When Did Facebook Buy Instagram?

Facebook announced the Instagram deal on 9 April 2012. Its quarterly report for September 2012 says the acquisition was completed in August 2012, and its 2013 annual report says it had recently begun showing ads on Instagram in the United States. This page covers the Instagram deal only. WhatsApp was a separate deal in 2014, dated in a short note below.

When did Facebook buy Instagram?

On 9 April 2012 Facebook announced “an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices”. It gave the total consideration as “approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook”. In the same announcement, Mark Zuckerberg posted that Facebook was “committed to building and growing Instagram independently”.

Facebook’s quarterly report for the period ended 30 September 2012 says: “In August 2012, we completed our acquisition of Instagram”. Its annual report for 2013 repeats August 2012. A Facebook post dated 6 September 2012, “Welcoming Instagram to Facebook”, does not give a closing day, so this page gives only the month.

The filing states a total purchase price of $521 million, with the equity part valued at the closing date for accounting purposes. The announcement gave a round figure of about $1 billion, and this page does not reconcile the two.

If you are dating an old report, use April 2012 for the announcement and August 2012 for completion.

When did Instagram start showing ads?

Facebook’s annual report for 2013, dated 31 January 2014, says: “we recently began showing ads on Instagram in the United States”. It adds that Facebook cannot assure investors that these ads will generate meaningful revenue. The same report says that since the acquisition Facebook had been “focused on user growth and the users’ experience”.

No Meta page read for this entry gives the day the first Instagram ads ran, so this page gives none. The annual report for 2014 says marketers can buy ads on Instagram as well as on Facebook.

What about the WhatsApp deal?

It is a different deal in a different year. On 19 February 2014 Facebook announced “a definitive agreement to acquire WhatsApp”. Its 8-K says it completed the acquisition on 6 October 2014. For ads that click to WhatsApp, see the related entries on WhatsApp ads.

What does the Instagram deal mean for your ads today?

Today, Meta’s Instagram help says that with a professional account you can run ads from it and use Meta tools to create ads that appear on both Instagram and Facebook. It adds that connecting the account to a Meta ad account saves your Facebook payment method and ad settings to it. Connect the account before you build Instagram ads.

Meta’s help centre says that if you have no Instagram account, you can use your Facebook Page as the face of your Instagram ads. Before you plan Instagram ads, check which Instagram account and Page your ad account is connected to.

FAQ

Did Instagram stay separate after the deal?

That was Facebook’s stated intention. On 9 April 2012 it said it was “committed to building and growing Instagram independently”, and its 6 September 2012 post says: “As we said from the beginning, we are committed to building and growing Instagram independently.” The pages read do not describe later changes.

Why do the Instagram dates differ between pages?

They measure different things. Facebook’s quarterly report says the deal was completed in August 2012, while its welcome post is dated 6 September 2012 and does not state a closing day. This page uses the report’s month for completion and the post only as a welcome.

Do you need an Instagram account to run Instagram ads?

Meta’s help centre says an Instagram account is required to run ads on Instagram, but that you can use your Facebook Page as the face for your Instagram ads. In Ads Manager you connect a Page at the ad level, and the Page is then selected as the voice of your Instagram ads.