Instagram Reels gets ads to help businesses reach 'greater' audiences

New Delhi: Facebook's photo and video sharing app Instagram said on Friday it is launching advertisements on its short video format Reels across the world. Instagram said the advertisements will be introduced globally after a 'successful' test in select countries.

The company said the ads will help businesses reach 'greater' audiences, allowing people to discover new content from brands and creators.

Advertisements on Reels will be full screen and vertical, similar to ads in the stories feature, and will appear in between individual Reels. Like regular Reels content, these advertisements will loop and can be up to 30 seconds. People can comment, like, view, save and share Reels ads.


The company said Reels ads will appear in the 'most popular' places to access Reels content. This includes the Reels tab, Reels in Stories, Reels in Explore and Reels in users' feed. Once a user taps into a reel from Stories, Feed, the Reels Tab or Explore, they will enter a viewer that exclusively shows reels that scroll vertically.

Justin Osofsky, Instagram's chief operating officer, said the company sees Reels as a great way for people to discover new content on Instagram, and so ads are a 'natural fit.'

"Brands of all sizes can take advantage of this new creative format in an environment where people are already being entertained," he added.

In April, Instagram said several new features have been added since the launch of Reels last year. Following the ban on TikTok, Instagram had launched Reels in India in July last year. In an interview to ET in October last year, Facebook's India MD Ajit Mohan had said India is a ‘very critical’ country for Instagram and the launch of short video feature Reels had led to an ‘explosive growth’ in consumption and creation of short video content on the platform.