More advertisement on Instagram? Whether you like it or not, it’s going to be a part of the experience.
The ad load on Instagram is increasing with the entry of two new ad slots. The company said it will allow advertisers to run ads on the Explore home page and in profile feeds.
Already ads are seen while scrolling through feeds on the Explore page, but now, Instagram says businesses can put ads on the Explore homepage as well, which is the grid of photos and videos you land on when first opening the tab.
Agreed that an ad will come with a “sponsored” label along with the name of the account and a “learn more” button, so you can clearly see it’s an ad. But having sponsored content in the grid takes away from the user experience.
According to The Verge, Instagram’s testing ads in the stream of photos you scroll through on someone’s profile. The platform says it’ll only put ads in “non-teen, public profiles” and that it’s rolling out a programme to let “select” creators in the US earn money from these ads.
TechCrunch reports that Instagram is also launching the open beta for AR ads in Feeds and Stories, a format that was previously announced, and rolling out a song library with free music advertisers can use in their Reels ads. The music comes from the Meta Sound Collection, and the full library will arrive in the coming months.