Instagram’s user growth is slowing but their ad revenue is booming. In 2020, it’s expected to grow by 46% to $13.86 billion. Yikes! You know what that means?

“Newly introduced ads in different parts of the app, like the “Discover” tab, open up more inventory for advertisers. Shoppable ads are currently in beta on the platform, but we expect that they will play a major role in future growth.”

e-Marketer

The ad meisters of social are doing a bang-up job

Those smart (but sneaky) folks over at Instagram/Facebook have made great strides in figuring me (us?) out.

Over the last few months, I’ve started to get more relevant ads in my feed. Almost all the sponsored content coming my way focuses on the specific types of travel, health and fitness, fashion and home furnishings that I like, e.g., adventure travel to Easter Island, zero beaches.

What’s sneaky is that Instagram’s knowledge of my specific interests is being fed to them directly by Facebook. Facebook is where I routinely post my blog, e.g., when I did a post about wanting to replace my linens, I immediately started getting sponsored content from The Citizenry Home Goods and Brooklinen Luxury Bedding. Same thing happened when I wrote about Botox.

What Facebook and Instagram have not (seemingly?) figured out yet is how to distinguish between a topic being covered positively vs. negatively. For example, I wrote about the Keto Diet and slammed it but Facebook’s algorithms clearly believe that “any press is good press.” I’ve been getting tons of sponsored content around various Keto diets. If Facebook’s algorithms were up to snuff they would figure out that based on what I’ve written about Keto, I have zero interest in faddish diets.

What to Expect from Instagram in the future?

Expect Instagram to follow the Facebook model, i.e., more ads, more clutter, less info from and about your friends.

Expect Instagram to become THE social shopping site (if it isn’t already).

Expect Instagram’s growth to stall (at the still impressive 1 billion+) while Tik Tok attracts younger users. Plus, I hear Snapchat is having a bit of a resurgence.

Bottom Line.

Instagram will ultimately be populated by the same older crowd that is currently on Facebook. The cool kids, meanwhile, are migrating to newer, more fun sites like Tik Tok as well as to upstart sites not even on our radar yet!

What these newer sites all have in common is that they require a level of tech artistry that only the young(ish) are willing to master. And that means it will be fun for people like me to visit Tik Tok as a tourist but it won’t be where the Facebook/Instagram crowd lives.

The kids will finally have a room of their own!