Instagram is introducing advertising to its ‘Stories’ function for the first time as it looks to monetise an increasingly popular aspect of its site.
Stories are videos users can upload to the site that appear at the top of a user’s feed. Brands are currently able to use the feature but cannot pay to appear, meaning users have to be following the brand to see content.
However, Instagram is now testing advertising with brands including Asos, L’Oréal and Adidas. The ads will not appear at the top of the news feed amid organic Stories but will be shown as people watch or flick through Stories using a mid-roll format similar to how TV advertising works (see the video above). Content will be labelled as ‘Sponsored’ to identify it as an ad and users will be able to flick past it if they don’t want to watch.
For brands, this is an opportunity to reach consumers at a time when they are actively engaging with content on Instagram. However, Amy Cole, head of brand development in EMEA for Instagram says while brands will have targeting tools, they will have little control over what content is shown before or after their ad.
“Though it is not guaranteed what content is before or after each ad, we will give all businesses the same tools for targeting, so they can reach specific audiences through that,” Cole tells Marketing Week.
Instagram will test the ad format with 30 major brands around the world over the coming weeks, before introducing the feature to other businesses. Asos’ first Instagram Stories ad is expected to launch on the 24 January.
The Stories platform is one we see becoming more prevalent and being a new format on a number of platforms. We absolutely give credit to competitors.
Amy Cole, Instagram
Instagram says the move to introduce ads to Stories comes after “incredible adoption and engagement” with the format. It claims 150 million people view Stories content every day, impressive given it has a total monthly audience of 600 million.
Instagram launched Stories in August last year in a move that was widely seen as a copy of an existing feature on rival Snapchat. And Cole “gives credit” to competitors for coming up for the feature but says the format is one that is only going to get more popular.
READ MORE: Instagram Stories – Snapchat imitation or a statement of intent?
“The Stories format is one we see becoming more prevalent and actually being a new format you see on a number of platforms. We absolutely give credit to competitors and the Stories format is obviously one we are seeing from competitors, but I think we will see it more on multiple platforms,” she says.
“For us, it is about seeing how it fits within Instagram, thinking about how that fits in the community and thinking about the right products to build.”
Offering brands more metrics
Cole also claims Stories has seen strong adoption and interaction among brands and that 70% of people on Instagram follow a brand. And it is moving to provide new insights for brands with the introduction of tools to support businesses using the feature.
The business insight tools for Stories can be found in the same place as Instagram’s general insights feature and will show brands how their Instagram Stories posts are working, their reach and the number of impressions they have led to.
Over the coming months Instagram will work on adding additional objectives focused more on business results, such mobile app installations and the ability to add links to Stories.
Instagram’s owner Facebook made the headlines for all the wrong reasons last year when it transpired it had been miscalculating a number of metrics. When questioned on how this affected Instagram, Cole was typically cagey but did say the company is focused on being “transparent” with advertisers.
READ MORE: Advertisers must become ‘militant’ over digital metrics
“We are making sure we are being transparent with advertisers, that we’re building the right metrics and building the right trust with advertisers is really important. That’s front of mind across the board and has been since day one,” she says.
The post Instagram credits competitors for Stories feature as it introduces ads appeared first on Marketing Week.
Source: Marketing Week
Instagram credits competitors for Stories feature as it introduces ads