Instagram’s announced some new ad options as it looks to help brands capitalize on the rising popularity of Stories.
Stories, originally cloned from Snapchat, now has more than 250 million daily users – and while Stories use among individuals has continued to grow, businesses have also been paying increased attention.
As per Instagram:
“In just one year, the stories format has changed the way brands connect with and inspire their customers—with more than 50% of businesses having created a story in the last month.”
To help maximize this, Instagram’s giving brands new options for their Stories ads, the first of which is the ability to use Facebook’s immersive Canvas format within Instagram Stories ads.
As you can see, Canvas ads within Stories function much the same as regular Stories ads, but Canvas ads offer more options, functioning as mini-websites, to a degree.
For example, in this ad, once you’ve swiped up, you can scan through various other elements of the ad, including recommendations and testimonials, all built into the Canvas experience.
The option provides a more immersive, in-depth ad experience, which gives Instagram advertisers more options, and more ways to generate interest from Stories.
In addition to this, Instagram’s also adding a new option which will enable brands to use content they’ve created within Stories for ads.
“Now, advertisers can use camera features like face filters, boomerangs, and drawing tools to create an organic piece of media, and then repurpose as an ad.”
The option adds more capacity to Stories content – if a Story performs particularly well, it might make sense to re-use that creative, rather than simply letting it disappear.
“This new uploading feature allows advertisers to extend the reach of their existing stories creative and have it live permanently within Power Editor and Ads Manager for future use.”
A third new Stories ad option announced will enable advertisers to automatically add Instagram Stories content to Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network campaigns through placement optimization, helping to maximize the potential of Stories content.
As noted, Instagram Stories has fast become an essential part of the Instagram experience. Despite it being a direct copy of Snapchat Stories, and despite some initial skepticism as to how Instagram users would warm to it, Facebook has be able to not only grow the option, but also turn it into a lucrative revenue tool by enabling increased brand use.
Given Instagram’s rapid rise in popularity, and subsequent broadening reach, it makes sense for advertisers to be looking into their various ad options – and Stories provides great opportunity for those who can use it well.