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Instagram Goes Long-Form With Features, and There Is Nothing to Buy in Ads Manager Yet

By zAI

Instagram Goes Long-Form With Features, and There Is Nothing to Buy in Ads Manager Yet

On October 26, 2026, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, and Tessa Lyons, VP of product, introduced Features, horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long that join Reels, Series, Live and the Instagram app for TV. Seen from an ad account it sounds like a new video placement, and it isn't one: as of October 28, 2026 there is no Features inventory to buy in Ads Manager, and Meta has not presented an ad model for the format. What exists is an organic test in which, according to Mosseri himself, creators get paid mostly by brands.

A Long Format Tied to Reels and the TV

The 90-minute video is aimed at podcasts, vlogs and interviews, according to Later. TechCrunch describes "Clips as Reels," Reels that a creator cuts from the long video and that send viewers to the full Feature, which can also be saved to watch later in the TV app; Later calls them "Linked Reels." Series is a space for short, scripted episodes, and Live gets more visibility in recommendations and in the Reels tab, including to people who don't follow the creator, according to Briefs, which summarizes Bloomberg.

The TV app is the other half of the announcement. Later dates its arrival on Apple TV to October 23, 2026, while Briefs says Monday, October 26, and only in the US; either way it joins Fire TV, Google TV and Samsung. Lyons, quoted by Briefs, said "the TV bet is really early" and will take years.

Instagram has tried this before. IGTV, its long-form video product, launched in 2018 and was retired in 2022, and in the announcement video Mosseri says, per TechCrunch, "For a long time, I have been against doing long-form video on Instagram."

Where the Test Is Running Depends on Who You Read

The sources don't agree. Bloomberg, via Briefs, reports a Features beta opening to tens of thousands of US creators, Series in testing in the US, Mexico and India, and the Live promotion expanding to Indonesia and Brazil before the end of the year. 9to5Google, citing The Hollywood Reporter, writes that it is US-only to start. TechCrunch tells a different story: it says Features and Clips as Reels are being tested in Brazil and will now expand to the US in a small test, and Later repeats that it is "running in Brazil first."

Mosseri's post names no countries, and as of October 28, 2026 we did not find an announcement in the Instagram newsroom. Brazil and Mexico show up in the coverage, Brazil as the Features test market in one version and Mexico in the Series test in another, but there is nothing to plan around until Instagram publishes where each format runs.

The Money, for Now, Comes From Brands

A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch: "It's too early to share a long-term monetization model, but we're exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans, and Instagram, including performance-based incentives." Mosseri was more direct on the Colin and Samir Show: "right now, the way that it works on Instagram primarily is you primarily get paid by brands." He added that the small performance-based program costs Instagram far more than it earns back, which is why it doesn't make sense to scale it.

TechCrunch says it's "possible" that Meta will end up putting ads inside long-form videos. That is the outlet's speculation, and no source says it is in the works. For reference, on YouTube creators in the Partner Program keep 55% of the ad revenue from their videos, and 9to5Google's headline says Instagram doesn't yet offer a split like that.

For a brand, the route the sources describe for showing up in a Feature is a sponsorship deal with a creator who is in the test. No source publishes rates, price ranges or performance data for the format, so any number in a proposal will come from the creator, not from Instagram.

What to Put in Writing Before Sponsoring a Feature

Later published a list of points to negotiate with the creator, with a caveat worth keeping in mind: it sells creator marketing tools, so it has an interest in brands investing in this channel. The list still works as a starting point, and we recommend putting these four items in writing.

  • Integration length and placement: how long the brand mention runs and where in the episode it appears.
  • Usage rights: whether cutdowns of the Feature can run as Reels or as paid ads.
  • Viewing data: which watch-time and completion data the creator shares, and how often.
  • What happens if the test changes or ends: where the content lives and how that affects the deal.

The sources also don't say what control a brand has over the content around its integration, or how a sponsorship is labeled inside a Feature. In a 90-minute video both matter, and they are worth asking about before signing.

What Meta Hasn't Answered Yet

Later suggests two questions for your Meta rep, and neither has a public answer. The first is whether partnership ads (paid ads a brand runs alongside the creator's account) and whitelisting (the creator's permission for a brand to pay to distribute their content from that account) extend to Features. The second is how TV views are reported compared with mobile views. Later also compares a Feature watched on TV to a CTV buy, connected TV advertising, with a different budget owner and metrics like completion rate; that is its analogy, not an Instagram definition.

For anyone already working with creators on Reels, Features is for now one more clause to review in those deals, not a new line in the media plan. If a creator with access to the test proposes a sponsorship, the four points above are the basis for that conversation. Whether Meta will ever open a buyable placement, and when, is something no source can answer as of October 28, 2026.

This content was developed with AI assistance and reviewed by the Zenda team. Any bad ideas are entirely our own.