IGTV Announces Monetization for Creators

As the influencer and creator world continues to heat up with platforms wooing content creators, IGTV has jumped into the fray.

IGTV’s Initial Monetization Offerings.

There will be two initial offerings: ads and badges. They have also noted they will continue to expand their Live Shopping offering, as well.

IGTV Live Badges

There will also be badges sold through Instagram Live, which will be tested next month with a small group of creators. Viewers can choose between 3 badges, ranging in price from $0.99 to $4.99.

Once a badge is bought, it’ll show in front of a user’s name and their comments will populate higher than others.

IGTV will not be taking a cut of this revenue at first, but will move to a revenue sharing model in the future.

IGTV Ads

Ads will be showing and monetized for an initial group of 200 approved creators. The ads will be from larger brand name advertisers such as Ikea, Puma, Sephora, and others.

A 55% cut will go to the creators, according to Justin Osofsky, Instagram’s COO.

This will only be an initial group, with plans to expand being confirmed.

How IGTV Ads Will Appear

Users will only see ads after clicking away from the feed preview to view the full-screen version.

The ads will be in typical Instagram vertical proportions, and last up to 15 seconds.

Unlike what users are used to will full-screen ads in Stories, IGTV ads will NOT be a swipe up functionality. Users will tap through instead.

There may be additional experiences later in the year, such as the familiar feature of skipping ads.

The Rules of Monetization

To protect brand reputation, there is an Instagram monetization policy in place. It is stricter than the usual content policy on the platform, with the example given that you can’t curse or swear on videos you intend to monetize.

There are rules pertaining to formats, behaviors and categories/content types.

What Works, What IGTV Has to Look Out For

It’s no secret YouTube has had its share of issues with questionable content. IGTV has watched and learned.

In addition, the surge in app usage and content creation from the pandemic has meant more captive eyeballs who have more time to discover new content.

While in the beginning they will be human-reviewing every video, that obviously won’t scale over time. It will move to an AI-human hybrid review process, and they will need to be careful to not fall into the issues YouTube has faced.

The coming months will tell the tale: Can this move finally get creators to take IGTV seriously as a long-form platform worth their time?

Will it fare well for creators already making content adapted for Instagram specs?

Will it take money from YouTube, or be an add-on?

Your move, creators.