Meta is currently expanding its advertising ecosystem. The company announced new ad formats for Instagram and Facebook. The official reason: to help companies grow. In principle, however, the U.S. company is simply stuffing Instagram in particular with advertising.
Facebook parent company Meta is currently praising its new ad formats in an official blog post. According to the article, the U.S. company is focusing on developing products for companies that are designed to pick up people.
Therefore, Meta has invested in its advertising ecosystem and announced new options for Instagram and Facebook. In addition to some updates for advertisers and a new ad format for Facebook Reels, Meta plans to allow ads in profile feeds and on Instagram’s Explore homepage in the future.
Instagram: Advertising by reel, in the feed and on the homepage
The new ad formats are likely primarily a reaction to the company’s declining revenue figures. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also recently announced a cost-cutting program, including a hiring freeze and possible layoffs.
The new advertising options, meanwhile, are intended to boost sales again. Meta emphasizes that the company wants to involve some creators financially. However, the company has not yet disclosed exact figures. But the new formats also provide new opportunities for advertisers. For Meta, however, the bottom line is one thing above all: its own profit.
Ads on the Explore homepage and in the Instagram profile feed
According to reports, the company wants to place more ads on Instagram’s Explore homepage in the future, for example. That’s the page users land on when they tap the magnifying glass icon in the navigation to browse new content. It’s true that parent company Meta has previously displayed ads in the Explore feed.
In the future, however, the company also plans to display ads directly on the home page. This option is already being rolled out globally. Another innovation that is likely to be annoying for many users is a test phase in which Instagram wants to display ads in the profile feed of its users.
This is the page you land on when you tap on another user’s profile. Normally, the posts of the respective user appear there. However, Instagram now wants to interrupt these with ads. However, the test phase is initially limited to the USA.
New advertising options for Facebook Reels
Another new option involves Facebook Reels. Although Meta introduced 30-second ads to Instagram and Facebook Reels just last year, the new ad format for Facebook Reels will now include shorter ads.
The so-called post-loop ads will be four to 10 seconds long and appear at the end of a reel, according to Meta. The video will then play again. However, this could lead to users not consuming reels with one ad again, but instead moving on to the next. For many users, this might also be annoying.
