Instagram introduces ads and purchasable badges to IGTV that let creators share in revenue for first time
by James Pero For Dailymail.com- Instagram will allow IGTV creators to share in ad revenue
- The ads will be rolled out to select creators' channels
- Creators will take a 55 percent cut while the rest goes to Instagram
- The platform will also roll out badges that can be purchased by fans
- Money from badges will go directly to creators for now
Instagram will start paying some of its IGTV creators through shared ad revenue for the first time.
Ads will start appearing on some IGTV videos next week for 200 English-speaking creators and will feature brands like Puma, Ikea, and Sephora according to The Verge.
Creators will take a 55 percent cut of ad revenue while the rest goes to Instagram. The platform says it plans to expand the model to all creators in the future.
To start, Instagram will reportedly only feature ads in videos that are opened via the platform's preview feature from users' feeds.
They'll be a maximum of 15 seconds long and in the future, Instagram plans on test letting users skip ads much like those that appear at the beginning of YouTube videos.
Instagram will also be tasked with more stringently monitoring ads and content that appears on its IGTV platform to ensure that brands don't get associated with undesirable content or vice versa.
As noted by The Verge, this is something that YouTube in particular has struggled to do in the past even despite the introduction of more stringent guidelines on content and its practice of demonetizing rule-breakers.
In addition to ads, Instagram says that it will also roll out 'badges' next month that can be purchased be subscribers from their favorite creators.
Fans who purchase a badge will have a special icon that appears next to their name in comment feeds and will 'unlock additional features' like being placed on a list of badge-holders that creators can view.
According to The Verge, different tiers of badges will cost different amounts and will range from $0.99 to $4.99.
Initially, Instagram says that it won't take a cut of the purchased badges but could change that as popularity grows.
Badges will be tested with users in the US, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Spain, and Mexico