First Instagram ads post positive results

Popular photo sharing app Instagram has today announced the results of the first of its sponsored ad campaigns.

All four initial ad campaigns measured, which appeared in the home feed on mobile, resulted in marketers achieving ‘high impact’ with a low average frequency of ad impressions per user.

Levi’s reached 7.4 million people in the US across a nine day period, targeting people aged 18-34, while Ben & Jerry’s reached 9.8 million people in the US over an eight day period, targeting people aged 18-35.

The Facebook-owned company began trialling adverts in November in a bid to integrate marketing without “jeopardising Instagram’s cool factor”.

Across the four initial campaigns, Instagram reported a ten-point incremental lift in brand message awareness per campaign for people who were repeatedly exposed to a particular campaign versus control groups.

In particular, 17% of people who saw a single ad for Ben & Jerry’s Scotchy Scotch Scotch flavoured ice cream not only became aware of the new flavour, but also associated it with the brand.

Instagram has stated that it will fully introduce ads within the next year.