Instagram plans to start rolling ads soon

SAN FRANCISCO -- Instagram has decided to flick on its revenue engine, announcing plans to bring sponsored images and videos into the mix.

Facebook's popular app was widely expected to make the move to launch advertisements. The company plans to launch these sponsored images and videos in the coming months.

"Seeing photos and videos from brands you don't follow will be new, so we'll start slow. We'll focus on delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community," Instagram said on the company's blog.

Advertisers are expected to spend about 8.1%, or $9.5 billion, of digital ad budgets on social network advertising worldwide, according to eMarketer.