Instagram Story ads allow brands to advertise between the organic stories content. The full-screen vertical format allows an immersive experience in both video or photo options. You can show a single story or a carousel up to 10 stories. Use the story ads for building brand awareness as well as driving conversions. Automate your stories with Smartly.io's Image and Video Templates.

Why use Instagram Stories

• Reach – Usage of stories is outpacing news feed in several markets and becoming the most popular way for users to share and consume social media.
• Cheap impressions – Due to the fast growth, advertisers haven’t fully adopted Stories, providing brands opportunity to benefit from the large ad inventory and cheaper pricer.
• Drive ROI from engaged users – Stories allow brands to create engaging content that drives both CTR and ROI.

Some creative use cases are Limited time sales, Lookbook, Behind the scenes, Interactive tour, Teasers, Collaborations, How-to / tutorials, Interviews, Real-time news, Limited edition products, and Highlights.

How to create Instagram Story ads in Smartly.io

1. Select Facebook objective in the Campaign tab.

2. To create an Instagram Stories Ad, select either Link, Photo or Video as your ad type in the Creative tab. To create Carousel ads for Instagram stories, select Carousel.

Select

• Link, when you want to direct the user to an external link. Use together with Call-to-action button and Facebook Objectives Website clicks or Website conversions.
• Photo, when you want to create Story Ad that consists of one photo only. Combine with any available Facebook Objective: Reach ,Video views, Website Clicks, Website Conversions
• Video, when you want to use Video or Slideshow ad format for your ad. Combine with any available Facebook Objective: Reach ,Video views, Website Clicks, Website Conversions
• Carousel, when you want to show up to ten pieces of media instead of only one.

You can preview your ad by selecting Instagram Story preview in the Creative tab.

3. On the Audience tab you need to select Instagram Story placement. Other placements can be combined with Instagram Story placement.

Please note that the estimated audience for Facebook Stories and Facebook Feed is determined by users who are considered to be "actively using" these components of Instagram. Therefore, you may see a smaller audience if you only select placement in Facebook Stories.

Automate your Stories with Smartly.io Image and Video Templates

1. Automate advertising in Instagram Stories

By combining Instagram Story Ads with Smartly.io's Automated Ads campaign type you can automate your advertising in Instagram Stories. All you need is a feed that contains the photos or videos you want to use to create the ads.

2. Use Dynamic Image Templates to give your Instagram Story ads a polished look with dynamic content

Just select Template Size as Instagram Story and your feed is ready to be used for Instagram Story Ads. No need to resize your photos: Dynamic Image Template will do this automatically for you.

You can include any dynamic information from your feed to the ads. And the best part is when the information is updated, so are your ads – automatically!

3. Use Video Templates to create beautiful video stories from still images

Video templates allow you to create a beautiful stories even from still image assets. In the template editor, select a full-portrait preset or start from a blank preset. Design the template with the editor and use the template in Automated Ads.

4. Create appealing content with the Slideshow format

Video format has been found to be more appealing than still photos in Instagram Stories. Use the Slideshow format to create a video-like experience with photos. With Automated Ads you can create Slideshows automatically from your feed.

Instagram Story ads specifications

• Format: 9:16 Full-Screen Vertical Ad
• Both video and photo supported
• Photo duration: 5 seconds max
• Video length: 15 seconds max, no minimum
• Video file size: max 4GB
• Photo file size: max 30MB
• Dimensions: 1080x1920 (recommended resolution), 600x1067 (minimum resolution)
• Advertising with Facebook page is supported
• In Instagram, the number of impressions per user is 1 impression per 24 hours.

Check also the Facebook ads guide for creative specs and technical requirements (Instagram Stories)

Facebook objectives available for Instagram Story ads

• Reach
• Video views 
• Website Clicks
• Conversions
• App Installs
• Brand Awareness

Limitations

• Use of existing posts is not allowed
• Call to Action button can be used only with Website conversions and Website clicks Facebook objectives

Carousel ads for Instagram Stories

Carousel ads for Instagram Stories allow you to display up to 10 pieces of content within a single ad.

• Display up to 10 cards in an ad
  • Between 1 to 5 cards will be shown at first, and the user can tap the ad to see more cards
• Ad specs are the same as Instagram Stories ads
• Same progress bar pattern as organic media
• Supports mixed media (images and videos)
• Supports different web destinations per card or one app destination overall
• Only one impression will be counted if any of the cards is viewed
• Available metrics will be consistent with what is provided for carousel ads for feed
• Reach and impressions will be provided at an aggregate level
• At the card level, video metrics and clicks will be reported. Impressions metrics at the card level are not available at this time.

Instagram Stories with creative aspect ratio other than 9:16

If you don't have photos or videos in 9:16 aspect ratio but you would still like run ads in Instagram Stories, you can use creative fitting Instagram’s feed aspect ratio. Instagram will automatically provide full-screen support for running this media on stories. You don't have to enable anything in Smartly.io: there is no extra button for getting these non-9:16 creatives to work. Instagram will automatically do the following:

• Background gradient is automatically selected to turn the ad into a full-screen format.
• If your ad creative is square or landscape, the text from the Instagram Feed or Facebook Feed unit will be added in stories text font to the bottom of the ad.
• Only text with less than 190 characters in total will be shown.
• Both photos and videos are supported, Carousel Ads are not supported

This also allows you to use Instagram stories in Facebook placement optimization and use the same creative in all placements.

Limitations:

• Not available in Carousel ads for Instagram stories
• Text style and font cannot be resized
• No ability to toggle caption on or off
• Hashtags and @mentions remain unclickable this time

Contact your Account Manager or Smartly.io Support for more information!