After seeing 30% more engagement with Reels on both instagram and Facebook in the second quarter, parent company Meta now offers royalty-free music that advertisers can use in Reel ads.
Meta announced the update in a press release published on Tuesday, October 4.
“Audio is also a big hook to boost Reels engagement. To make it easier for businesses to create Reels ads, we’re rolling out high-quality free songs from our Meta Sound Collection that can be added to carousel ads on Reels,” Meta said.
Advertisers can choose a song from Meta’s library or let the app select a track that best matches one based on its content. They can also let Meta’s Ads Manager automatically choose the best lead for an ad based on its content.
The development follows Meta’s latest revenue-sharing deal with major labels, including Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group which allows labels and artists to receive a portion of the revenue from the use of licensed music on Facebook creator posts.
Meta has yet to reveal whether the revenue-sharing agreement also applies to Reels.
Meta will launch a pilot series of post-loop ads on Facebook that can be skipped after 4-10 seconds and standalone video ads that play after a reel ends. The original reel will resume and loop back when the ad has finished playing.
Additionally, Meta will test image carousel ads for Reels that scroll horizontally and include 2-10 image ads displayed at the bottom of Facebook Reels content.
For Instagram Reels, Meta Ads Manager will allow users to manually apply music by selecting up to five songs. The Ads Manager will use a song from one of the chosen tracks when delivering the ad. Advertisers can preview five songs from the recommendation algorithm when creating an ad, although it is not able to predict which song is applied to the ad at the time of serving.
Adding royalty-free music to ads on Reels, however, does not apply to existing posts, dynamic creative optimizations, placement asset customizations, or posts using Meta Creative Hub. The feature is only available on Carousel Ads on Instagram Reels at this time.
The feature is just among a few other new tools that Meta has deployed Tuesday for companies that use its platforms.The music industry around the world