Top 5 Ways to Improve Your IG Story Ads
Stories are booming and more and more people are just tapping through at the top, often instead of scrolling their feed, and there’s a lot of ad opportunity here among organic content. However, Story Ads have the potential to flop. They could be easily tapped through, overlooked, or mistaken for organic content. Here are 5 ways to give your story ads a needed boost.
1) OPTIMIZE CONTENT.
The first mistake many brands and agencies make is keeping the Story placement checked when setting up ad sets. Always have a separate audience for stories so that you can optimize the content specifically for this placement. Format the creative to fit the full screen dimensions of 16:9. This will ensure your copy isn’t getting cut off, headline lost, and images just popping up as a little square. Use the space you’ve got!
2) USE MINIMAL COPY.
Stories are fast and have a time limit. Sure, someone can hold down the screen and read, but you can’t count on it. Drive your story with visuals and design elements. If you have a good bit of copy, flip through it or use multiple slides to keep it interesting.
3) CONSIDER A REEL.
If it’s right for your brand, use Instagram Reels to add some affects such as Instagram fonts to add on-image text, GIFs, or splicing content together. This will add the element of animation, which is always good for grabbing attention.
4) MAKE YOUR BRANDING CLEAR.
On Story placements, the only place your brand name or logo is listed is at the very top left corner where your username is. You want to make sure people know what they are looking at and who it belongs to. If you have a video, make the first screen your logo so it is seen early. Otherwise, try to layer your logo or brand name on an image. Don’t rely on the label on a product!
4) MAKE YOUR BRANDING CLEAR.
On Story placements, the only place your brand name or logo is listed is at the very top left corner where your username is. You want to make sure people know what they are looking at and who it belongs to. If you have a video, make the first screen your logo so it is seen early. Otherwise, try to layer your logo or brand name on an image. Don’t rely on the label on a product!
5) USE A STRONG CALL TO ACTION.
Oftentimes stories are fun places to get creative with your content, but often brands forget to encourage customers to actually act. Let the audience know why they are swiping up. Are they supposed to make a purchase, see a product launch, or sign up for something? It can even be as simple as saying “Shop the Collection.”
Overall, Stories are a great way to meet your audience where they are with multiple images, videos, or messaging. Take advantage of all the feature has to offer, and make it work for your brand specifically.