Instagram is owned by Facebook, and Instagram alone has an estimated 800 million monthly active users as of September 2017 (Statista). Since early last year,  Instagram has started allowing anyone with a business account to advertise in the Stories section of Instagram. These ads are shown in the middle of users watching the people or brands they follows stories. These are short ads (no longer than 15 seconds), often include great visuals and music, and are great for introducing a new product, catching attention and staying top of mind with potential customers and your current followers. 

Adstage, Prater. 2018.

The way you create ads in through your current facebook ads channel, then when choosing a placement you would select Instagram stories. The dimensions for these ads are as follows:
-video ratios 16:9 to 4:5 and 9:16
-video file size: 4GB max
-video length: 1-15 seconds
-video sound: optional
(facebook business). 

So if you want to expand your social arsenal of ads, consider Instagram stories by talking to your advertiser or trying it out for yourself! 

If you haven’t noticed, video has been on the rise across all forms of content on the internet. It doesn’t matter if you are on social media, browsing huff post, searching for something on google or watching another streaming video form like hulu, video ads are being shown to you and you are in some way engaging with them. 

Here are some reasons you should be using video now. 
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According to socialitysquared , 53% of consumers interact with their favorite brands on Facebook. Pew Research Center states that “three quarters of facebook users and half of Instagram users use the site every day.” Over 135 minutes per day are spent by the average person. Per day! Facebook alone has 2.2 billion monthly active users. (Statista). Social Media Today reports that by 2020, 80% of all content consumed online will be video, and over 8 billion videos or 100 milion hours of videos are watched every day on facebook. Every. Day.  

Bottom line is, your customers are online watching videos and interacting with brands- so in order to reach them you need to have videos online too. 

​You can stay top of mind.
Whether it means your customers are actually watching your video, clicking on it, or merely keep scrolling, assuming you did your job right with a short, to the point video, they saw your branding whether they actually sat and watched your video or not. And you need to stay top of mind or you will be forgotten, considering that it is estimated by 2020 50% of all online searches will be done by voice search- so you need to stay ahead of the curve on all fronts and optimize for the future : which will be mobile, voice search, AI, and video. 

​You can tell your story.
What makes your business different or special? Get creative and let your viewers take an inside look at your business, please are more likely to buy from companies they trust. Social media has made it very important to be transparent as companies. What does transparency mean to todays consumers? It means replying to questions on social media within an hour, letting them catch a glimpse inside your business, the people who work for your company, having engaging content that they can relate to- no one wants to feel like they are being marketed to, so it needs to be free of buy now! and for a limited time only! wording. Check this Link for some great examples of branded media videos that really nailed it and watch a few examples of great short video ads below.