Instagram is Now Making its New Sponsored Product Listings Available to All Merchants

Instagram is officially rolling out its new promoted products option within the Shop tab to all merchants in the app, following a few weeks of successful testing. It is to make it easier for consumers to discover and shop from companies while they're already browsing. These advertisements will appear as tiles on the homepage of the Instagram Shop tab.

Brands with product listings in the app will now be able to promote them on the Shop page, with a 'Sponsored' disclaimer indicating paid postings, as shown in this example. Instagram doesn't define "successful" in this context, but it appears that promoted listings haven't had a detrimental influence on interaction and maybe helping early partner brands produce results.

Users who click on a sponsored product will be taken to a product details page where they may learn more about the item. Additional products from that brand will be highlighted on the details page (note the 'More from this Shop' section in the second example above). From the details page, users will be able to save sponsored product listings to a wish list or share them with friends.

The move is part of Instagram's larger eCommerce push, which involves gradually training users to expect to be able to shop for things from within the platform. With more consumers turning on eCommerce as a result of the COVID-19-induced store closures, the steady direction towards the platform's shopping possibilities should hopefully see more shopping activity occur within the platform, making this an even more beneficial promotional tool over time.

And, as Instagram learns more about each user's buying tastes and the products they enjoy, the Shop tab will become more useful, boosting the potential of this new feature even further. For those hoping to tap into Instagram's billion-user community, it may be worth a try at the very least.

It's also worth mentioning that 80 percent of Instagram users follow at least one company, highlighting the app's potential for product discovery and promotion. In this regard, a direct link to commerce is a logical evolution. In areas where the Instagram Shop page is available, the new Instagram Promoted Products option is being rolled out.