Canva adds Instagram scheduling for its premium users

Small businesses looking for ways to better manage and schedule their Instagram content now have another tool at their disposal, with graphic design platform Canva today revealing a new feature that will allow users of its premium service to design, schedule and post on Instagram from one place.

While there have long been multiple ways to schedule Facebook and Twitter posts, scheduling Instagram content has been a trickier proposition for business owners and brand managers because Instagram doesn’t have an in-built scheduling function.

Canva, which last week revealed it is now valued at $19 billion, appears to be tapping into a growing demand for a tool to do this, with a new integration for its Canva Pro customers.

The integration will allow users with Instagram Business accounts to design, schedule and then post on Instagram from the company’s Content Planner tool. Because the posts can be edited directly within Canva, it means users won’t need to switch platforms if they need to make changes to the post.

One Instagram Business account can be linked to each Canva Pro account, and up to 25 images can be published per day. Canva Pro yearly subscriptions cost $164.99 for a single user account.

In a statement, Canva said its Content Planner has been used to schedule more than 2.4 million designs to date. The tool can also be used for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Pinterest.

Canva co-founder and chief product officer Cameron Adams said in the statement that Instagram scheduling has been one of the most requested features from Canva users.

“It’ll help them to share the right message at the right time, without having to be awake at 2am or sign up for yet another product,” he said.

Canva has 3 million paying users, out of a total user base of 50 million, and the company has indicated it is on track to reach $1 billion in revenue for the 2021 financial year.

However, writing for SmartCompany this week, Luxury Escapes founder Adam Schwab said Canva has “barely scratched the surface of its massive potential customer base”, and predicted the tech company will soon be worth more than Afterpay and Atlassian.

Schwab says it is “highly achievable” for the company to reach 50 million paying users within the next five years, and to increase its annual average revenue per user from around $300 to $500 as it continues to add to its product suite.

This means Canva could be generating as much as $25 billion in revenue within that timeframe, and be worth $250 billion.