Instagram TV or IGTV officially launched on June 19th, just one day before VidCon. It’s evident that IGTV is set up as a direct competitor to YouTube. Despite the differences in content creation, possible video length, and channel discovery there is still a high potential that IGTV will grow as much as Stories did or more.
Here’s what you need to know about Instagram Stories:
- Video length: 15 seconds to one hour
- Video format: Vertical and viewed in full screen
- Distribution: Creators can make their channels
- Engagement: Users can like, comment and share videos
- Integration: IGTV is a part of Instagram but is also its own standalone app
How will Creators Use IGTV?
IGTV launched with the support of creators, like King Bach and LauraDIY of YouTube fame. This move works two-fold because it gets people followers of these personalities to engage and start to play around with the new app while signaling the direction that IGTV might be going concerning monetization.
Content creators on YouTube make money in five primary ways:
- YouTube ads
- Tours
- Paid Sponsorships
- Selling Merch
- Donations/Payment/Fundraising with tools such as Patreon
Since the YouTube “Adpocalypse,” creators have started to skew heavily toward other forms of earning income for their work instead of relying on YouTube ads primarily. The other four methods are not things that performance marketers will likely be interested in taking advantage of but IGTV will want to capitalize on the gaping hole that the adpocalypse left in the trust crafter between YouTube, and it’s creators.
Instagram Stories Tell a Story
If we want to understand how Instagram will leverage this new medium for content creators and performance marketers, then we need to look no further than Stories. After the 2016 launch of Stories, a year later in March, they opened up Stories Ads to all brands. Before this, there was a 3-month testing period with well-known brands like Nike and Airbnb. In Stories Ads you can also see that it is essential to Instagram that users have a clean, seamless experience. With IGTV, we can assume that the same trajectory will follow and that video will probably continue to be a big part of how ads will be integrated into the tool.
What Does This Mean For Performance Marketers?
At the launch event Kevin Systrom, Instagram's CEO, mentioned that although there are no ads on IGTV yet it is, “obviously a very reasonable place” for ads. Not only this but Emarketer estimates that Instagram will earn $5.48bn this year.
- Start playing around with IGTV to prepare for how to make your ads stand out for the right reasons
- Keep apprised of updates to the IGTV interface
