What's Hot in Small Business – Chris Crum

Instagram Adds Ads to Shop Tab

Instagram Adds Ads to Shop Tab Instagram1

Image via Instagram

Instagram recently announced the launch of ads in the Instagram Shop tab. These are designed to make it easier for users to discover and shop from businesses when they’re already in the process of looking at items for potential purchase.

The Facebook-owned social media image-sharing site has gained enormous popularity over the past decade, and is often cited as a more enjoyable social media experience by people burned out on the experience of Facebook itself. Integrating Facebook’s impressive ad targeting capabilities has enabled Instagram to become a major part of the digital advertising landscape.

The company launched Instagram Shop last year as a way to get people fully immersed into a shopping experience. As the company explains, "There, people can discover and shop new trends, see the latest product drops and support small businesses – all in one place. And for sellers, this surface allows them to introduce their products to more people." 1

Last year, Instagram also launched a shopping capability in its Reels feature. Reels, sometimes described as the company’s competitor to TikTok, is another tab, which lets users create short video content.

The new Shop tab ads will appear as tiles on the homepage for the tab. When a user clicks on the ad, they will be taken to the Product Details page, where they can learn more about the item they’re looking at, as well as view more images and more products from the same brand. From here, users are also able to save items to a wish list or share them with their friends. All of this is a boon to businesses looking to drive more sales from their social media efforts.

Instagram2

Image via Instagram

The new ads are rolling out in all countries where the Shop tab is available. Instagram currently has over a billion monthly active users.

Businesses who are interested in selling their products using Instagram’s shopping ads and features, but are unfamiliar with the platform, can take a Facebook Blueprint course on the subject. Blueprint is a series of educational videos and mini-courses designed to help businesses get more out of Facebook’s products.

Shops on Instagram is a four-step course consisting of lessons on: setting up your shop; adding product tags to photos and videos on Instagram; creating a collection for your shop; and reaching more customers using the shopping ads.2

Instagram also recently announced that it plans to invest over $1 billion in programs to help creators make more money by the end of 2022. This will include bonus programs that pay those eligible for hitting certain milestones when they use Instagram’s creative and monetization tools. The company will also provide seed funding for them to produce content.

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