Facebook Says Instagram Advertising Looks Promising For Travel Brands in 2017
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Facebook will be cracking down on how many ads it includes in newsfeeds, which could impact some brands' ad performance. Instagram, however, is a promising bet to make if brands are thinking longer term about ads, who they'll reach and how they'll be seen.
Travelers see more Facebook and Instagram ads from hotels, destinations, cruises, and airlines than they did a year ago, ranging from Dynamic Ads with photos and links, to video ads such as Tourism Montreal's campaign with William Shatner that launched last month.
But last week, Facebook told investors during the company's fourth-quarter 2016 earnings call that Instagram, because of its faster user growth compared to Facebook, is the better platform for ad opportunities in 2017.
Speaking during the call on February 1, Facebook CFO David Wehner told investors and analysts that ad load -- the ratio of ads to organic posts in newsfeeds -- has more opportunities on Instagram because many Facebook newsfeeds have reached an ad saturation point.
"So there is an opportunity for us to continue to grow ad load on Instagram probably beyond – in a longer timeframe than there is on Facebook because of that disparity in terms of where they are today," said Wehner.
In December, Instagram also began letting users save images or ads to revisit later and Facebook also lets users save newsfeed content which could help travelers with planning trips. Chute, a social media marketing company, found some 98.5 million travel-related photos were shared on Instagram in 2016.
Wehner first told investors about the Facebook platform's likely ad load decrease in Jul
