Instagram Stories now boasts more than 300 million active users. So, it’s no surprise that the social media platform is constantly rolling out new features (sometimes, weekly!) Instagram recently announced that Stories has received a huge update to help make advertising easier for businesses. Here’s what you need to know:
Instagram Stories Ads Get Full-Screen Support Automation
Before the update, advertisers were forced to create multiple sizes of content to run ads across different formats. Now, when advertisers upload Instagram Feed creative within Ads Manager, it will be transformed into the full-screen format of stories, allowing advertisers to run ads easily across Instagram. Long story short, users can now upload square or landscape photos and video that will automatically resize to fit full screen.
How It Works
The new update will apply to any creative (photo or video) that is under 15 seconds and adheres to the company’s aspect ratios. Any captions will be placed underneath the image if the ad creative is square or landscape (see above). If images are taller than a traditional square, the caption text will not show at this time. If you want the full-screen experience complete with text captions, make sure to format your ads so that they’re no taller than a square.
Instagram will also use their pixel matching technology which automatically selects a background gradient to make ads look similar beyond all creatives. Furthermore, the swipe up functionality will be supported to allow an advertiser to add a destination link to their Stories ad.
This change should ease the burden for advertisers by eliminating the need to have multiple creatives. Your Stories will now be in full screen, allowing your message to be clearer and appear more native in users’ screens.
Having trouble with Instagram Ads? Not sure what the best practices are for Stories? Reach out to start the conversation!
