Instagram Unskippable Ads - Good Thing or Good Bye? EP17

Episode 17 Transcript

Kick it off because I have no idea what's going on. hey everybody. Welcome to the Marketing Combat Podcast. My name is Jason Denali? Denali? Donnelly? It depends on if you're a telemarketer or not. And with me today is the magic man himself. I don't know where I'm going with this, but his name is Chris Kubbernus. Tell us what we're arguing about today, Chris. Hello. Thanks, Jason Donnelly. I think this is a good name. actually don't like your middle name should be Don and your last name should be Denali. Jason Denali.

Don Nelly is one of my favorite. You gotta get like a nice little bandaid there and then you'll be like, they me Don Nelly. Or just like that, yes. So there's a famous Italian Irish people.

Welcome back to the Marketing Combat podcast. Today we're talking about Instagram's new unskippable ads, good or bad. And if you haven't seen anything about this, essentially Instagram's been experimenting with ads in the feed that when you're scrolling, it's not skippable. You are stuck on that ad for however long they sat.

But essentially, it's a little bit like your YouTube unskippable ads where you have to wait a few seconds and then get it. And I'm going to take the position that unskippable ads are amazing and should be done. And Jason's going to take the position of they're horrible. I'm going to start off the debate. This is easy. I softballed it. I threw you a softball, man. So the reason why I think that unskippable ads are a good thing is because we have been...

in the marketing game, in the advertising game, we have been fed lies from Facebook, Instagram, all of these platforms, other than YouTube really. YouTube is the good guy in this, is... But we've been fed lies from all these platforms. We've spent a ton of money on them advertising our wares and paying for essentially nothing. They give us this impression data. They give us this reach data. They give us this, this did so well. Look at all the impressions.

millions of impressions. And the reality is it's like someone scrolling past your thing really, really fast. They literally do not even consume it. It doesn't even register in the brain. That's how fast people scroll past ads because they can smell it in the feed. They'd be like, there's this ad scrolls fast as you can possibly pass this. And then we've been told, yeah, that's...

That's an impression. You should pay us for that. You should pay us a 50 cents for that or a dollar for that or whatever. And the rising costs of this have just increased, increased, increased over the years. So we are essentially paying for people to drive past our billboards at a hundred miles an hour and paying handsomely to these platforms. And it hasn't resulted in the business. It hasn't resulted in good marketing. It hasn't resulted in good experience for other people, essentially because you're just going to see more ads and the auction's going to get worse and all this. So.

Now with unskippable ads, we have an opportunity to actually know that someone has been stuck on our ad. And that's why YouTube has been good because we know those people have had to consume something. They've had to have seen us. They've had to have registered this. And that five seconds is essential for you. Yes, you might say, well, that's also BS. Five seconds is way better than one millisecond or half a second.

Trust me, I mean it's infinitely more impressive and better for your brand, better for your marketing, and it's better for the user experience because now you're gonna get brands that actually have spent time on their ads, want to make them great, want to make sure that you are entertained in that non -skippable format. And so your advertising is gonna get better, the money that we're spending on marketing is gonna get better, so we're gonna be able to offer better products and services, and instead of just.

throwing mindless money at these stupid ass platforms for half a second of an impression and say, thank you, dear Metta, thank you, dear Facebook for that half an impression, which is just BS garbage money thrown out the window. And now we're going to be able to see much, much better into the data and get better advertising out to you guys. That's my point. So unskippable ads, very good. I cannot wait to test them out and use them for our clients. And Jason, why are they crap? As a marketer, I completely agree with Chris. As a human being,

and social media connoisseur or just a social media enthusiast user influencer person? As a social media user, I think it's horrible because how many times do you watch YouTube ads and you have those unskippable things and you're like, this has no interest for me. I don't care about this at all. And I have to watch five seconds of it. You don't know how long five seconds is until you're scanning and flipping God for speed. So as a user and as a lover of

social media and just trying to get the entertainment out of it, I think it's horrible because that five seconds is five different decisions for me to decide if I want to keep scrolling or watch a video. And I never want to watch an ad because like Chris said, all of us have the best ad just.

shit detectors and the second that an ad pops up on our screen we're like goodbye and now they're like you don't have a choice you have to watch it and I don't like to be told I have to do anything so I don't want to and now I'm mad and I don't want to use your platform anymore Instagram jerks

So that's my thought. you use, yeah, but do you use YouTube? Yeah, a little bit. I'm not a big YouTuber. How do you like the platform on YouTube? Like from a content standpoint, do you find like YouTube content to be more enriching than Instagram? Yes. But, I don't know. At this point, I think my YouTube is so messed up. I think the algorithm's horrible. Every time I get into it and start looking at stuff, it's like three topics and they just keep shoving the same topics down my throat and I just, don't, I don't know. I think my...

algorithms messed up on YouTube. It's nothing that I'm interested in in depth. When we look at creator platforms or platforms that have been good for creators, YouTube comes out on top, right? If we look at payouts and we look at stuff like that, the reason why YouTube has been successful in this is because of their advertising, because of their advertisers, because the platform or the ad platform behind it. Notoriously, meta, TikTok, Instagram is part of the meta category, have not been very good at paying their creators. And I would suggest that

That's part of the problem is their actual advertising platform doesn't give us enough data into who's good to advertise on what content is good to advertise on versus YouTube where it's like it's a commercial before the content. And I think that this platform change of advertising with unskippable ads before you see the content will be a very good indicator of who's good advertise, like whose content is good to advertise on and who's not. And I hope

it will contribute to better payouts for creators. But that being said, I don't know if it will. I think that creators need to take more of a stand and move over to YouTube and be less on these other platforms. It's that's gonna happen. Do think TikTok's gonna do that with their 60 minute ads? Or 60 minute ads? you imagine? 60 minute whatever. That's normal TV. TikTok's 60 minute length.

You think they're just gonna shove a whole bunch of non -skippable ads in the middle of it? They should, and then they should start paying their creators better. That's gonna up the ante and make it a better platform. So that's my opinion. They should, and I think it will put onus on... It'll wake people up, and it'll less, like I said at the beginning of the podcast, less crap, less marketers paying for bullshit and...

I think that'll contribute better to better margins, better ads, better creativity, better use of the platform, slow things down a bit, and not have everyone scrolling a million miles an hour past stuff that they find is irrelevant. So that's my take on it. Yeah, I'm going to say one more thing. As a marketer and advertiser, I hate ads. So if people can get ads out there that don't look like ads and actually feel native and feel fun and are actually entertaining, that's...

where they're gonna win. If they need to be forced or not, that's where they're gonna win. What's everybody else think out there? What do you influencers think? Is YouTube the platform to get you paid? You tell us, maybe we'll talk about that next time. Let's do that. Thanks for tuning in. Write it in the comments. Yes, write it in the comments. I've been Chris Kubbernus. And I'm Katie Holmes. Of course he is. Yes. Katie. Not really sure why. Why is that the first... I don't... Jason's brain is broken. It's been... It's been real.

Please subscribe, please like, share, comment, do all the things, press all the buttons, and help Jason in the process. He needs a therapist, so... He'll force you to watch an ad. Anytime, yeah, we'll force you to watch ads at the beginning. Therapist, reach out. See you guys next time. Bye, everybody.