With short video now the main battleground for social media attention, all major platforms are striving to establish the most engaging creator monetization programs, to ensure top stars continue to post on their applications.
YouTube already has its partner program, which basically works to complement Shorts, in addition to its Shorts Fund, while TikTok today just announced its first steps towards a revenue-sharing program for top creators.
And now Meta is also sweetening its deal for Reels, with an update to its Reels Play Bonus program, which will see it overhaul its payment process, while also launching a new “Challenges” option for Facebook Reels, offering more ways to earn money from your short clips.
As Meta explains:
“As we continue to test and refine the Reels Play bonus programs, we are making some updates. We’re adjusting the way payouts are calculated, with the goal of rewarding creators of different audience sizes who create high-quality, original content that resonates with people (which may result in payout changes for some creators)”
Meta didn’t provide a specific breakdown as to how its calculations will change, but the update appears to be aimed at rewarding creators with smaller audiences, as opposed to big players taking all the money.
For example, if someone has a million subscribers, it will be much easier for them to reach any set engagement threshold for Reels rewards, which puts rising stars and those looking to get ahead of themselves at a disadvantage. establish in space. By accounting for variability and potentially rewarding creators based on a certain ratio of engagement per viewer, this could make it a more equitable and encouraging program to nurture rising talent.
On top of that, Meta is also introducing “Challenges” on Facebook, “a new incentive that helps the creators of the Reels Play bonus program unlock new ways to earn from their content, up to $4,000 per month.”
It’s also meant to help a wider range of creators make money with Reels, as opposed to the big names hoarding all the available cash.
But really, creator funding programs like this aren’t scalable, and if Meta wants to build a truly fair and beneficial revenue-sharing system, they’ll have to incorporate ads at some point and allocate some of their performance to the creators concerned.
That’s where this next announcement comes in:
“Building on the strong advertising and revenue share foundation we’ve established with in-app ads, we’ve rolled out overlay ads in Reels on Facebook, and are starting to test them with a broader set of creators (beyond beyond the in-stream ad program) to expand availability to more creators and open up more high-quality inventory for advertisers on our platform. »
Meta has been testing overlay ads for Reels with selected creators for some time, with all Coil Makers in USA, Canada and Mexico have access to the option in February.

This could provide a more sustainable monetization path for short-form content, while giving advertisers another way to promote their products in the growing option, meeting consumers where they are increasingly paying attention.
Indeed, in its latest performance update, Meta noted that Reels clips now take up more than 20% of the time users spend on Instagram, while video content, overall, accounts for 50% of the time users spend on Facebook.
Even though TikTok was leading the trend and these other apps are just jumping on the bandwagon, the format’s popularity is undeniable, and it’s worth considering the opportunities for short clips, in all apps, for your marketing efforts.
Finally, Meta is also Rolling out new information for Reels Play creators on Facebook.
“On the Reels Play Bonus Insight page on Facebook, creators can easily see how many Plays each of their eligible Reels has received during the given earning period.”
This will provide more transparency in the process and help Reel creators establish a more sustainable process.
At least until Meta changes its monetization settings again, depending on what it’s looking to incentivize, which is why Meta really needs to push its Reels overlay ad offering, in order to provide a flow more reliable monetization to the creators of Reels.
It’s amazing to consider the adoption of short video and the impact of TikTok, especially when you also consider that Vine was around years ago and basically offered the same kind of approach to content, but never caught on in the same way.
Perhaps it was ahead of its time, and perhaps as consumer habits continue to evolve, shorter and shorter forms of entertainment will continue to be the norm, building on the increasing pace of the media cycle and the relentless flow of content available to us 24/7.
I mean, it seems like our brains can only handle so much, but we also evolve, and as we get used to those changes, expectations will also change, forcing industry changes to come with them .
Either way, short video is the key trend right now, and the platform that can craft the best monetization process will likely be the big winner in the end.
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