Reels Ads roll on following successful trial period 

After a successful test in India, Brazil, Germany and Australia, Reels ads will be rolled out across the world.

Reels ads will appear full screen and vertical, in a similar way to ads displayed in Stories, and will show between individual Reels.

Instagram for Business

“These ads will help businesses reach greater audiences, allowing people to discover inspiring new content from brands and creators.”

Reels Ads will loop and can be up to 30 seconds in length. Users will be able to comment, view, save, like and share Reels ads, so make sure they’re creative and entertaining! Reels ads will appear across:

• Reels tabs
• Reels in Stories
• Reels in feed
• Reels in Explore

Basically, everywhere people are discovering Instagram’s short-form video, ads can be placed.

How to create a Reels ad

Instagram recommends ads are creative and include music or sound to better fit Reels placement. Videos can be up to 30 seconds long and should be produced in full-screen, vertical format.

Here’s how you can create a Reels ad:

1. Go to Ads Manager and select + create.
2. Select an ad objective from conversions, reach, traffic, video views, brand awareness or app installs.
3. Create your ad, fill in campaign details, budget, schedule, audience, optimisation and delivery.
4. Inside Placement options, select Manual Placements.
5. Under Placements, select the dropdown box next to Stories and check Instagram Reels.
6. Select a call to action and complete your ad creation.

Stories best practice applies to Reels

Reels are somewhat similar to Stories, therefore, it would be a good idea to follow Stories best practices when thinking about creating Reel ads. They are:

• Keep your audience’s attention with speed
  • Create ads that capture attention immediately.
• Create Reels-first content
  • Repurposed content can be lost due to cropping or zooming, and this might destroy the point of the ad.
• Use short, concise scenes with fast narratives.
• Use motion to enhance your ads.
• Think about using mobile shots as these can often outperform studio shots for ad recall and intent
  • Studio shots tend to drive higher brand awareness.
• Design with your objective in mind, place key messages at the start of your ad and don’t include specific prices.
• Include centrally located text, enhance your message with sound, avoid cluttered screens, use a strategic call-to-action and land takeaways with text overlays.

Reels are a core part of Instagram’s 2021 offering

Reels fit into Instagram’s core focus areas across all of its key products and one thing is for sure, Insta is no longer just a photo sharing app.

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, via Twitter

“Changes are coming to video on Instagram ??

At Instagram we’re always trying to build new features that help you get the most out of your experience. Right now we’re focused on four key areas: Creators, Video, Shopping and Messaging.”

Instagram wants to be an entertainment hub and has made massive efforts to pivot towards video. Reels is a part of that, but so is IGTV. In the battle against TikTok and YouTube, Instagram has got a big fight on its hands.

There will be new experiments with recommendations, which will show users posts in Feed from accounts they aren’t following. Early testing is already underway.

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, via Twitter

 “We’re also going to be experimenting with how do we embrace video more broadly, full screen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video

You’ll see us do a number of things, or experiment with a number of things in this space over the coming months.”

Instagram also has plans to show users full-screen videos in their feeds. According to Mosseri, users will start to see Instagram’s experiments with these changes, and more, over the coming months.

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, via Twitter

“We’re no longer a photo-sharing app or a square photo-sharing app.

Let’s be honest, there’s some really serious competition right now. TikTok is huge, YouTube is even bigger, and there’s lots of other upstarts as well.

People are looking to Instagram to be entertained, there’s stiff competition and there’s more to do. We have to embrace that, and that means change.”

In 2021 video is back with a bang within Facebook, lets hope the Pivot To Video 2.0, goes better than the first iteration…