Instagram Story Ads: Your Guide for 2025
Boost leads and sales with Instagram Story Ads in 2025. Learn why they convert, get best practices and templates, and launch high-ROI campaigns today.
Table of Contents
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 10 years or so, it’s very likely you already know what Instagram is. But, if you’re Patrick Star and this is your first time hearing the name, it’s a social media platform.
In fact, it’s the third most popular one, with 2 billion monthly active users!
You have a brand, and we have the knowledge, so let us tell you all about how you can use this platform to gain more leads & sales. But, since there are just too many ways to do so, we’ll focus on just one aspect at a time.
And today’s topic are Instagram story ads, AKA IG story advertizing, which raked in over 20 billion USD in 2023.
In this guide, we’ll go over:
What IG story ads are,
Why they work,
The best practices for posting them, and
How templates can help.
So, without much further ado, let’s get into it!
What Are Instagram Story Ads?
In short, they are a type of in-story digital ad. To understand what this means, we should start by explaining what an IG story is, just to be sure we’re on the same page.
An Instagram story is a disappearing post that stays up for only 24 hours. There’s also a strict time limit – if you want it to be in video format, it can’t be longer than 15 seconds.
https://assets-static.invideo.io/files/giphy_1_b20a3f20ab.gif
The Instagram ads in stories differ from normal stories in several ways – for example, they have a ‘sponsored’ label.
They are also targeted, which means that you can choose which demographic will see it based on their location or interest.
Do IG Story Ads Work?
Yes.
They are especially useful for boosting engagement thanks to their wide reach and various interactive features. This includes different kinds of stickers that either prompt action from the viewer or can link to a certain page:
Polls,
Quizzes,
Sliders,
Hashtags,
Location tags,
User tags.
The fact that they’re short and blend in with the regular content your audience is watching only makes it more likely that your ad will be watched in full, and therefore be more effective.
But, other than raising engagement, IG story ads offer some additional benefits. Let’s go over what they are.
Increased Awareness
First, we have the obvious fact that boosting ads allows you to reach a wider audience, and targeting lets you choose which audience that is.
But another advantage stories have is their placement. If you open your Instagram app, you’ll notice that stories are located at the very top of the page, which means they’re usually the first thing users see. And, naturally, the first thing they click on, too.
https://blog.hootsuite.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Instagram-Stories-feed.jpg.webp
Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-stories/
Cross-Posting
IG stories are typically in the 1080x1920px format, which means they can fit well into multiple channels. The first and most obvious one is TikTok since all their videos are in that size. Another would be Facebook since their story feature works very similarly to the Instagram one.
To do this, you can either download the original and reupload it on another platform, but Instagram also has a built-in cross-promotion tool. This requires you to have a business account, and it allows you to copy it directly to your Facebook Ads Manager.
Another option is to embed the story ad on your website, which is another tool already included in Instagram.
Interactivity
We already touched on this topic, but we’re going to use this section to go into more detail.
The first thing you can add to your story ad to make it interactive is a poll. This works by giving your viewers a choice between two options and having them click on the one they prefer. Then, they’ll be able to see how many people have voted for which side, and you, as the original poster, will be able to see exactly who clicked what.
https://media.bazaarvoice.com/shutterstock_1491304799-1030x541.jpg
Source: https://www.bazaarvoice.com/blog/8-ways-to-crush-instagram-polls/
Similarly, quizzes let users vote for one of up to 4 options. The difference here is that quizzes have to have a ‘correct’ answer, and you’re the one selecting which one that is.
https://www.jckonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Instagram-Quiz-Screenshot-Birthstone.jpg
Source: https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/instagrams-quiz-sticker/
Finally, you can ask your users questions. This is a simple text box in which they can submit their replies, which you can then repost anonymously (you’ll be able to see who answered, but the audience won’t).
Keep in mind that there is a length limit – three lines of text.
Source: https://insense.pro/blog/instagram-stories-ads
Website Traffic
We also mentioned that there are multiple ways to link to other pages via IG stories. This is done through a location tag, which can, for example, show the users where your store is located. Another example is a hashtag or a mention tag, through which you can tag someone who collaborated with you on a post or product.
But you can also add external links. This means that users will have a shortcut directly from the ad to your website, driving more traffic.
This is done by swiping up on the story. The motion redirects to whichever page you choose – your product catalog, your app in the app store, or just your website homepage – it’s completely up to you.
It’s important to note here that this feature is available only to accounts with 10K+ followers.
Direct Shopping
One of the most useful features for businesses on Instagram is the Shop Now Button. This is also a kind of sticker that can be added to a story, and clicking it takes the user directly to the product they’re seeing.
To use this, you need to link your IG account to a Facebook catalog.
https://s1.r29static.com/bin/entry/76f/1440x1728,85/2028723/image.webp
About Dan Ragan
Founder of UGC Factory and expert in user-generated content marketing strategies. With over 10 years of experience in digital marketing, Dan helps brands leverage authentic content to drive engagement and conversions.
