Instagram has taken another step towards e-commerce by running its first marketing campaigns that transform viewers into shoppers with a single click, according to a news report.
The report, from AdWeek, suggests that Instagram is working on features that would make the service a better marketing platform for e-commerce businesses hoping to attract buyers.
Instagram is running marketing campaigns with brands including Banana Republic that take users right to product pages.
The trade magazine goes on to say that “more sophisticated ads are in the works” including an option that would allow brands to link directly to their checkout experience.
“Instagram continues to tease big things coming,” said one Hollywood marketing executive who buys ads on the platform. “And they’re talking about more ways to integrate buying.”
It says one ad executive told them that instead of a buy button, as other social platforms have been tinkering around with, advertisers could more easily link to checkout pages.
Gideon Lask, CEO and Founder, Buyapowa believes that Instagram is missing a trick by acting like an ad network, rather than thinking how to make the buying process itself ‘social’.
“It was inevitable that Facebook-owned Instagram would follow the footsteps of Facebook, Twitter and lately Pinterest and add more e-commerce features. But this is really just equivalent of catalogue shopping on a social network where you just ‘see and buy’. Like other social platforms, Instagram is mostly thinking like an ad network and how it can monetize more impressions and clicks. It is not really thinking how to make the buying process itself ‘social’. That is where the real opportunity lies.
By recognising the unique characteristics of social, brands can design offers and content that incentivise and encourage sharing with friends and family through concepts such as tiered rewards, gamification and communal targets. This offers greater reach for brands. ‘Social Customer-get-Customer’ can empower viral sharing where the brand does not pay for each click and can deliver a much lower Cost per Acquisiton (CPA).”