising strategies has been one of the biggest requests of brands for a while now. Instagram added:
“With branded content ads, businesses have an opportunity to tell their brand stories through creators’ voices, reach new audiences and measure impact. Using the tools available on the Facebook ads platform, businesses can reach targeted audiences beyond the people who follow the brand and creator accounts.”
Advertising Through Influencer Content
To date, Instagram is ranked six as the most popular social media network in the world. The image-sharing app reportedly has 1 billion active monthly users, with over 500 million people logging into the platform daily.
Because of its popularity, Instagram has turned into one of the most significant places on the Internet for marketing and selling products.
Brands start coming to Instagram to get in touch with creators that can publish branded content ads. The demand for brand-related influencer content rose, further boosting Instagram’s ad revenue.
According to a report released by Market Realist, Instagram’s ad revenue last year more than doubled, generating around $9 billion in revenue for its parent company, Facebook.
Brand owners noted that customers find products more authentic when they are being promoted from influencer handles than from the brand’s own Instagram handle. Old Navy VP of Brand Communications Liat Weingarten said:
“We’re consistently looking for more sophisticated ways like Branded Content ads to serve partner content to the right shoppers, instead of just throwing it into the social ether. Promoting content directly from an influencer’s handle inherently gives the post more authenticity than coming from a brand handle, and we’re seeing significantly higher engagement rates using this strategy.”
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