Facebook-owned Instagram recently revealed that it is going to make it easier for users to purchase products directly from its site.
The news comes in conjunction with reports stating that the photo-sharing platform will allow local businesses to begin advertising through its pages. With around 300 million monthly active users, this should greatly benefit smaller companies conducting internet marketing on the social site.
Although adverts were introduced to Instagram during November of 2013 in an effort to monetise the service, the company has up until now remained cautious in its marketing approach, with only a select number of well-known brands able to advertise goods and services. This new development, however, will allow for many more commercial marketers to have access to the platform, who will be able to insert links into ads that will let consumers make quick purchases or downloads.
Now, anyone will be able to advertise on Instagram, with website marketing professionals able to buy ads from the site directly or from Facebook. Advertisers will reportedly also be given access to data collected by the parent company, so that their sponsored posts can be better targeted towards their key audiences.
Advertising appears to be working for Instagram, which made $3.5bn (£2.3bn) over the first three months of 2015 alone. By opening up its services to many more companies, it is likely to see this figure only rise.
However, the Express noted that some commentators are warning Facebook not to flood Instagram with too many marketing messages, as this may agitate the social site’s users.
- Instagram to expand advertising options - June 8, 2015
- A week of Twitter mishaps - June 5, 2015
- Twitter unleashes new analytics tool - June 4, 2015
