Instagram’s latest feature to beat Tik Tok? Instagram Reel Monetization. And yes, this is similar to Tik Tok’s creator fund.
Let’s look at what the app is currently at in its testing journey and how this program works!
Who can be part of the monetization program?
Up until now, only a handful of creators can monetize their Reels on Instagram. And they were hand-picked by Instagram themself to test out this new feature.
Some creators say they received a notification from Instagram within the actual app letting them know that they could enable bonuses on their Reels. However, they only had a month to amass the most amount of views.
How does Instagram determine the payout?
While Instagram hasn’t been clear about how much money creators can make, they did specify a magic number...
This number I'm talking about is the cap on how much they can potentially earn. For some creators, it was up to $600. For others, it was up to $1,000. At some point, Instagram even offered a cap of $8,500 to certain creators.
Notice how I say “up to”? It’s because this isn’t a guaranteed sum of money. This money can be earned by creators based on how many views they get during the month. Instagram makes a sliding scale available to creators who are part of the program, so they can see how much their payout is going to be based on their current views.
However, since not every creator is being given the same amount of money as a cap, we can’t exactly determine what Instagram is paying per view across the board.
What’s next for this program?
In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Instagram said that the current monetization program is purely experimental and at its very early stages. As for why exactly the payout fluctuates between creators, Instagram says they do so as their goal is for the bonuses to become more personalized over time.
“Personalized” can mean a lot of things, but here’s what I think they meant by “personalized”...
Instagram wants to provide bonuses that are dependent on the number of views and from what we understand, the number of Reels a creator posts over a certain amount of time.
So kind of like how Youtube, TikTok, and Snapchat provide creators with the possibility to monetize their content, they do so as a type of "thank you" for the content they upload. This is because this content allows these media companies to sell advertising space to brands!
Therefore, based on the number of views and amount of content that gets uploaded to these social media platforms, the payout can vary. And that payout varies according to many factors, which are all personal to each creators' account.
So, what do I have to say about all of this? What do I recommend? Keep pushing out great content and keep pushing out your Reels! You may be the next creator that Instagram reaches out to.