Instagram is making its ads more visible and interactive

Facebook-owned Instagram said today that it’s changing the way some of its ads work in the photo-sharing app.

Now when you look at an Instagram ad for at least four seconds or tap on the name of the profile that placed the ad, the call to action underneath the photo or video will be highlighted in blue. And the call to action will now go beyond just appearing at the bottom of the advertiser’s profile if you open it up — it will also show up in the ad’s comments. Prices, URLs, and app store ratings will show up in the call to action button, too.

But also — and this is likely the most significant of today’s changes for Instagram from a strategic standpoint — for video link ads, when people unmute a video now, “they’ll be taken to the destination URL while the video continues to play at the top of the screen,” Instagram said in the blog post. “Now people can explore, browse and take action on a landing page while continuing to watch the video. People can also go to full screen or dismiss the video player if they prefer to browse the web page.”

Advertising is the major vehicle for Facebook to monetize across its applications, including Instagram. Now the company is tweaking the experience to make the ads jump out more but also play more nicely with the companies that are paying to run ads on Instagram.