Instagram has rolled out Instagram Shopping for its long-form video platform IGTV, part of the company's push to make social commerce more central to the app.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver and junior analyst Blake Droesch analyze Netflix's Q4 performance and talk about why Section 230 might get revoked, new UK child privacy rules, the fate of IGTV, the coldest temperature ever recorded and more.

eMarketer senior forecasting analyst Peter Newman and junior analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch discuss how the pandemic affected Americans' social networking behavior and where the major platforms now rank. Then, Blake talks about Facebook allowing cross platform messaging between Messenger and Instagram, shopping on Reels and IGTV, and a Delta Air Lines social media post.

When it shuttered the ill-fated IGTV app in October, it paved the way for video to be just video on Instagram. Reels, its answer to TikTok, remains separate from other forms of video on Instagram for now, but creating artificial distinctions based on time limits is a recipe for fracturing audiences and confusing consumers (not to mention the marketers building video assets). Predictions.

The platform now has five separate places where users and marketers can incorporate digital video: the feed, Stories, Live, Reels, and IGTV (launched in the UK in early 2021). Even on Facebook, video has become an increasing focus, as marketers try to cut through the mass of other video content on the platform. Innovation with formats will also be key.

IGTV ads bonus: US creators who sign up for IGTV ads on Instagram will receive a one-time bonus. Badges in Live bonus: Creators who meet certain milestones with badges, Instagram’s tipping program, in their live videos will receive an extra payout. Reels summer bonus: US creators who use Reels can earn an additional payout based on how their Reels perform.

(Instagram has shuttered its standalone IGTV app and rebranded its video properties as “Instagram Video.”). According to a September 2021 survey by Mavrck, 70% of US influencers considered Instagram their go-to video platform, compared with just 15% for TikTok. Instagram will also remain the top influencer marketing platform overall.

“You can use Instagram Stories to promote IGTV videos or an upcoming Instagram Live. I can also use Stories to create supplemental content, such as behind-the-scenes content, and then push people to go over and watch the full video on IGTV. Stories can be a promotional vehicle out of Instagram, too.

With this rollout, Instagram users are now able to shop directly on all of the app’s features, including the Feed, Stories, Live, IGTV, and Reels. And in case you missed it, Instagram has also reformatted its app to give Reels the center position on its navigation tab (replacing the Compose button).

Reels, IGTV, and feed videos are publicly visible until they are archived or deleted. Stories are grouped by account and shown in chronological order, whereas Reels are served algorithmically. Reels, Stories, and feed videos tend to be short; IGTV and Live videos are longer. Stories, feed, IGTV, and Live videos are designed to be shared with a user’s existing audience.

Instagram added several new features to its branded content tools on IGTV, Instagram Live, Reels, and Stories, per a June Adweek report:. Creators can now tag up to two brands in one piece of branded content, and each brand can see the other one before approving.

In addition to creator shops on Instagram, the company also added new tools to streamline branded content creation on IGTV, Instagram Live, Reels, and Stories and an affiliate tool for creators.

It now has five separate places where users and marketers can incorporate video: the feed, Stories, Live, Reels, and IGTV (just launching in the UK). It’s a little amorphic, with differentiation between the products becoming a bit of a struggle, but it appears to have paid dividends for Instagram with regard to its ad revenue performance.

On Instagram, for instance, they include the feed, Stories, Reels, and IGTV. And it gets complicated from there; Reels videos can be added to Stories, and so can IGTV videos. On Snapchat, the options are a bit more streamlined but mostly involve creating paid ads. In addition, videos on one platform can be repurposed into Stories on another.

Instagram launched ads in IGTV, its longer-form video service. The move came after Instagram removed the IGTV shortcut from the upper-right corner of its app in January this year, likely due to low usage rates. But the introduction of ads means that users are likely finding and engaging with IGTV content through other means, like previews in their feed, creators’ profiles and the Explore tab.

Shopping is now available across many of its other features including IGTV, Live, and Reels. Shoppable Instagram feeds, which let merchants tag up to five products per image, launched in Canada in September 2020. The feature enables users to advance through the purchase journey up until checkout, which takes place on the merchant’s online store.

One property we don’t expect will have much traction is IGTV, however. Creators are looking for an alternative to YouTube, but IGTV isn't where they want to be. Instagram hasn’t found the right formula to this video content experience, and the fact that ads still haven’t rolled out more than a year after launch is telling. Our 2019 Predictions: Here’s How We Did.