Another Social Media Platform Becomes a Victim of Ads
Ask me to list three things I hate about social media and online platforms, and watch me list “ads” thrice.
I am not alone. Based on a recent study by Statistica, more than 33% of users are willing to pay a little extra to avoid ads.
Premium or no premium, we are living in 2024, and ads should stay back in the 90s. First, YouTube launched its ads strategy, followed by our beloved Facebook.
Now, it seems Instagram is the recent victim of profit greed. Keep reading about the pesky “unskippable” ads on Instagram and how users react.
Instagram Revamp in the Last Few Weeks – An Overview
For years, social media has been a free, ad-supported world. Internet, often affordable with providers like Xfinity, is the only cost we pay to use social media apps. Users scroll endlessly for hours at a time. It is the reason that boosted screen time and fueled engagement rates.
However, the golden days of social media are in peril.
After the recent one-word CTA fiasco, AI training debacle, and political post-restriction, Meta seems to be proactively trying to irritate users.
For context, Meta recently rolled out a political restriction feature. Now, users will no longer see political posts unless they opt to.
When the users were done protesting, Meta rolled out the AI training feature. As per the feature, public user data and public pictures will be used to train AI.
While this comes with an opt-out setting option, users without information will be considered opt-in by default.
Instagram dropped another bombshell with the single-word CTA update to continue this streak. Based on this update, users encouraging their followers to comment emoji, like, and share the post will experience limited reach.
Recently, Instagram has also rolled out its ads feature. While this feature is still in the testing phase, all the users will see ad breaks within a few weeks.
Everything to Know About the New Instagram Ad Break Feature
The update was first spotted by a Reddit user, who posted, ‘new garbage feature is being tested.’ Per the post, this is not an in-video ad break on YouTube. Instead, this is an in-feed ad break. As the user keeps scrolling, it reaches a specific loading limit. After exhausting the loading limit, users get an ad break. Since the ad is “unskippable,” the user must watch the ad to continue scrolling.
As per the Reddit user, the new feature comes with a countdown timer so you can track the time left to start scrolling again.
Currently, we have in-story ad breaks. However, the in-story ad feature is skippable. Users can opt to skip ads by simply tapping to “skip”. The feature is still testing, so the company has not officially addressed this update. As soon as the feature rolls out for all, the company is expected to announce it via its official channel.
A user on X also reported this update. As per X user, the app won’t budge unless he takes an ad break.
What is The Future of Ad Break Feature on Social Media?
This is not the first time we have noticed a social media giant rolling out an ad feature. We have previously seen this on YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok.
However, no other company has yet rolled out an “unskippable” ad feature that will completely shut down the app for users. Tech experts believe this can be a daring move and might cost Instagram a lot. These experts predict that Instagram might roll out a premium ad-free version for paid users.
If the paid account is in the cards, this will help Instagram generate money from all ends. With this update, Instagram will have a faceoff between premium users willing to pay for an ad-free version and business account holders investing to run ads.
However, health professionals see it as a perfect update for mental health. Since Instagram is famous for doom scrolling, user can now take this as a sign that they have exhausted their scrolling limit. This will further encourage the user to shut it and focus on the work at hand.
How to Turn This into a Win-Win Situation?
As a user, I have already stated my dislike for ads. However, from a business point of view, ads are a great way to maximize revenue.
If Instagram wants to continue this strategy, it is much better to switch to skippable ads, just like YouTube. An excellent way to approach this is by analyzing customer data.
As per research conducted by TikTok in January, 70% of the users were willing to engage with the ad if there was a “Skip” option.
If Instagram wants to turn it into a win-win situation, turning “unskippable” to “skippable” is the only answer.
