Brace yourselves, Instagrammers, video advertisements are on the way.
But if Instagram is successful in its plan, you'll hardly realize they're there. The company is very vigilant with its advertisements — CEO Kevin Systrom reportedly pores over every ad, making sure it fits the look and feel of the service.
Along with matching the look and feel, the company notes it serves up targeted ads based on "what you do on Instagram and Facebook."
A sponsored post in my feed, for example, is from fashion retailer Express. It's likely based on the fact I follow several men's fashion accounts on Instagram.
AdWeek snagged an early look at some of the 15-second video advertisements from several companies: Banana Republic, Disney, CW and Activision.
Of course, as the outlet points out, this should come as no surprise; Instagram has been testing video ads for about six months.
And a writer for Marketing Land reminds us this is hardly the first mobile service to add video advertisements to the mix. Photo messaging service Snapchat and blogging service Tumblr have both started serving video advertisements. (Video via Snapchat)
It looks like Instagram has taken its time on purpose. The somewhat sudden introduction of Instagram's photo-based adverts about a year ago weren't well received.
Of course, now that we've all gotten used to the sponsored images and auto-playing video, these targeted ads will feel practically normal.
That, and the fact we're seeing video advertisements everywhere we go. According to eMarketer, this year alone, advertisers have spent a whopping $5.96 billion on video ads — nearly double what they spent last year.
This video includes images from Getty Images and Instagram.
