Image: Ricardo Bernardo/Flickr
If you haven't already noticed sponsored posts seeping into your Instagram feed, you either aren't paying enough attention or you've only been subjected to brands that have killer Insta-game and seamless, convincing posts. Either way, brace yourself, because the ads in your IG are probably going to get a lot more prolific: Instagram officially launched its advertising API Tuesday.The API opens the floodgates for developers to start integrating Instagram ad options into third-party platforms. Previously, businesses had to work with Instagram directly to design and target ads, but now they can create automated ads and organize their marketing campaigns off site. This comes after a year of beefed up advertising options at Instagram, including giving advertisers to option to buy Insta ads on Facebook, creating more detailed targeting options, and introducing "carousel ads" (those ads with more than one photo that you can swipe through).It's clear Instagram is positioning itself to be a major advertising powerhouse, with market researchers predicting that, by 2017, the photo-sharing app will rake in more than $2 billion, outpacing even Google and Twitter for US mobile display ads. Facebook, which bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, has learned a thing or two about advertising APIs. When Facebook's ad API first launched in 2011, it was widely regarded as one of the worst on the market. But four years later, Facebook's mobile ad revenue alone draws in nearly $3 billion a quarter.All this boils down to two predictions: more ads in your Instagram feed, and an even fatter trust fund for the future baby Zuckerberg.