Facebook Improves Targeting For Instagram Ads

The pictures you post and like on Instagram may now control what ads you see. Facebook Inc. is opening up ads on Instagram to everyone, building out "action-oriented formats," and improving its targeting capabilities, the company announced on Tuesday. This expands a beta advertising platform on the picture-sharing site that was put into action a year and a half ago. Facebook claims Instagram has become "a powerful mobile platform for advertisers" since then, with ad recall from sponsored posts on Instagram coming in 2.9-times higher than averages for online advertising, according to Neilsen Brand Effect stats cited by Facebook. "We have worked across brands, agencies and our community to design an advertising experience that feels native to the platform," Facebook said. Advertisers can buy photo or video ads, or pay a premium for a carousel of pictures to tell a longer-form story. The ad platform will also enable improved targeting capabilities based not only on a person's age, location, gender, but also based on the people and places they are interested in as shared through their pictures. Shares of Facebook were up 0.4% to $80.64 in recent trade.