Instagram is ramping up its pitch for direct-response ad dollars as its stories ads move into Facebook and Messenger

Instagram is rolling out new advertising and shopping tools geared toward direct-response advertisers as its stories ads expand into Facebook and Messenger.
Facebook's ad platform skews toward direct-response advertisers while brands tend to use Instagram for branding-focused campaigns.
It can be hard to run video ads on its apps because it's not clear how the stories format compares with other types of ads.
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Instagram wants to prove that its platform works just as well as its sibling app Facebook for direct-response advertisers.

Instagram's roots are in branding-focused marketers with visual assets such as photos, but now it wants to target direct-response advertisers that are the bedrock of Facebook advertisers, such as small businesses and mobile-game developers.

To that end, Instagram is starting to apply features, such as polls, to ads that run in stories. Stories are a fast-growing ad format that Facebook believes will become a more important stream of ad revenue as it expands beyond Instagram into Facebook and Messenger.

In March, Instagram rolled out a feature that lets advertisers poll users. The mobile-app gaming company Next Games and Dunkin' Donuts have tested such polling stickers in their stories ads, Maria Goa, a product marketing manager for monetization at Instagram, said during a session about stories at Facebook's F8 developer conference.

A digital-video exec who attended Instagram's session said Facebook has so many ad formats that it's hard to know how to spread budgets across them. The exec was also looking to understand how stories compare with other video-ad placements.

Facebook has also started to sell stories ad inventory in Facebook and Messenger.

Instagram wants brands to rethink stickers

Instagram is urging restraint when it comes to using graphics on top of a story. Unlike polls or hashtags, images can't be clicked, and Instagram said that it sees brands overuse stickers. In one example it gave, a yoga brand added Instagram's popular "savage" sticker to a post, but Instagram's users mean something else when they use the sticker.

In a test run by Instagram, images without stickers converted better than those with stickers. For video, stickers that were weaved into an advertiser's story performed better than videos without stickers.

"Static stickers in stories are often used organically to help enhance the message that you're trying to convey," Goa said on the panel. "We recommend businesses to use stickers if they're used in a strategic and authentic way. Avoid them if they're unnecessary or if they contribute to digital clutter."

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