Instagram will now run ADS on the Explore page and in profile feeds to combat declining revenues
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Instagram will start displaying adverts in profile feeds and on the Explore home page, its parent company Meta has revealed.
The new advertising spaces are reportedly being launched in a bid to combat the platform’s declining revenues.
According to CNBC, Meta has been trading at its lowest level since 2019, due to a combination of growing competition from TikTok and an Apple privacy update that restricted targeted ads.
In Tuesday’s announcement, Mark Zuckerberg’s company also listed other updates to its advertising products, like the addition of augmented reality ads to Instagram.
It said: ‘We’re investing in a discovery ecosystem that generates connection with customers, demand for products and interest in brands.
‘To help businesses tell their story and reach new customers, we’re launching new ad placements and formats on Instagram.’
Instagram will start displaying adverts in profile feeds and on the Explore home page, its parent company Meta has revealed . The new advertising spaces are reportedly in a bid to reverse declining revenue that the platform has been experiencing
The Explore home page of the app is the grid users see when they first click on the magnifying glass icon to enter the ‘Explore’ tab (left). While the profile feed is the feed of content produced after clicking on a post on someone’s profile (middle and right)
The number of adverts an Instagram user will have to sift through will differ from each person, but they will appear in places they have not before.
An Instagram spokesperson told Engadget: ‘The number of ads across the platform varies based on how people use Instagram.
‘We closely monitor people’s sentiment — both for ads and overall commerciality.’
The Explore home page of the app is the grid users see when they first click on the magnifying glass icon to enter the ‘Explore’ tab.
While the profile feed is the feed of content produced after clicking on a post on someone’s profile.
Advertising space on the Explore home page is already available for businesses to purchase, while Meta is only testing ads in profile feeds currently.
For the latter, the company is also trialling an opportunity for creators to make money from ads displayed in their own profile feeds.
Responses to the covert announcement have not been positive, with Instagram users furious about the prospect of having their feeds clogged with adverts.
One Twitter user sarcastically wrote: ‘”We want MORE ADS on Instagram!” said no Instagram user, ever.’
But another slightly more optimistic Tweet said: ‘Can’t wait for the chaos’
Responses to the covert announcement have not been positive, with Instagram users furious about the prospect of having their feeds clogged with adverts
After a user interacts with an advert, Instagram will now display ads from other related businesses that have been chosen by a machine learning algorithm.
This is in response to the introduction of Apple’s ‘App Tracking Transparency’ (ATT) feature with iOS 14.5, which restricted Instagram’s ability to use personal data to target ads.
ATT has forced app developers to be more transparent about what personal data they are collecting and sharing with third parties for advertising purposes.
Meta is also launching the open beta test of Augmented Reality (AR) ads in both Feed and Stories.
The company said that, by purchasing an AR advert, ‘brands can encourage people to interact with an effect through their surroundings, such as testing furniture in their home or test driving a car.’
According to CNBC , Meta has been trading at its lowest since 2019, and is thought to be a result of competition from TikTok and an Apple privacy update that restricts targeted ads
Meta is also experimenting with new ad formatting in Facebook, its other biggest social networking platform.
One of these is ‘post-loop’ ads – skippable ads that last between four and 10 seconds that play after a Facebook Reel has ended, and before the Reel plays again.
The other is ‘image carousel’ ads; between two and 10 horizontally-scrollable image adverts that appear at the bottom of Facebook Reels content.
The release of the new advertising spaces comes after Meta reported its first-ever quarterly revenue decline in the second quarter of 2022.
During the conference call announcing these disappointing results to investors, CEO Zuckerberg admitted that: ‘Reels doesn’t yet monetize at the same rate as Feed or Stories.
‘So in the near term, the faster that Reels grows, the more revenue that actually displaces from higher monetizing surfaces.’