Roughly a year and a half after Instagram rolled out ads in its Stories, Facebook announced on Tuesday it is adding ads to Facebook Stories.

Roughly a year and a half after Facebook Inc.-owned Instagram rolled out ads in its Stories feature to consumers around the globe, the social network on Tuesday announced it is adding ads to Facebook’s less-popular version of Stories.

The Stories feature on both social networks enables users and brands to post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. But while 400 million, or roughly 40%, of Instagram users interact with the feature every day, far fewer use Facebook Stories. Facebook says 300 million people use Facebook Stories and Messenger each day (it doesn’t break out a figure for just Facebook Stories); that amounts to just 13.4% of its 2.234 billion monthly users, which includes its Messenger users.

Now retailers can advertise in Facebook Stories

Retailers and brands can now choose to include Facebook Stories as an additional placement to news feed or Instagram Stories ad campaigns to help drive additional exposure, the social network says.  And “soon” it plans to enable advertisers to extend the reach and improve the performance of their Stories ad campaigns in Facebook Messenger as well.

Marketers can use Facebook Stories ads to achieve the same objectives that they have for Instagram Stories ads, which include reach, brand awareness, video views, app install, conversion, traffic and lead generation.

advertisement

Facebook points to a recent Ipsos survey to suggest the ads are particularly effective. For instance, 62% of consumers said they became more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in a Story and more than 50% said they are making more online purchases as a result of seeing Stories, according to a recent Ipsos survey.

Among the brands that have tested ads in Facebook Stories are eco-focused clothing retailer Tentree and potato chip brand Kettle Chips.

Favorite