Instagram opened its platform to most
advertisers across the globe on Wednesday as the photo-sharing app seeks to
make more money and compete with popular rivals such as Snapchat.
Meaning
you will likely to soon start seeing longer ads from a broader range of
sources. Ads can now be 30 seconds long, up from the regular 15-second limit,
and are also able to use landscape photo and video following Instagram's recent
lifting of the square format restriction.
Instagram
is also opening up ads to more kinds of businesses. Smaller companies will be
able to buy space on the network from this month. Users who have grown comfortable with mostly ad-free Instagram feeds of photos from people they follow might not like this new interface. For the past 2 years, Instagram has only allowed ads by certain brands like Victoria's Secret and Old Navy. Until Wednesday, Instagram ads had only been available in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom , Japan , Australia, Germany , France and Brazil will now be available in countries including Italy, Spain, South Korea, India, and Mexico, with more to come on September 30th.
A sponsored ad on Instagram over the weekend
said more ads would be coming soon, but did not specify when! Facebook, which bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion,
dominates mobile advertising, with more than 75 per cent of its $3.8 billion ad
revenue coming from phones. Instagram ad revenue is projected to reach $1.5
billion in 2016, according to eMarketer, a research firm, and nearly double by
2017 to $2.8 billion.
"It would
have taken us years to build some of this technology without Facebook. We can
take advantage of years of experience, The new video formats are also an effort
to attract film producers as the layout is ideal for movie trailers and
premieres " James Quarles, global head of business and brand development
at Instagram, said in an interview last week.