• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

As live video becomes a more popular content format across social media ecosystems, Instagram is incentivizing creators to “boost” their livestreams, with the goal to effectively turn live video into real-time ads.

To help more people see a creator's content, Instagram has allowed creators to boost -- or make ads from their content -- in Feed, Stories, and Reels formats for years. Now, the Meta-owned social app is capable of running ads created from live videos while a creator is streaming live.

“You can choose to boost a live video right before you go live, or schedule it in advance,” the company’s announcement explains. “It's recommended that you schedule your ad at least two hours before you go live to help reduce ad delivery delays.”

When boosting a live video, creators can choose to show their ad across Feed, Stories, and Reels. By doing so, Instagram is attempting to help creators attract a wider audience to their live broadcast, potentially improving monetization opportunities.

Boosting livestreams offers creators a quicker way to make ads out of broadcasts, compared to doing so within the more formal Meta Ads Manager.

Over the next four years, the live streaming market is on a trajectory to grow by a CAGR of 23.1%, growing from $2.58 billion in 2026 to $5.92 billion by 2030, due to widespread smartphone usage, gaming, e-sports, live shopping experiences, and social media.

Introducing live video functionality to promotional opportunities has become a recent trend in social media advertising.

Over the past year, YouTube has launched multiple livestream-focused ad decisions, including the way it serves ads during popular livestream sessions, suspending ads during peak engagement moments in the broadcast.

To ramp up the presence of creator-driven livestreams, X also launched a “Live Studio” command center with payout incentives.

Meta added more affiliate brands and in-stream shopping updates in March, followed by the global expansion of live video ads and live shopping tools to Instagram and Facebook.

In June, the tech giant also began working with more live commerce platforms in the U.S. in order to help merchants and creators turn their livestreams into video ad placements.