Instagram introducing skippable ads to Reels
Instagram is making a number of major changes
Instagram has been quietly testing skippable ads on Reels, as it continues to battle both Youtube and Tiktok for short-form video dominance.
First reported by US trade publication Adweek, the advertisements are pre-empted by a countdown timer in the top-right-hand corner of the screen, which changes into a skip button once the ad begins to play. Meta confirmed that it has been running a “limited test” which is “designed to assess whether the format helps users discover businesses.”
However, much like its other ad formats within Instagram, Meta will not be sharing this advertising revenue with the creators of the videos they run ahead of.
Mumbrella has contacted Meta Australia to find out whether this feature will be introduced locally.
Aside from these skippable ads, Instagram currently displays both sponsored posts and advertisements in a user’s main feed and in Reels. In June 2024, Instagram introduced “ad breaks” — an unskippable advertisement that appears in users’ feeds once they have scrolled through (or past) a certain amount of posts.
When ad breaks was first announced, an Instagram spokesperson told The Verge that it was “always testing formats that can drive value for advertisers.”
Youtube has long shown unskippable ads before and in the middle of longer videos. Last year it introduced a 30-second unskippable ad, and announced plans at its recent upfront in Sydney to double this to a 60-second unskippable ad.
Instagram’s new move mirrors Youtube’s Shorts and Tiktok, both of which run skippable advertising between videos.
You can skip this ad (Instagram/Adweek)
This is one of a raft of major changes currently being made to the Instagram user experience.
Meta is currently testing a feature that allows Instagram users to fine-tune the algorithm that controls their feed by adding and removing topics of interest, including Reels. Videos from Reels will now be folded into user’s main feeds, with less division between the various features available on the app.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, explained in late September, that “messaging, reels, and recommendations have driven most of our recent growth. So, over the next few months, we’re going to better organise the app around those features.”
Last week, the company announced underage account holders in the UK, US, Australia, and Canada will be restricted to seeing only content deemed to fall under the PG-13 rating used in movies and television. These changes started rolling out on Wednesday, October 20, and will be in full effect by the end of the year.
From December, Instagram and other social media platforms are set to be banned entirely for under-16s in Australia.
In late September, Meta announced it would be introducing an ad-free subscription tier for both Facebook and Instagram in the UK. This will cost £2.99 a month on desktop, or £3.99 a month on mobile.
Meta explained in a blog post these changes were in “response to recent UK regulatory guidance and following extensive engagement with the Information Commissioner’s Office”, and the extra charge for mobile is due to fees imposed on Meta by Apple and Google.
The company said the introduction of an ad-free tier gives user “a clear choice about whether their data is used for personalised advertising, while preserving the free access and value that the ads-supported internet creates for people, businesses and platforms”.
It further explained that subscriptions, as “an alternative to seeing personalised advertising, is a well-established and economically viable business model spanning many industries, from news publishing and gaming to music and entertainment.”
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