Remember the Instagram Stories feature? It’s a feature that it cloned from Snapchat and now it’s going to use Stories to open up another source of revenue. The Facebook-owned photo sharing service has revealed today that it’s going to put ads inside Stories.
Stories are basically a collection of photos and videos submitted by a user. They are automatically stitched together and play one after the other once a user opens the story. They disappear on their own. This is precisely how this feature works on Snapchat so if you’ve used stories there, you’ll get the hang of it pretty easily on Instagram.
Instagram has confirmed today that it’s rolling out full-screen, auto-playing video ads in Stories later this week. The roll out starts with a trail that involves select partners and brands such as McDonald’s, Nike, and Airbnb. After the trial ends, this new ad product will be open to advertisers across the globe.
Instagram’s director of product marketing Jim Squires added that the test period will likely last for up to three weeks before the ad product is rolled out to more than 500,000 active advertisers on Instagram.
The ads in Instagram Stories will feel similar to a normal video story. They will run full-screen and viewers can like them, share them, and leave a comment just like they would on any other story.