Facebook Canvas Ads Make Their Way To Instagram Stories
The much-anticipated Canvas ads from Facebook have finally entered Instagram territory. More than one year ago, the social networking site announced that its Canvas advertisements would begin to show up in people’s Stories on Instagram as a sort of success test.
The Facebook-owned, photo-based social media platform recently confirmed the suspicions of curious companies and users. Canvas ads have begun to appear in Stories as well-integrated marketing tools for advertisers who want to take full advantage of Instagram marketing features. For now, only a select few companies are trying it out, but it will soon become available to the masses.
Canvas ads were originally released by Facebook in September 2015 for marketers that were looking for a different advertising approach on social media and wanted to perform well across all types of mobile devices. Because these marketers were already present on Instagram for its visual appeal, the introduction of Canvas ads to Instagram stories was natural. Soon, companies will be able to do more than run a seamless slideshow for their customers.
The main difference between Instagram Story ads and Canvas ads is the appearance of each. Story ads are clearly ads, while Canvas ads look more like apps to viewers. The feature enables users to see carousel ads, photo lineups, video clips, 360-degree images, and outbound links through swipes and phone rotations. Best of all, everything is full screen, meaning each viewer gets the best possible experience on their device.
It comes as no surprise that this convenient layout could exceed marketing expectations as an extension of Instagram Stories. The strategy builds upon Facebook’s April update to Canvas, which included a feature that allows marketers to connect to ad creation software programs, as well as the June update that offered additional templates to marketers who choose to use the ad-buying feature.
The Canvas ad implementation has been encouraging users to swipe in a specific direction to be redirected to a link, text, business website, or product, and users have been responding well. Despite the link-dropping ability being added to Instagram Stories in November of last year and the swipe feature being added May of this year, few companies took advantage immediately. Those who have tested it out have seen a significant increase in traffic.
With the success of both Canvas ads and Instagram Stories, the widespread usage of one with the other is expected to be a successful tactic for every digital marketing company and business owner.
