 "Instagram opens up its platform for advertisers in 30 countries including India")
Popular photo-sharing platform Instagram has opened up its platform for advertisers. Starting this month it will allow advertisers, large and small, to run ads on the platform in India. This will allow Facebook to further increase its reach to garner better revenue from advertisers targeting mobile users.
India is among the 30 countries where the company is rolling out its platform to advertisers, followed by full global availability at the end of the month.
"Instagram advertising will be made available to any advertiser, large or small, in India from this month. We're excited to open up new options that enable advertisers to communicate their creativity and achieve their business objectives on Instagram," Kirthiga Reddy, Managing Director, Facebook India.
Instagram has more than 300 million users around the world and is seen as a potential growth segment for Facebook, which has nearly 1.5 billion users.
Instagram will offer a new suite of features, including more action-oriented ad formats, landscape images and videos, and the ability to reach the right group, leveraging Facebook's ad management technology.
From this month, the Instagram community in India will gradually see ads appear from launch partners including Gillette (@gilletteindia), Kit Kat (@kitkatindia), Paper Boat (@paperboatdrinks) and TRESemme (@tresemmeindia).
Instagram first unveiled its ads product back in November of 2013, and has been rolling out slowly to eight countries since. With one in five mobile minutes spent on Instagram and Facebook [Nielsen Mobile Netview, June 2015], advertisers and people want ways to learn more, see more or even buy a product from their favorite brands or neighborhood restaurant, said the company.
According to a blog post from Instagram, businesses of all sizes have been testing these new capabilities this summer with positive results, and we're seeing significant demand, particularly in areas like e-commerce, travel, entertainment and retail. We're thrilled to see what brands can achieve in the months ahead using Instagram as their creative canvas.
