Strategy

How to Use Instagram Stories Ads

How can I stand out from the crowd and engage my audience with my ads? Since March, Instagram Stories ads has been available to only a few Instagram Partners. Capital One, Nike, Ben & Jerry’s and Netflix were among 30 brands that tested out ads on Instagram Stories.

How can I stand out from the crowd and engage my audience with my ads? Since March, Instagram Stories ads has been available to only a few Instagram Partners. Capital One, Nike, Ben & Jerry’s and Netflix were among 30 brands that tested out ads on Instagram Stories. From now on, you can use them too. If you believe in the power of storytelling as much as we do, then adding Stories ads to your social media strategy will be the best decision yet. How can you stand out and tell your brand story between all other stories? In this blog we show you some use cases and share some benefits.

What are Instagram Stories Ads

You’ve probably seen Instagram Stories appear above users’ feeds. You can view them for 24 hours and play them continuously. Instagram Stories ads appear between those stories from different users who you follow.

8 Use cases

How have brands put Stories ads into practice? Continue reading to get an idea of successful campaigns of these 8 brands:

1. Honda
2. Ben & Jerry’s
3. Airbnb
4. Netflix
5. Akbank
6. QANTAS
7. Yoox
8. Noosa

1 Honda

Honda chose Instagram over Snapchat for its ‘Flipbook Series’ campaign because it let the brand tap into the scale of its 1.4 million-plus existing Instagram followers. Honda already had a large audience on Instagram and didn’t have to do so much to get instant engagement at scale on their Stories ads. Moreover, they could easily tap into Facebook’s infrastructure.

‘From buying and optimisation to measurement and reporting, Instagram ads (including Stories) are embedded directly within the Facebook ads ecosystem that buyers know and understand. That removes a barrier for advertisers.’ said Mike Dossett, Associate Director of Digital Strategy at RPA, Honda’s agency.

2 Ben & Jerry's

For the ice-cream brand, Ben & Jerry’s, it was all about scale. The brand was a part of a beta test between January and March and ran ads on Instagram Stories to promote its new Pint Slices. The brand plans to run more ads over the summer since it saw a higher CPM rate than its usual benchmark.

‘We want to serve up relevant stories to our fans wherever they are. We have a robust following in Instagram, and people are not only spending more time there but also consuming Stories there.’ – Brand Manager, Ben & Jerry’s

3 Airbnb

Airbnb revealed impressive numbers at the conclusion of its campaigns using ads in Stories. The campaigns focused on different travel experiences. The new way of advertising seemed to work, seeing an ad recall increase in the double digits.‘We saw a double digit point increase in ad recall from our experiences on Airbnb campaign that further justifies our investment in ads within Stories as they have made a measurable impact for us. Our ability to apply existing targeting and measurement in an experience to reach the right audience, in the right mindset, with the right story at scale has allowed us to achieve the results we were hoping for in a partnership with Instagram,’ Eric Toda, Global Head of Social Marketing and Content, Airbnb

4 Netflix

In Mexico and Argentina, Netflix wanted to take advantage of adverts in Instagram Stories to support the launch of ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, a new Netflix original. The main objective was to raise awareness of the title, as this was the first series of the programme.

5 Akbank

In Turkey, one of the country’s largest banks, Akbank, ran a four-week advertising campaign in Instagram Stories and delivered its core message in a unique and cheerful way while aiming to increase brand loyalty.

6 Qantas & Awol

In Australia, Qantas Airlines (with its millennial brand AWOL) used Instagram Stories to showcase the best new experiences locally and globally in a carousel of videos – inspiring Australians to start their next adventure using AWOL.

7 Yoox

In Italy, leading online lifestyle store for fashion, design and art, Yoox, ran a campaign to raise awareness of its brand amongst 25 to 44-year-olds in Italy. Playing with a split-screen, vertical format for its adverts in Stories, the quirky campaign drove an increase in advert recall and brand awareness.

8 Noosa

In the US, Noosa, a yoghurt brand, wanted to raise awareness around its use of high-quality ingredients amongst new consumers. The use of stop-motion creative lead to high recall with new customers and also felt very native to Instagram and the audience.

Key takeaways

Use clear, large branding

Users cannot click back to your ad. This is why you need to get your point across quickly and let people know where to find you after your ad has disappeared.

Keep it simple

For the same reason, keep the concept of your ad simple so that users can follow the idea easily.

Use the full screen

Your Story ad will fill up the whole screen of the user’s phone. To take advantage of the full screen, use full-length vertical images that could otherwise be cropped in regular ads.

5 Key benefits of Instagram Stories ads

• Makes consumers feel closer to your brand
• Offers a new layer of intimacy that is raw and unfiltered
• Displays content that people can relate to and doesn’t feel too spammy or forced
• Uses the same targeting and measurement tools as Facebook
• Offers a clever full-screen immersive mobile ad experience