Instagram announced that there are more than 500,000 businesses using the platform for advertising.
That’s a pretty amazing achievement considering they only launched their ad API just over a year ago. What’s more, Instagram says that in the last six months alone, the number of advertisers on the platform has more than doubled.
That, of course, would’ve been influenced by the introduction of their business profiles and analytics tools which make it easier for brands to understand how and when to reach their audiences with ad content. And the other factor in this would be the introduction of their feed algorithm, which would have prompted more businesses to consider Instagram ads to reach their established audiences.
Accompanying their announcement, Instagram has released a range of stats on how businesses have been using their platform to reach a bigger audience, including:
- 50% of Instagram users follow a business, with more than 60% of them indicating that they’ve learned about new products or services via the platform.
- 75% of Instagrammers have taken action after being inspired by a post – “like visiting a website, searching, shopping or telling a friend”.
- The top five countries using Instagram ads are the US, Brazil, the UK, Australia and Canada.
- Since opening their ads platform to all businesses last September, more than 1 billion actions have been taken on Instagram ads.
- More than 1.5 million businesses have already converted to a business profile on the platform.
And while Instagram didn’t include any revenue figures along with those notes, it’s safe to say that advertising on Instagram has been a success thus far, and looks to be a big winner for the app, and parent company Facebook, in future.
It’s certainly been a big year for Instagram. The platform hit 500 million users in June, then followed that up with the introduction of their Snapchat-cloning “Stories” addition two months later. And while the platform did take some criticism for blatantly copying a key Snapchat feature, the option has already proven popular, with more than 100 million users using Stories every day.
Right now, however, Instagram is no doubt monitoring their growth and engagement stats, in response to their latest additions, and working out how to double-down and improve the user experience, while also adding to their ad offerings and boosting their revenue-generation potential. And with 500k advertisers already on board, you can bet Instagram will be providing a significant contribution to Facebook’s bottom line when the next reporting period comes around.