How does instagram advertise itself

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

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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

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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 have 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 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 have 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:

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.

A Brief History of Instagram And Its Rise To Popularity

Instagram — an app that is instinctive by now to tap on every time we use our phones. Founded only in 2010, Instagram has merged seamlessly into our everyday lives in just a little more than a decade. Instagram has become prevalent not only from the consumer perspective but also in the digital marketing scene; it boasts a billion monthly active users up to date. How did this come about? What is the evolution of Instagram? Let’s find out how it all happened:

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Conceptualisation — Humble Beginnings

Budding in 2010, Instagram started as Burbn by Kevin Systrom, an app to connect people around the world by publicising each individual’s check-ins whenever they travelled somewhere new. In just two weeks after negotiations with venture firms, Systrom earned $500,000 in funding. At this point, he began actively looking for a team and eventually found Mike Krieger.

From then, Burbn underwent a drastic overhaul. Krieger and Systrom realised their concept was way too similar to an established mobile app, Foursquare. They also uncovered an important trend: communication through images was on the rise. Burbn users “were posting and sharing photos like crazy”. With this, they redeveloped the idea into what we know as Instagram today.

(Did You Know? The name ‘Instagram’ came from a combination of “instant camera” and “telegram”!)

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Launch — Shoot for the Moon

On 6th October of 2010, Instagram officially launched. The hype immediately kindled; Instagram gained 1 million users in just three months, followed by 2 million just six weeks after the milestone. For context, it took Facebook 10 months to reach 1 million, Twitter 24 months, and Tumblr 27 months.

The initial version of Instagram was simple: you could post pictures, like, comment, and follow other users. In September 2011, Instagram introduced a new app icon with a myriad of camera settings and adjustments within the app itself, such as one-touch rotation and new camera effects. Combined with the constant improvement to the iPhone cameras, phone photography became increasingly widespread; in turn, furthered Instagram’s journey to fame.

Perhaps April 2012 initiated the biggest change of all: Instagram was brought to the Android operating system. This paved the way for a whole new market, which brought about Instagram’s next milestone within that month: 50 million users on the platform. With this, Instagram proved that it was here to stay.

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Acquisition — A Turning Point

Within the same year, the Facebook Acquisition of Instagram news spread like wildfire — Facebook has officially bought Instagram for $1 billion. At the time, it was inconceivable to buy a company with just 13 employees for such a high sum. Some speculated that Facebook acquired Instagram out of fear of competition, as their target audience almost perfectly overlapped. Others, based on new anonymous leaks, hypothesised that Facebook bought Instagram to fend off other competitors, like Twitter and Google, who were also bidding to buy the fresh, attractive photo-sharing platform. Facebook has declined to dispute or confirm this claim.

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Regardless of the reasoning behind why Facebook acquired Instagram, Instagram’s popularity was well-supported with Facebook’s relentless efforts to diversify its features since then. In June 2013, Instagram no longer was an images-only platform; it introduced video-sharing functions, in which users can now post and share videos. In December 2013, Instagram instituted Instagram Direct, the private messaging function known as “DMs” today. In November 2016, Instagram brought to life Instagram Live, which essentially are streams where users can broadcast their events, music, or even just life updates to their followers in real-time. With every new feature, Instagram provided, it opened up potential avenues for businesses to broaden their reach and boost their marketing.

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Assistance — Supporting Businesses

Instagram knew its merits as a marketing tool, especially with its rising popularity among all age groups, from Gen X to Gen Z. From Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram to now, it provided a multitude of features to allow businesses to thrive.

Sponsored Posts: As social media became more prevalent in our daily lives, Instagram introduced Sponsored Posts in November 2013, in which users can boost their highest engagement content to their target audience’s feed. This was the start of Instagram’s rebranding as an advertising platform.

Business Analytics “Insights”: In August 2014, Instagram allowed business accounts to view “Insights”, in which they can track their weekly performance, from their Accounts Reached to the number of Interactions.

Advertising Features: Though budding in 2013 as an alluring opportunity for businesses to reach out to new audiences, Instagram only completely fleshed out its potential in 2015. Businesses can now run ads on Instagram Stories, use Facebook Pixel to track their users’ interests, measure how well their ads have performed, and connect to Facebook Ads Manager for multi-platform marketing.

Shop: Together with other big updates, 2020 saw a drastic increase in Instagram’s different features. A notable change, located on the right of the “Post” button, is Shop. Businesses now can list their products & prices natively on the app itself and allow customers to scroll through their feed, imitating an e-commerce experience.

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We’ve collated multiple guides on how you can utilise Instagram features to the fullest for your businesses. Do check out some below!

How To Elevate Instagram Video Ads And Impress Your Audience
Increasing Engagement By Optimising Your Instagram Profile
5 Excellent Ways to Up Your Instagram TV Strategy Game
A Step By Step Guide To Crafting An Appealing Instagram Bio

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Competition — Catching up with the Millennials & Gen Z

In recent years, other social media platforms accelerated their immersion into our lives, such as Snapchat and its revolutionised communication process as well as TikTok to accommodate our short attention span. In hopes of retaining its core users, Instagram has attempted to invent comparable features to its competitors.

The Battle Against Snapchat: Instagram Stories

Snapchat’s success derived from its unique method of communication, where one can swipe right on a friend and instantly snap a picture to them. The duration of how long the picture is shown can be customised from 1 to 10 seconds. Not only that, Snapchat allows users to compile photos and videos on their “My Story”, in which it will be shown to their followers & friends for exactly 24 hours.

In an attempt to compete against this, Instagram announced the beloved Instagram Story feature that is still widely used today. Similar to Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories allows users to post photos and videos for exactly 24 hours, shown to their followers.

The result? Instagram Stories, though developed after Snapchat’s, gathered 250 million daily active users, while Snapchat stayed consistent with its 166 million users as of 2018.

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From a quantitative outlook, Instagram undoubtedly wins out in repeat customers. However, both platforms have their merits and differences in marketing for your business as well as appealing to various customer segments. Therefore, it would be unfair to say that Snapchat does not have potential marketing opportunities, though, in recent years, multiple conjectures and considerations are indicating that Snapchat is gradually losing its charms.

The Battle Against Tiktok: Instagram Reels

In the short few years that it’s been around, TikTok has experienced rapid growth in popularity, jumping from 300 million users in January 2019 to 800 million in January 2020. Its main attractions lie in the ease to edit and upload short videos, its refreshing content-based algorithm, and its community-building function “Duet”.

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In light of the emerging popularity of TikTok, Instagram rolled out its own functions: Instagram Reels and Instagram Remix. Instagram Reels serve the same purpose as TikTok videos, a short-form video feature, while Instagram Remix is a direct competitor to TikTok’s Duet function, allowing users to film themselves alongside another person’s Reel. Though it is too soon to tell whether Instagram Reels & Remix will receive the same flourishing treatment as Instagram Stories, one thing for sure is that other platforms will begin to catch up as well, assembling a blown-out competition for the new generation’s attention.

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Conclusion

Originally established as a simple photo-sharing platform, Instagram has emerged as a useful marketing channel for businesses as well as an integral part of our daily social media usage. There are no doubts that Instagram will continue to evolve in the future, staying relevant in our lives for another long while. If you haven’t already, do check out more of our blog to observe how you can make use of social media as well as other platforms to boost your business marketing!

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Live Streaming services
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How to advertise your Instagram: a paid but simple and effective way

You can manage Instagram account advertising through a special section on the Facebook website. This method provides maximum settings, but requires special knowledge and experience, so it is more often chosen by professional marketers.

Another thing is setting up and launching ads directly in the Instagram app. This option is much simpler, which is why it is ideal for bloggers. The app doesn't allow you to create standalone ads like the Facebook site does, but it does give you the ability to promote posts you've already published.

You select a publication, specify the parameters of the target audience and the advertising budget, and the system starts automatically showing the post to potential subscribers.

Let's take a closer look at how to work with targeted ads in the Instagram app. The instructions in the article are written on the example of Instagram for iOS, but in the version for Android, all the steps are similar.

Switch to company profile

To access advertising settings, you will need to switch your account to company profile mode. This process is reversible: you can return everything to its place at any time.

The company profile, also known as the business profile, is different from a regular account. It allows you to manage ads on Instagram, as well as view statistics on user interaction with your content and add buttons to quickly contact you via phone and email. All this without leaving the mobile application.

To switch to the company profile, do the following:

1. Connect your Facebook account to Instagram (if not, register). To do this, launch Instagram, open Settings - Account - Linked Accounts - Facebook and grant access to your account.

2. Click Settings - Account - Switch to company profile (or Switch to business account). Then follow the system prompts.

In the process, you will be able to create (or select one you have previously created) and link a Facebook business page to your Instagram profile. Don't skip this step if you want to be able to set up Instagram ads not only within the app, but also through the Facebook website.

When completed, your profile will have new buttons to contact you, as well as a separate "Promotions" button that opens the section for managing ads.

Set up and run ads

If you switched to a company profile, all that remains is to link a bank card to the application to pay for the promotion. After that, you can start running ads.

1. Connect the card in Settings — Payments — Payment method.

2. On the main profile page, click Promotions, then click Create Promotion.

3. Select the post you want to promote and mark "Your Profile" as the destination. This item means that Instagram will display a button on the promoted post to go to your profile.

4. Select automatic target audience settings so that the system itself selects users to display ads that are as similar as possible to your current subscribers. Or set up an audience yourself using the "Create your own" item. In this case, you will be able to select the interests, age, gender, and regions that your audience meets.

5. Set the advertising budget you want to spend and the duration of the advertising campaign. The app will predict and display the estimated number of impressions.

6. When you're done, click Next. Verify that your settings are correct and run your ad using the "Create Promotion" button.

The finished ad will be sent for moderation. After verification, the system will start showing it to the selected audience. At any time, impressions can be stopped in order to delete or edit the ad.

Detailed statistics on launched promoted posts are available in the "Promotions" section. Use it to track the effectiveness of your ads.

How else can you promote your account for money

In addition to targeted advertising, the main methods of paid promotion on Instagram include placing posts with bloggers. The difference between these approaches is a topic for a separate article. Here are just the basic differences.

Collaborating with other bloggers, it is difficult to predict the outcome. But if successful, you can get a large influx of loyal followers for relatively little money.

With advertising, the situation is different: you have more control over the process and can see the approximate cost of the campaign even before you spend the entire advertising budget.

Author: Maxim Volotsky

How to promote content on Instagram using the promotion tool

2 min.

Introduction

If you've decided to promote your business on Instagram, the easiest place to start is by promoting your post. You can start the promotion from the Instagram app. This is an effective way to reach people who are more likely to be interested in your company. In addition, promotion will increase the number of potential and existing customers who will want to visit your website or company.

In this course you will learn:

how to create an ad based on an Instagram post;
how to increase your reach and attract new customers.

Promoting content on Instagram to attract customers

People come to Instagram to discover something new and get inspired, so promoting content on this platform is a great way to attract new customers. Instagram advertising allows you to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.

Promoting a post on Instagram

The promote tool allows you to start promoting a post on Instagram in a few easy steps. To access this tool, you need to create an Instagram business account.

You can create such an account from scratch or convert your existing personal account to it. Learn how to set up an Instagram business account.

Getting started

Your phone must have the Instagram app installed.
Must be logged into the company's Instagram account.

Ready? Now you can set up a budget and start promoting your content through the Instagram app.

To create a promotion, click the Promotions button in your business account or the Promote button in an existing publication. In the promotion tool, you can configure the necessary parameters, for example, specify the advertising budget.

Start promotion from company account

Promote an existing post

Watch the video below to learn how to use the Instagram promotion tool.

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Learn more

When creating an ad, you can customize your promotion by selecting your business goal, target audience, budget, expiration date, and more.

The Promotion Tool currently supports three destinations for your ads:

Your Profile
Your Website
Your Direct Messages

For other advertising purposes, use Ads Manager. For more information about Ads Manager, see the sources listed in section What's Next? below.

What's next?

More resources on the promotion tool

Learn more about promoting content on Instagram in the Help Center articles below:

How do I set up an Instagram business account?
How to display ads directly from Instagram?
How much does it cost to promote a post on Instagram?
What does a post promoted through the Instagram app look like?
Who can see the promoted posts I create on Instagram?

More resources on using Ads Manager to create ads

If you're interested in other Instagram ad delivery options, check out Ads Manager.