Instagram has announced plans to incorporate ads in its photo feed “later this year” to subscribers in the UK, Canada and Australia. On the heels what what it considers a successful advertising debut last fall, the photo shooting, filtering, and sharing service, which launched in 2010 and was acquired by Facebook in 2012, rolled out ads in the US last November. “…since introducing ads last November, we’ve worked with a handful of top brands to draw creative inspiration from the community and create ads that were engaging and felt natural in people’s feeds,” Instagram said in its blog. “So far, our community-focused efforts are working. …We’re excited to build on this momentum, and in the coming months we will extend the same level of care and consideration as we introduce ads on Instagram to our global community.”
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.
