On Thursday, Instagram unveiled its latest initiative aimed at empowering creators to monetize their efforts through a new ad format known as Testimonials. This feature allows brands to collaborate with creators to promote products or services, with content displayed on the creator’s Instagram profile as either videos or text-only posts. The platform emphasizes that this new advertising format can complement existing partnerships with brands.
Testimonials on Instagram
In a recent blog post, Meta outlined details about the partnership ad format. Testimonials are defined as concise, text-only endorsements allowing creators to quickly earn revenue. Creators can craft a brief message of up to 125 characters related to a brand’s campaign, which can then be attached to the corresponding advertisement. These endorsements will appear as comments on the specific post, identified by a Sponsored label pinned at the top, helping creators to disclose their role as paid promoters.
Meta’s reasoning behind this initiative is grounded in user behavior, citing that 40 percent of Instagram users consider creator recommendations when making purchases. The introduction of partnership ads is expected to enable creators to charge higher fees while broadening their audience reach on the platform.
It is important to note, however, that performance metrics for these ads will be accessible only through the brand’s account. Consequently, creators will need to request this performance data from brands to refine their content for future collaborations.
Other New Features
In addition to Testimonials, Instagram has recently launched a variety of new features. Among them are enhanced options for direct messages (DMs), which now allow users to translate communications into different languages, schedule messages, and share music previews directly within the chat interface. Users can also pin selected chats for quicker access.
The latest update simplifies the process for inviting participants to group chats. Users can create a unique QR code for a specific group, enabling others to join easily by scanning the code, thereby eliminating the need for individual invitations.
