Instagram will be expanding ads to the rest of the Anglosphere

Instagram is taking its advertising strategy global. The photo-sharing service owned by Facebook announced on Tuesday that it will begin showing in-feed ads to international users “in the coming months,” according to a company spokesperson. Instagram will start with three countries — Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia — but more countries could be added in the future. It’s unclear how many of Instagram’s 200 million-plus users are outside the United States — the company doesn’t break down its user demographics publicly. Instagram also did not identify any of its upcoming international advertisers, but a spokesperson did say that the ads will be tailored and targeted to the individual regions. “We’ll work closely with a handful of advertisers in each country who are already great members of the Instagram community,” a spokesperson told Mashable. “That could mean it’s a global brand with a strong presence in one of the countries, or a regional/local brand specific to that country.” The international ad push is not Instagram’s first foray into native ads. Instagram first rolled out in-feed ads to U.S. users in November, starting with a small sampling of advertisers like Michael Kors, Burberry, Lexus. The response at the time was mixed — the images generated lots of Likes, but also lots of angry comments from users who didn’t appreciate Instagram’s monetization attempt.