Facebook Sponsored Story

Although Facebook Stories Ads don’t have the brand awareness as Instagram stories, there’s a lot brands need to know about them.

Facebook Sponsored Stories Ads are a powerful form of marketing that you should consider adding to your advertising budget. According to Facebook, over 300 million people use Facebook Stories and Messenger Stories every day, so as you can imagine, there is a ton of potential reach for your company if you use them.

We’ll break down how they work, how you can set them up, and what you need to know so you can start to use one in a future ad campaign.

What are Sponsored Stories Ads?

Similar to Instagram Ads, Facebook Sponsored Stories Ads appear in the stories on Facebook’s app. When you first open Facebook on either a desktop or on mobile, they’re some of the first things you see on your screen.

For each ad, you have two options:

1. A photo that shows up for 6 seconds
2. A video that shows for up to 15 seconds

What makes Facebook Stories Ads different than Sponsored Posts is that the first ones only appear in the Stories feature on Facebook. Sponsored Posts appear in the main feed, along with traditional-style Facebook ads.

What to use Sponsored Stories Ads for

Just like traditional ads, there are a few things Facebook Stories Ads can help improve for your brand, such as:

• App installs
• Reach
• Traffic
• Brand awareness
• Conversion
• Lead generation

You’re able to use the same level of targeting that you can use for usual ads. You can select by location, gender, interests, likes, and more.

Facebook is planning to release these campaigns inside of Messenger, too, so you can have endless ways to get your brand in front of the right people.

If you’re already advertising on Instagram Stories, adding on Facebook Stories is incredibly easy, especially since they’re almost the same when it comes to size, format, and look. Facebook wanted to give advertisers the chance to market on both without doing double the work.

Facebook Stories Ads performance

According to Facebook, “More than half of people surveyed said they’re making more online purchases as a result of seeing stories.”

There are a lot of rumors amongst marketers that ads within stories are performing better than traditional Facebook ads. Due to them being newer and not as crowded, there are not as many companies pouring their money into it yet.

If you’re a brand, obviously finding markets where there’s less competition is a great thing you’ll want to jump on and use to your advantage.

How to set up your Facebook Story Ad

There is currently no set option for only placing a Facebook Story Ad, but it is included when you select “Automatic Placements” and use an objective that supports Facebook Stories.

In Facebook Stories, you’ll want to make sure your images are HD and 1080 x 1920 pixels for the most optimal look.

You’ll want to open up your Ads Manager to start and make an ad.

Then, click on “Create Ad” button.

Pick a marketing objective that works with Facebook stories: Reach, Traffic, App installs, Video views, Brand Awareness, Lead Generation or Conversions.

From there, you’ll narrow down your audience and who you want the ad to be targeted toward.

After you’ve picked your audience, you’ll then see in the Placements sections that Facebook Stories is automatically selected. You can edit this section and pick the placements you need, but if you don’t edit them they should automatically be in your ad that runs.

You’ll hit Continue and then select the pages that represent your business. This is also where you can choose whether to put your ad just on Facebook or also on Instagram, too. Since they’re the same size, it’s something you’ll want to consider depending on your marketing budget.

From there, you’ll upload your photo or video and then preview your ad before you make it live.

Once it’s live and people have started to see your ad, you’ll be able to see the results in your Ads Manager.

Conclusion

Overall, Facebook Story Ads are not used by enough marketers, which gives your brand the perfect opportunity to jump in and start getting traffic and sales sent your way.