In an ever-evolving digital world, new changes are coming to Meta and Instagram. April was a slow month for Meta innovations, but we’ve got some new and exciting updates for Instagram.
A new creator fund, expanded targeting capabilities, and an in-testing feature to pin posts on Instagram. Let’s dive in and take a look at all the Instagram and Facebook updates that business owners, creators, and advertisers need to know.
Instagram Reels length has now increased to 90 seconds!
Instagram Reels have grown in popularity and become an extremely essential tool for brands since their debut in 2020. According to Hootsuite’s research, utilising Reels can boost an account’s total engagement and follower count. And the good news is that now the Reels length has increased from 60 to 90 seconds.
This isn’t surprising, given that Reels is the fastest-growing content feature on both Facebook and Instagram. Regardless, it will be interesting to watch how many creators use the longer video time option. Many Reels don’t use the full 60 seconds since they realise that shorter, more compelling videos have a higher chance of being watched.
The lengthier time frames, on the other hand, will likely be beneficial to producers and organisations who publish tutorial-style content, especially if they require more time to be thorough.
Meta’s New Advantage Suite For Paid Media
The Meta Advantage Suite will bring together all of Meta’s automated ad offerings into one platform.
There will be two types of products:
- Those labelled “Advantage” enable you to automate components of campaigns that formerly required manual setup, such as detailed targeting options.
- Those labelled “Advantage+” have full automation throughout the campaign setup process, including placement selection.
The tools are intended to assist marketers in achieving new levels of optimization, personalisation, and efficiency, as well as to improve the advertising experience for both brands and audiences.
Some of the core features include:
- Advantage Lookalikes and Advantage Detailed Targeting (currently known as Lookalike Expansion and Detailed Targeting Expansion), which allow Meta to reach broader sets of people outside of the initial set targeting settings to find high-converting users
- Advantage+ App Campaigns (currently known as Automated App Ads)
- Advantage+ Placements (currently known as Automated App Ads)
- Advantage+ Placements (currently known as Automatic Placements)
- Advantage+ Creative (currently known as Dynamic Experiences)
- Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (known as Automated Shopping Ads), currently in beta testing.
Facebook’s announcement of brand safety updates
Over the last few years, Facebook has introduced brand safety tools to give marketers and companies more control over where their content appears on the network.
The following are brand safety updates currently being developed:
Verification of third-part brand acceptability in feed. Zefr has been chosen by Facebook as a partner to provide reporting on the context in which advertising appears in Facebook feeds. They’ll be looking for new ways to check and measure the acceptability of adverts when they’re placed next to other material (like the video played after an in-stream ad). Both the content producer and the advertiser can gain from this.
Controls for business feeds based on content. Advertisers will be able to avoid appearing next to content that contradicts their brand’s essential principles.
