Meta is looking toward short-form video to increase new advertising revenue opportunities. Cheddar News breaks down how the tech giant will be rolling out new formats.

What to Expect With Meta’s New Ad Formats

Thanks Michelle popularity of short form videos is skyrocketing across social media platforms and meta once in on the action. The facebook parent company is now looking to add more ads on all of its platforms using these formats, but customers already see so many ads on social media. So what should they expect from the new move, Michelle, I'm gonna go ahead and bring you back in since you follow meta closely. You were also at a meta event just yesterday. So tell us a little bit about these new ad formats and how exactly it could help instagram to earn more money. Now there's a lot of different ad formats. They're trying out some on facebook stories, but a lot of them are really being geared towards instagram and specifically instagram reels. So about 20% of time spent on instagram right now is on instagram reels and they really see an opportunity to gain ad revenue on this format. So the first one that's new is called post loops. So if you remember when you watch it real, it repeats office and so ever after it's been repeating for a while you'll probably get a four second ad and then we'll continue back to where your real was repeating or looping. The other thing that they have that they're gonna do is more augmented reality in stories and in your own feed they're adding more ads on the explore page and also they're using a lot of ai powered technology. So one of the cool things is they're gonna have music be suggested for brands that are trying to make ads. This is kind of similar to when you may real personally and based on the amount of clips you have, they usually suggest which song might be the best soundtrack for you. They're gonna do that technology for ads now for certain types of ads. And the other thing that they're doing is creating ads from scratch, especially for e commerce companies with their Ai too, and that was unveiled a few months ago called advantage Plus, but the first brands have tested it out and that includes companies like Coach. So really looking at AI and how it can help creators make ads for brands at this time without actually having to do have people create specific content for real specifically and this is something that is really investing heavily on. I spoke to the company about it. They said in the future they do believe that they will have the Ai technology to completely scan a website, create an ad using just A I. And also that ai will know what target audience to reach on its platforms. So without any human interaction or any production team actually making content specifically for reals. Yeah, I think that could be a really big game changer. The only concern that I have is whether or not this strategy will actually work because I don't know about you, if anyone out there is watching and you're following us on twitter, tweet us and let us know what your experience is when you're using these metal platforms. But typically when I'm looking at reels, I'm seeing them on the discover page. I don't quite binge them in the same way that you would maybe scroll through a platform like Tiktok, but Michelle, I do want to know why exactly you think online shopping is so such a big area of interest and focus for reals and also other Tiktok like apps at this point, you know, these companies really see a huge opportunity in people buying content, buying items that they see on social media. So about 50% I think it's under a little bit under a little bit above 48% of people admitted that they actually buy things that they see on their social media feeds and this is a huge opportunity for growth, especially as a lot of these formats like reels, Tiktok or more content driven, they aren't exactly just a photo that you'll see in an ad. So it does act as a form of entertainment and doesn't feel as much of an ad as maybe some other things you might see on instagram. So a lot of people complain about how much ads appear on their feed and this is a way for instagram to keep putting ads in there without really annoying the public that much or saying that, hey, my, my feed is just full of ads at this point. Now, you might remember a few months the fact that there was this huge backlash against instagram because they were prioritizing video above static posts and people weren't really happy with that experience. But actually a lot of studies have shown that gen z actually isn't as against that they aren't as against the use of more short form video on their instagram feeds. It's more the traditional users people the older generation, I guess like the millennials who are on there. So I'm curious for you asia though, Have you noticed more ads on instagram on instagram reels in general? It's so funny that you mention it not specifically on reels. I feel like a lot of the content that I'm seeing organically on either my discovery page or in uh I would say your for you page, but in your main feed for instagram, I don't typically see a lot of targeted ads when it comes to reels, but I do notice some of the ads that are based on my search is just for an example. I recently purchased a product for a company and then like a day later I saw that same company advertised in my feed. So it wasn't necessarily the most effective use of marketing but they are working out there, Michelle, I do wonder how you think this is going to net out for meta when it comes to this strategy though because you pointed out something really good and that really is typically seen as something similar to Tiktok that's more authentic when it comes to selling a product everyday, people can create a real and we know meta is moving away from their facebook in live shot. So do you think this is actually going to be successful at the end of the day? Well, I do think it's really interesting because really does feel a little less like a traditional ad than what you see on your static instagram feed. I do also think the really interesting thing about the format is that it does have to be custom made for that vertical screen and also be able to be repetitive. So that's where they're gonna face a lot of issues, like convincing these brands, these agencies to make this quote unquote experimental ad format and that's why they're trying to invest in that ai right now try to build that up. They want people to not think of creating 32nd commercials but creating stuff bespoke for reals because they think that's where the future is. Also they want to boost that ad revenue. Remember as we said earlier, they've had ad revenue declining year over year for two consecutive quarters. We're gonna find out if it's gonna be a third consecutive quarter on october 26th when they report their latest earnings, we'll be watching closely and I know we can rely on you for the latest updates when it comes to meta. That's better news is Michele Castelli, Oh of course, thank you so much for breaking that down for us.