Monday, December 02, 2013

What Do Instagram Advertisers Actually Get for Their Money?

This article is interesting in that I had no idea Instagram did not allow links in the adds that run on Instagram. Not being able to track measurable click thru rates or other metrics because of the lack of interaction with the advertisements is unfortunate and surprising that instagram does not allow it. As the article points out, after advertisements ran there were often just as many negative comments as there were positive comments by followers or people seeing the add. But, not being able to track or quantify the effectivness of adds hinders some from actually knowing if there add campaigns on Instagram are effective. the article states:
"What the ads don’t offer is any clear way to drive immediate sales, since companies can’t include links. Instagram hasn’t yet offered any data on its first crop of ads, and a spokesperson for the company declined to comment. Just before the ads were launched, Emily White, Instagram’s director of business operations, said the value was somewhat unmeasurable, because the ads are more about branding than inspiring immediate transactions."

My initial reaction was why would anyone want to use this, but the article also points out that there is a lot of value just in brand recognition:
“There’s a lot of value in impressions and views that may not be captured in likes or comments,” she told Rebecca Lieb, an analyst at Altimeter, in October. “Instagram will guarantee a certain number of impressions initially, which will vary by campaign. This is a premium brand advertising product. Success is brand lift over a longer period of time.”

I think that Instagram will eventually offer the ability to create a transactional add, but for the time being there seems to be value in just plain old brand advertising with no bells and whistles.


http://mashable.com/2013/12/02/value-of-instagram-ads/

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