Why should we focus on Instagram Story ads?
Instagram has made an epic score of 1B users in global, and now one of the largest social media platforms online. It is also the ideal podium on which to market a variety of products and services if you are looking to expand your business, plus, you can endorse it with Instagram Stories in a couple of years.
As of 2020, there are over 500M daily Story users and they are becoming one of the most popular features for Instagram users and a gold mine for advertisers at the fast pace. The Story ad system is only a few years old and it’s already a heavily competitive market space.
With an organic reach of over 5%, Stories are one of the best ways to connect with your audience on social media. But if you really want to supercharge your marketing on Instagram, it’s worth experimenting with Instagram Stories ads. If you want to get ahead of the rest, you have to think outside the box – come up with ads that don’t make people feel like you are forcing products down their throat. By the end, you will have the secret sauce to craft your own high-conversion Instagram Story creatives.
• Netflix
Perhaps the most powerful Instagram story ad strategy is exposing the user to an irresistible offer.
Netflix does this magnificently by showing a highlight reel of their most popular shows and then baiting them with a 30-day free trial. It’s no secret people love free stuff and hate commitments. If Netflix asked people to pay upfront, the story ad campaign would have likely failed.
When targeting a cold audience (an audience who have no business relationship with you), you need some strong bait. Compelling offers have lots of value and are things for which people would consider paying.
• Versace
What comes to mind when you think of Versace? Luxury, Italian, designer… and freaking expensive.
That’s exactly what their brand is about, and the theme is celebrated in their advertisements. Branding is about consistency and creating a clear image in the consumer’s mind. The Versace ad is cinematic and pays homage to the ‘80s with rock music. Incorporating branding into an ad transforms the creative from being just an ad to a piece of content that complements the Instagram profile.
The feature of cohesion is essential when advertising as no one wants to feel they are viewing an a sponsored post.
• Nike
Nike is one of the biggest brands with a ridiculous ad budget. Look at their Instagram and you will notice they run hundreds of different ads targeting Instagram’s billion users.
The main point is consistent use of vibrant colours in their creatives. While most people keep it safe and use elementary colours, Nike does the opposite and uses bright and striking shades. The Instagram story ad example can be described with three words: Simple. Clean. Vibrant.
The brand plays with exotic colours in your ad. Remember that colours create an emotive response in the consumer’s brain but use them wisely.
Studying colour psychology to understand which colours are appropriate for your story creative. Using the right combinations of colours can also be incredibly powerful in creating a crisp aesthetic.
Vibrant colours are even more important when your story ad creative is a picture. Videos allow more leeway as the motion can distract users for a few seconds. Photos lose their allure much quicker. Grab attention and keep it with the right vibrant colours.
• paysafecard
paysafecard is a pre-payment card business that wanted to target an audience of gamers in order to build brand awareness. To attend the gamer audience and the industry, the campaign needed to be creative and feel relatable.
The ads were created in a meme-like format with an animation of a paysafecard inside an emergency box with the copy “In case of Steam Sale Break Glass.” Steam is a well-known brand amongst paysafecard’s target audience of gamers. Knowing that many of its audience likely use Steam to play games, the inclusion of the Steam name and logo made the ads feel instantly relatable.
• Swarovski
It’s no secret video ads perform better than picture ads on Instagram stories.
Videos tend to be more engaging as there are more things going on. With Instagram story ads you have only 15 seconds to get your message across, and often fast-paced videos can do the trick. Swarovski is a jewellery brand and their ad takes advantage of 8 different video angles – each highlights a different piece of jewellery in a subconscious programming blitz.
There are many reasons one would choose to advertise on Instagram. The first and most obvious is to get someone to swipe up and visit a website. Another more controversial reason is to occupy the user’s brain by planting a seed. Viewing the ad alone can likely motivate a buying decision later. People viewing Instagram story ads do not have to consciously understand what is going on for the ad to be effective. Hypnotize viewers through the use of elaborate movement and frames.
• Walmart
Have you ever wondered why products and services such as Netflix offer free trials?
They do it because they know allowing you to make a micro-commitment drastically increases the probability of you relinquishing your credit card details at the end of the month.
Instagram story ads now allow you to add another step on the commitment ladder with story ad polls. Look at how Walmart leverages these polls by asking questions to which everybody is bound to have an opinion.
People adore more than expressing their opinion, making these polls an irresistible trap for many.
Instagram users tap and engage with the ad the next logical step is to swipe up and see what all the fuss is about. The unconscious reasoning process is what propels people to act. Humans tend to rationalize after the fact.
Experiment with the story polls feature and see if you too can leverage the power of micro-commitments.
• Calvin Klein
The use of famous people and role models has been prevalent in advertising for decades.
Do you remember those Proactiv ads? The ones with celebrities attributing their wonderful skin to the ‘3-step-solution’?
They were massively successful because of the use of celebrity placement.
Calvin Klein takes the same approach with their story ad creatives – the example above showing megastar Kendall Jenner in her Calvins.
The brand has also used the likes of A$AP Rocky and Ciara in their ads. Each celebrity endorsement is strategically positioned to help motivate users to swipe up.
Not everyone can afford Kendall Jenner for their story ads. However, there is bound to be an icon in your niche to whom your audience would relate.
If you are advertising your local skatepark, for example, it would be wise to feature the local shredder from your town.
Advertising new sneakers would benefit from a collaboration with a sneaker review YouTube channel.
If you’d like to make some research and find the micro-influencers who will propel your product or theirs, check out our Paperboyo interview to get insipred.
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