It seems that Instagram is really coming out of it’s shell, not just as a picture/video social network, but as a marketing tool as well.
The new Instagram Partner Program was introduced today to help advertisers and businesses use Instagram to reach consumers. Since the company opened its advertising platform to all advertisers, this seems to be a good step forward. Originally, Instagram didn’t share the ad keys, so that paid promotional messages didn’t diminish Instagram users’ experiences.
Now that the Partner Program has been released, they’re doing what others are doing, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google, where they are solidifying official partnerships with third-party marketing firms. This is meant to help businesses figure out the best ways to spend their marketing dollars.
There are 40 partners that are with the Instagram Partner Program at launch today, and they are divided up into three categories:
- Ad Tech: Advertisers are able to easily manage ads throughout the planning, buying and optimizing process
- Community Management: Marketers have a better way to interact and understand the Instagram community
- Content Marketing: Businesses can quickly create, curate and source content
Businesses have already taken advantage of partners’ tools, according to an Instagram blog post:
In August, House of Blues Entertainment (@fillmorenc) turned to our partners to help sell tickets for an up and coming artist playing at its Charlotte, North Carolina location. Using Instagram’s targeting combined with Instagram Partner CitizenNet’s audience modeling, they targeted residents with similar musical tastes during a 13-day campaign. At the end of the campaign, they saw a 64% higher return on investment than their previous benchmark—inspiring them to extend their advertising efforts to 40+ venues in the US.
In Europe, Instagram Partner Smartly.io worked with Hawkers International, a fashion eyewear eCommerce business, to run carousel ads driving strong results. “Working with Smartly.io, we saw a 77% higher return on ad spend over our link ad campaigns—with a 26% lower cost-per-click and almost half the cost-per-action,” says Axel Ramírez, Lead Advertiser at Hawkers Co. “We’re delighted with the results from this new partnership.”
Here’s the full list of Instagram partners:.
Ad Tech: 4C, Adaptly, adMixt, Adobe, AdParlor, Adphorus, Adsmurai, Ampush, ADTZ, Bidalgo, Bornlogic, Brand Networks, CitizenNet, Esome Advertising, Facelift, Glow Digital Media, Kenshoo, Kinetic Social, MakeMeReach, Nanigans, Septeni Original, Smartly.io, SocialCode, Marin Software, Torchlight, Unified, Wisebirds
Community Management: Conversocial, Expion, HootSuite, Momentfeed, Spredfast, Sprout Social
Content Marketing: Flashstock, Olapic, ReFuel4, Tongal
Community Management/Content Marketing: Curalate, Percolate
Ad Tech/Community Management: Sprinklr
Ad Tech/Community Management/Content Marketing: Salesforce