Instagram, owned by Facebook, recently announced an upcoming new addition to its Stories segment. This will further expand the efficacy of ads which started being shown last year on this hugely popular format. Claiming to have more than 300 million daily users on its Stories platform, the company’s recent move will seek to bolster the ad revenues generated from this well-liked platform.
What change can you expect?
Facebook is planning to bring the carousel ads display format to Instagram Stories. In the existing format, there was one piece of ad content (either a video or a photo) associated with each Story. In this revised format, advertisers can display three ads per Story. The ad display will be consistent with the existing format – i.e. upto 15-second videos and every photo in a Story ad can be visible for 5 seconds.
As per Susan Rose (Director of Monetization and Product Marketing, Instagram), this was a natural move as this type of format was already prevalent on organic (non-ad) Stories. So moving to the ad-based Stories section was an expected transition. She went to say that this move was to cater to the demands of advertisers and businesses who have first-hand seen the power of multiple contents on the organic Stories section.
The first preference upon launch will be given to traditional ad buyers via the automated ad buying services on Facebook Marketing Partners programme.
What prompted the change?
The primary trigger for this move was the phenomenal success of carousel based ads displayed on Facebook’s News Feed section. Since the parent company for both Facebook and Instagram are same, it was long expected that the hugely successful carousel ad based display would make its presence on the photo-sharing site as well.
In addition to this, advertisers too will benefit from this new ad display format. Instead of trying to fit in their marketing messages into a 15-second slot, they will get 3x the length of time to present their marketing messages. This, in turn, will have a better level of engagement and increase the likelihood of conversions through Instagram ads. They can continue the narrative in a series of videos to be displayed side by side and keep the viewers hooked. Additionally, they can now pin stickers and use Instagram functionalities, like the drawing tool, to enhance the videos put up.
As a part of its rollout plan, it will start small with a select group of advertisers. This will help them check the pain points and rectify any flaws before a full-fledged rollout of the ad display format to all users. Initial participating advertisers include Gap and Coca-Cola. Interested in checking out a sample ad? Then head here and see the Gap blog showing a glimpse of the exciting things to come on their ad display network on Instagram Stories.
What are your initial thoughts on this new change being brought about to Instagram? Do write to us and let us know your views.
