Instagram adds new branded content choices. And on Reels too

Sahail Ashraf posted on 15 December 2020

Instagram continues to make life easier for Influencers. Now, it has branched out in an attempt to make ads even more attractive for brands. We find out how.

Instagram is still the darling of the social media world, and for good reason. It continues to make it easy to create and share highly visual content. And it still remains the very best online location for Influencers, who appreciate the quick and easy way to get their visual content out there. On top of that, it’s huge. Backed by Facebook, it managed over $3 billion in revenue in the third quarter this year.

It continues to innovate too. The latest news concerns mainly Influencers, with some serious implications for advertisers too. And the whole thing revolves around branded content, that perfect marriage between an advertiser and the Influencers who help get them noticed and engaged with.

Instagram has announced it is launching new branded content tags that can be used on both Instagram Live and Reels. This is a clear measure to expand the revenue choices for both advertisers and Influencers. 

The biggest immediate impact is for creators. With the new options, they can use Reels to achieve more deals with brands, and go straight to revenue from Reels content. This is a big deal, and it’s not hard to see the motivation behind it from Instagram’s point of view.

Reels is meant to be the one channel that will compete against TikTok. While TikTok has had its fair share of issues over the last few months, it is still an incredibly enjoyable app, and one that Instagram is intent on beating. If creators on Reels can go to monetise quicker, they may just stay with Reels, rather than go back to TikTok.

Instagram has also made things easier for both creators and Influencers on Instagram content. Here is what it had to say about it:

“Until today, Branded Content ads could only be created by promoting the existing posts from creators. Instagram is now launching a new workflow where advertisers can create Branded Content ads without the need for creators to post organically on Instagram first. Now brands have more flexibility with fewer constraints when they want to run Branded Content ads.”

What that means is that there will be a faster route to ads for brands. But more importantly, it will give brands a little more freedom. The hope is that brands and creators will be able to collaborate more quickly as regards branded content. It also means that there should be a freer, more liberated approach that benefits both sides.

To put it more simply, the process is like this:

1 Advertisers sends request for Ad Creation Access

2 Creator accepts Ad Creation Access. Notification sent to the advertiser upon acceptance

3 Creator receives notification of the created ad for their approval

You will note here that advertisers will have ad creation access,which could prove to be an issue, although creators are given final approval of ads. Whatever happens, it does seem like the process will move much more quickly.

The race

This is all part of a race, a race that will be familiar to anyone who knows anything about how social media marketing works. TikTok is currently working on ways to improve their ad options and it’s Creator Marketplace. 

It’s important to remember two things here when it comes to what Instagram is doing. Firstly, the hard work done on Reels will most likely pay off. It’s no TikTok yet, but it has Facebook behind it, and It is easily as simple as TikTok to use. Creators should find it incredibly convenient to arrange deals with brands quickly, and it may just be quick enough to make TikTok seem slow.

Secondly, the fact that brands and creators should now be able to collaborate quicker on ads will again help Instagram to win over rivals. Influencers like speed and ease of use, and this is exactly what they need.

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