Tag: Instagram Reels

Singapore – Despite an overall decline in overall engagement on Instagram, the platform still delivers the highest engagement rates for brands compared to Facebook and Twitter. More specifically, brand usage of the platform’s Reels features has risen to 86% this year, according to the latest data from unified customer experience platform Emplifi.

According to the data, despite only 11% of these ads are Reels placements—still, 87% of brands used Instagram Reels for ad placements, at least once in Q2 2023, representing a 26% increase year-over-year.

The rise in Instagram Reels usage amongst brands is also amidst Reels engagement trending downward for the last five quarters, dropping 30% year-over-year in Q2 2023. The competition for engagement on the platform is steep, not to mention the recent deprioritization of Reels by Meta, Instagram’s parent company. 

“These data points make clear how important it is for brands to diversify their social content, embracing more than one channel for their video marketing efforts,” the report stated.

Meanwhile, in comparison to popular platform TikTok, Instagram Reels is still outperforming TikTok content when comparing median reach, median interactions, and median video views. Meanwhile, TikTok wins in terms of median engagement rates when compared to Instagram Reels. 

In addition, while Instagram Reels are exploding, Facebook Reels are not seeing the same traction. In APAC, Facebook Live Video dominates all other video content on the platform, earning nearly four-times the number of interactions compared to static video posts.

The report also noted that Facebook Reels have not been around as long as Instagram Reels, having been released two years after Instagram launched its most popular video format. As more brands cross-post their Instagram Reel content to Facebook, marketers may see a shift in engagement.

Lastly, with all the recent changes happening at Twitter, the platform has been a hot topic among social media marketers and advertisers. For APAC brands wanting to make the most of their activity on the social network, Emplif’s data found that Tweets containing GIFs earned 2.4-times as many interactions as those with links and 1.85-times more than text-based status updates.

Zarnaz Arlia, chief marketing officer at Emplifi, said, “Because the social media landscape is evolving and changing at such a rapid pace, it’s crucial marketers have access to insights that can help them earn the biggest bang for their marketing bucks. A key insight from this report is that despite an ongoing decline in engagement on Instagram last quarter, the platform still delivers the highest engagement rates for brands compared to Facebook and Twitter.”

She added, “It is time marketers fully embrace their video efforts, and that means everything from Instagram Reels and Facebook Live Video to TikTok content and even GIFs on Twitter. Short-form video is exploding and the brands that lean into this trend will gain a major competitive edge. As a leading customer engagement platform, we know that implementing a successful video strategy takes time. That’s why we devote so much of our efforts to creating these reports and sharing this data—we want to help marketers by giving them a headstart on developing social media strategies that will deliver measurable impact.”

Singapore – Integral Ad Science (IAS) has announced the expansion of its existing partnership with global tech company Meta. Through the expanded partnership, IAS will be rolling out its ad measurement tools for Facebook and Instagram Reels.

This now means that Reels advertisers will now have transparency into the performance of their ad campaigns. The adtech company has previously provided advertisers with measurement tools that include viewability and invalid traffic for placements across Facebook and Instagram.

The IAS and Meta partnership first began in 2016.

Yannis Dosios, chief commercial officer at IAS, said, “Facebook and Instagram Reels are enormously popular with advertisers, and based on the success of the existing partnership between Meta and IAS, we are pleased to broaden our work together and provide this deeper level of transparency for Reels ads.”

He added, “With more than 140 billion Reels played daily, smart marketers have already been placing advertisements on Reels and now they have even more measurement insights into which of their ads are being seen and driving results.”

Recently, IAS announced the expansion of its existing partnership with TikTok, which will bring its ‘Total Media Quality’ brand safety and suitability measurement product to advertisers in 23 new markets.

California, USA – Aimed at helping creators connect further with their audience, tech giant Meta has unveiled new features on Instagram Reels, including a dashboard that displays what’s trending on Reels.

The Reels Trends feature allows creators to see the top trending songs on Reels, see how many times the audio has been used, and save the audio for use. It also displays what the top trending topics and hashtags are on Reels to keep creators up-to-date on the latest trends. 

Meta has also improved Instagram Reels Insights to help creators better understand how their content is performing by adding two new metrics: total watch time and average watch time – making it easier for creators to see their reels’ insights while viewing them directly. Creators will also be able to receive a notification with new followers from their reels. 

Instagram Reels will also be seeing new improvements in sending gifts, with the feature’s upcoming expansions to more markets, including Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand and the UK, in the coming weeks.

“We’re also adding a new feature to show you which fans have sent you a gift so you can recognize your supporters. If you tap the heart icon next to your supporters, they’ll get a notification that you’ve seen and recognized their gift, providing an even stronger sense of connection between you and your fans,” the release read.

Lastly, Meta has also made it easier for creators to edit reels, by bringing together video clips, audio, stickers, and text on a unified editing screen. According to Meta, the development makes it easier to align and time elements of reels to the right moments in a more visual way.

“Creators like you inspire people and shape everyday culture. We’re committed to building more products to help you grow and thrive on Instagram, and today’s updates are just a few of the ways we’re investing in your success,” Meta concluded.

Last February, Meta has also rolled out a new broadcast channel for Instagram and a paid verification service for both Facebook and Instagram users, ‘Meta Verified’.

India – Boro Plus, the antiseptic cream brand under India’s skincare company Emami, has launched a new social initiative aimed at promoting self-love through the use of the newly-rolled out feature on Instagram – Instagram Reels.

The campaign, which was developed in collaboration with media agency Mad Influence, targets to promote the importance of appreciating the numerous small moments in people’s everyday lives, drawing attention to a very relevant problem faced by today’s generation – ‘self-appreciation’.

Titled ‘#EkJhappiForMe’, the campaign was kickstarted by well-known dancer and choreographer Shakti Mohan on Instagram Reels. Mohan has shared a short video about the importance of ‘self-care’ and ‘self-love’, encouraging her fans to participate in this social initiative by sharing their self-love moments on the app with the hashtag ‘#EkJhappiforme’ and the Boro Plus Social Initiative audio.

Moreover, several well-known content creators, including Roshni Walia, Vaishnavi Rao, Ishpreet Dang, and Kanika Mann, have taken part in the socially beneficial initiative.

MARKETECH APAC has reached out to Emami for a comment.