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How To Use Instagram Story Ads To Grow Your Brand: Complete Guide

A group of women posing for a photo at an e-commerce event.

Instagram is one of the most competitive as well as popular platforms that have the potential to skyrocket the performance of your marketing strategy. Instagram is known for its opportunities and supportiveness to the business community to ease their marketing process. It introduces new tools and features that help brands in their marketing journey.

Due to a lot of opportunities offered by this platform, the competition has dramatically increased on this platform. This makes it harder for new brands to join this multi-revenue stream as they face extreme competition. This makes them find and choose other ways of getting famous on this platform.

Additionally, many brands prefer to buy Instagram followers to build a strong reputation for their brand in front of their audience. Story ads are one of the most recently introduced features that serve the same purpose. It helps you build a strong reputation and enhances the sales and impressions on your business website.

If you want to know more about it, you are at the right place. We'll discuss everything you need to know about Instagram story ads and how you can utilize this feature at its best. So, let's get started…

In this blog, we are going to discuss the following points:

What are Instagram story ads?

How to set up story ads for Instagram?

How to use Instagram story ads?

Benefits of Instagram Story Ads

Instagram Story Ads: Best Practices

Features of Story Ads 

Wrap up

What Are Instagram Story Ads?

It is the most recently introduced feature of Instagram that has gained instant popularity because of the potential it offers. Instagram story ads are a component of the Facebook ads system, but they differ significantly from the ads we see on Instagram feeds. The story ads on Instagram cannot be run similarly to those for the Instagram newsfeeds displayed on this platform. These two categories of ads are entirely different because they possess different sets of creative and technical requirements. While you display the story ads on Instagram, you can choose any option from targeting, budgeting, scheduling, etc. The most prominent feature of Instagram story ads is mentioned below, whereas buying 5000 Instagram reel views is another powerful way of attracting more viewers to your story ads.

  • When you feature a story ad on your Instagram profile, it displays as a sponsored story between the other levels of the people.
  • As long as you are paying to run this campaign, this ad will keep displaying to the audience you want to target.
  • It offers the option of displaying videos for 15 seconds and showing a photo for 5 seconds.
  • It also sends the CTA of your profile to the relevant people so that they can contact you.
  • The users can skip the story ads by swiping them, and if they want to progress with them, they can do so simply by tapping them. Users can also pause the story ads by pressing them for a while.

How to set up story ads for Instagram?

If you want to make Instagram story ads a part of your content creation journey, you must connect the Instagram account to the business manager and locate the Ads manager on this menu. After you have done this, you need to follow the given set of actions to get done with the ad's settings on your Instagram account.

  1. The first thing that you need to do after this is to choose an objective from the given list of options. Choose the end goal for which you want to run this ad campaign.
  2. The next step involves the selection of the audience to whom you want to show this ad. Choose the audience you feel is more relevant to the message you are offering in your story ad.
  3. Then you need to select the placement and budget for your story ad. It determines the areas and time of your story ad.
  4. Now you can create your Instagram story ad, which starts showing up to your chosen audience. You can boost the visibility of your story ads by buying 250 Instagram story views.

How To Use Instagram Story Ads?

If you are a new brand on Instagram that wants to market its products or services on this platform, then you must be very efficient while creating the story ads on your Instagram profile. Makes sure you utilize the potential of this feature at its best. The following tips can be constructive for you in this respect:

Enhance your story ads with motion

The motion in your story adds so much detail and creativity to the messages you will convey to your audience. The audience mainly likes the reports showing motion more than the plain posts. The following points are the data from Facebook that support the activity usage in the story ads.

  • The audience only views 83% of the static images and does nothing in response.
  • Adding motion to your story ads makes 88% possibility of the product being added to the cart by the users.
  • But static images only show 76% of the purchase.

It would be best to consider adding consistent branding and bold headlines that enhance the message you will share with your audience but keep the minimal text in your story ads. You should use motion to explain the conception of your story.

Be highly responsive

Another thing that adds more meaning to the effectiveness of your Instagram story campaign is being responsive to your audience and making them feel that you are available for them around the clock. It helps you serve the purpose of your marketing campaign and help you meet your goals.

Benefits of Instagram Story Ads

  • Access to Facebook Ads Manager:

Facebook Ads Manager is a fantastic tool that provides comprehensive features to create, manage, and optimize advertising campaigns on Facebook.

If you already have a business account on Instagram, you can manage and optimize your Instagram ad campaigns using Facebook Ads Manager.

As we know, advertising is all about analyzing key data points and tweaking and optimizing them for optimal results; such a tool can dramatically boost the results – whether you are looking to generate leads or close more sales.

Plus, you can run and manage campaigns for your Facebook and Instagram accounts from a single dashboard. 

  • Beginner-Friendly Interface:

One key benefit of Instagram Story ads is that they are user-friendly and extremely simple to create. You don't have to be a tech nerd to be able to launch winning Instagram Story ads and drive results.

That means you can do it yourself if you are starting with the feature and don't have the budget to outsource the job. But make sure you use high-quality and captivating graphics in your story ads.

Using intriguing images and videos in your ads drive more views, engagement, and conversions for your ad campaigns.

  • Advanced Targeting:

Thanks to the fact that Facebook owns Instagram, you can target your target audience as granularly as possible to maximize your ads' return on investment (ROI).

You can target by location, activity, interests, age, etc. Plus, you can run retargeting campaigns to improve the conversion rate further. 

Since Facebook's algorithm is rich with user-specific data, the possibilities of showcasing your best products using Instagram Story ads and attracting new customers and followers to your brand's profile are endless.

You can target people who know the brand or have visited your website but haven't purchased yet. Giving them more information about the fantastic benefits of a product and offering them incentives in the form of discounts or additional perks is a great way to lure them into swiping their credit cards.

  • Brand Awareness:

Instagram is a goldmine for marketing a brand, building an audience, and making sales. The problem is that it is tough to use organic strategies to build a brand from scratch, reach new users, and convince them to buy.

This is where Instagram Story ads come in. They offer an effective way to attract new potential buyers to your brand and instantly grow your brand awareness without waiting months to see the results.

Brand awareness is a vital marketing goal on Instagram that results in more users knowing about your brand and what you offer. 

People buy from brands they know, like, and trust. Running IG story ads is a great way to get people to learn more about your brand, and they are more likely to buy from you when they are looking for similar products that you offer.

  • Build an Audience:

We know that digital marketing and social media are all about building an engaged audience and monetizing that audience to grow your brand.

Story ads are one of the most effective strategies that deliver quick results. Your best chance to win with this feature is by adopting a multi-faceted strategy that combines organic marketing with Story ads. 

You essentially build like-worthy content on your Instagram profile based on the interests and problems of your intended audience. This ensures your content speaks to your audience and wins their trust as they discover your account. 

To get more Instagram users to discover your profile and join your tribe, Story ads can help you a lot. By using the advanced targeting options within the Facebook ads manager, you can bring in more new users who might be interested in your brand and are more likely to buy from you.

  • Enhanced Reach:

Instagram ads offer a vast opportunity to reach bigger and newer audiences on the platform and boost conversions.

84% of Instagram users use the app to discover new brands and products. Instagram has also integrated product stickers into Stories, allowing users to click on them and buy the products inside the app. 

Instagram is a business-friendly social platform that provides practical marketing tools to the business community and brands to showcase their products to a targeted audience and drive results.

With over 500 million Instagram users, watch Stories daily. With their immersive nature and visual appeal, Stories are a great marketing asset to keep users engaged with your content and brand. 

Did you know that 86.6% of Instagram users post Stories? This means more reach of your content and more potential to attract interested buyers. 

Instagram Story Ads:  Best Practices

Speed is Vital

Unlike other ad formats we see on Instagram or other social platforms, Instagram Story ads offer a very narrow window to hook the attention of your viewers.

With video ads of just 120 seconds (2 minutes) and image ads displaying for just 5 seconds, diving into the message from the beginning is inevitable.

You have no room to introduce curiosity and then lead your viewers to your offer; instead, you must tell them what this ad is about.

Use Stories-first Format  

When creating a Story ad, Instagram prompts you to pick the format for your ad. Here, you should choose the vertical full-screen design that perfectly fits the display as a story ad. This is a recommended practice to enhance the user experience.

If you prefer to use other formats in your ads, make sure that you don't clip the critical information through cropping or zooming. 

Use Multiple Scenes

Since Story ads are a fast-paced format to run your ad campaigns, using multiple frames, images, and visuals to share your message and engage them with the content quickly is essential.

Using boring and slow-paced graphics will only turn away viewers' attention, and you will not be able to get the message across and convert them.

You have to pick every image or every video shot after carefully analyzing that it would entice the viewers to keep viewing. Because if they do so, there is a high chance that ads will convert well.

Test Mobile Shots

Depending on the objective of your campaign, you can use studio-made videos and shots made with your smartphone.

Professionally made videos in the studio are proven to drive more engagement, while the mobile-shot clips work best for intent and ad recall.

Put Your Brand Forefront

Data has shown that ads that mention the brands perform better than those that don't. So, when you run a Story ad campaign, use logos and other brand elements in the beginning.

The reason might be the perceived value of the products from a reputable and recognizable brand rather than a random seller because people don't want to spend their money on a non-reputable seller and end up disappointed.

Don't Mention the Prices

An in-depth analysis of many ad campaigns by Facebook has backed this. The Story ads that don't tell the viewers prices of individual products tend to outclass others that do.

Focusing more on the product benefits increases product awareness and brings the viewers into a buying frame of mind. The friction has already been significantly reduced, with most juicy features highlighted in the ad.

And this all an ad is supposed to do – educate viewers about a product, how it can benefit them, and remove objections.

Pro Tip: An intelligent tip here is to list the problems your intended users are facing alongside the features of the product that solve those individual issues. 

This practice seems a little boring initially, but believe me, it can be a massive win for your Story ad campaigns. It will significantly help you create laser-targeted ad copy and entice users facing a particular problem. Speaking directly to a niche audience can dramatically boost conversions. 

Avoid Unnecessary Stickers

Stickers on your story ads can drive attention to click through and see more details about a specific product before purchasing. While at the same time, they should not clutter the advertisement as it can undermine the message, resulting in low conversion rates.
You can swipe up CTA stickers or countdown stickers on ads that don't include pre-posted content. You can use a combination of these interactive stickers: location, hashtag, tappable text, and @mention stickers. 

Use Call-to-action Strategically

Using a relevant CTA or call-to-action is vital to give the best results for your campaigns. Based on the campaign objective, you can use “swipe up” or “shop here” CTAs to drive the intended actions by the viewers. 

Features of Story Ads 

Specifications:

Story ads support all dimensions for images and videos to be used in the campaigns. You can use graphics between 1:91 aspect ratio up to 4:5. The 9:16 sizes are recommended for the best user experience with the full-screen vertical format of Instagram Stories.

For video ads, the recommended formats are .mp4 and .mov. However, if you intend to use images, you can use .jpg or .png formats for the best user experience.

The maximum allowable video file size is 4 GB, while image files should not exceed 30 MB. Finally, the image resolution should be a minimum of 600 x 1067. At the same time, the recommended dimensions are 1080 x 1920. 

Cost:

On average, Instagram Story ads cost between $0.70 and $1. At the same time, the actual cost may vary as it depends on many factors, including the placement of ads, industry, demographics of the audience, time of the year, etc. In some cases, the cost may exceed $3 or even more. 

Length:

Video ads have 120 seconds of length at max. Image ads are shown for 5 seconds, the default duration. 

Wrap up

Story ads on Instagram are the most powerful and instant way of connecting with more users and achieving the desired goal of your marketing campaign. You only need to know how you can implement this strategy in the best way possible so that you may get the maximum benefit from it.

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