9 Instagram Story Ad Examples – Winning Ad Psychology
In this post 9 of the best Instagram story ad examples created huge brands will be revealed. Each story ad will be dissected to expose the industry secrets that you need to know.
But first, why should we focus on Instagram story ads?
Instagram has surpassed a historic 1 billion users worldwide – now one of the largest social media platforms on the internet.
It is also the ideal podium on which to market a variety of products and services if you are looking to expand your business.
As of 2019 there are over 400 million daily story users. Stories are fast becoming one of the most popular features for Instagram users and a gold mine for advertisers.
The story ad system is only a few years old and it’s already a heavily competitive market space.
If you want to get ahead of the rest, you have to think outside the box – come up with ads that don’t make people feel like you are forcing products down their throat.
By the end you will have the secret sauce to craft your own high-conversion Instagram story creatives.
Here are the big brand examples we will be dissecting:
- Foundr
- Domino’s
- Nike
- Fashion Nova
- Versace
- Swarovski
- Walmart
- Calvin Klein
- Netflix
1. Show Evidence in Your Story ad Creatives – Foundr
One of the best ways to grab attention in your Instagram story ads is by showing evidence in your creatives.
Take a look at the ad above created by Foundr. The hook (what grabs the user’s attention) is the bold headline ‘$1,000,000 SELLING MEN’S SHOWER GEL’ juxtaposed against the Shopify sales dashboard.
Nothing creates credibility like proof. In a world full of liars and scammers who love to ‘talk a lot of game’ you become a breath of fresh air when you show evidence.
Think about how you can incorporate evidence into your story ad creatives. Big claims require big proof!
There a range of instruments you can use as proof. Here are some of the best ones:
- Earnings reports
- Testimonials from credible sources
- Reviews
- Enrollment numbers
- Before and afters (Facebook’s ad policy doesn’t allow these in certain cases, e.g., body transformations)
2. Exclusive Offer for Instagram Story Viewers – Domino’s
Who can resist 50% off their next Domino’s pizza? If you want people to act, you need to create a sense of exclusivity in your offer.
Domino’s does this beautifully by offering a 50% off deal to only online users. Exclusivity creates a vacuum in the user’s brain that can only be satisfied with a swift swipe-up in the story ad.
The psychology plays on the fact no one ever wants to miss out on an opportunity. Supreme is a brand that has capitalized on this phenomenon and blasted itself into worldwide acclaim through exclusive limited-edition items.
Do you want people to act? Give them a reason with your creative by creating offers that cannot be accessed anywhere else.
This becomes two times more powerful with Instagram story ads due to viewers having just 15 seconds to act. Users don’t know when or if they will ever see the ad again, thus making it even more irresistible.
3. Vibrancy Instagram Story Ad Examples – Nike
Nike is one of the biggest brands with a ridiculous ad budget. Look at their Instagram and you will notice they run hundreds of different ads targeting Instagram’s billion users.
One thing you will notice is the consistent use of vibrant colours in their creatives. While most people keep it safe and use elementary colours, Nike does the opposite and uses bright and striking shades.
The Instagram story ad example above can be described with three words: Simple. Clean. Vibrant.
Don’t be afraid to play with exotic colours in your ad. Remember that colours create an emotive response in the consumer’s brain but use them wisely.
Study colour psychology to understand which colours are appropriate for your story creative. Using the right combinations of colours can also be incredibly powerful in creating a crisp aesthetic.
Using vibrant colours is even more important when your story ad creative is a picture.
Videos allow more leeway as the motion can distract users for a few seconds. Photos lose their allure much quicker. Grab attention and keep it with the right vibrant colours.
4. Beauty Insta Story Ad Example – Fashion Nova
It may sound shallow but using beautiful people generally increases the retention rate of your ad.
Human beings naturally correlate attractiveness with positive qualities. This is often referred to as the halo effect.
According to some scientific reports attractive people are often thought to be more trustworthy, healthier, and are more likely to be hired for a job.
That is why attractive people, especially females, are constantly used in advertisements. Looking at the Instagram story ad example above we can see that mega-brand Fashion Nova does not shy away from this trick.
The use of attractive people often works well in the clothing industry and other industries which benefit from ego-morphing.
It is the reason why brands use Instagram models when advertising their products. Ever wondered why rappers keep using models in their music videos? That is how they keep the viewer’s attention.
Some niches that benefit the most from beautiful people in ad creatives are:
- Cosmetics
- Health and Fitness
- Clothing
- Perfumes
Not all ads benefit from leveraging beauty. An ad for an engineering firm would not benefit from using a 20-something Instagram fitness model as it won’t be relatable!
5. Branding Story Advertisement Example – Versace
What comes to mind when you think of Versace? Luxury, Italian, designer… and freaking expensive.
That’s exactly what their brand is about, and the theme is celebrated in their advertisements. Branding is about consistency and creating a clear image in the consumer’s mind.
The Versace ad is cinematic and pays homage to the ‘80s with rock music. It strategically shows several items in Versace’s catalogue without screaming,
“Hey, this is an ad!! Buy our bougie shit!!”
Incorporating branding into an ad transforms the creative from being just an ad to a piece of content that complements the Instagram profile.
Cohesion is important when advertising as no one wants to feel they are viewing an ad.
6. Motion Video Story Ads – Swarovski
It’s no secret video ads perform better than picture ads on Instagram stories.
Videos tend to be more engaging as there are more things going on. With Instagram story ads you have only 15 seconds to get your message across, and often fast-paced videos can do the trick.
Swarovski is a jewellery brand and their ad takes advantage of 8 different video angles – each highlights a different piece of jewellery in a subconscious programming blitz.
There are many reasons one would choose to advertise on Instagram. The first and most obvious is to get someone to swipe up and visit a website.
Another more controversial reason is to occupy the user’s brain by planting a seed. Viewing the ad alone can likely motivate a buying decision later.
People viewing Instagram story ads do not have to consciously understand what is going on for the ad to be effective. Hypnotize viewers through the use of elaborate movement and frames.
7. Micro-commitments – Walmart
Have you ever wondered why products and services such as Netflix offer free trials?
They do it because they know allowing you to make a micro-commitment drastically increases the probability of you relinquishing your credit card details at the end of the month.
Instagram story ads now allow you to add another step on the commitment ladder with story ad polls.
Look at how Walmart leverages these polls by asking questions to which everybody is bound to have an opinion.
There is nothing people love more than expressing their opinion, making these polls an irresistible trap for many.
Once users tap and engage with the ad the next logical step is to swipe up and see what all the fuss is about. The unconscious reasoning process is what propels people to act. Humans tend to rationalize after the fact.
If you haven’t already, try and experiment with the story polls feature and see if you too can leverage the power of micro-commitments.
8. Celebrities Story Ad Creative Example – Calvin Klein
The use of famous people and role models has been prevalent in advertising for decades.
Do you remember those Proactiv ads? The ones with celebrities attributing their wonderful skin to the ‘3-step-solution’?
They were massively successful because of the use of celebrity placement.
Calvin Klein takes the same approach with their story ad creatives – the example above showing megastar Kendall Jenner in her Calvins.
Calvin has also used the likes of A$AP Rocky and Ciara in their ads. Each celebrity endorsement is strategically positioned to help motivate users to swipe up.
Not everyone can afford Kendall Jenner for their story ads. However, there is bound to be an icon in your niche to whom your audience would relate.
If you are advertising your local skatepark, for example, it would be wise to feature the local shredder from your town.
Advertising new sneakers would benefit from a collaboration with a sneaker review YouTube channel.
Do some research and find the micro-influencers who will propel your product into the stratosphere.
9. Irresistible Offers – Netflix
Perhaps the most powerful Instagram story ad strategy is exposing the user to an irresistible offer.
Netflix does this magnificently by showing a highlight reel of their most popular shows (one of them likely to grab the viewer’s attention) and then baiting them with a 30-day free trial.
It’s no secret people love free stuff and hate commitments. If Netflix asked people to pay upfront, the story ad campaign would have likely failed.
When targeting a cold audience (an audience who have no business relationship with you), you need some strong bait.
Compelling offers have lots of value and are things for which people would consider paying.
Here are some examples of free giveaways:
- Software trial
- eBook
- Course
- Access to membership site
- Audit or report
- Consultation
- Trial of product for 1st month
If you can’t do free, then offer a nice, juicy discount. Nothing in this world will get you more clicks than an irresistible offer to the right audience.
Bonus Tips for Creating Story Ad Creatives Which Convert Like Crazy
In this article we reviewed 9 different Instagram story ad examples, each bringing a unique lesson that could single-handedly save your campaigns.
Here is a quick rundown of the different elements you could incorporate in your ads:
- Evidence – Talk is cheap, so put your money where your mouth is and show proof of your claims. Nothing builds trust quicker.
- Exclusive offer – You can increase the value of anything by making it exclusive. Use this trade secret to have people clamouring for more.
- Vibrancy – Don’t bore people with dull colours. This isn’t Microsoft Paint! Use vibrancy to paint a clear picture.
- Beautiful people – People are vain more than you can imagine, so take advantage of this by using beautiful people.
- Branding – Put some respect on your brand. Stick to your colours and styles and make your ad look like a piece of content that complements your feed.
- Movement – Videos tend to do better than pictures because they are more engaging. Keep things moving in your story ad creatives if you want to retain your audience’s attention.
- Micro-commitments – Get your audience to obey a simple request and before you know it, they will be writing blank checks for you.
- Celebrities – Use a celebrity or popular icon in your story ad as much as possible. They unconsciously add credibility to what ever you might be pitching.
- Irresistible offers – Swiping up becomes easy when the offer is irresistible. Give your audience something they simply cannot refuse.
The best way to structure your ads for maximum effectiveness is stacking these elements. However, you don’t need to stack all nine elements for this to work. Even two elements combined can be extremely powerful. Look at the Instagram story ad examples presented in this article and see if you can identify multiple elements.
Use these psychological hacks along with the ‘1-cent per click story ad strategy’ and you will dominate every campaign.
Bonus: Stacking Story Ad Elements – MTV
Look at the MTV ad above which uses various elements effectively. The branding is apparent from the psychedelic MTV colours and the enormous MTV logo chilling in the background. This ad also has vibrant shades of purple and pink and a whole lot of movement. Beautiful people can also be seen in the ad giving it that extra boost.
Need help with story ads?
Story ads can be tedious work and not everybody has the time to craft and test award-winning ads. We understand it can be difficult to stack these elements, so The Insta Hustle offers Instagram ad promotion services to elevate your business.
If you want serious results click here.
