Instagram Expands Ad Platform To More Businesses, Countries

Instagram announced an expansion to its advertising platform Wednesday, which allows businesses of all sizes and in more than 30 new countries to run ads. The ad platform, which draws from Facebook Inc.'s ads infrastructure, allows the companies to target specific audiences based on interests. It will also allow users to buy products through Instagram. The new ad format includes video ads of up to 30 seconds, landscape photo and videos and tools to drive performance across Facebook and Instagram. The new countries include Italy, Spain, Mexico, India and South Korea and the ad capability will be "launching in markets around the world" on Sept. 30