- Meta wants creators to remember Facebook is still around.
- The company has been inviting creators to events that showcase Facebook's offerings.
- At Meta's latest event, it pitched its ad-revenue share options to creators. Here's why it matters.
While creators and Instagram often go hand-in-hand, Meta wants to make one thing clear: Facebook is not dead.
During an invite-only virtual event on Wednesday, Meta spoke to creators about how to use Facebook to grow an audience, manage a community, and earn money from their content.
The event is part of a series of in-person and virtual panels curated by Meta, called Creator Conversations.
"I definitely felt like it was like an olive branch that Facebook was offering to creators," said Lia Haberman, an adjunct professor at UCLA who attended the event.
Kristen Bousquet, a content creator with 24,000 Instagram followers, also tuned in and left the event with the takeaway that it couldn't hurt to cross-post her content on Facebook.
"With the possibility that it's going to make me even a tiny bit of money, I don't see the harm in trying," Bousquet told Insider in a direct message.
Since March, when Facebook announced it hit a milestone of 2 billion daily active users, the Meta-owned platform has been on a victory lap pitching Facebook as a solution for content creators. In particular, Facebook has been showcasing its creator ad-revenue-share model, called Ads on Facebook reels.
Last month, I found myself at one of these Creator Conversations in New York. Chien-Ying Yu, a director of product marketing for Facebook who oversees creators, reiterated that Facebook was "not dead" and moderated a panel with creators about how they were using Facebook to build their careers.
Yu spoke during Meta's April event as well, where she discussed perks for turning on Facebook's "Professional Mode," the introduction of ads on Facebook reels, and answered questions from the audience.
"They're making a push so that Facebook's not forgotten by creators," Haberman told Insider. "Especially with everything recently between YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, Facebook never gets mentioned in those same conversations when we talk about creators and what platforms they're choosing between."
Haberman said Facebook's pitch for its ad-revenue-share model on reels was the closest thing she'd seen to YouTube's offerings. YouTube, known for its YouTube Partner Program (also known as AdSense), launched its own revenue-share program for its short-video offering in February. TikTok, too, is building its own solution called Pulse.
—Lia Haberman (@liahaberman) April 13, 2023
Facebook is planning to scale ads on reels
As other platforms axe creator funds in exchange for ad-revenue sharing, Meta is following suit. How Meta will approach any revenue splits on reels, however, has been a hot-button debate within the company, according to a January report by The Information.
Facebook currently offers two ad formats on reels: overlay ads and post-loop ads. Overlay ads appear as pop-ups on a reel, while post-loop ads appear after a reel has been played more than once.
Last year, when Meta first announced it would begin testing ads on reels, the company said it would apply the same revenue split it had been using on longer-form videos via Facebook's in-stream ad program: 55% to creators and 45% to Facebook.
Meta did not share details on the current payment structure during the April 12 session, Haberman said. Meta also declined to share the eligibility requirements for Facebook's reels ads program — except that it is invite-only.
It's no secret though that Meta is making strides here.
In March, head of Facebook Tom Alison told Insider that scaling ads on reels would be a top priority for the platform going into 2023, adding that Meta was "pretty pleased with the success so far."
So, what comes next?
While Meta has not confirmed a specific timeline for when it will more broadly expand its test of ad-revenue share for Facebook reels, Meta indicated on the April 12 call that it could be as soon as the coming months, Haberman said.
But for creators who are mostly on Instagram, keeping a close eye on Facebook's progress here could be a good indicator of what ad-revenue sharing may look like on Instagram.
What we do know, for now, is that Meta needs to monetize reels for its own sake.
After the company paused its Reels Play Bonus program on Instagram and Facebook, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said in a March Instagram story post that the bonuses were "ROI negative" and Meta was losing money by paying out creators. Instagram plans to expand ads on reels later this year as well.
A robust ad-revenue-share program for reels across Instagram and Facebook, in theory, could be a win-win for both Meta and creators.