Instagram says that it now has 500,000 advertisers on its platform. “Today, we’re excited to announce there are more than 500,000 advertisers growing their businesses on Instagram,” they said in their blog announcement. “In just six months, the number of advertisers has more than doubled. And that includes a variety of businesses from around the world. In fact, the top five countries seeing advertiser adoption are the US, Brazil, UK, Australia and Canada. Businesses have been an important part of the Instagram community since the beginning. Here’s why Instagram continues to be an essential place for businesses to grow.”

The Instagram community is more than 500 million strong, so it’s not surprise that consumer targeted marketing is taking off on the platform. What businesses like is their ability to become part of the consumer engagement experience, not just an advertiser butting into the conversation.

Instagram Working for Business?

Instagram noted that 50% of “Instagrammers” follow a business and their surveys indicate that 60% of Instagram users say they learned about a product or service on Instagram. They view their platform as passion marketing which businesses can tap into. They say that 75% of their users take action after being inspired by a post. Actions include clicking to a website, searching, shopping or telling a friend.

There have been 1 billion actions taken on their ads just in the last 12 months since Instagram ads were launched. Internal surveys show that 70% of ad campaigns received “significant lifts” of online conversion or mobile app installs. Since Instagram made change to their link ad format in June, they saw ad performance increase by 45%. Additionally, an Oracle Data Cloud report concluded that Instagram ads drove a median 1.8% lift in in-store sales and a 2.1% lift in household penetration, across 12 US CPG campaigns that were measured for potential sales impact.

Consumer Brands Love Instagram

The handbag brand Dagne Dover, working with its ad agency Mason Interactive, effectively used the Shop Now call to action button in a recent campaign. They targeted students, mothers, professionals and women interested in fashion and travel according to Instagram.

The campaign doubled its traffic and increased its return on ad spend 13X over a two-month period, according to Melissa Mash, CEO at Dagne Dover.

Virtually every major brand is now using Instagram to reach consumers in their niche markets. Brands such as Macy’s, Petsmart, Staples and Fossil are among the half million pushing their products on Instagram.

Instagram Ads Work For Small Business Too

Instagram is one of the few platforms that works just as well for small business advertisers as it does for the big brands. Since it is a Facebook company, it runs on the same ad backend as Facebook, with similar targeting and bidding options.

Whether a business is promoting a sale, marketing an event or seeking Instagram followers, you can advertise for as little as $5 a day.

One online writer experimented by promoting an article she wrote for Entrepreneur and was able to obtain 2,000 likes for only 1 cent each! With that ultra low conversion cost it’s worth experimenting.