Get ready to see way more vertical ads on Facebook
Prepare to see more Instagram stories turning up as ads on your Facebook feed.
The social network is introducing a new tool that will let brands turn their Instagram stories into carousel-like Facebook ads and vice-versa.
That means that Facebook advertisers will have access to the stickers, filters, and drawing tools that make for less polished ads that better blend in with user posts.
It also allows them to simply repurpose their Facebook ads for Instagram without tailoring them to the platform.
Brands like mattress company Casper and flower retailer Bouqs have already experimented with the new feature as part of an inaugural test run.
Making ads more interchangeable across platforms saves marketers the headache of having to remake each piece of their content to fit individual specifications, but it can also dilute the aesthetic of a particular app. Adapting Facebook ads as brand Instagram stories risks diminishing the in-the-moment quality that's made the feature such a success.
Instagram first rolled out its Snapchat-clone stories feature a year ago, and it began selling ads through it in March. A Facebook spokesperson said more than half of businesses on the site have created a story in the past month.
Facebook also announced on Tuesday that it will now allow for stories to be sent through Instagram DMs.
This story has been corrected to reflect that Facebook Canvas ads are not a supported format for Instagram stories.
Topics Instagram Social Media
Patrick Kulp is a Business Reporter at Mashable. Patrick covers digital advertising, online retail and the future of work. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in political science and economics, he previously worked at the Pacific Coast Business Times.
