Instagram Reels can now be turned into ads

Instagram has announced businesses can now boost their reels within the Instagram app to turn them into ads for the opportunity to reach new audiences and drive more engagement.

Boosted Reels that appear as ads, will appear in Feed, Stories, the Reels tab, and the explore page to help new customers to discover the brand on Instagram.

To be eligible for boosting within the Instagram app, Reels must be less than 60 seconds and have a 9:16 aspect ratio, which means they’re filmed vertically and have a full-screen format.

Also Read: Instagram releases new Reels features in addition to other updates

Reels that use third-party IP, such as copyrighted music, GIFs, interactive stickers or camera filters in a Reel, are ineligible for boosting, as well as Reels shared to Facebook.

Brands can boost Reels by finding the Reel in the grid in profile and tapping Boost Post. After running the ad, remember to check Insights to learn which ads brought in the most engagement.

Instagram recently also opened up Reels API for third-party developers. Meta is looking to improve the content publishing and consumption experiences, on third-party platforms along with Instagram. To comply with the growing demand for Reels amongst developers, Meta has rolled out Reels API to a number of endpoints.

This expansion of Reels API will go through a gradual rollout, and will first only be available for less than 25% of Instagram accounts.