Instagram could soon let creators monetise their IGTV videos

Up until now, content creators on Instagram could earn money by partnering with brands for sponsored content.

Facebook is planning to monetise IGTV videos soon. (Instagram)

Monetisation is coming to Instagram! Instagram is testing a new feature that would finally enable Instagram celebrities, that is, the content creators to earn money for their videos.

According to Jane Manchun Wong, the Facebook-owned photo platform is planning to introduce a new feature that would allow Instagram creators to earn money directly from the content that they create. Up until now, content creators on Instagram could earn money by partnering with brands for sponsored content. Now, the company plans to introduce a new way that would allow the creators to place ads directly in their Instagram TV (IGTV) videos, diluting their reliance on companies and sponsored posts.

 

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

The feature that is still in development was confirmed by Facebook's Tech Comms Manager who goes by the name Alexandru Voica on Twitter. "We continue to explore ways to help creators monetize with IGTV. We don't have more details to share now, but we will as they develop further," he said in a response to Wong's Tweet.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri too took to Twitter to confirm that such a feature was indeed in works at Facebook. "It's no secret that we've been exploring this...IGTV is still in its early days, but it's growing and so we're exploring more ways to make it sustainable for creators," he wrote in a post. The Facebook executive, however, didn't share details as to when this feature could be rolled out to creators or what sort of revenue can the creators expect.

 

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.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 7, 2020

As far as the program is concerned, it is likely to work in a way that is similar to how Facebook allows content creators to monetize its Facebook Watch videos and other videos. Simply said, the social media company could allow creators to place mid-roll ads in their videos, which would enable them to earn revenue from the ads. If the feature worked on Facebook, it is possible that it would work on Instagram as well.

Separately, Instagram recently removed the IGTV button from the main app owing to the fact that a very few people from its user base of over 1 billion users were using the feature. "We've learned that most people are finding IGTV content through previews in Feed, the IGTV channel in Explore, creators' profiles and the stand-alone app. Very few are clicking into the IGTV icon in the top right corner of the home screen in the Instagram app...so we're removing this icon," the company had said in a statement at the time.