Instagram video ads called ‘highly efficient’
“CPMs [cost per thousand views] are averaging close to US$3,” said an ad tech source at a firm that helps brands advertise on Instagram. “It’s been highly efficient compared to marketing on Facebook proper.”
Instagram made its ad offering widely available this summer. Until recently, only select brands were buying premium campaigns on the photo-sharing app. The company took a boutique-like approach, reviewing every sponsored image and video.
Instagram still exerts some creative control, but there has been a noticeable increase in the number of participating advertisers, which now buy through partners like Salesforce, Kenshoo, Nanigans and Sprinklr.
The partners are only just now starting to share some results from the early marketing efforts. Salesforce, for one, said its advertisers pay an average CPM of $6.29.
The other ad partner said that it sees nearly half that rate, $3 per 1,000 views, alongside videos that go for as little as two cents a view. Instagram counts a video as viewed if it’s been seen at least three seconds, the same as Facebook.
On the high end, depending on the effectiveness of the campaign, videos can cost about six cents a view, the ad tech partner said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the company wasn’t authorised to publicly disclose rates. Instagram declined to comment.
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