Instagram now allows 60 second video ads, but you still only get 15 seconds

Instagram has begun rolling out an update for its ads that increases the duration of videos that can be recorded. Previously limited to up to 30 seconds, the photo-sharing service has doubled the time to a full minute — 60 seconds. The company admitted that the reason was to better appeal to advertisers to give them the flexibility of creating content to market their products.

The move comes just in time for Super Bowl 50, with some of the first brands taking advantage of this being T-Mobile and Warner Brothers.

In September, Instagram launched video ads for marketers. These pieces of content could be up to 30 seconds long, which was double the length of what an average user could record. This move was made to make sure that brands could fit in an average-length commercial without having to do all the heavy work of retooling their production work.

Now with 60 seconds, advertisers will be able to put more creative resources to tell a story about their product.

We’re in the #BigGame with @ChampagnePapi. #YouGotCarriered

A video posted by tmobile (@tmobile) on Feb 3, 2016 at 8:37am PST

Advertising on Instagram has been something Facebook highlighted during the company’s Q4 2015 earnings. While it hasn’t revealed how much the program contributed to Facebook’s bottom line, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has described it as one of the “most important mobile advertising platforms” out on the market today.

She also highlighted during the call that 98 of the top 100 advertisers on Facebook advertised on Instagram during the previous quarter, so the added flexibility of video length is probably going to further encourage these brands to spend more money to market on the app.

But while brands get more time to sell their products on Instagram, you and I will still only have 15 seconds to tell our story.