Introducing New Instagram Branded Content Ads [What It Means For Brands]

As of this week, businesses can now use Ads Manager to promote Branded Content Ads as an Instagram Feed ad. Up until now, branded content on Instagram has been entirely organic but now advertisers can use tools in the ads system to drive business outcomes.
In the following article, we explain how Instagram Branded Content Ads work, how to set them up, and what our in-house experts think of this new feature.
According to the announcement from Instagram:
With creator permission, businesses can use Ads Manager to promote branded content as an ad in Instagram Feed. At Instagram, we’ve heard feedback that branded content delivers significant value to brands, and we’ve seen more and more brands investing in branded content as part of their overall marketing strategies.
Businesses want to share their brand story from the creator’s point of view and use that authentic content in their ad strategies. Now, we’re inviting businesses to promote creators’ organic branded content posts as Feed ads on Instagram. Businesses will now be able to scale these posts beyond a creator’s audience, and will be able to target specific audiences and measure performance using the tools in our ads platform.
There are three major benefits to branded content ads including:
More and more brands are partnering with influencers to bring a new voice of authenticity to their advertising. Branded Content Ads on Instagram will make it easier than ever for brands and influencers to partner on the platform. By streamlining the process of connecting influencers directly to the partners they are supporting, brands will now be able to quickly and easily promote the organic content directly from the influencers handle and deliver it to the right audiences.
– Riley Spicer, Sr. Specialist, Paid Social at Tinuiti
According to Instagram, there are 2 main steps for creating branded content ads:
Give the creator permission to tag your business in their branded content post.
When a creator makes a branded content post on their Instagram Feed and tags your business, they can opt to Allow Business Partner to Promote. This will give you permission to promote the creator’s organic branded content feed post as an ad.
When creating an ad from a branded content post on Instagram, you can use either the Reach, Brand Awareness Objective (BAO), Video Views, Traffic or Engagement objective. Learn more about the different objectives on Ads Manager.
Once the creator has tagged your business in a branded content post and given permission to promote it, follow these steps:
Once you’ve created your ad, it will be reviewed by Facebook and you’ll be notified when it’s approved. The ad will then appear in the Instagram feeds of your chosen audience. You won’t be able to manage or delete likes and comments that appear on the promoted branded content post.
Once your ad is live, you’ll have access to all of the standard ad reporting metrics in Ads Manager. Be on the lookout as new Branded content ads for the feed will be available to all advertisers in the coming weeks and for stories in the next couple months.
Click here for more information on how to set up branded content ads.