The TL;DR Rundown on Instagram Story Ads

Instagram Story ads. Brief, full-screen ad units that you can slide in between the organic stories that more than 150 million users are watching every single day on Instagram.

Stories are fun, exciting, and still relatively new. So, to help you get up to speed about Instagram Stories and the ads that go with them, I present to you a short video and TL;DW recap. That’s, “too long; didn’t watch,” for the uninitiated.

Hit play on the video above or skim the bullets below for the rundown.

What are Instagram Stories?

• Full-screen 5-second photos or up to 15-second videos
• They disappear after 24 hours
• Users can draw, write, and add filters, emojis, and stickers to their stories
• Business accounts can measure story performance by:
  • Reach
  • Impressions
  • Replies
  • Exits

Instagram Story Stats

• Launched August 2016
• More than 150 million daily users
• 70% of Instagram users follow a business account
• ⅓ of the most-watched stories are created by businesses
• 1 in 5 stories on Instagram gets a direct message from its viewers
• 70% of stories video views are played sound-on
• 25% of stories videos are Boomerangs

Source: Instagram Internal Data, January 2017

Instagram Story Ads

• Launched March 2017
• Shown between stories
• Limited to one piece of media
• Marked as sponsored
• Full-screen
• Skippable
• Links coming soon

And we’re done. How TL;DR was that!?