SAN FRANCISCO — If you’re starting to notice more ads on Instagram, it’s all part of Facebook’s plan.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has steadily built its advertising business to become the world’s second-largest digital ad platform after Google. Now it’s looking at ways to make more money from video ads and from newer services like Instagram, the mobile photo-sharing app that it bought for $1 billion in 2012.

Instagram recently announced it has over 400 million monthly users, surpassing the 300 million who use the rival social networking site Twitter. While Facebook has been introducing Instagram ads slowly – to avoid irritating users by overloading them with commercial messages – the company said in September that it would allow more kinds of ads, including longer video spots, on the photo-sharing service.

With those new formats, Instagram could produce more than $250 million in revenue for the current quarter, Evercore ISI analyst Ken Sena estimates. Businesses will spend about $600 million on Instagram ads this year – and nearly $1.5 billion in 2016, according to research firm eMarketer.

“When we talk to advertisers and ad agencies, they’re very interested in Instagram,” said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

One reason: In recent years, there’s been a debate over whether teens and young adults are forsaking Facebook in favor of newer, trendier online services. But Williamson said young adults are “very visually focused and pretty heavy users of Instagram.”

Facebook doesn’t disclose how much of its revenue comes from Instagram. The company beat Wall Street estimates on Wednesday by reporting third-quarter net income of $891 million, on revenue of $4.5 billion. Profit was up 11 percent, while revenue grew 40 percent from the same period a year earlier.

More than 1.55 billion people now visit Facebook at least once a month, up 14 percent from a year ago. Daily users increased by 17 percent, to 1.1 billion. As in previous quarters, Facebook said a majority of users are visiting Facebook on mobile devices, and mobile ads contributed 78 percent of the company’s ad revenue.

Those results drove Facebook’s stock up more than 3.5 percent in late trading, after shares closed Wednesday at $103.94.

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