How to make Instagram Story ads? (Full guide)

Instagram users are finding out more usages of Instagram Stories, which “Instagram Story ads” is one of them. Also, some users find it as an alternative to Instagram posts and think that running ads on Story has better results.

By increasing the number of competitors on Instagram, users look for creative ways to advertise on Instagram to get more followers and clients. Instagram users are finding out more usages of Instagram Stories, which “Instagram Story ads” is one of them. Also, some users find it as an alternative to Instagram posts and think that running ads on Story has better results.

If you are going to run Instagram ads right away, you are lucky! Because there are plenty of businesses and brands that have not tried it yet, and you are a step ahead of them. Keep reading to get to know all about Instagram story ads and how to make them.

What are Instagram Story ads?

Instagram Story ads let users add a link in the Story and add a call to action buttons. Generally, advertising on Instagram is a good way to reach many people, engage with them, make your brand popular and, as a result, sell your product or service to them.

Users will see the “Sponsored” label on top of the Story when they see the Story, and they would know that the Story is different from the others. There are some basic elements that you should follow before creating ads.

Some of the reasons that a business or brand decides to run Instagram Story ads:

• Brand awareness
• Get view
• Reach more people
• Drives sales
• Increases traffic
• Conversion
• Increases app installs

Now we are going to learn some effective tactics to learn how to run ads on Instagram Stories:

1. Clarify your goal

First of all, you should make up your mind about the objective of the stories such as brand awareness, traffic, engagement, using app or service, video view, etc.

2. Be creative

The add can be a video or photo, but the important thing is, it should be attractive and shouldn’t be a copy from other brands.

3. Choose the best dimension

You should use specific photo dimensions for Instagram Story ads to ensure that users see what they should.

Use the mentioned dimensions for image and video ads on Instagram:

Photo dimension:

• Resolution: 1080 X 1920 pixels
• Least resolution: 600 X 1067 pixels
• An aspect ratio of 9:16
• Use either JPG or PNG format
• Maximum size: 30MB

Video dimension:

• Resolution: 1080 X 1920 pixels
• An aspect ratio of 9:16
• Use either MP4 or MOV format
• Maximum size allowed is 4GB
• Least resolution 720p

4. Clarify your target audience

You can target people based on different elements, such as their location, age, interest, gender, etc.

5. Choose the best call to action

Same as ads on websites or other platforms, you should use a compelling call to action to attract users and make them buy your product or service as soon as they see the ad on the Instagram Story.

Use call to actions like

• New
• Register today
• Get started
• Learn more
• Shop now

 They may seem simple but effective at the same time.

6. Use the Sound

Most of the Instagram users watch videos while the sound is on.

It is better to avoid boomerang and add music to the Instagram Stories ads.

7. Make the first Instagram Story

If you want people to keep watching your Story and don’t ignore it, you should pay a lot of attention to the first few seconds of the Story. Clearly, users are not likely to skip an attractive and informative Story. So, try different colors and fonts to grab people’s attention.

8. Be clear and direct

As you know, Instagram is more visually rather than a place for writing content. So, don’t fill the page with long and big size texts; instead, use a brief and straight message.

If you want to tell a longer Story, you are free to use carousel ads.

9. Mention the brand’s name and logo

One of the important goals for creating Instagram Story ads is to make people be familiar with your brand and stick your brand’s name in their mind.

Naturally, apart from showing your product or service, you should make sure that your logo or brand’s name stands in a good place. Moreover, you can make your brand’s name look natural by showing a product that has the brand’s name on it.

10. Choose the best text position

We mentioned that you shouldn’t add long text to the Story, right? Keep it short, to the point and put the text on a place that let people see both photo and text clearly.

The best place for adding text is on the white space or an empty part of the picture, so followers won’t miss the text in the Instagram story ads.

11. Use the carousel Instagram Stories ads

Carousel ads, Stories, and posts are made for letting users add several photos and videos, why not you use it to tell more about your product?!

The videos are more attention-grabbing and definitely get better results than photos. Video ads play for up to 15 seconds, and Photo ads play for 5 seconds.

Carousel ads let brands and users add up to 3 pieces of content in an ad; they can be either videos or photos.

How to make Instagram story ads?

After knowing the basics of making attention-grabbing Instagram Story ads, it’s time to go through creating Story ads.

Don’t forget that you should have a Business Instagram account that is connected to the Facebook account.

Here is the step by step guide on how to make Instagram story ads?

1.  First of all, sign in to your Facebook account. Click/tap on the arrow on the top right corner of the screen and choose “Manage Ads.” Now, you’ll be redirected to the Facebook ad manager account.

2. Now click/ tap on “Create.”

3. Select your objective and click/ tap on the “Set up Ad account.”

4. Then, complete the needed information and scroll down to the Ad placement field.

5. Click/tap on “Edit placements,” navigate to Instagram and “Stories” option.

6. Now, set the budget and decide whether you want to share an image or video on the Instagram Story ad.

7. After all, it is time to add a link and call to action to the Story ad.

How long can Instagram story ads be?

Instagram story ads have the same length limit as stories. This means that each story add can be 15 seconds. But  that does not mean you can not create more than 15-seconds-long ads.

You can create one long, 15-second story or string a couple of videos together so there are multiple segments that will play within 15 seconds. Note that Instagram Story ads are currently limited to 15 seconds; you can’t string three 15-second videos together to make a 45-second video ad. The upshot of this type of ad is that people can swipe through to skip some parts of your story ad without completely leaving it.

What Makes an Effective Instagram Story Ad?

1. Make sure to use motions in the ad
Facebook reports that “ads that use motion perform better.” Motions such as gifs, captures the viewers’ attention a lot.

2. Try to use audio or music in the ad
Almost every body watch stories with sounds on, that’s why when your Instagram story ads have sound or music, they will be more attractive. Consider how you might use music, sound effects, or voice-over to capture viewers’ attention in a new way.

3. Use your call-to-action in an effective way
For those who do not know what a call-to-action is, it is a sticker, text or link which asks the user to do another action such as,  “Learn More”, “Shop Now”, or “Swipe Up” to encourage viewers to take action, depending on your goal.

4. Don’t forget to add text
You should not just rely on videos or pictures to get the audiences’ attention. Additionally, text can help emphasize your key points.

5. Test out mobile shots.
As Hubspot stated on their blog, Facebook reports, “Mobile shots outperform studio shots for ad recall and intent, while studio shots tend to drive higher brand awareness.” For this reason, consider forgoing fancy studio equipment for video shot and edited straight from a mobile phone.

All in all

After following all the tips for running attention-grabbing Instagram Story ads, you need to try different ad formats, videos, photos, styles, targets, etc. to be successful and get the best results.

Which of the following methods worked the best for you? Is there any tip that you want us to add in the blog?

Please share your ideas and experiments with us, and we are all ears to hear from you.