Instagram Ads: Good For The Company, Bad For Your Wallet!

In the past year or so, I have noticed more and more sponsored advertisements coming up on my Instagram feed. Every so often I won't even realize that it is a sponsored advertisement and I think to myself, "When did I start following this page?" At first, I wasn't a huge fan of sponsored advertisements on Instagram. Instagram was the one social media site where I controlled everything I saw. Everything in my news feed appeared in my newsfeed because I chose to follow that company or person on Instagram. I thought that it would just end up like Facebook where there are ads everywhere you click.

However, I have changed my opinion about Instagram advertisements. I think that they are very subtle, not very in your face. The only one that I have noticed recently is advertisements for Michael Kors. I think the photos that they chose to include in their advertising were very attractive images of Michael Kors Products. I liked them because they were just showing a picture, it wasn't telling anyone to buy them. There were no promotions in the photo or the description. It made me want to look into purchasing the product. The only negative thing about this is that Michael Kors products tend to be fairly expensive, which is not a good sign for your wallet!

I found an article from Tech Crunch that can be viewed here. This article discussed how over 5% of Instagram ads have lead to likes. This is a very good sign for companies because it is showing that it has the potential to grow even more as people become more aware of it. I think that this is starting off successful because for me personally, I scroll through a lot of things on Facebook and just randomly read things that catch my eye. On Instagram, I don't follow as many people that I have as friends on Facebook. So I tend to take my time more and look at every Instagram post on my feed. I think a key indicator in success of this is to research and track your user's activity and interests on the internet so you can advertise the best products to them. For example, if you continue to have Michael Kors ads pop up on a 13 year old boy's Instagram who is into dirt bikes, he will most likely scroll right past it.

The analytics company that Instagram uses is called Nitrogram. This particular Michael Kors advertisement was viewed by 6.15 million people, and received over 218,000 likes. That means that 3.57% of those views led to the likes of the photo. For one of the first Instagram ads, that isn't too bad. I am sure that these advertisements will continue to expand an become even more successful.