Instagram has introduced a new initiative to enable creators to collaborate with brands and generate income through product recommendations. On Thursday, Meta unveiled an enhancement to its Partnership Ads called Testimonials. This feature enables creators to earn payments by providing written endorsements that are shared as comments on the social media posts and advertisements of the brands.
This new advertising format seeks to capitalize on an established practice prevalent across social media platforms. Currently, many brands make use of paid commenters or incentivize customers to leave favorable reviews. This can present a challenge for those researching new products, as it becomes difficult to discern genuine customer satisfaction from orchestrated positive comments.
By allowing creators to label themselves as paid promoters, the initiative aims to improve the brand’s appeal among the creator’s followers while also offering greater transparency regarding the creator-brand relationship. Although these endorsements are not organic, creators are still required to put their reputation on the line by supporting the products, which can impact their follower trust if they are not discerning with their recommendations.
Meta explains that 40% of users now rely on creator recommendations on Instagram when shopping. Through Partnership Ads, such recommendations have been delivered via branded content with a paid partnership label and collab posts, which display both the creator and brand’s handles as authors.
The Testimonials feature allows creators to compose brief messages, no longer than 125 characters, that relate to the brand’s campaign or product being promoted. The creators send these endorsements to the brand, which then attaches them to the appropriate advertisement.
These testimonials are prominently displayed at the top of the comments section of the Instagram post, enhancing the visibility of the comments and the creators behind them. Creators also have the capability to monitor these testimonials and other Partnership Ads through their Creator Settings within the app. This functionality enables them to track how their content is utilized and even withdraw it if necessary.
