Growth Strategy to Expand Instagram's Monthly Advertiser Base
Company: Meta
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Instagram wants more businesses to advertise on it. As the product manager responsible, how would you raise the number of monthly active advertisers on Instagram? Define what counts as an active advertiser, decide which advertisers to focus on, work out what stops them from starting or continuing to advertise, propose and prioritize solutions, and explain how you would measure success.
```hint Split the count before solving
A monthly advertiser count changes through first-time advertisers, advertisers who carry over from last month, and lapsed ones who come back. Work out which of these flows is weakest for the segment you choose before proposing features.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- What makes an advertiser active in a month: an ad that delivered impressions, any spend, or a boosted post? Does a campaign running on both Facebook and Instagram placements count for Instagram?
- Is the priority bringing in first-time advertisers, keeping current advertisers running every month, or winning back lapsed ones?
- Which advertisers are in scope: small businesses and creators who promote posts from the app, or larger brands and agencies working in the desktop ads tools?
- Should total ad revenue and the ad experience for Instagram users be treated as constraints that must not get worse?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A precise definition of an active advertiser, and a breakdown of the monthly count into new, retained and returning advertisers.
- A chosen advertiser segment with a reason, and its journey from posting organically to running a repeat campaign.
- Pain points specific to advertising on Instagram, prioritized by how many advertisers each one stops.
- Solutions ranked by impact, effort and confidence, with a clear first bet.
- Success metrics with guardrails on ad quality, the user experience, spend per advertiser and fraud.
### Follow-up Questions
- Free ad credits for first-time advertisers sharply increase activations, but few of those advertisers spend again once the credit runs out. What do you do?
- More small advertisers entering the auction changes prices for existing advertisers. How would you design the experiment given that interference?
- Monthly active advertisers rise, but total ad revenue stays flat. Is the initiative a success?
Overview: A product growth interview question about expanding the number of businesses that run ads on Instagram each month. It tests defining an active advertiser, choosing a segment, mapping the ad-buying journey and its pain points, prioritizing solutions, and setting success metrics with guardrails.