Instagram has offered a sneak peek at what ads will look like in the insta-feed with sample ads to break into American users’ streams next week.
The paid-for video and picture posts will be distinguishable with a ‘Sponsored’ label to appear where the time stamp would normally be.
Instagram’s users based in the United States will see the sample ad (pictured below) appear in their feeds within the coming week.
In a blog post the social network said it would be a one-off post to give users a sense of how ads will fit into their experience.
“We want ads to be creative and engaging, so we’re starting with just a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community.”
Instagram’s first ad partners include adidas, Ben & Jerry’s, Burberry, General Electric, Lexus, Levi’s, Macy’s, Michael Kors, PayPal and Starwood.
“If you see an ad that doesn’t interest you, you can tap the “…” below it to hide it and provide feedback about what you didn’t like. This will help us show you more interesting ads in the future.”
Instagram will use a combination of its own information and details from its parent company Facebook to serve ads to consumers. The data used to serve ads will include who users follow, the photos and videos users like on Instagram and interests and other “basic info” from Facebook.
Instagram again moved to reassure its users that they own their photos and videos.
“As always, you own your own photos and videos. The introduction of advertising won’t change this.”
The assurance comes after Instagram changed the wording of its terms and services last year. The update implied it could sell user’s photos to advertisers.
The backlash in response to the change was fierce, forcing Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom to apologise and revert the wording of its terms of use advertising section to its original state.
For more on Instagram’s monetisation push see B&T’s coverage below:
