Meta rolls out new ad placements, formats on Instagram

SAN FRANCISCO: To help advertisers reach their targeted customers on its photo and video-sharing platform, Meta has announced that it is launching new ad placements and formats on Instagram.

Businesses can now place ads in Explore home, the grid people see when they first arrive on the Explore tab.

"We are also beginning to test ads in profile feed, which is the feed experience that people can scroll through after visiting another account's profile and tapping on a post," the company said in the blogpost.

"As a part of this test, we will experiment with a monetisation opportunity that will allow eligible creators to earn extra income from ads displayed in their profile feeds, beginning with select US creators," it added.

When a person engages with an ad, the company will deliver ads underneath that it thinks may be of interest, powered by machine learning.

The platform said it found that adding multi-advertiser contextual ads to existing Instagram feed ads campaigns outperformed running campaigns for the Purchase outcome compared to those that did not include multi-advertiser ads.

To make it easier for businesses to create Reels ads, the platform said it is rolling out free, high-quality songs from our Meta Sound Collection that can be added to Carousel Ads on Reels.

Businesses can select a song from our library or allow the app to automatically choose the best music for an ad based on its content.

"At Meta, we are focused on building products for businesses that meet people where they are. We are investing in a discovery ecosystem that generates a connection with customers, demand for products and interest in brands," the company said.

It is also launching a test of post-loop ads -- 4 to 10 - second skippable and standalone video ads that play after a reel has ended -- to help businesses better connect with customers through Reels on Facebook.

"When the ad finishes playing, the original reel resumes and loops again. We are also testing image carousel ads for Reels starting today. These horizontally-scrollable ads can include anywhere from 2 to 10 image ads and will be shown at the bottom of Facebook Reels content," the platform said.