Instagram May Soon Allow Creators To Monetize Their IGTV Videos Through An Instagram Partner Program
Photo: Jane Manchun Wong
Instagram is working on IGTV Ads to let influencers monetize their content by running short ads on their IGTV Videos pic.twitter.com/wOhbnpsfjL
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 7, 2020
Shortly after, Instagram lead man Adam Mosseri confirmed that the Facebook-owned app was indeed testing the feature, stating the following:
"It’s no secret that we’ve been exploring this. We focused first on making sure the product had legs — else there would be little to monetize in the first place. IGTV is still in its early days, but it’s growing and so we’re exploring more ways to make it sustainable for creators."
Based on the screenshots shared, eligible creators that agree to the Partner Program Monetization Policies will be able to monetize their IGTV videos by "running short ads" on the videos.
Although we know that creators will be able to monetize IGTV at some point, we just don’t know when.
Insights & Analysis:
Despite a variety of new updates to IGTV over the last few months, the biggest thing missing for the video feature has been a way for creators to monetize their content. When it initially launched, there was a lot of excitement about it that led many creators to upload fresh IGTV content however that eventually died out.
When it comes to monetization directly on a social media platform, YouTube has done it the best. Not only was it an early adopter, but it has continued to build out its monetization features and tools for creators, allowing them to generate money from advertisements, subscriptions, and much more.
Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter have also been experimenting with monetization tools and features. Not to mention, newcomer Byte, the unofficial follow-up to Vine, recently revealed details for its Partner Program last week less than a week after launching. Besides monetization for top creators, the short-form video app said that creators who are part of its program will also have access to the Byte staff, experimental features, and much more.
With creators being such a big part of social media platforms today, it’s quite surprising that social media platforms as a whole have been relatively slow in figuring out sustainable ways to let creators monetize their content.
Creators will be able to monetize on IGTV at some point, but the question is, when that does happen, will it be too late?
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SOURCE: Jane Manchun Wong
