Instagram ‘Open for Business’ to advertisers

Instagram ads are now officially rolling out to every marketer in the world. Facebook announced several weeks ago that they would become available at the end of September, and now that October is here, you – YES YOU – have the ability to run ads on the rapidly growing social media service, or at least will very soon as the launch finishes its roll-out.

And rapidly growing it is. Instagram is officially bigger than even Twitter, which has been around significantly longer. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram surpassed 400 million monthly active users after adding 100 million just since last December.

The next 100 million will likely come even faster as Instagram continues to gain momentum, and the availability of ads couldn’t have come any sooner for marketers preparing for a holiday push.

You can now find Instagram ads available for purchase through Facebook’s Power Editor, the Instagram Ads API, and though select Facebook Marketing Partners. Facebook has also expanded international availability to now include Russia, South Africa, Chile, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Israel, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Spain, Argentina and Mexico.

It’s worth noting that 75% of Instagram users are outside of the United States, which means that about 100 million are within the country.

“Like Facebook ads, Instagram ads feature photos or videos and use Facebook targeting,” Facebook explains in a blog post. “Instagram ads that are available through Facebook ad management tools support both brand awareness and direct response objectives, including website clicks, mobile app installs and video views. And soon Instagram ads bought through the same tools will be available with more objectives, including website conversions.”

“Let’s first understand how Instagrammers behave. We know from research that they check their feed multiple times a day to be inspired by moments captured not just by friends but also a like-minded community,” the company says. “With our new advertising offerings, we want to empower highly engaged Instagrammers to learn more and do more on the platform.”

Facebook gets into examples and “possibilities” for using Instagram as an ad platform here.