Instagram may prove a valuable platform for advertisers. Instagram released its first results on ads since they began appearing November 1st. Brands saw average ad recall up 32% while brand message awareness was up 10% across four campaigns, with Levi’s reaching 7.4 million US 18-34 year olds in 9 days while Ben & Jerry’s reached 9.8 million US 18-35 year olds in 8 days. These don’t prove real return on investment, but Instagram calls the results “promising”.
Instagram’s highlighting of reach, recall, and awareness shows it sees itself as a host of institutional brand advertising that generates demand, rather than a platform for direct performance advertising that fulfills demand and directly leads to sales.
Focusing on an ad model of this kind locks Instagram in to an endless quest to suck in more time-on-site. The more photos and videos you look at, the more ads you’ll see, and the more money it makes.
Here are the full details of the results from Instagram’s first four completed ad campaigns
* Reach
* All four initial ad campaigns measured were successful at delivering the broad reach our advertisers were seeking
* The marketers achieved a high impact with a very low average frequency of ad impressions per user
* Levi’s reached 7.4 million people in the U.S. across a nine-day period, targeting people aged 18-34
* Ben & Jerry’s reached 9.8 million people in the U.S. over eight days, targeting people aged 18-35
* Ad Recall
* Across the four campaigns, there was a 32-point incremental lift in ad recall per campaign for people who were repeatedly exposed to a particular campaign versus control groups
* Awareness
* Across the four campaigns, there was 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, seventeen percent of people who saw a single ad for Ben & Jerry’s Scotchy Scotch Scotch-flavored ice cream not only became aware of the new flavor, they also associated it with the brand
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