Instagram In-feed Video ads versus Story Ads

Instagram In-feed Video ads versus Story Ads

September 27, 2019

A current survey conducted by Wibbitz, aimed at learning more about their Instagram usage, revealed people were more likely to buy something after watching an in-stream video ad versus a Story Ad. According to the report from Wibbitz (which happens to be an online video editing platform) surveyed 1,000 users in the United States, United Kingdom, and France to get a broad overview of user behavior on the platform. Of the 1,000 people surveyed, 73% said they were Instagram users.

In-feed video ads vs story Ads

31% of the survey respondents, who indicated they were avid Instagram users indicated they had purchased a product directly after watching a video on the platform. Deep diving into the types of video ads that led to that purchase, 27% of the respondents indicated they bought a product directly after watching an in-feed video ad, while only about 12% said they had done the same after watching a video ad within an Instagram Story.[irp]

While this survey is aimed at a small focus group of Instagram users, we can’t ignore the fact that twice the number of the survey respondents made a purchase after watching in-feed video ads versus a Story ad is notable.

Currently, when creating Instagram ads, you can only choose between Instagram feed and Stories, but not both. This is down to the reason that the ad specifications for both Feed ads and Stories are different, so you ideally cant place the same exact ad on both placements.

Curating Organic content: What videos to post and when to post them.

Further research has shown that “How-to tutorials” rank as the most popular form of video content currently watched on Instagram. How-to videos were far ahead of the second most popular content type which was behind-the-scenes type footage (80% compared to 66%). This will come as a surprise, of the top six most popular video contents, ranging from interviews, news coverage and creative inspiration, motivational posts ranked last. [irp]

Content curators might want to pay more attention to this bit. 69% of the original 73% Instagram users indicated they spent most of their time on the platform watching videos. 33% of the 73% Instagram users also indicated that they are online between the 8:00 pm and 10:59 pm watching videos. This means to boost organic engagement on Instagram, brands should curate more video content and sharing later in the evening when users are more likely to be scrolling through their feed.

Finally, while Instagram might not be in the top 3 popular social media platform globally, it has consistently ranked as the most preferred social platform for younger audiences. Currently, 95% of the Gen Z demography respondents surveyed by Webbitz and 85% of the Millennials use Instagram. Insights into the behavioral patterns of the younger audiences and how they interact on the app — various content that is most likely to drive engagement — is key insight marketers need to optimize both their ad dollars and organic posts on the social network.