• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, October 30, 2015

Instagram has started inviting brands big and small to buy carousel ads through its self-serve interfaces, including Ads API, Power Editor and Ads Manager.

Brand partners can now buy against reach and frequency to better manage the number of people their ads reach, and how frequently their ads are shown.

In addition, advertisers can now target consumers who, by Instagram’s reckoning, are more likely to take actions on their Web properties.

The changes are part of a broader effort to accommodate brands as Instagram assumes an ever larger share of Facebook’s total ad revenue.

The network’s global mobile ad revenues will reach $2.81 billion -- or about 10% of Facebook's global ad revenues -- by 2017, according to recent a eMarketer forecast. If accurate, Instagram will then have higher net mobile display ad revenues than both Google and Twitter. This year alone, Instagram will rack up $595 million in mobile ad revenue around the globe, eMarketer expects.

Instagram only recently began offering more sophisticated targeting capabilities to advertisers. About two months ago, its ad technology finally started leveraging Facebook’s ads infrastructure -- something brands had long asked for.

The network is also testing new ad formats that achieve difference objectives, from Web site clicks to mobile app installs. Most notably, Instagram recently began letting brands serve video ads of up to 30 seconds in length.

Instagram also recently started testing a Marquee mass-awareness ad that it promised would be perfect for events like movie premieres and new product launches.

Marketers clearly appreciate the offerings. This year, 32.3% of U.S. companies with 100 employees or more will use Instagram for marketing activities, according to recent findings from eMarketer.

That number will jump to 48.8% in 2016, and, by 2017, increase to 70.7% of U.S. companies, eMarketer predicts. Instagram will then overtake Twitter for the first time in terms of popularity among marketers, if the forecast holds out.