If used properly, Instagram Story can be a powerful weapon in the advertising world, but if not, all your efforts can go down the drain with a single tap. It takes a user less than a second to tap on your story, which means, if you don’t get their attention instantaneously, your story and all the resources you’ve invested in it, will be pointless. Here are a few tips which will help reduce the bounce rate on Instagram stories.
The plus side of Stories is the possibility of getting a whole new audience, boosting your brand awareness, and ultimately improving your business. However, this might not be as easy as it sounds. It’s not like, you can just upload Stories or run Story Ads without any guidelines or, without much effort and expect great results.
Instagram Stories aren’t magical
Even so, Stories can work magic for your business, but only if done right. You can’t overdo it, but you can’t slack on it as well. There is a fine line which you have to delicately balance if you want people to really see your Story and to see it through till the end. Today, let’s see where exactly that line is.
Run Story Ads
The first thing here is to run Story Ads. Even though, you can simply use your business profile to upload Stories, ads are a great way to build a stronger follower base and drastically upgrade your business.
At first, Story Ads were reserved for huge brands like Nike, but have quickly become available to everyone who wants to run them. The reason why Story Ads are gaining such a huge popularity, is that News Feed and other digital channels have become polluted with a lot of clutter – an overdose of information that sometimes makes you miss things, without even realizing. On the other hand, advertisers are exceptionally slow in adopting Story Ads as a method of advertising, which means, more space, and the audience is left for you.
Furthermore, one-third of the most viewed Stories come from businesses and one in five Stories get a direct message from the viewer. If you top that off with a bit of creativity in your ads, you can engage people in new and interesting ways for as long as you can stay creative.
Add a Call-to-action
If you want your viewers to actually do something after watching your ad, you must add a call-to-action. Otherwise, they will be amazed but confused, left there wondering what was the point of it all and what they are expected to do next.
A call-to-action is supposed to direct your followers and it should tell them exactly what they need to do next, which is why it has to be clear and strong. There should be only one call-to-action, so your viewers won’t be confused. It should create a sense of urgency and even a fear of missing out on whatever it is that your business has to offer.
There is nothing more tempting than a limited period offer, an exclusive deal or a one-time opportunity, and by offering any of these in your ads, you can expect viewers to turn out to be visitors, and in many cases, even customers. Of course, you can’t place call-to-action anywhere you want. Even for your Instagram stories, you have to measure your metrics from other Social Media channels, and think about efficient content strategy and coordinate with your digital marketing strategy.
As one of the most powerful tools, you can use this in your Instagram Story Ads. call-to-action is a must if you want your ads to pay off.
Experiment With Video
Before choosing video as your ad format, you have to think about whether or not it is the best format for that particular idea. This is especially difficult to do right because there is not a single rule that dictates when you should use video, when you should use a carousel and when you should use a simple picture. One format is not necessarily better than the other, but for a specific case, a particular format might provide better results. As usual, you will have to test all of these options or read articles about making content mistakes to avoid making beginner’s mistakes.
A video is not necessarily better than pictures, but in some cases, it simply is a better way to go. to go. Videos can be much more creative than a single, still picture and you can engage your audience in better ways than pictures could ever do. You can fully express your creativity and find new ways to interact with viewers, with every single ad.
Videos in your ads are a great way to express your creativity and to show your viewers what your brand is all about. Even so, getting a video to work in your favor can be a tricky task, which is why there are professionals out there, specializing in this kind of work. You should always get a professional help, if you choose to do a video ad. So, before embarking on this endeavor, do your research, find helpful reviews or ranking lists, and simply choose from the listed agencies the one that you think will fit your business the most.
Interact With Your Audience
There is no better way of getting someone’s attention than to make them interact with your ad and what better way to make someone interact with your ad than to ask them for their opinion.
People love to share their opinions and they love to bask in the thought that their opinion matters. Moreover, you can use that to find out what your followers want, what kind of content they would like to see in the future, and even what they think about your brand.
By conducting polls through your Story Ads, you can make the viewers feel personally invested and you can steer your actions based on the answers they provide.
Usually, you can get better information if you let viewers pick between two options than if you simply ask a ‘yes-no’ question. You can always ask them if they going to be interested in the next theme of your stories, and announce to them about these.
Stay In Harmony With Brand’s Aesthetics
Your image is the most recognizable feature of your company, when it comes to your followers. They know your logo, they recognize your style and they can identify your product from afar. This means that they have to recognize your ad as well as connect the story to your brand seamlessly, and all this in a fraction of a second.
Not only does your Story Ad have to fit perfectly in your overall Instagram aesthetics, but it also has to fit in your overall company aesthetics, i.e. your image. For example, you can’t just polish and decorate the hell out of your ad, only because you’ve seen it work elsewhere and if that doesn’t look like you. Simply put, you have to adjust your ad to what your viewers are expecting to see from you. You can do that just by using colors of your brand in your stories, or the same font. For now, there are just a few fonts you can use in Instagram stories, but you can customize images that you want to upload before using Instagram. Use Adobe Illustrator or
Photoshop to polish your stories, and then add some gifs or pools to make them more interactive.
All in all, it’s all about keeping your audience engage by discover the fun and interactive ways to reach out to them. Even though a few are listed above, new ways of utilizing Instagram Story Ads are invented daily, which means that it’s just up to you and your creativity to make things work.
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Great article, thanks for sharing this wonderful information for us. really it will help my business. keep on posting.