Instagram is to hugely expand its advertising capability from eight to 38 markets, and has unveiled a new TV-style 30-second video ad format.
The Facebook-owned photo-sharing service has unveiled a major expansion of its ad operation, to countries including Italy, Spain, Mexico, India and South Korea, with the global rollout complete by the end of this month.
Instagram also launched new advertising formats including landscape-shaped photo and video to give ads a “more cinematic feel”.
Advertisers will now also be able to opt for a 30-second length video, the standard length used in TV broadcasting, an increase on the previous limit of 15-seconds.
It is also introducing a premium ad format, Marquee, which will allow brands to run campaigns with high-profile slots and large scale reach.
“Perfect for events like movie premieres and new product launches,” the company said in a blogpost on Wednesday.
Instagram has also opened up advertising across the site to all brands, having previously only worked with a select group of partners.
“People come to Instagram for visual inspiration, and advertising has the power to touch, inspire and move people,” said James Quarles, global head of business and brand development at Instagram.
Instagram started offering ads in the US in 2013 and expanded into the UK with companies including Waitrose and Channel 4 last September.
In June, the company said that it was planning a major expansion of its advertising products.
Instagram’s worldwide ad revenue is estimated to be $600m this year, according to eMarketer.
However, the company’s income will be dominated by ad spend in the US, with just $30m predicted to come from international markets this year.
In the US, Instagram is forecast to have higher mobile display ad revenues than Google and Twitter in 2017.
Even by 2017 the US market will still account for 85% of total ad revenues, says eMarketer.
The research firm is forecasting explosive growth with total global revenues more than doubling to $1.48bn in 2016, and then almost doubling again to $2.81bn in 2017.
Instagram, which is mobile-only, will account for 5% of Facebook’s worldwide mobile ad revenue this year, climbing to a 14% share in 2017.
Globally, Instagram has 300 million monthly active users, with more than 70% coming from outside the US.
Last year, Instagram passed Twitter to become the second-largest social network in the US.