Instagram will also display ads in search listings

Faced with a general decline in revenue generated by its managed platforms, Meta is resorting to increasingly desperate measures to increase revenue, with the company announcing new advertising options on Instagram to its advertising partners.

Thus, after ads interspersed with posts in the main feed and on Instagram Stories, Meta is also introducing ads in the search results list, thus “delivering” to advertising clients users who search by specified keywords. For example, if you initiate a search for makeup products, you’ll first see sponsored posts on that topic and only then the pages of the Instagram stars you actually want to reach.

Even at the risk of hastening the exodus of users increasingly dissatisfied with their Instagram experience, Meta is thus trying to cover its huge losses generated by unwise investments, such as CEO Mark Zuckerberk’s obsession with developing a Metavers VR to move social interaction completely into virtual space, controlled and monetized by the company of the same name.

Additionally, Instagram will work with certain brands to test a format that would give companies the power to remind or notify you of upcoming events or launches. When you check off attending a promoted event, you’ll receive notifications from Instagram the day before, 15 minutes before, and when the event starts. These reminders will appear like any other Instagram notification and will appear including in your phone’s Lockscreen menu.

Meanwhile, Instagram Reels has already been showing ads of up to 30 seconds, interspersed with the otherwise not-very-long videos posted by the stars you follow. Separately, Meta has introduced Reel Ads on Facebook, a new format of short ads for the Facebook Reels section. Called “post-loop” ads, these are 4-10 second clips displayed with a Skip option, followed by longer video ads displayed after the clip watched on Facebook Reels has reached the end. At the end of the ad, the Reel in the foreground will continue playing in loop mode. The strategy chosen by Meta is based on the idea that many of the short clips distributed on Reels are designed to be watched in loop mode, theoretically allowing two types of ads to be used. But in practice, users so hooked might choose to forgo looped viewing, skipping straight to the next clip to “skip” the ad display. By repeating this experience too many times, frustrated users might simply decide to give up, looking for other ways to spend their leisure time.