By Susalyn Bennett
When it comes to social media marketing, it’s important to stay abreast of changes to the various platforms. In mid-June of 2023 Instagram announced that it was launching Reels ads. Instagram says that “Reels is the best place on Instagram to reach people who don’t follow you and a growing global stage where brands and creators can be discovered by anyone.”
“We see Reels as a great way for people to discover new content on Instagram, and so ads are a natural fit. Brands of all sizes can take advantage of this new creative format in an environment where people are already being entertained.” - Justin Osofsky, Instagram Chief Operating Officer
From the Instagram Help Center under the “Computer” tab (as of July 7, 2023):
“Your ads can now appear in the Reels tab on Instagram. These ads will be inserted in between organic Reels content. Similar to organic Reels, people can comment, like, view, save, share and skip Reels ads.
Before you begin
Your video creative can be up to 60 seconds and should be in the fullscreen, vertical format.
We recommend that your video ad creative includes music or sound to better fit the Reels placement.
Your Instagram Reels shouldn't use licensed music. We recommend using royalty-free music, like what's available in our Sound Collection, or original audio for promotion instead.
Your ad shouldn't use Instagram Reels published before October 15th, 2021.
Your Instagram Reels media shouldn't contain face and camera effects, GIFs or product tags.
Create Instagram Reels ads
To have your ads run on Instagram Reels:
Go to Meta Ads Manager and select +Create.
Select one of the following objectives for your ad:
Conversions
Reach
Traffic
Video views
Brand awareness
App installs
Create your ad as usual, filling in details for your campaign, budget and schedule, audience, and optimization and delivery.
When you get to the Placements options, select Manual placements if you’d like to run a standalone Reels ad campaign. Under Placements, select the dropdown next to Stories and check the box next to Instagram Reels.
Or you can select Automatic placements to automatically include Reels ads in your video campaigns.
Select a Call to action and finish creating your ad.
Your ads will now be submitted for review. Once reviewed, your ad can appear in viewers’ Instagram Reels tab.”
To view insights and track your ads for a specific time frame of your choosing, you will need a business or creator account on the Instagram mobile app.
As I am writing this (on July 6, 2023) I’ve just learned of another huge announcement:
Instagram’s Threads App, a text-based social media platform poised to become Twitter’s latest competitor, has been launched in over 100 countries.
They keep the changes coming don’t they? ‘keeps us on our toes!
