Instagram ads shaken up, could bring much uglier feed

Advertisers will be able to push out a flurry of automated ads, rather than being forced to craft them with Instagram

An attendee takes a photo of the instagram logo during a press event at Facebook headquarters on June 20, 2013 in Menlo Park, California (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Instagram is going to get a lot more ads.

The social network has opened up its advertising API, so that advertisers can schedule their own campaigns rather than working with Instagram itself. That is likely to mean that many more advertisers will join the network — bringing with them a much wider range of ads.

It’s unlikely that the move will mean considerably more ads on Instagram, which has always kept marketing relatively unobtrusive in its feed. But the quality could be reduced, since Instagram will be working much less closely with the companies that are advertising.

Advertisers will also be able to prompt users to perform actions, like follow their accounts or click through to buy products.

Up until now, Instagram ads have remained a relatively classy affair, pushing curated pictures into people’s feeds in an attempt to help with branding. But now the ads will be much more similar to those on Facebook and Twitter, where they serve as much as help clicking out as branding exercises.

For advertisers, automating ads to push them into people’s feeds is likely to become much easier. Previously, they had to invest large amounts of budgets and time to create ads specifically designed for the platform.