Purpose — ​As social media develops, becoming a more relevant part of society, it is more necessary to understand it, more so when considering social informatics. Exclusively considering the types of advertising available on Instagram, the purpose of this study is to determine the preference of Generation Y and Z, and analyse what motivates their preference when interacting with Instagram advertisements.

Method — ​The study relies on qualitative responses. Therefore, appropriate methods to achieve this data are interviews and surveys. Additionally, survey data can be more easily collected in order to ensure that the analysis of the final results is as accurate as possible for the general population. 10 interviews were conducted, and over 40 responses were gathered from the survey. Through the use of mockups to act as visual cues, the methods will test for preference based on three aspects; visual, trustworthiness and purchase behaviour.

Conclusion — ​Through a thematic analysis, the final results uncovered that participants based their decision according to at least one of three themes; Familiarity, Presentation of Information, and/or Advertising Intrusion. A consistent majority was not achieved across all tested aspects of preference, however, Video Ads were typically favoured.

Limitations — ​The nature of this study is very specific, therefore a lot of considerations within the field have been omitted. Generations outside of Y and Z will not be considered and the study focuses on these groups within Jönköping. Additionally, aspects of social media such as hashtags, tagging functions, and influencers have been studied immensely and will not be relevant to this study. Limitations have been made in order to conduct the study reasonably and competently.