#instagramvideoads

Instagram video ads can help boost your profile as a business owner and bring in more customers.

Yes, Instagram was originally built for photos. And the social media site, with its many filters and frills, is still primarily known for images. But it’s also evolving very quickly, and video content on Instagram is booming.

Some 500 million people use Instagram Stories every single day. And 50% of people have visited a website after seeing a product or service on Instagram. So yeah, creating video advertising content on the site is a very good idea for any business owner.

How to set up Instagram video ads

There are a few different placements for video ads on Instagram. These include options on, Stories, Reels, In-Stream video ads and Explore, which we’ll get to later.

In terms of actually setting up the ads, the easiest option is actually going through Facebook’s (or should we say Meta’s) Ad Manager.

To get to your Facebook Ads Manager, you can go to your Page and click on the Ad Center drop-down arrow in the Manage Page panel. Then choose All Ads from the drop-down and click on Ads Manager at the bottom of the page.

It should be fairly self-explanatory from there, but you’ll be asked to name your campaign and then you can choose how you’d like your ad to be shown on Instagram.

Instagram ad specs

Different placements offered on the Instagram platform require different creatives. Use the placements that align with your objectives and make sure you know the recommended ad specs for each placement — here’s a cheat sheet.

Instagram Stories ads

As mentioned above, Instagram Stories is a hugely popular platform on the social media site.

Instagram’s Stories ads are full-screen, vertical photo or video ads that are served to target audiences while they browse Instagram Stories. And a lot of people are browsing Instagram Stories, so it’s a very solid bet.

Unlike personal Instagram Stories, ads posted on the platform don’t automatically disappear after 24 hours. Instead, you’re allowed to set a custom time on how long you’d like the ad to run.

Instagram Reels ads

Reels are a relatively new ad placement on Instagram—they were introduced in June of 2021. They are fairly similar to Instagram Story ads.

Iike Instagram Story ads, they are full-screen, vertical videos that show up between regular, non-sponsored stories and reels. And they’re marked as sponsored (like all IG ads).

However, unlike Stories ads, Reels ads loop, can be up to 30 seconds long, and users can like, comment, save, and share the ad content. In that way, they are similar to regular Reels and Instagram posts.

Instagram Reel ad specs

Recommended resolution: 1080×1080.

Aspect ratio: 4:5.

Recommended video formats include MP4 and MOV.

Max video size is 30GB.

Max video length is 2 minutes.

In-Stream Video Ads

Previously called IGTV, In-Stream Video ads allow for longer form content. The ads on the platform are full-screen, vertical video format and are usually 15 seconds long. They can be shown pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll.