Instagram Stories Ads: Engaging Audiences in 15 Seconds

Instagram Stories ads are a quick and easy way for you to push your content in front of your target audience. Reaching your audience on users’ Instagram feeds can often be difficult given the ever-changing algorithms, but the Instagram story ads function is extremely useful.

Your ad will pop up in between other users’ Instagram Stories – meaning they can carry a lot of weight for your marketing efforts.

If you’re unsure how to create impactful Instagram Story ads, continue reading our helpful guide.

What is an Instagram story ad?

Instagram Stories ads are short, 15-second videos of photos that appear between Instagram Stories, which appear at the top of the app on users’ Instagram feeds.

According to Statista, 500 million Instagram users check Stories each day – offering a huge opportunity to any brand wishing to advertise on the platform.

Paid ads on Instagram have a ‘Sponsored’ label that indicates to the user that they’re looking at an advertisement. Businesses can include interactive elements to offer more engagement to people, and they can be targeted to specific demographics, interests and locations – allowing businesses to advertise to their exact target audience.

Why should you use Instagram story ads?

Statistics show that Instagram’s ad revenue hit over $50 billion in 2023, and Story ads accounted for 26.7% of that. By the end of 2024, Instagram’s ad revenue is expected to reach almost $60bn – proving the company’s efforts to offer more ad formats for businesses to take advantage of.

Given there are half a billion users on the platform, it would make no sense at all to ignore it and advertise elsewhere.

As a brand – whatever industry you specialise in – you should make use of Instagram Story Ads to extend your reach and increase your customer base.

As well as targeting specific demographics, Instagram Stories ads provide interactive features like polls and quizzes to keep users engaged.

Plus, with a maximum length of 15 seconds, they’re ideal for catching the attention of busy users who aren’t prepared to watch a one-minute video ad.

How to promote an Instagram story

Producing a creative Instagram Stories ad and having a successful impact are two different things.

A lot of companies have talented creators but producing a successful Instagram Story ad campaign requires a few fundamentals.

Here are five things you should do to give your Instagram Story ads the best chance possible of succeeding:

Hone in on targeting

The key to any successful Instagram advertising campaign is to reach the right audience.

To do this, you must target specific demographics that you think would be interested in your brand. With 61% of Instagram users aged between 18 and 34, you should target your story ads to younger users to give yourself the best chance of success.

Instagram ads manager allows marketers to target users based on their:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Interests

Getting your targeting right will give your ads the best chance possible of succeeding and converting leads.

Incorporate creative elements

To grab users’ attention, you must be creative with your Instagram Stories ads. Fortunately, the platform offers plenty of opportunities to be creative.

You must make your ads visually appealing and thanks to Instagram’s Story ads templates, you can create different ad formats easily.

Ensure your brand’s aesthetics shine through and stay consistent in your ads. Use the same colours and fonts you use on your website and other types of content.

In terms of engaging elements, you can include polls, quizzes and other interactive features available on Instagram’s platform. Including these, or buttons for users to interact with, is much more appealing to users than a simple image with a text overlay.

Include a call-to-action

Something vital to increasing your conversions is including a call-to-action (CTA).

This encourages users to tap a button, click a link or follow your account. These actions are easy to track and testing out a few different options allows you to see what works best for your brand.

Incorporate swipe-up links throughout your Instagram advertising to make it easy for users to interact with your ad. This also allows you to measure website traffic (if it’s leading them to a landing page).

Work with influencers & content creators

Another consideration when producing Instagram Story ads is to collaborate with influencers and popular content creators.

This can put your brand in front of a lot more people, stretching your customer base and improving conversions. Lots of influencers have plenty of sway and impact on social media, making them a vital part of any marketing campaign.

You’ll find some creator posts encourage users to interact with a brand more than the actual advertisement itself.

Following tracking and measurement

Finally, the key to any successful Instagram Stories advertising campaign is to track your figures.

This way, you’ll discover exactly what is working, and what isn’t, during your ad campaign.

Story ads vs feed ads – what’s the difference?

Instagram offers brands the chance to advertise on both their Stories and feeds.

Feed ads appear in between normal posts as users scroll down their timelines, while Instagram Story ads appear in between Stories.

What are their main differences, though?

Well, Stories are much quicker and are designed for quick consumption of content, while feed ads are designed to provide consistent visibility down timelines; they have no time limit.

Stories ads offer more interactive components than feed ads too, giving brands the chance to create engaging content. Feed ads do not allow for such interaction, but can be used to create videos, image carousels and slideshows.

Both Stories ads and feed ads give brands the chance to include a CTA. This can be a ‘follow’ button, a link to a landing page or they may prompt the user to message the brand.

Feed ads make better use of targeting, while Stories ads face lots of competition.

On the whole, a good marketing campaign will include both Stories ads and feed ads to give a brand the best chance possible to reach as many people as they can.

Need help with your Instagram story ads?

Are you struggling to make an impact with your audience using Instagram story ads and Instagram feed ads?

Well, lucky for you, we can help. At Paramount Digital, we boast a team of social media advertising experts who have had success with a wide range of ad formats. Video ads and Instagram story ads are their forte – and they can have a positive impact on your business.

If you’re interested in utilising our expertise to improve the impact your Instagram story ads have on your target audience, simply get in touch today.

You can call 01744 747474 or send an email to marketing@paramountdigital.co.uk, and a member of our team will be happy to discuss your situation.