By now, you’re probably used to seeing stylized ads from fashion or coffee brands pop up in your Instagram feed. They are relatively unobtrusive, and they often have better photos than the ones your friends share.
But it’s not going to be that simple for much longer. Instagram will soon allow anyone to target you with advertising. That means everyone from small local businesses to big box stores will serve up targeted ads directly into your feed.
With this broader rollout, Instagram is also testing ways for people to buy products or download apps directly from an Instagram ad. While it’s currently hard for businesses to drive traffic to whatever it is they’re advertising, with the new feature, a boutique could take photos of an item and let people buy it right from the image. There are also options to sign up for newsletters and learn more about products.
Instagram isn’t the only company helping advertisers drive sales directly through their platform. Pinterest also unveiled a buy button for pins this week, and Facebook and Twitter have also tested similar features.
Instagram is planning to slowly roll out this new feature. The company said it’s starting with just a small group of advertisers, but it will be making new ad features available to all businesses this year.
Photo via Vee Satayamas / Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Max Fleishman
