Instagram Stories Ads 101
with Giovanni Insignares

“Instagram continues to grow in popularity so it is critical that your business has a presence there,” said Giovanni during his #BizHackLive webinar.

Instagram Stats That Matter in 2020

• 1 billion people use Instagram every month
• 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day
• Instagram users will spend an average of 28 minutes per day on the platform
• 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile daily
• Instagram’s potential advertising reach is 849.3 million
• One-third of the most viewed Stories are from businesses
• 75.3% of U.S. businesses will use Instagram Stories in 2020
• Brands post an average of 2.5 Stories per week

Stats source: Hootesuite

Organic vs. Paid Posts: What’s the Difference?

Organic posts are your day to day posts that can be done straight from your phone. Paid posts target a specific audience, are labeled as sponsored posts and contain a call-to-action button. Instagram Stories ads allow you to access the swipe up feature that is only usually accessible to profiles with at least 10K followers.

Instagram Stories Do’s and Don’ts

Don’ts

• Avoid having too much informational text on your Stories ad.
• Leave your promo code for your website or next action, viewers don’t have enough time to digest so much information.
• Do not use square sized images.

[Insert slide with bad ad examples] – to find out more here

Do’s

• In-your-face offers.
• Concise call-to-actions.
• Utilize full-screen images.

[Insert slide with bad ad examples] – to find out more here

With Instagram Stories you have very little time and a lot of valuable space that you want to use to put your offer up front, you don’t want your viewer to have to read too much.

Instagram Stories Tools

There are countless tools in the market right now that help make creating Instagram Stories ads so much easier. But, here are a few:

• Facebook Ads Manager has recently launched native tools that allow you to create Stories content in the required format right in the program.
• Mobile Apps – Seen and Adobe Spark have some of the highest ratings on Apple’s App Store and seem to be leading in the market for mobile apps but there are so many more.
• Lumen5 is a one stop shop for creating content that you can post across all social media platforms.

“When it comes to ad campaigns, you always want to do it from Facebook Ads Manager on desktop. Although Facebook does offer a mobile app to run campaigns from, I don’t recommend it,” said Giovanni during the demo.

Demo: Facebook Ads Manager – click here for the recording, demo starts at 1:10:00

Demo: Lumen5 – Important Takeaways

• Content will be automatically created in the format you choose for your ad.
• You can create a video ad extremely quickly.
• They have a large library of royalty free images that you can use for your ads or upload your own photos.
• You have the ability to add text overlay so that your ads have a clear concise call-to-action.
• You can create a Stories ad in 5 minutes!

“It does the heavy lifting for you,” said Giovanni about Lumen5 during the webinar.

Click here for the recording, demo of Lumen5 begins at 1:20:00.

What’s Next for Instagram Stories Ads?

IGTV is Instagram’s answer to Youtube. It is a section on a business profile where people can view long-form video content. Feed videos can only be one minute in length, anything that’s longer should be posted on IGTV.

One of the newest ads placement that Instagram is offering is within IGTV. These long-format videos have commercial-like ads up to 15 seconds long.

Important Takeaways from Giovanni Insignares

1. As a solopreneur, it is important not only to have content on your feed, but it is also recommended that you increase your activity on the Stories channel as well.
2. Consider using a sequence of images for a Stories ad rather than video. Video consumption is usually done on mute. It may work better on your newsfeed versus a Stories format.
3. Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours. If there is a message that your business is trying to convey that you want to create a lot of awareness for, consider using a post so that is visible to anyone who visits your profile and it will not go anywhere. But if there is a quick, concise message you want to convey, Stories might be better suited for that.

• “You can use google trends to see what’s trending pertaining to your market or location. Then use these to tie in your ad.”- Monica Cabrera
• “By paying for an ad, you get access to the swipe-up [on Instagram Stories] which you wouldn’t otherwise have.” – Dan Grech
• “Video is critical for ads that are going to appear in other placements, but with the Stories placement static photo and motion can work just as well.” – Dan Grech

• Facebook Ads Manager – https://business.facebook.com/
• Lumen5 – https://lumen5.com/