In a surprising move, Instagram confirms that it is testing unskippable ads on its platform that would eventually benefit the advertisers. At the initial testing phase, these are five-second long ads that the company labels as “ad breaks”. When these ads appear on the screen, users won’t be able to scroll the screen as they have to wait for the timer of the ad to end. Meta spokesperson confirms that the company is testing new ways to drive value for advertisers.
The company did not confirm yet whether they would test these ad breaks to a wider set of users. Advertisements are the main source of revenue for all the online platforms and ads have already existed on all meta-owned social media apps. However, these ad breaks seem similar to the ads that appear mostly at the start of YouTube videos which users can’t skip without seeing at least five seconds of ads. This kind of advertisement would be the first of its kind on any of the social media platforms if a wide rollout begins.
Instagram confirms testing unskippable ads
According to the report from Techcrunch, the meta confirms that they are testing unskippable ads on Instagram. A company spokesperson told the publication, “We’re always testing formats that can drive value for advertisers.” However, the testing was being done on a smaller set of users to test the performance of these ads and users’ sentiments. If the company plans to roll out these ads to a wide set of users then they would make a public announcement on this.
A user who goes by the name @TheDanLevy posted about these ads on X and shared some details about these advertisements. He calls these ads a “bonkers move”, as on the screenshot he shared, these ads were called “ad breaks”. As seen in the screenshot, there is an info icon next to the label which opens a bottom sheet with the title “You’re seeing an ad break”. Underneath that, a text described this feature and stated, “Ad breaks are a new way of seeing ads on Instagram. Sometimes you may need to view an ad before you keep browsing.” As of now, these ad breaks are of 5 seconds, however, some users have also claimed to have come across 10-second-long ads.
