Consumer Ad Platforms

I used to love Instagram to show off my photos and see my friends’ work online. Flickr still exists and was terrific but has largely been in sunset mode as the community of people has all moved away.

For the past couple of weeks, scrolling through my Instagram feed, I noticed just how many ads there were.

The Reels portion feels like every third reel is an advertisement. The feed section has always had ads, but initially, they did not seem intrusive. Now they are constant. It has gotten to the point that some days I feel I see more ads than the images of the people I follow.

In both cases, the ads are now more aggressive¹ and repetitive and irrelevant.

Since they are not going away, I figured I could fine-tune them to reduce interest and limit the off-the-wall ones. I went through every interest listed and selected Show Less. I have no idea where they connect my interest in this service or thing. More than 85% of them I had zero interest in or actively hated.

Select an Ad: Hit Hide Ad –> Irrelevant, or I see it too often or Report Ad: –> select Spam or Scam.

Wait for the algorithm to catch up. Wait for it. Bingo, more ads that I will never click on but will destroy the app’s experience.

Is the increase in poor ads the result of ATT from Apple? Is every advertiser desperate for “engagement”? Probably some of both.

Starting to wonder if Instagram should pivot and remove all user photos and display ads to people; it feels like we are close now.