What is an Instagram Stories ad and why do we have them?
Instagram Stories ads let businesses show full-screen, vertical format ads between an end-user’s Instagram Stories.
This type of ad is meant to blend in with the interests of Instagram users and is not easily distinguishable as an advertisement. This means that the ads don’t stand out and look like they are trying to sell something.
Companies can now use Instagram Stories to target ads based on a variety of conversion metrics, including reach, brand awareness, traffic, conversions, view views, and app installs. Marketers can use Ads Manager to review data while ads are running.
-Single image ads are a single photo or graphic with some text. -Single video ads are a video up to 60 seconds long. -Carousel ads are a series of images or videos that people can scroll through.
These platforms allow you to use standard user features, such as polls and stickers, but also have a few additional features that allow you to convert users.
Single image Instagram Stories ads are a single photo ad that displays in the user’s Stories for a maximum of five seconds.
Single video Instagram Stories ads are short ads that play for 15 seconds. The ad below from ZitSticka is an example.
The example above has only one bar across the top of the screen that shows how much of the video has been played. This ad is a single video ad.
Carousel ads on Instagram work just like the carousel ads you see on Facebook. You can have up to three different frames, each with its own link.
Images and videos in carousel ads will display for five and 15 seconds, respectively.
. Think about the following factors when creating your strategy for Instagram Stories ads:
Although users of Instagram are aware that they will be exposed to ads and promotional content from brands, they still expect to be entertained by the platform.
The stories that your brand posts will only be visible to those people who either like your page, follow you, or go out of their way to find your page.
The result is not good visibility and only a little chance to get organic traffic.
You can reach more people by putting money behind your posts on Instagram Stories Ads.
Ad targeting allows a brand’s ad to appear in an end-user’s feed, even if the user is not following the brand.
Your ads may not be performing well because they are not properly tailored to your brand. Let’s dig in.
Top 4 reasons your Instagram Stories ads aren’t getting results
- You lack a specific goal
- Your ads are coming off too ad-ish
- Your ad design and/or layout needs optimizing
- You’re not reaching the right people with your audience targeting
The COVID-19 pandemic is the elephant in the room when it comes to algorithms today.
Some brands are finding that their products and services aren’t making the list of people’s priority items because people are watching their personal finances to conserve cash for the unknown.
There are four main reasons that Instagram Stories ads fail. Before attributing poor performance to the pandemic, advertisers should troubleshoot to see if one of these four reasons is the cause.
You lack a specific goal
When creating Instagram Stories ads, you should have a specific goal in mind in order to be successful.
Failure to developcampaign objectives could result in a campaign with no specific goals, ineffective messaging, and no way to gauge success.
Your ads are coming off too ad-ish
People primarily go on Instagram for entertainment purposes and to see a variety of familiar faces and brands. People do not go to the platform to be advertised to.
When users encounter ads that are salesy and do not blend into the Stories feed, they are more likely to skip over them than engage with them.
You’re not going to fool anyone into thinking they’re not viewing an advertisement, but if your ad is integrated into your target user’s experience on Instagram, it will be more successful than a very obvious commercial.
Instagram Stories Ads allow you to promote your brand without disrupting the user’s experience. If you do this, you will likely annoy your target audience and miss out on a chance to convert them.
The images in the Instagram Stories are in a landscape orientation, even though the Stories format is in a portrait orientation.
If you don’t adjust your content to the platform you’re advertising on, not only is it bad practice, but your ads will look out of place compared to the other content in the users’ feeds. The images that their favorite friends and brands are posting to their stories don’t look like them.
They’re also not engaging. The small images make it difficult to see the details in each picture and the text is uninteresting and not very exciting.
Your ad design and/or layout needs optimizing
If you are not getting the results you want from your ad, look at the ad creative to see if it is effective.
Ads that are too flashy or over-produced are more likely to be noticed and disrupt the user’s experience on Instagram. The goal is not to pull people away from normalcy, but to keep a sense of normalcy.
While it may be tempting to let your designer use whatever fonts, photoshop, and dramatic effects they want, try holding back.
You’re not reaching the right people with your audience targeting
The ad campaign is proceeding as planned, the creative aspects are meeting the goal, and everything has been approved and put into action. So why are the ads still not getting results?
If someone isn’t interested in what you’re offering, there’s no use trying to force it on them.
The key to getting your ads to perform well is to show them to an audience that is interested in them.
I’m sure you’ve seen some ads on Instagram that are complete misses. The advertisers took a guess on certain demographic parameters, and your inaction helps educate the algorithm, which then serves the campaign to a more targeted group.
It is beneficial to plan your Instagram ad design strategy before purchasing an ad, as ads that lead to conversions are more successful.
If you want to create an Instagram ad that will be effective, you need to learn the basics of good design. Once you know what makes a great ad, you can start planning and creating your own.
11 Tips to Improve Your Instagram Ad Design
There are many ways to advertise on Instagram, but it can sometimes feel like you are shouting into an empty space. It is beneficial to plan your Instagram ad design strategy before purchasing an ad in order to create ads that will be successful in converting viewers and keeping them engaged.
Here are 11 tips to help you make ads on Instagram that will be noticed by your target audience. There are also free templates available that can help you with your design process.
Use simple designs to stand out
Advertising on a smartphone screen is very limited. If you want to get a user’s attention, it is usually best to use a minimalist approach.
You will be more successful if you reduce the number of visual elements in your ads. You don’t need much to create a great ad. A simple image of your product with some text, or even just text on a contrasting background, can be enough.
Bright colors attract eyeballs
When designing an attention-grabbing Instagram ad, use bright and contrasting colors.
The use of colors in advertisements makes it easier for users to identify the important elements of the ad. A bright color scheme can also make people feel positive about your company.
If you’re not sure where to start, you can find inspiration by looking at a color wheel. Decorate your home by choosing colors from opposite sides of the color wheel for the most eye-catching results.
Keep your product front and center
As much as we love a compelling mystery, you shouldn’t make your audience play whodunnit to figure out what you’re selling.
Instagram users will quickly decide whether to scroll past your ad or stop and look. Don’t let them wonder what your product is.
Your product should be the focus of your advertisement. You can make your products stand out in a variety of ways, such as by playing with color, size, or placement. No matter what method you use, make sure your customers understand what you are offering them.
Make videos that move
Your video ad will be more likely to get noticed if it starts with a burst of movement. It is especially important for ads to quickly grab users’ attention if they appear on the Instagram feed or Explore page since users will scroll past them quickly.
Video ads offer the best chance to create a connection with your customers by telling a story. Don’t pass up this chance by shooting static videos!
Show off your range
You can use video, collection, and carousel ads to show more than one product or multiple aspects of a single product. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your value to customers.
An effective ad will have a variety of elements while still conveying a clear and consistent message. If your customer’s can’t make sense of your design, they are less likely to engage with it.
Make your text pop
While visuals are the most important aspect of your ad’s design, they are not the only important part. This is also true for text – less is usually more.
Keep your message short and to the point.
using too many words can make your advertisement harder for your audience to understand the message you are trying to get across. No one wants to have to work while looking at their Instagram feed.
Make sure the text you include is in a large, easy-to-read font. You need to take into account that most of your audience will be viewing your ad on a small screen.
The easiest way for them to get your message is if you make it simple.
Keep it consistent
If you want your company to be memorable to users, you should have a consistent visual identity for all your ads. This way, users will be able to connect all your ads and remember your company better.
Put your captions to work
Your Instagram ad isn’t just a photo or video. Your caption should be creative in order to engage your audience. Your announcement should fit in with the rest of your ad.
Ads with a playful tone can be made more visually interesting and fun by adding emoji to the caption.
Don’t make your text too long; keep it short like the rest of the text in your ad. The most important part of the text should be visible without having to click on “more.”
Make videos that work without sound
Despite the popular belief that talkies are more popular than silent movies, Instagram users seem to prefer the latter. Almost all Instagram users will see your ad on a mobile device, and most people will mute the sound when watching videos. Video ads should still be able to communicate their message even when they are muted.
If the sound is important to your video, you may want to consider adding closed captions. This text is saying that the change they are talking about makes it easier for people to browse without sound and for people with hearing impairments to still be able to access what they need.
Refine your designs with A/B testing
Although it is beneficial to have design principles, it is more effective to have knowledge about what will capture your target audience’s attention.
After coming up with some good design ideas, you can use A/B testing to find out which ones your customers prefer the most.
An A/B test is a way of determining which ads your audience responds best to. This marketing technique involves showing different versions of the same advertisement to different people and then tracking how often each version is interacted with. This provides you with data from real-world scenarios about which color scheme, caption, or call-to-action button would be best for your advertising goals.
Although it may be challenging, there are various tools available to help with A/B testing.
Don’t let the perfect ad get in the way of effective ads
It’s important to put thought into your Instagram ad designs, but perfect is the enemy of good. Don’t get bogged down in making your ad perfect, or you’ll never get it out the door.
Even if your next product is great, if your audience has seen it too many times, they will become bored with it and stop paying attention.
This is what makes ad templates so useful. If you want to change your social media presence, you can do so by creating new ads that follow the same general look as your previous ads.
Test, validate, scale
Launching an advertising campaign nowadays is not a simple task! Instagram is always changing their ad tools and rules, making it hard to keep up with them. Additionally, the economy is unstable, making it difficult to predict consumer behavior.
It’s important to stay patient and test as frequently as you can so you can find out what works best for you. After you have tested your creative content, targeting, and other factors, you will feel more confident rolling out new campaigns. This is because you will have more information to use as a guide.
