Instagram started running ads a few months back, and I have been watching it with more interest than the actual output so far deserves. There is not much to see yet. A small number of big brands, a sponsored post that drops into the feed looking mostly like everything else, and no way for the rest of us to buy any of it.
That last point is the one people gloss over. There is no self-serve system. You cannot log in, set a budget and run a campaign the way you can on Facebook. Getting an Instagram ad means a conversation with a sales team and, from what I can tell, a spend level that rules out anyone but the largest advertisers. So for most of us there is nothing here to actually buy yet; we are watching it from outside the glass.
What makes it worth paying attention to anyway is the fit between the format and the medium. Instagram is one image, full width, no clutter. An ad in that context has to be a good photograph or it dies instantly. The bad banner habits do not transfer. You cannot cram a headline, a price, a starburst and three logos into a square and expect it to survive next to someone’s brunch.
The feedback in those early ads has been rough in places. People do not love adverts turning up in a feed they curated themselves, and the comments say so plainly. That is worth remembering. On a network where people follow accounts by choice, a paid intrusion feels different from a paid result on a search page they arrived at looking to buy something.
A few things I will be watching over the year:
- Whether it opens up beyond the handful of launch brands, and how far down the spending ladder it reaches.
- Whether targeting improves. Right now it looks broad. Facebook owns Instagram, so the obvious question is when Facebook’s targeting data starts feeding it, and what that does to the mood on the platform.
- Whether the creative bar holds. The thing that makes early Instagram ads tolerable is that they are good looking. Volume tends to drag that down.
For anyone doing organic work on the platform, none of this changes the near term. Build a following worth having, and post things people actually want to see. The paid side will reach the rest of us eventually, and I would sooner have a decent account already in place by the time it does than be scrambling to build one from nothing.
