If you thought YouTube was the only one doing this, you might need to think again. Meta is looking to increase its ad revenue and will do so by adding even more ads to its Instagram app, as revealed in its latest financial report.
The quarterly financial report shows that Meta’s second quarter sales fell for the first time. Now they’re trying to bring those numbers back by squeezing more money out of Instagram. As a result, more ads will soon appear in several areas of the app, including the Explore tab and feed displayed on the user’s profile.
Advertisers will now be able to place ads on the Explore page, but profile feed ads are still in testing. Instagram will promote this change by allowing creators to get a cut of the revenue from ads displayed on their profiles.
Meta also announced a number of other ad-related changes for Instagram. The social media app will soon test augmented reality ads in its main feed and Stories. The company says it will help people visualize the furniture in their homes or get a better look at a car, for example.
The company is also testing new formats for Facebook ads and Instagram Reels. One will be the “post loop” format, which will be skippable ads that will play on a reel for up to 10 seconds. After the ad ends, the reel plays again. The next format will be based on image carousels, which will appear at the bottom of Facebook Reels starting today. Brands will have access to a free music library for their ads.
The number of ads displayed will vary from user to user. Some of them may see more, while others will only see a few, but all will begin to see them in places where they did not exist before.
