If you’re not using Instagram Stories as a marketing tool for your business…well, you should be. Instagram has over 500 million daily active users. Instagram Stories are short, easy to view and (mostly) engaging content from both influencers and brands. The story ads are a powerful tool to get your companies information out across the web quickly and effectively. Ads on Instagram stories can be the difference between a sale, and someone just scrolling aimlessly past. For example, the ability to make a purchase from a company without ever leaving the apps platform is one of those huge perks of this feature.
Instagram Stories: What are they?
Instagram stories are videos or photos available to viewers for 24 hours only before disappearing. These posts are completely separate from your Instagram feed posts. However, your feed can be accessed via your story in the form of your icon, as well as clickable links to a certain post on your story.
Unlike your usual Instagram stories, your Instagram ads do not disappear after 24 hours. You can actually choose the length of the campaign and the frequency of your ads. You can target these via reach, video views, brand awareness and traffic. This allows you to track which categories are your best options whilst making sure your ads are aimed at the correct target audience.
Your Instagram ad will be inserted into a users story viewing process seamlessly. This will even show up within users’ feeds that do not follow your account. This enables the advert to gain a wider reach and improve video views. The way you format your ads can be chosen between Instagram’s 3 options. Video, photo or carousel. Video ads play for up to 15 seconds and photo ads for up to 5 seconds. A carousel advert allows you to insert both video and images that will play 3 separate pieces of content that will be combined into the one advert.
What to consider when creating an Instagram ad
Pay attention to speed: Instagram stories, due to both time length of each story and the speed users scroll through, are the fastest consumed videos and photos than on any other mobile platform. For this reason, you will want to make sure that your adverts are straight to the point. They also need to immediately catch the viewers attention in the first few seconds. You’ll want to provide the user with all the right information straight away. Ideally rather than using suspense and a build-up in order to advertise your product/service. This will be due to the 5-second photo limit and 120-second video limit.
Use sound in your ad: You might want to use audio such as music, voice-overs or sound effects on your ads. This captures your audience’s attention in a completely different way to how visuals alone do. A great tool to use in order for you to decide on which type of audio is best for your specific audience is A/B testing. This can be used to conclude which is most preferred by users interacting with your profile.
Include text to make key messages clear: Keywords are vital in order to capture your audience’s attention straight away. It also can help viewers that are hard of hearing to clearly and easily understand the message at first glance. Illustrating your main point is the most important within an advert that has a limited amount of screen time.
Include motion in your ad: Motion in a story has been proven to capture the viewer’s attention a lot faster than still images. It usually perform a lot better according to Facebook reports. Creating more engaging content by using motion will tell the story and display the ads key message a lot quicker than if you were to use a static image.
You can use these practices in order to best create an inspiring and effective Instagram Story ad of your own. Remember to use your brand knowledge in order to create the best possible advert for your business. For any bespoke social media services, contact Colewood.
