Early this week, Instagram announced that it has half a billion monthly active users. Of that 500 million (80% outside of the U.S.), 300 million log onto the app daily, sharing 95 million photos a day and tapping the “like” button 4 billion times daily.

These are massive numbers. But let’s put that into context. Twitter currently has 310 million monthly active users. Instagram gets to that number in about 30 hours. It’s interesting comparing Twitter and Instagram — Twitter has struggled to keep their user growth numbers from plateauing after initial buzz wore off, but in the past 2 years alone Instagram’s user base has doubled.

There are many, many different contributing factors to help explain Instagram’s colossal rise to the upper echelon of social media companies — including, but not limited to Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition (and the collective manpower behind the company now contributing to Instagram’s talent pool). In fact, between Facebook and Instagram, the two companies together own 1 out of every 5 mobile minutes. But one of the more recent identifiers is their treatment of video. As users become more engrossed by video, Instagram has introduced two different stand-alone apps to accommodate the phenomenon: Hyperlapse (for time lapse videos) and Boomerang (for short, looped animations).

Instagram is able to serve up exactly what its users are looking for, when they want it, but doing so in stand-alone apps allows Instagram’s flagship app to remain light, low on data usage, and simple to use. In turn, in the last 6 months alone Instagram has seen a 40% increase in time spent viewing videos.

It’s no secret that Instagram presents incredible opportunities for marketers — the human brain processes images 60 times faster than words, and communication is shifting towards visual like videos, emojis, and gifs. Instagram’s motto that images are a universal language, and the app seeks to capture and share those moments. At a Connections 2016 session titled How Instagram is changing how brands interact with their customers, attendees learned more about how that motto came to be, and what businesses can do to make the most of their Instagram presence.

Currently, there are about 200 thousand businesses using Instagram ads to reach their customers and potential customers. Instagram offers incredible targeting opportunities in order to make sure that businesses are spending their ad dollars wisely in order to reach the right people at the right time, including demographic filters, location, interests, as well as customizing by behavior. At Connections speakers noted that the best Instagram advertisers have a distinct visual voice that’s tailored to Instagram, but also a cohesive presence with the rest of the brand — particularly when integrated with Facebook for a holistic experience.

At the end of the day, Instagram is a platform powered entirely by visuals, so for businesses to stand out they need “thumb-stopping” impact. But good creative on Instagram isn’t particularly special — it’s just good creative. Unlike other advertising channels, Instagram trends move quickly (remember the earlier stat about video views skyrocketing?) and in order to stay relevant and thumb-stopping, you have to be prepared to move fast and experiment.