As the influencer and creator world continues to heat up with platforms wooing content creators, IGTV has jumped into the fray.
IGTV’s Initial Monetization Offerings
There will be two initial offerings: ads and badges. They have also noted they will continue to expand their Live Shopping offering, as well.
IGTV Live Badges
There will also be badges sold through Instagram Live, which will be tested next month with a small group of creators. Viewers can choose between 3 badges, ranging in price from $0.99 to $4.99.
Once a badge is bought, it’ll show in front of a user’s name and their comments will populate higher than others.
IGTV will not be taking a cut of this revenue at first, but will move to a revenue sharing model in the future.
IGTV Ads
Ads will be showing and monetized for an initial group of 200 approved creators. The ads will be from larger brand name advertisers such as Ikea, Puma, Sephora, and others.
A 55% cut will go to the creators, according to Justin Osofsky, Instagram’s COO.
This will only be an initial group, with plans to expand being confirmed.
How IGTV Ads Will Appear
Users will only see ads after clicking away from the feed preview to view the full-screen version.
The ads will be in typical Instagram vertical proportions, and last up to 15 seconds.
Unlike what users are used to will full-screen ads in Stories, IGTV ads will NOT be a swipe up functionality. Users will tap through instead.
There may be additional experiences later in the year, such as the familiar feature of skipping ads.
The Rules of Monetization
To protect brand reputation, there is an Instagram monetization policy in place. It is stricter than the usual content policy on the platform, with the example given that you can’t curse or swear on videos you intend to monetize.
There are rules pertaining to formats, behaviors and categories/content types.
Specifically Banned Content
Formats cannot be any of the following:
- static videos
- static image polls
- slideshows of images
- continuously looping videos
- text montages
- embedded ads
Creators may not incentivize users to click or engage, or barters items for extreme behavior in return (for example, “if you give me x, I’ll eat this live rattlesnake.”)
Categories that touch on any of the following categories in an inflammatory or discriminatory matter will also be prohibited, including:
- race
- gender
- nationality
- age
- politics
- ethnicity
- disabilites
- sexual orientation
- economic class
- religion
- immigration
Anything depicts or favorably discusses abuse or illegal activities is prohibited, along with graphic content including content that’s sexual or gory.
There will also be third-part fact checking for content to prevent misinformation, and a ban on any medical information that’s verified as misleading (including anti-vaccine sentiment).
Can Government or Political Entities Participate?
With the election approaching, a lot of advertising is about whether it can be used by political entities, and if so, how.
The answer for this is it cannot be used at all for monetization, along with any other communication that would normally be regulated by campaign finance rules.
What This Means for the Monetization Landscape
While IGTV has flailed a bit in the mind of users, and failed to really capture the long-form video audience, this is a major move for IGTV.
YouTube has been the go-to platform for creator monetization, which can create a mutually beneficial ecosystem for platforms wanting eyeballs and time spent and video makers.
IGTV didn’t have much incentive before for creators. Viewership was low, and the format is vertical, which means having to think through shoots differently than they may have for YouTube dimensions.
What Works, What IGTV Has to Look Out For
It’s no secret YouTube has had its share of issues with questionable content. IGTV has watched and learned.
In addition, the surge in app usage and content creation from the pandemic has meant more captive eyeballs who have more time to discover new content.
While in the beginning they will be human-reviewing every video, that obviously won’t scale over time. It will move to an AI-human hybrid review process, and they will need to be careful to not fall into the issues YouTube has faced.
The coming months will tell the tale: Can this move finally get creators to take IGTV seriously as a long-form platform worth their time?
Will it fare well for creators already making content adapted for Instagram specs?
Will it take money from YouTube, or be an add-on?
Your move, creators.
You can find the original story as reported by The Verge.
