Instagram is displaying advertisements in more places across the app, including the Explore feed and account profile feeds.

Instagram is surfacing ads in more places, including public profiles and the Explore tab, as part of a series of updates to the app’s advertising. In addition, augmented reality (AR) ads and multi-advertiser ads have been added. Finally, Instagram is providing advertisers with a library of free music to use with Reels ads. Here are all the details on the most recent Instagram ad updates.

Instagram ads in profiles and explore feed

Instagram is testing ads in user profiles, but only a few creators will benefit from it. Ads will begin to appear in profile feeds of users over the age of 18 who have public Instagram accounts. The profile feed is the vertical scrolling experience that is activated when a user taps a thumbnail on their profile. It does not refer to the profile grid, which will remain ad-free.

Instagram is testing the ability to share revenue generated by profile ads with creators, but it does not appear that this option will be widely available.

At this time, no additional information about eligibility criteria or revenue sharing is available. Instagram is also inserting ads on the Explore home feed, which is the primary grid you land on when you select the search tab. In the example below, you can see how the new explore ads will look:

Multi-Advertiser ads

Instagram’s new multi-advertiser format allows ads to appear alongside ads from other advertisers.

This may include advertisements from related or complementary businesses in some cases. For example, a wedding gown advertisement may appear next to a wedding cake advertisement.

AI and machine learning determine ad grouping automatically. Instagram allows advertisers who prefer not to have their ads appear in a carousel with other businesses to opt out of multi-advertiser ads.

AR ads

Instagram has begun testing AR ads in the primary and Stories feeds. Brands can encourage people to interact with the effect through their surroundings by using the AR experience powered by Spark AR.

An example is provided below:

Free-use music for reels ads

Instagram is now allowing advertisers to use royalty-free music in Reels ads. Reels carousel ads can now include free, high-quality music from the Meta Sound Collection library.

Advertisers can choose songs manually or let Instagram choose the best music for an ad based on its content.