Facebook-owned photo and video-sharing social networking service, Instagram will launch advertising on its Shop feature globally, as the company aims to earn more money from brands hoping to reach new customers.
Last year, Instagram unveiled Shops in line with Facebook’s larger pivot toward eCommerce. The company began testing the advertisements earlier this month with a few select advertisers, but the feature is now open to brands globally wherever Instagram Shop is available.
Instagram Shop is a tab on the photo and video sharing app that lets users browse items such as clothes and beauty products and in some cases purchase the items directly within the platform.
Shops feature is front-and-almost-center on the app’s bottom navigation bar. Currently, items on Shops appear in a two-column grid of square tiles. Ads will appear as a tile within this structure, but they’ll be marked “Sponsored” in the bottom-left corner of the image.
When the ad is clicked, it will open the product details page, which shows more information about the item, additional images and other products from the same brand. Users can save a product from an ad to their wish list or send it to a friend, if the ad is inappropriate, they can press and hold its tile to see options to hide or report the ad.
Instagram is also reportedly working on an ability that will let users ‘Like’ a story. Until now, there has been no such feature and users could only react to stories, that show up in their direct messages. The ‘Like’ button is expected to appear on the main stories page.
