Instagram Announces Ads Are Coming To User Feeds

Closely following in the footsteps of Pinterest, Instagram announced this week they’ll start adding ads into users feeds over the next few months. The theme here? A need to build a sustainable business. The issue? The only solution seems to be ads.

Facebook bought Instagram last year for $1 billion with the intent to “add ads when the time is right”, says Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook has received much lash back from users on its placement and treatment of ads and while Instagram has indicated its 150 million users will be able to hide ads they don’t like they will still be showing ads from brands users don’t follow with a “focus on delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community,” Instagram said in their post.

Similar to Pinterest, they wants the ads to “feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands.” My hope is that brands truly think of their audiences and create really thoughtful and provoking advertisements, but who is to monitor that when revenue is being generated? My fingers are crossed.

What are your thoughts on ads being added to these darlings of social media? Tell in the comments below or on Facebook.

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