Will Instagram's new sponsored ad feature mark the end of influencers?

Comments Comments

If you're finding instagram has been laying it on pretty thick with the ads lately - then rejoice! It'll now be easier to see what's sponsored and what's not as the popular image sharing platform has announced sponsored stories will now be labelled.

One of the major criticisms of Instagram is there is often no obvious distinction between posts contain advertising material and those that don't. Users would simply tag photos with #ad or, more subtly, #sp to comply with rules around sponsored content, but this still allowed product placement to fly under the radar.

Now it appears Instagram has grown tired of Insta-famous users who have taken advantage of this by implying genuine passion for a product in return for a cheque. These users must now officially label such relationships through the apps settings when they create a post. The implication? Instagram influencers may find their engagment declines. 

“This is the first step in a journey as we learn how the community engages with this new tool – and our focus is on gathering feedback,” says Instagram. “We’re initially partnering with a small number of creators and businesses and we will make these tools widely available in the coming months along with an official policy and enforcement guidelines."

“The new tool will allow a creator to quickly tag the business they have a relationship with. The post or story will appear with a sub-header that reads ‘Paid partnership with,’ followed by a tag to the business partner’s account.”

Alongside today’s announcement of Instagram Archives, which allows users to hide photos from their profile without deleting them, companies will also be able to view engagement statistics of their own when being properly linked to posts. 

What do you think? a long overdue change or unfair on 'grammers who've managed to monetise their feeds? Let us know in the comments. 

comments powered by Disqus