How did instagram market their app
What It Is, Its History, and How the Popular App Works
The story of Instagram’s explosive rise reads like a Silicon Valley fairy tale, with the company gaining staggering momentum within just a few short months. The photo and video-sharing social media application took only eight weeks for software engineers to develop before it was launched on Apple’s mobile operating system in October 2010. In less than two years, Facebook (META) had acquired the company for $1 billion in cash and stock.
But, like all good tales, the process involved many twists and turns, failures and successes, conflicts and synergies, and a dose of fortuitous happenstance.
Key Takeaways
- Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social media application that was launched in 2010 by Kevin Systrom.
- The first prototype of Instagram was a web app called Burbn, which was inspired by Systrom's love of fine whiskeys and bourbons.
- The Instagram app was launched on Oct. 6, 2010, and racked up 25,000 users in one day.
- From the beginning, the primary focus of the app was to feature photographs, specifically those taken on mobile devices.
- Just prior to Instagram's initial public offering (IPO) in 2012, Facebook acquired the company for $1 billion in cash and stock.
History of Instagram
In 2009, Kevin Systrom, a 27-year-old Stanford University graduate, was working at Nextstop, a travel recommendations startup. Systrom had previously worked at Google (GOOG) as a corporate development associate and interned at Odeo, a company that would later evolve into Twitter (TWTR).
While Systrom had no formal training in computer science, he learned to code on nights and weekends while working at Nextstop. He eventually built a prototype of a web app called Burbn, which was inspired by his taste for fine whiskeys and bourbons. The Burbn app allowed users to check in, post their plans, and share photos. Although at the time, location-based check-in apps were very popular, the photo-sharing feature of Burbn was very unique.
Venture Capital Funding
A crucial turning point came in March 2010 when Systrom attended a party for Hunch, a startup based in Silicon Valley. At the party, Systrom met two venture capitalists from Baseline Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. After showing them the prototype of his app, they decided to meet for coffee to discuss it further. After their first meeting, Systrom decided to quit his job and focus on Burbn. Within two weeks, he had raised $500,000 in seed funding from both Baseline Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz to further develop his entrepreneurial venture.
This seed funding allowed Systrom to start building a team of people to support his venture; the first to join him was 25-year-old Mike Krieger. Also a Stanford graduate, Krieger had previously worked as an engineer and user-experience designer at the social media platform Meebo. The two knew each other from their time as students at Stanford.
Pivot to a Photo-Sharing Application
After Krieger joined, the two reassessed Burbn and decided to focus primarily on one thing: photographs specifically taken on mobile devices.
They carefully studied leading apps in the photography category at that time. For Krieger and Systrom, the Hipstamatic app stood out to them because it was popular and had interesting features that you could apply to photographs, such as filters. However, it lacked social media-sharing capabilities; Systrom and Krieger saw potential in building an app that bridged Hipstamatic and a social media platform like Facebook.
They took a step backward and stripped Burbn down to its photo, commenting, and "liking" functions. It was at that time that they renamed their app Instagram, combining the words instant and telegram. They also began focusing on improving the photo-sharing experience. Their intention for the app was that it would be minimalist and require as few actions as possible from the user. After eight weeks of fine-tuning the app, they gave it to friends to beta test and evaluate its performance. After resolving some errors in the software, they brought it to launch.
Launch of the iOS App
The Instagram app was launched on Oct.
6, 2010, and racked up 25,000 users in one day. At the end of the first week, Instagram had been downloaded 100,000 times, and by mid-December, the number of users had reached one million. The timing of the app’s release ended up being fortuitous because the iPhone 4– featuring an improved camera–had launched just a few months earlier, in June 2010.
Series A Funding
After the rapid rise in Instagram's user base, more investors became interested in the company. In February 2011, Instagram raised $7 million in a Series A funding round. One of their investors was Benchmark Capital, which valued the company at around $25 million. In addition to institutional investors, the company attracted the attention of other leading companies in the social media technology industry, including Twitter and Facebook.
Although this new round of financing gave Systrom and Krieger the opportunity to hire more people, the founders decided to keep the company really small, with barely a dozen employees.
Systrom knew Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, from his time as an intern at Odeo. Dorsey expressed a strong interest in the company and pursued the idea of acquiring Instagram. Twitter reportedly made a formal offer of around $500 million in stock, but Systrom declined the offer.
Facebook Acquires Instagram
By March 2012, the app’s user base had grown to approximately 27 million users. In April 2012, Instagram was released for Android phones and was downloaded more than one million times in less than one day. At the time, the company was also close to receiving a new round of funding at a valuation of $500 million. Systrom and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had become acquainted through events held at Stanford, and the two had been in communication during the beginning of Instagram's rapid rise in popularity.
In April 2012, Facebook (now Meta) made an offer to purchase Instagram for about $1 billion in cash and stock; a key provision was that the company would remain independently managed.
Shortly thereafter and just prior to its initial public offering (IPO), Facebook moved forward and acquired the company for $1 billion in cash and stock.
Instagram made a limited-feature website interface available in November 2012. In June 2014, the company introduced an app for the Amazon Fire device, and finally, in 2016, it created an app that made it compatible with Microsoft Windows tablets and computers.
Terms of Service Controversy
Instagram hit a bump in the road in December 2012 after updating its terms of service (TOS). This update effectively granted Instagram the right to sell users' photos to third parties without notification or compensation. The move drew immediate criticism from privacy advocates and many of the app's users; some users responded by deleting their accounts. Instagram eventually retracted the controversial terms.
Newer Features Added to the App
Although Instagram has a variety of features, most basically, the app's interface allows individuals who have created a free account to upload media–both photos and videos.
Users can then edit the media they upload with filters and organize them with location information and hashtags (a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign that is used primarily on social media platforms to identify posts about a specific topic). Users can make their profiles public or private; the difference is that with a public profile, a user's photos/videos are viewable by every other Instagram user, whereas with a private profile, users can approve who they want to be able to view their posts.
Instagram users can browse other users' photos and videos by searching for hashtags and locations. They can also scroll through an aggregation of trending content and interact with other users' photos and videos by clicking on buttons that allow them to "like" a post or add a text comment to a post. When a user "follows" another user, it means that they are adding that user's photos and videos to their feed.
The first version of the Instagram app only allowed users to display their media in a square aspect ratio (an aspect ratio is a proportional relationship between an image's width and height).
For a square aspect ratio, an image's height and width are the same. This meant that Instagram users could only post media that matched the 640-pixel width of the iPhone 4 at that time (in 2010). In 2015, this feature changed and users could upload media that was larger (up to 1080 pixels).
Since it was first launched, Instagram has also added a messaging feature and the capability for users to include multiple images or videos within the same post.
One of the app's most popular features is called "Instagram Stories." With this feature, users can post photos and videos to a separate feed of content within the app. These types of posts are viewable by other users for 24 hours after the time of the original posting. According to Instagram, 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day as of 2022.
When Was Instagram Launched?
Instagram was launched on Oct. 6, 2010, where it was initially only available for iOS. The app reached one million registered users after just two months, and a billion users by 2018.
Why Was Instagram Originally Created?
Instagram was originally a photo-sharing app that featured several filters and enhancements for photos taken on a mobile phone. It combined features from the then-popular app FourSquare, whereby users could tag photos with people, locations, or other information to share Its creator, Kevin Systrom, has said he developed the app due to his love of photography.
How Did Instagram Become So Successful?
Instagram's focus on photo sharing and commenting led to a strong degree of user engagement and word-of-mouth marketing as users encouraged their friends and family to join. Its simple interface and popular features also made it widely liked. This combination led users, who notoriously have short attention spans, to scroll through many posts and become addicted, in a sense, to using the app.
The Bottom Line
While user growth has continued to increase since the Meta (formerly Facebook) acquisition, Instagram has made a relatively small number of changes to the app, sticking to its simple and intuitive user experience and core focus on photo- and video-sharing capabilities.
Despite the high price tag of its acquisition, the company appears to have been a savvy investment on the part of Meta.
In 2019, the market research company eMarketer predicted that Instagram would reach 117.2 million users by 2021. In 2018, Instagram was the second-most downloaded free app on the Apple app store (second only to YouTube's free mobile-device app). By 2020, more than 1 billion people used Instagram every month.
Instagram Gained One Million Users in 3 Months
In a span of just four years, Instagram's user base has boomed from 1 to 300 million.
Started by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010, the photo- and video-sharing app has since taken the world by storm.
In April 2012, one and a half years after its release, the company was bought over by Facebook for $1 billion.
How did an app that took just eight weeks to build gain so many users so quickly, and piqued the interest of Facebook?
1. Instead of trying to be too many things, Instagram focused on doing just one thing
really well.
Instagram's predecessor, Burbn
Initially designed as a location-sharing app, Burbn allowed users to "check-in at particular locations, make plans for future check-ins, earn points for hanging out with friends, and post pictures of the meet-ups".
However, Systrom and Krieger realized that users weren't using the check-in features at all; they were mostly using the photo-sharing features.
The app was eventually reduced to just having the photo-sharing functionality, and was renamed 'Instagram'.
In an interview with Neil Patel, Systrom explained:
The lesson I’ve learned is that you need to make sure to always cut what doesn’t work, cut the stuff that isn’t popular, and focus on continually improving your product and your focus...
Companies go through identity crises and they figure themselves out over time, but I think it’s all about keeping what sticks and throwing away what doesn’t.
Word-of-mouth Pro Tip: Don't be afraid to modify or remove features that aren't popular with users.
Listen to your user data, and follow what your users are telling you through their actions.
2. High-profile influencers shared the app with their followers, helping Instagram gain tons of followers.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey
More than 25,000 users signed up on the day Instagram was launched, and one of them included high-profile influencer, Jack Dorsey. The Twitter co-founder tweeted about it to his million+ followers, which likely caused them to go check out the app.
As other influencers started using the app and sharing their experiences on social media, Instagram was eventually featured as the app of the day on the Apple app store.
Other early adopters included Apple's Phil Schiller and celebrities like Justin Bieber.
Word-of-mouth Pro Tip: Getting your product in the hands of relevant influencers can be a win-win situation. They gain social proof for featuring something cool before everyone else, and they'll help to share your brand name with all their followers.
3. Instagram was made available on Android almost two years later, resulting in one million downloads on the very first day.
While more than 30 million iPhone users were busy snapping and sharing their photos on Instagram, Android users had to wait for nearly one and a half years before the app was available for Android.
Needless to say, the app's download count exploded, hitting one million downloads on its first day and hit 5 million in 6 days.
This delay, while probably unintentional, benefited Instagram in two ways: iOS users had bragging rights over their Android counterparts for more than a year, while the inability of gaining entry into the community-made Android users covet the app even more.
Word-of-mouth Pro Tip: You can use the power of exclusivity in many ways: be it in the form of pre-orders, a waiting list, or giving access to a selected group of customers. Those who have it will talk about it, while those waiting will tell the world how much they want it.
Fun fact: When Instagram was made available to Android users, more than a few iPhone users were unhappy that Instagram was no longer exclusive to them...
4. Instagram allows users to share via popular social media platforms, giving brand instant exposure across multiple channels.
Existing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter have photo/video uploading capabilities, but they lack the editing functionalities that has made Instagram famous. With Instagram's integration with these popular social media platforms, users can upload their beautifully-edited photos on their favorite social platforms with a single press.
This move leverages off the pre-existing networks of Instagram users, so their peers will know about the app that allows their friends to take such nice photos.
Systrom reiterated this point during the TechCrunch Disrupt NYC:
Instagram’s open social network and integration with other social sites has gone a long way in making it popular.
Users can view photos added by their own network in their home feed and also view other popular photos on the network. They can like and comment on any photo or flag questionable content for review. They can also share their own Instagram photos on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
In another article on Forbes, venture capitalist Todd Warren explained that:
The social nature of the activity was a natural generator for new people to enter the network and download the application. The attachment to existing social networks provided a very cost effective channel strategy. Their sales strategy was about seeding the social network effectively to get additional adoption.
Word-of-mouth Pro Tip: Despite trying to build its own community, Instagram chose not to directly modify the existing sharing behaviors of its users. People were still used to sharing photos on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
The key here is to understand your users' habits and see how your product can integrate smoothly with their behaviors.
To recap, Instagram's early success can be attributed to a few core reasons:
- Had a really good product that was specialized, and worked well on mobile
- Picked up and shared by high-profile individuals
- Featured on the Apple app store
- Powerful social sharing on popular social media platforms
- Had exclusivity and scarcity when it came to mobile platform offerings
Some might be attributed to chance, but the rest can be achieved through understanding your customers' behavioral habits, and figuring out what they really want.
Once you've built an app that can bring great value to your users, get it into the hands of the right influencers, and have them share it with their networks.
For more examples of how other companies (e.g. Coca Cola, Google, TOMS, Tinder) acquired their first customers through word-of-mouth.
Looking to grow your Instagram following? Check out the advice of these Instagram marketing experts.
How to promote a mobile application through advertising on Facebook and Instagram: 7 ways
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You have invested a lot of time and money in the mobile application. Made sure it works great. But how to make the number of downloads of your application only grow? How to promote a mobile app? One of the proven and effective options is through Facebook and Instagram ads.
It's been a long time since the only game on our phone was Snake or Tetris. Today, over 42% of small businesses have a mobile app. And another 35% are planning to develop an application in the near future.
Mobile applications provide companies with the opportunity to always stay "connected", interacting with the audience. And with push notifications, apps are even more valuable.
The task is the same - to get as many users as possible to download your application.
And it can be equally difficult to promote an application to a cold audience or existing customers.
It is required to convince users that it will solve their problems, facilitate some tasks.
In this article I will look at 7 strategies for using Facebook and Instagram ads to promote a mobile app.
1 Targeting Existing Customers
Some applications are a whole business. This is, for example, Candy Crush, which is a product with a business behind it. Others - designed to provide additional services or convenience to customers. For example, banking applications allow us to make a transfer or pay for services. Of course it's convenient.
If the functionality of your application expands the capabilities of the site, its promotion should start with targeting existing customers.
Use Custom Audiences to serve ads to customers who bought your product within the last 30-90 days.
You can change this range according to the period of your services or sales.
Even if you increase the period, the effectiveness of advertising will not suffer.
Let's imagine that you are a dealer and have just launched a mobile application for viewing vehicle characteristics. Show ads to everyone who owns a car with similar characteristics.
You can also use your new app to connect with long-gone customers. You can suggest a new product to them or find out if they are interested in your services.
Let's say your business has launched a new application for tracking financial expenses. Early customers may have installed other handy apps from your competitors. You can contact them and talk about your new application. So you will return your customers and expand the audience of the product.
You can create a new target audience to further promote your application in Facebook Ads Manager . Use tool "Create Audience" in section "Audiences" rather than "Create Ad".
And if your application sets you apart from your competitors and can help you attract a cold audience, great! Below we will see how to do this.
2 Targeting “similar audiences” to attract “cold” customers
Lookalike Audiences are the safest solution if you are trying to reach an audience that is not yet familiar with the brand. This move allows you to reach users similar to your custom audience.
In this step, it is recommended to select audiences that regularly use your application.
To do this, you need to configure Facebook SDK in the mobile application. This is a kind of version of the pixel for applications. It helps you create retargeting campaigns or lookalike audiences by anonymously tracking who uses your app and how. How to set up the SDK can be found here.
You can create a "lookalike audience" of those who actively use the application. For example, you want to find customers who are most likely to make in-app purchases.
Run a retargeting campaign for users who have purchased through the app in the past.
3 Audience segmentation based on devices used
Want to increase app downloads? Your product should fit users and be easy for them to use.
Divide audiences when running Facebook ads into segments. This will ensure that the app download page is shown to the right users based on the device they are using.
Sometimes a person uses an iOS device, and by clicking on an ad for a mobile application, he goes to the Android store. It is not comfortable. And it is unlikely that the user will return to your product in this case.
To target by device, go to section "Detailed targeting" in campaign settings.
Next, in the search for , enter "Facebook access (mobile device)" .
Here you can see the division of by smartphone brand or OC type .
If you select, for example, "Apple devices (iOS)", your ad will only be shown to users who use smartphones of this brand.
4 Visual demonstration of the benefits of the application in the ad
Your customers may get tired of looking for different applications. Still, now almost every company has its own mobile application. As a rule, we all try to install only those programs that will really be useful.
It's best not to use template images or videos in your ad. For example, a photo of a person holding a mobile phone.
Go beyond. Show the strengths of your application, its benefits.
Users want to see the interface and functionality of the application. They want to know how it will help them in life.
Let me give you an example.
First announcement from Freshbooks . This is a video ad that shows a man flipping through a smartphone screen. At the same time, text appears on the screen describing the benefits of the application.
Here they write about “the ability to keep track of bills and receipts in one place.”
It seems that there is information about the convenience and usefulness of the application, but the user does not see it. This approach will not lead to an increase in the number of downloads.
Another advertising option. Marketers have gone further and chosen a strategy that allows them to convince users that this service is worth downloading!
People see the interface of the program. As a rule, this approach awakens the audience's interest in the product.
The pictures showing the interface are great. And videos work even better. This way you can show the actual use of the application.
Test both options to see what works best for your audience.
5 Choosing the right call to action
Choosing the right call to action (CTA) can be a critical factor in the success of your ad.
Research shows that the wrong CTA reduces the effectiveness of the ad by 2.5 times. Choosing the right call to action improves ad performance.
The most effective CTA buttons are:
- Download
- Learn more (details)
- Register (join)
CTA "Download" and "More" tend to be the most effective in app advertising.
When selecting the "Download" CTA, make sure to remind users that the app is free (or a free trial). The less financial investment, the better for customers. Most users do not want to pay to try this or that application. Even if they are already customers of your business.
Run a split test of on different CTAs and to see which works best. Track costs, clicks, and actual app installs. A single ad may cost more but lead to higher quality leads. See the big picture of analytics data. And upgrade your campaign based on analytics.
6 Running ads on popular mobile platforms
Many marketers leave ad placements set to default. But, if we need app downloads, it's better to choose mobile-relevant placements.
Users are more likely to download the app if the landing page opens on their phone or tablet, but not on a PC. Such a move can give us a lot of "unplanned" installations that can not be obtained in another way.
That is, the choice of mobile platforms for advertising is an important factor. These are Facebook, Audience network, Messenger and, of course, Instagram.
Some marketers don't use Instagram due to the assumption that advertising will cost more. In fact, this is no longer the case. Recently, the cost of showing ads on Instagram has fallen to a level corresponding to placements in the Facebook feed.
And since Instagram's audience is mobile users, they are great for promoting the app.
Such ads are shown exclusively on mobile devices, and Instagram users are very receptive to branded content. You don't want to miss out on such a valuable promotion opportunity, do you?
7 Referral programs or "invite friends" to the app
Most apps have referral programs. If you have one, consider promoting it through Facebook and Instagram ads. So you offer existing customers a profitable way to invite friends.
Use an already engaged audience for this. These users are the most likely to recommend the app to their friends.
Here is an example of a referral program from the AirBnB app.
Referral programs usually give customers bonuses. This can be a discount or a month of free use of the program. Bonuses can be for the user himself and for friends invited by him.
Mention the benefits of the referral program in the ad. Let it take users directly to your referral page.
There they will be able to read detailed information about the program, and then email their friends or share the referral message and code on Facebook.
Referral programs can be a great way to get new customers quickly.
Referral programs tend to bring higher value and keep customers longer. They are worthy of investment.
With the help of referral programs, you can quickly increase the number of installations of the application. Promoting them on Facebook and Instagram increases engagement and reach.
Summary
A mobile app can be incredibly valuable to a company or brand. This is how you provide the audience with new convenient functionality and keep in touch with them.
These seven simple strategies will help you increase the popularity of your mobile application.
Promote your app on Facebook and Instagram. Drive engagement and purchases with retargeting based on SDK tracking.
What do you think about this? How did Facebook and Instagram advertising help you promote your mobile app? What strategies have worked best for your business? Share the article and your comments on social networks!
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Where to start and how to advertise a mobile application in Russia - Marketing on vc.ru
"Advertising a mobile application" - we enter this query in a search engine and fall into the ocean of esoteric knowledge. Our new article summarizes very briefly the main questions you should answer. Level: beginner. Reading time: 4 minutes
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There are a huge number of ways to promote the application. However, these methods are not universal. Much depends on the tasks that you set for advertising. Our team determines suitable mobile ad networks during the first consultation and often these recommendations do not match the initial request of the client.
We will analyze the selection of advertising networks for mobile applications point by point and give some useful practical tips for promotion.
So, what should you pay attention to when choosing how to promote a mobile application?
Mobile app niche
It is a mistake to think that mobile advertising networks differ only in the complexity of advertising accounts and moderation. From a niche i.e. the topics and tasks that your product solves directly depend on how the app is promoted.
If you are guided by the logic of trending ("you need to promote applications through TikTok , everyone there") or your own habits ("everyone I know hangs out at Instagram "), you run the risk of losing your budget, getting a negative experience and wrong conclusions about the sales funnel.
Everyone knows that game ads have special specifics. However, this is also true for non-gaming mobile applications.
It's all about ad formats.If it's critical for an application to show the visual side of the project (photo editor, fitness exercises, make-up selection) , advertising platforms where the main emphasis is on creating video content are suitable for you. These are ad networks TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram .
If the product is niche or solves a complex problem that is difficult to explain in a couple of sentences, then the promotion of the application will go better in networks where it is allowed to create long advertising posts. Targeting VKontakte or Facebook will suit you.
If the project previously had difficulties with moderation in the App Store (dating, cryptocurrencies, utilities, vpn) , most likely you will not be able to promote your application in social networks. It makes sense to find non-standard, gray methods to attract mobile traffic. Consider advertising at Telegram , mobile push traffic , adult platforms , placements with bloggers .
Purposes of application promotion
Very often in the brief the client says that the purpose of the advertising campaign is promotion of the application . There is nothing wrong with that, segmentation and clarification of tasks is the work of a marketer. The fact is that behind the concepts of promotion and promotion, there is a whole range of different goals and wishes that must be precisely defined before traffic purchases begin. Possible targets might be:
- You still have absolutely no idea how to promote the application and want to get the first data about the market and your users, the so-called market fit . A certain volume of active users will suit you as a purchase goal. You will be interested in the installation cost of (eCPI) and the baseline of the product.
- You rolled out a new feature or changed your business model. You need a fairly large number of registrations and interactions with the app to test your hypotheses.
You will be interested in sales funnel conversion and analytics for various actions within the application.
- You want to influence the position of the application in organic search App Store ; attract the maximum number of installs in a short time for a pitch; performance testing or just to let everyone know about your application. You will be interested in live app installs ( installs combined with event first open ).
- You have a verified financial model and you want to acquire paying users at a certain price. Your advertising campaign must target subscriptions and purchases (IAP, Subscriptions).
- You have quite popular applications, monetization gives good results. You are constantly buying mobile traffic through popular ad networks, but would like to reach a new level in terms of financial performance. You need revenue scaling through non-standard promotion methods.
Differences in promotion of iOS and Android
Promotion of android applications in Google Play Store and marketing of ios applications by means of AppStore are methodologically different.
Allows more payment methods on Google Play and allows you to quickly update the application. There is always more traffic on Android in networks.
Due to the introduction of SKAd, iOS applications do not work well with retargeting and similar audiences (Look-a-like), require large budgets due to data tracking restrictions, but such a unique way of advertising promotion as 9 is available for them0281 Apple Search Ads . Today, the promotion of Android applications requires a smaller initial budget for advertising and allows you to attract traffic faster. However, the sales funnel conversion on iOS apps is still much better.
The question of application marketing is not universal. For each product, the promotion method can be unique.
