Instagram is making it easy for anyone to place ads on the popular photo sharing/social platform. Previously, only major brands in the US could place ads. Now anyone in over 30 countries has the ability through a self-service interface to run advertisements. The new ad system comes into place as Facebook faces pressure from investors to make their investments in companies like Instagram more profitable. Additional Facebook purchases Oculus VR and WhatsApp have yet to make money.

Those that watch the industry feel the new Instagram ad platform could make from half a billion this year to over $4 billion in 4 years. The company has the ability to utilize user data to make advertisements more relevant than other networks and thus can charge more for clicks/impressions. But the payoff for advertisers could be big. Results show that Instagram ads are clicked on x2.5 more times than ads on other networks. With over 300 million users, the potential is huge.

Instagram Launches 30-Second Video Ads