Instagram Ad Marketplace

[Winning]

Hey fellow Fastlaners,

I've still been floating around with some ideas - and not entirely sure which one to start at this point. Here is another one....

There is a site called BuySellAds where you can buy ad space on websites. BuySellAds works like a kind of middleman. I searched but couldn't find anything similar for Instagram and connecting the Instagram top influencers to brands. What do you all think?

When Twitter was becoming huge (and still is) there were many sites that came about where you can sponsor tweets, etc from influencers.

All thoughts welcome!

 

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[TheTruth]

There is a bunch of guys already doing this. It was pitched on last weeks dragons den episode.

Watch it and review their business model. Then think about ways you could do it better and go from there

 

[Winning]

There is a bunch of guys already doing this. It was pitched on last weeks dragons den episode.

Watch it and review their business model. Then think about ways you could do it better and go from there

Ohh didn't think anyone was doing this yet. I searched and searched but nothing exactly like that. I'll search to try and find that Dragon den episode. If you have a link or the name of their business that would be super helpful!

I guess it's a good thing that others are doing this as well!

 

[TheTruth]

Ohh didn't think anyone was doing this yet. I searched and searched but nothing exactly like that. I'll search to try and find that Dragon den episode. If you have a link or the name of their business that would be super helpful!

I guess it's a good thing that others are doing this as well!

Don't remember the name, just go through the last 3 episodes and you will find it.

Also, have you contacted any instagram owners to see if they would be open to such a deal? how about a business who would want to advertise via their platform?

 

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[Winning]

Don't remember the name, just go through the last 3 episodes and you will find it.

Also, have you contacted any instagram owners to see if they would be open to such a deal? how about a business who would want to advertise via their platform?

Ok, tried viewing the episode on their site but it keeps saying: "This content is currently unavailable"
http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/episodes/season-9/episode-14-season-9

I have not contacted any Instagram owners but I think most would be open to making more $. The tougher part I think would be to get the advertisers on our platform but with a little Google Adwords and word of mouth I think that could be done.

 

[TheTruth]

Ok, tried viewing the episode on their site but it keeps saying: "This content is currently unavailable"
http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/episodes/season-9/episode-14-season-9

I have not contacted any Instagram owners but I think most would be open to making more $. The tougher part I think would be to get the advertisers on our platform but with a little Google Adwords and word of mouth I think that could be done.

It's because you are in the US and its a canadian website. Snoop around you can find it

Whats your plan of getting advertisers? "a little adwords" could mean a lot of things (and cost you up the wazoo)

How would you gain traction? do you have a budget to acquire customers via paid traffic? who would be the one advertiser that would make 100 more sign up?

 

[James Fake]

Hey,... nice post.

I'm not going to shoot your idea down, but rather give you props on your way of thinking to solve problems. I'm pretty sure you're going to come up with something good one day for yourself!

 

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[Winning]

It's because you are in the US and its a canadian website. Snoop around you can find it

Whats your plan of getting advertisers? "a little adwords" could mean a lot of things (and cost you up the wazoo)

How would you gain traction? do you have a budget to acquire customers via paid traffic? who would be the one advertiser that would make 100 more sign up?

Ahh, I see. I'll search around Youtube and what not to see what I come up with for the past few Dragon Den episodes.

I would narrow the Adwords keywords down to "Instagram marketing" "Instagram advertising" "Instagram sponsorship" etc and see how the response is. Most people searching for that are in the process of trying to find ways to do marketing on Instagram. I'm thinking that any big advertiser can bring in hundreds more advertisers: i.e Samsung, Lacoste, etc. I don't think we would need a big advertiser, per say, but more so volume of small advertisers could be fine as well. It would be nice to have Samsung, Lacoste, etc someday though.

 

[Winning]

Hey,... nice post.

I'm not going to shoot your idea down, but rather give you props on your way of thinking to solve problems. I'm pretty sure you're going to come up with something good one day for yourself!

Thanks- but wait, so you are saying that this wouldn't work, or?

 

[Unknown]

I think what they're saying is - Contact some instagram users. Find one who will do an ad. Then find someone looking to advertise. Sell that spot to them. That will prove your concept.

 

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[splok]

I searched but couldn't find anything similar for Instagram and connecting the Instagram top influencers to brands. What do you all think?

Just ran across Exposely yesterday, which seems to do this. I don't really know anything about it, but it was mentioned in a kickstarter promotion thread. In theory, I think there's a ton of potential here, but as it gets more popular, I can't help but imagine that the platforms are going to jump on it themselves... possibly great acquisition opportunity though.

 

[James Fake]

It's a proven concept. I've done it (on the buying "posts" side) where I personally hit up high follower accounts for a post. They usually have something like:

For business inquires: email blah@blah.com

My only regard is; it's a short-term business because IG can make native ads (pretty sure they are in the process of it). But now that I actually think about it... it's a damn good business.

 

[pds]

It's a great idea. I thought of it as well when I was looking for influencers in my niche to help promote my product and found it difficult to source them.

Instagram is implementing their own ad system...they've already rolled it out with big brands. You'll see posts on your feed that say "Sponsored Post". However, I believe there is still a need for a platform to connect brands with influencers.

 

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[Winning]

Just ran across Exposely yesterday, which seems to do this. I don't really know anything about it, but it was mentioned in a kickstarter promotion thread. In theory, I think there's a ton of potential here, but as it gets more popular, I can't help but imagine that the platforms are going to jump on it themselves... possibly great acquisition opportunity though.

I just checked out Exposely- appreciate you pointing me towards them. I think what they are doing is great and it looks very nice but they aren't focused on just Instagram which I would.

I think that if we scaled large enough, one of these multiple-social promotion sites (i.e Exposely) would acquire us. It's all about execution and I think I have some neat ideas to make this as seamless as possible for the advertisers and influencers.

 

[Winning]

I'm thinking of creating a landing page (maybe use something here: http://market.leadpages.net/) and putting about $100 towards Google Adwords for "Instagram marketing" "Instagram advertising" etc and see how many email opt-ins I get from potential advertisers. What do you think?

Any other validation ideas are appreciated.

 

[James Fake]

Sure... it's already proven in my opinion.

 

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[Stu_Hefner]

It's a great idea. I thought of it as well when I was looking for influencers in my niche to help promote my product and found it difficult to source them.

They are pretty easy to find and contact and deal with.

I just checked out Exposely- appreciate you pointing me towards them. I think what they are doing is great and it looks very nice but they aren't focused on just Instagram which I would.

Instabrand does what you are talking about. And there are also a lot of other websites out there that can promote you on large pages. Mostly on fitness, beauty and sexy girl type of pages. The cost per impression is pretty good. However, instagram's native platform will be the best option for marketers and branding when it rolls out. It will be interesting to see how they will set up their platform to be more engaging to their audience.

 

[Winning]

They are pretty easy to find and contact and deal with.



Instabrand does what you are talking about. And there are also a lot of other websites out there that can promote you on large pages. Mostly on fitness, beauty and sexy girl type of pages. The cost per impression is pretty good. However, instagram's native platform will be the best option for marketers and branding when it rolls out. It will be interesting to see how they will set up their platform to be more engaging to their audience.

I checked out Instabrand and it looks nice. I guess competition is good and they have some big name clients. I'm not sure if they do things manually and are kind of like a social marketing company or if they actually have an automated marketplace (i.e BuySellAds) that I was looking to build.

I don't think we would have an issue with Instagram. What Instagram is working towards is Sponsored posts that show on everyones feed, no? Our network would allow you to target certain influencers. Sort of like Twitter when they came out with their ad platform, sites like myLikes and SponsoredTweets still have their place in the market.

 

[Stu_Hefner]

I checked out Instabrand and it looks nice. I guess competition is good and they have some big name clients. I'm not sure if they do things manually and are kind of like a social marketing company or if they actually have an automated marketplace (i.e BuySellAds) that I was looking to build.

I don't think we would have an issue with Instagram. What Instagram is working towards is Sponsored posts that show on everyones feed, no? Our network would allow you to target certain influencers. Sort of like Twitter when they came out with their ad platform, sites like myLikes and SponsoredTweets still have their place in the market.

Yes, they are more of a markerting firm and they cater to larger businesses. You can't really have control of an automatic platform when dealing with clients with larger products and want a specific way to brand their products with these influencers. That's why brands such as Shredz and these detox teas have the same celebrity/instagram famous people promoting their stuff. They have long term contracts to generate brand awareness.

If you want to check automatic platforms check:

buysellshoutouts, media phantom and igshoutout.us

Igshoutout does have a few influencers in their list. But I suspect that influencers and famous people are harder to get on board because they already have a management team that can handle all that and are careful to choose what they want to promote. They cannot tarnish their images because it is their lively hood. These days these people understand that they have a lot of influence.

An automatic platform just invites marketers and spammers to promote on these pages. To truly provide value to both business/brand and the influencer running it like a consulting firm would work best, imo.

 

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[Winning]

Yes, they are more of a markerting firm and they cater to larger businesses. You can't really have control of an automatic platform when dealing with clients with larger products and want a specific way to brand their products with these influencers. That's why brands such as Shredz and these detox teas have the same celebrity/instagram famous people promoting their stuff. They have long term contracts to generate brand awareness.

If you want to check automatic platforms check:

buysellshoutouts, media phantom and igshoutout.us

Igshoutout does have a few influencers in their list. But I suspect that influencers and famous people are harder to get on board because they already have a management team that can handle all that and are careful to choose what they want to promote. They cannot tarnish their images because it is their lively hood. These days these people understand that they have a lot of influence.

An automatic platform just invites marketers and spammers to promote on these pages. To truly provide value to both business/brand and the influencer running it like a consulting firm would work best, imo.

Yeah, I noticed that they were more of a social marketing firm that probably come up with strategies and have relationships with top Instagram influencers. Appreciate you sending over some links to automatic platforms. I'm looking at them now.

I was thinking of adding an accept button when the influencer gets a new ad- if not approved, the advertiser gets their refund. I definitely agree that they cannot be promoting something that will tarnish their image. BuySellAds also does this. Ads must be approved.

Running this idea as a firm may be the better option and you probably are right. But it isn't as fastlane. I want automation. If I want to solely go for the automatic platform like IGShoutouts it would probably attract lower-tiered accounts and not the celebs, per say. Hmmmm--- got some things to think about.

Which way to go about it... Just brainstorming for now I guess.

 

[James Fake]

very nicely put @Stu_Hefner - freakin' Shredz is everywhere too lol

 

[Winning]

very nicely put @Stu_Hefner - freakin' Shredz is everywhere too lol

Yeah I see Shredz literally everywhere on Instagram too! While this type of marketplace idea may not attract big name clients like Lacoste, Pepsi, etc I think it can solve the issue of linking sub-tier brands and influencers. For example, BuySellAds have some huge sites on their network but they are not getting all Fortune 500 companies as their clients.. they get brands that are just starting out or maybe are making six figures per year.

On the other end, we may not attract a Paige Hathaway who is sponsored by Shredz, but we may attract a new fitness girl that has 50k followers and is looking for some extra cash to promote on her following on Instagram.

There is definitely untapped potential with Instagram marketing- but the angle and execution is important.

 

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[James Fake]

Yup. I full agree @Winning

 

[TheTruth]

Just a heads up, buysellads isn't very successful. They have had tons of problems. I would get a hold of one of the owners and offer up some value in exchange to see what problems they have gone through (and still are).

Yeah I see Shredz literally everywhere on Instagram too! While this type of marketplace idea may not attract big name clients like Lacoste, Pepsi, etc I think it can solve the issue of linking sub-tier brands and influencers. For example, BuySellAds have some huge sites on their network but they are not getting all Fortune 500 companies as their clients.. they get brands that are just starting out or maybe are making six figures per year.

On the other end, we may not attract a Paige Hathaway who is sponsored by Shredz, but we may attract a new fitness girl that has 50k followers and is looking for some extra cash to promote on her following on Instagram.

There is definitely untapped potential with Instagram marketing- but the angle and execution is important.

 

[Winning]

Just a heads up, buysellads isn't very successful. They have had tons of problems. I would get a hold of one of the owners and offer up some value in exchange to see what problems they have gone through (and still are).

I wouldn't say they're doing too bad. I heard something like they are doing $25M+ in yearly revenue. Also, they have been on Inc's list of fastest growing private companies. They may have issues like you said, but they're still rolling in the $$

 

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[James Fake]

I'm surprised BuySellAds wasn't already bought out from somebody. I remember being one of their first publishers... they grew fast.

 

[Winning]

I'm surprised BuySellAds wasn't already bought out from somebody. I remember being one of their first publishers... they grew fast.

Agreed!

 

[Winning]

Add-on idea: I think that this marketplace can also have a "Pro Dashboard" for users that are already sponsored (i.e Paige Hathaway and Shredz) where the company(Shredz) can manage all of their athletes and schedule their postings, watch analytics for likes/comments, etc.

Sort of how like BuySellAds has a Pro version and other features added.

 

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[James Fake]

I'm sure they need or using some sort of patched together project management software.

Juggling things like that would be super time consuming.

 

[Stu_Hefner]

You can still get large influence (500k+ followers) But these people have management and you would have to deal with direct to negotiate. Ofcourse, you could probably set up a platform that allows companies to pitch What and how they want influencers to promote their brand. then the influencer can accept the promotion. So basically you would be a mediator And Maybe hold payment till both parties obligations are met? And have great contracts written up for them?

I know it's difficult to get influencers o n board because I've worked with bundleofbrittany , a few pornstars (Don't judge lol) and various fitness and model personalities. It can be done. If you automate it, you will be killing it.