Show non-skippable video ads in your main Instagram feed? How does it work?
According to various reports, Instagram is currently testing a new video ad format that prevents users from scrolling through the app's main feed until they watch a video ad.
As you can see in this example shared by photographer Dan Levy, Instagram's new in-feed ad unit features a timer at the bottom that prevents you from scrolling through the ad until the timer runs out.
Here's an explanation of how the new ad units work:
As Instagram explains, these are essentially IG-style unskippable video ads, as you have to actually watch the ad before you can keep scrolling.
As you can imagine, this doesn't sit well with Instagram users.
YouTube's unskippable video ads have long been cited as the main reason people download ad blockers, because there are few things more annoying on the web than being forced to watch intrusive, all-encompassing promotions for things you have no interest in.
Ideally, digital ad targeting would be so advanced by this stage that the targeting element shouldn't be too much of an issue, but the reality is, there's no way to always show the right ad to the right person, so you'll still be bombarded with random promotions, especially from big brands, at least sometimes, and this new format gives you another way to force-foist such messages on you as you scroll through Instagram.
From a brand perspective, I understand that there are benefits in terms of exposure, timely placement, etc. But for the user, that is not the case.
So why would Instagram do this?
Now, with half of your main Instagram feed filled with AI-recommended content, mostly short-form Reels video clips, from profiles you don't follow, this creates a great opportunity for Meta to add some more promotion. Because if 50% of the content in your feed is from profiles you don't follow anyway, you're not going to be as annoyed by ads in that stream.
But I'm not sure about the part that stops the scrolling.
Again, YouTube's unskippable ads are so annoying that YouTube has had to implement new measures to prevent users from using ad blockers to get through unskippable ads.
People don't like being forced to stop and watch promotions, but if it proves effective, the value to Meta's advertising business could outweigh user frustration.
That certainly seems like a risky proposition.
We've reached out to Instagram for more information about the scope of this test and its future rollout plans, and will update this post if we hear back.
