Instagram Reels in Action

While platforms are battling for the crown of the best short-form video, advertisers benefit as more active and engaging users spend countless hours swiping. Instagram Reels, first launched in August of 2020, only became available in the ad auction in 2022.  Marketers benefit because anytime there’s a new part of the Facebook and Instagram supply available in the auction, that’s where the pricing efficiencies are going to lie until the rest of the market catches up. 

It’s not new news that Reels and TikTok have a lot of similarities.  Many brands are successfully delivering the same TikTok experiences to their Instagram audience. Some brands like Gucci have seen more eyeballs on Instagram Reels videos than on their Feed.

At the time of this writing, comparing the last ten video content of Gucci’s Instagram account, Instagram Reels have an average of 750,000 views per post, while their Instagram Feed gathered 337,000 per post. With a lavishing 48 million Instagram followers, Gucci has doubled its organic reach of short-form content, with a 1.6% audience reach for Reels and .70% for videos on Feed. Top Instagram brands such as Warner Bros., Adobe, Gucci, Chanel, and BMW have similar success with Instagram Reels. 

As more users consume short-form videos, Instagram Reels Ads placement is an excellent opportunity to reach more engaging audiences during the discovery stage.

Anatomy of Instagram Reels Ads 

Before creating an attention-grabbing Instagram Reels ad, advertisers must first have an idea about the ad spec for Instagram Reels ad placement. Utilizing the same creative for Instagram across ad placements is a common practice. The ad manager will not just insert video creative between organic Reels content, but it will also be presented in different ad sections: Reels, Feed, and Profile. Marketers should be mindful of other Instagram ad specs as video resolution and ratio vary.

Instagram Reels Ad Spec

Like Instagram’s competitors, content on Reels includes unique, relatable, entertaining, and inspiring videos. Video ads on Instagram Reels won’t be different from organic content making it more engaging and less the feel of an ad. Before working on the next Instagram campaign, check the Ad specs for Instagram Ad Reels Placement.

Video Instagram Ad Reels Specifications:

• Resolution: at least 500 x 888 pixels
• Video settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
• Video caption and sounds are optional but highly recommended.
• Suggested ratio: 9:16
• The suggested character length on the primary text should not exceed 72 characters to avoid text truncation.
• The file size should not exceed 4 GB.
• Video duration should not exceed 60 minutes and a minimum of 1-second
• Image upload supported file: MP4, or MOV.

Related: Marketers’ guide to Meta ad specs

Campaign Objectives for Instagram Reels Ad Placement

What is your advertising goal? Ads Manager has its unique way of leveraging campaigns in every ad placement. Aligning the business purpose to the available objective makes Instagram advertising more cost-efficient and effective.  

Campaign Objectives options for Instagram Reels ad placement: 

• Conversions
• Reach
• Traffic
• Video Views
• Brand
  

Related: A glimpse into Facebook Ads Manager

Cost and Performance of Instagram Reels Ad Placements

Related: Instagram Stories: everything advertisers need to know

Various factors affect ad costs but ad placements sometimes hold their efficiency based on audience interest and behavior. Instagram’s effort to put Reels in the spotlight created a positive ripple for advertisers to leverage their campaigns.

Using Strike Social recent Instagram campaign data focusing on ad placements, Instagram Reels consistently delivers cost-efficient results when leveraging Video Views across different objectives: Reach (CPM), Clicks (CPC), Engagement (CPE), and Link Clicks (CPLC). Campaigns set up to reach more audiences or explore new users during the discovery phase, Instagram Reels ad placements present almost half of the cost of Feed placements.

Another point to highlight is how it drives high post and page engagements. Reels ads are inserted seamlessly in-between highly compelling organic content. Ad insertions add a more native content approach to IG Reels viewers. It helps increase the opportunity to engage with the video content.

The low cost of Complete Views and Post Engagement can be attributed to the effectiveness of ad placement on Instagram Reels. Our data shows that ads displayed on Reels are fully visible to IG users and likely to trigger an engagement. 

Start Embracing Instagram Reels Ad Placement for a Higher Campaign Success

The effectiveness of each ad placement changes based on trends and audience behavior. Back in Q1 2017, during the release of Instagram Stories ad placements, our team saw a similar trend with how Ads on Reels behave. Being a new tool for advertisers, it appears to have less auction competition with massive eyeballs on the new Instagram section. 

Now is an excellent window of opportunity for marketers to experiment with how Instagram Reels can help increase the success of their campaign with a more cost-effective approach.

With low CPM and High Video Completion, Instagram can easily detect app users’ connection and interest in the video ads. 

With the right creative and optimization based on campaign behavior, Instagram Reels Ads placement can help increase brand awareness, expand reach, and attract engagement to the desired audience.