Instagram’s Adding New Direct Response Ad Options Within Stories
Instagram is slowly expanding on its advertising potential, with the addition of new direct response ads within the Stories stream.
As first reported by Ad Age, the new direct response ads are similar to the ‘See more’, swipe up prompt which Instagram provided to verified users for their Stories content back in November.
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That option has since been expanded to more users (reports have suggested that all users with more than 10k followers can now add swipeable links to their Stories, but we’ve not received any official confirmation) – this new ad option is essentially the same process, but available to all as an ad, as opposed to an organic way to add links.
As reported by Marketing Land, the new option is being made available through Facebook’s self-serve ad-buying tools, Ads Manager and Power Editor, as well as through Facebook’s advertising API.
The Stories ads, which appear between Stories as users swipe through, can include a single vertical photo or a vertical video of up to 15 seconds in length. At the bottom of the screen (as shown in the first example above), there’ll be a prompt for users to take immediate action – the options available for this CTA will be:
- Apply Now
- Book Now
- Contact Us
- Donate Now
- Download
- Learn More
- Send Message
- Request Time
- Start Order
- Shop Now
- Sign Up
- Watch More
Instagram Stories is Facebook’s most successful Snapchat clone, with more than 200 million users already engaging with Stories content every day. Given this, it makes sense for Instagram to offer more advanced ad products and options to get more brands using the tool – and to keep them away from Snapchat.
It’s also part of Instagram’s wider business shift, which could soon see a significant boost with the addition of shopping tags in images. The platform is rolling out these new tools slowly, so as not to disrupt the user experience, but it seems like it won’t be long till we have a lot more direct linking options within Instagram, and ways to drive direct traffic – without having to use the old ‘link in bio’ hack.
This also comes in addition to the recently added capacity to @ mention other users in Stories, and to enable Stories content to be discovered by the use of hashtags and location stickers, which are also significant developments for brands using the option.