Breaking New Ground, Instagram Enables Advertisers to Push Branded Content Posts as Ads

Instagram users can expect to be exposed soon to sponsored ads from influencers they don’t even follow.

You read correctly. Audiences on the social media platform will soon see branded content from influencers as adsOpens a new window in the feed and in Stories — whether they like it or not.

While it may be annoying for consumers, this soon-to-be-released Instagram function provides marketers with a new form of advertising to target people on the platform — and many consumers may actually not mind.

How it works is simple: Instagram’s branded content ad service,Opens a new window which will be available to all advertisers, allows brands to create ads easily using organic posts from the influencers they are partnered with.

That means once content creators grant access to their brand partners, which they can do through the Advanced Settings page in their Instagram profile, those brands then will have the ability to place sponsored posts as ads within the Instagram newsfeed or Stories format, as long as they pay Instagram to promote them.

These posts will show up throughout the Instagram experience among other posts and stories just as paid ads already are, running within the Instagram newsfeed or Stories functions. And as with those other ads, the branded content posts will be tagged as “Sponsored” and will include a “Paid partnership” message next to the brand logo above the captions.

The social media platform has confirmed that branded content ads for newsfeeds will roll out over the coming weeks, while the service will be available within the Stories format in coming months.

It’s a win-win-win… win?

Unsurprisingly, industry professionals on the advertising side welcome the new offering.

First, brands now have a new and straightforward way of creating ads from influencer posts, saving them the time and resources they would otherwise have to spend creating new ads for their campaigns.

More importantly, these types of ads offer an inherent authenticity that marketers love — and need.

Quoted in Instagram’s announcement, Old Navy’s vice president of brand communications, Liat Weingarten, explains: “Promoting content directly from an influencer’s handle inherently gives the post more authenticity than coming from a brand handle, and we’re seeing significantly higher engagement rates using this strategy.”

This ability to relate to consumers on a more personal level comes as social media audiences seek authenticityOpens a new window  more than ever. And on social media, influencer marketing has fast become that outlet that people trust.

Indeed, an Ipsos study commissioned by Instagram parent company Facebook revealed that nearly seven of every 10 daily Instagram users said they call on the app specifically to interact with content creators. That’s an important statistic considering a report released this year by AI-powered social media marketing company Socialbakers that found Instagram influencers are posting 150% more sponsored contentOpens a new window than last year.

With influencers producing more sponsored content, and consumers increasingly looking for and engaging with those posts, it makes sense for marketers to take advantage of this ready-to-use material. Plus, Facebook’s ads platform lets marketers get analytics on their posts’ performance, allowing them to update and optimize their campaigns.

Moreover, Instagram promises that this new functionality will give businesses the “opportunity to tell their brand stories through creators’ voices.”

n other words, brands will be able to push their stories through the ‘authentic’ voices of their influencer partners, and also leverage Facebook’s targeting capabilities to reach audiences beyond those people who follow the accounts of the brand or a specific influencer

This actually brings considerable impact to influencer marketing. According to David Shadpour, founder and CEO of user-generated-content platform Social Native, “brands currently hire influencers based on an assumption of their audience. But the rollout of Facebook’s new branded content tool enables them to target specific audiences with the influencer content. This removes a lot of the uncertainty from influencer marketing and will enable brands to more easily get their message in front of the right audiences.”

The influencers, meanwhile, will also benefit from the upcoming offering, as does Instagram: Content creators will enjoy wider distribution and visibility, while Instagram’s bottom line gets a boost from marketers having more ad options.

So it’s a win-win-win for advertisers, Instagram and influencer alike.

The one variable? Consumers. How will they react? Will they dislike having this type of content force-fed to them. Or will they enjoy being exposed to content from influencers they don’t follow, discovering brands and products they otherwise wouldn’t know?

The only way to find out isby  following their reactions — a true “wait-and-see” moment.