We first saw ads on Instagram Stories just under a year ago, a format that has over 300 million daily users. Last week Instagram announced that it is expanding its ad capabilities by introducing carousel ads to Stories. Recently, brands were limited to using just one image on their Instagram ads, but now everyone’s favourite photo sharing app has upped the limit to three photos or videos.
This update is music to the ears of brands and advertisers. Having seen the power and success of organic Instagram Stories over the last year, it’s now time to turn our budgets and our creative minds to how we can make the most of this update. With Snapchat rarely getting a look in these days, Instagram has become the haven for ephemeral content where we can easily, and quickly measure results.
Instagram has stated that to help brands identify what works and what doesn’t with their carousel ads. They will measure the break out view and swipe-up counts for each post in the ad. However, when it comes to impressions, this will only be measured once, at the very beginning of the ad sequence.
At the moment, the biggest issue with ads on Stories is that they are so obviously an ad, but with this new update brands will be able to blend in a little more to the organic Stories already available and be less intrusive to users. And, let’s not forget the ability to use other popular IG features such as drawing tools, stickers and GIFS to help tell the campaign story.
Instagram is currently trialing this new ad format with a limited number of brands, such as Netflix and GAP. However, due to the ease in which users can already find out more about brand offerings, by simply swiping up, it won’t be long until the success stories come rolling in with this additional opportunity for creative storytelling. Watch this space!
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