Market research firm comScore recently reported that Instagram was the top gaining website for July, adding 38 percent more traffic from June. While the strong month was not enough to propel Instagram into the top 50 web properties, its growth demonstrates the value of making Instagram a part of social media marketing campaigns.
According to the study, Instagram also saw its unique traffic grow from 16.5 million visitors to more than 22.7 million. While the photo-sharing platform recently reported more than 80 million people use its mobile apps, most don’t actually navigate to Instagram.com. Still, its consistent improvements in website traffic are a sign that more people are using the site and researching the service for personal or marketing use.
ComScore’s report found that Google remained the No. 1 property for the month, with more than 190 million unique visitors within the United States. Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and AOL.com properties rounded out the top five. Another noteworthy finding was the jump of Comcast NBCUniversal into the top 10 due to Olympic coverage.
Seeing a site like Instagram gain as much as it did should be a motivation for marketers to use the visual content platform to bolster their own social campaigns. Brafton reported recently that top brands have already started integrating Instagram into their marketing mix, with data from Simply Measured showing that 45 percent of the world’s most recognizable companies currently maintain profiles on the site. However, no announcements have come from Instagram related to special profile options or features for marketers.
