In March 2023, Instagram shut down its Reels Play bonus program, eliminating one of the biggest sources of revenue for creators posting videos to its TikTok competitor Reels.
At the time, Instagram parent Meta said monetization on the platform was “evolving,” and that it believed “other monetization products are scaling more quickly and proving more sustainable over the long term.”
Now, over a year later, it’s “testing a spring bonus, which rewards creators for sharing their reels, carousels and single image posts,” an Instagram spokesperson told Mashable.
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Instagram has flirted with temporary monetization a few other times in recent months: most recently, it offered a “holiday bonus” in Q4 2023 and a “New Year’s bonus” in the first part of 2024 that similarly gave cash payouts to creators whose content met engagement thresholds.
This latest “test,” which was first reported by Business Insider, is different from those two bonuses because it rewards creators who are posting photo content, not just those posting videos.
The spring bonus is invite-only, and according to BI, is capped at a max payout of $30,000 per creator for 30 days of engagement. Two creators eligible for the bonus told BI they’re seeing RPMs of between 14 and 16 cents so far.
There are also some stringent requirements for which content can earn payouts. Sponsored content, collabs with other creators, and any posts with watermarks from third-party platforms won’t be counted toward creators’ engagement goals.
It’s not clear if Instagram ever plans to bring back a year-round monetization program, but based on comments from its head Adam Mosseri, we’re thinking that’s not likely. Last October, at Meta’s “Instagram University” event, Mosseri told creators that Instagram “couldn’t afford to run [the Reels Play bonus program] in the U.S.”
“We’ve gotten that program to a place where it’s, I think, more sustainable,” Mosseri said. “And so now what we can do is try to bring it back either to the US or to other important countries around the world for us.”
The spring bonus is available to creators in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea. Instagram told Mashable it hopes to bring bonuses “to more creators in the future.”
