You may soon see ads on Instagram in places you didn't in the past. The Meta-owned app has started testing a couple of new ad placements meant to give businesses more ways to get discovered. One of those experimental placements puts ads in its search results. When you search for a particular term on the app — say "makeup" — posts marked "sponsored" will show up in the feed you can scroll through when you tap on any of the actual results. In its announcement, Instagram said it plans to roll out the placement globally in the coming months.
In addition, the app has teamed up with certain brands to test a format that would give businesses the power to remind or notify you of future events or launches. When you opt into the app's "reminder ads" for a particular event, you'll get notifications from Instagram one day before, 15 minutes before and when the event begins. These reminders will appear like any other Instagram notification and will show up on your lock screen.
Ads are Meta's lifeblood, and the introduction of new ways to earn from them comes as no surprise after a year that saw the company's quarterly revenue shrink for the first time. For the fourth quarter of 2022, for instance, the company reported an advertising revenue of $31.25 billion, down from $32.64 billion for the same quarter in 2021. Its year-on-year ad revenue was down, as well, from $114.93 billion in 2021 to $113.64 billion in 2022. Meta has been severely tightening belt in recent months and let more than 11,000 workers go in November in its first ever mass layoffs. Just a few days ago, company chief Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta is laying off another 10,000 workers and will restructure its divisions in April and May.
