Instagram Story Ad Specs: A Clear And Complete Guide For 2025

Instagram story ads are the most native form of ads that immerse users into the same experience as watching organic content. If you want to run Instagram story ads, understanding ad specifications is essential. Instagram story ad specs can help avoid unexpected cropping, low resolution, long loading times, or ad rejections. This guide walks you through the ideal Instagram story ad specs, why they matter, and how to ensure effective campaigns with Instagram story ads.

What Are The Ideal Instagram Story Ad Specs?

Instagram story ads are fullscreen vertical ads displayed between organic content in the story feed.

With an immersive format and various options like adding stickers, emojis, and interactive elements, Instagram story ads can help brands build closer connections with potential customers.

The ideal Instagram story ad sizes are below. Take out your pen and notebook to note them down!

Instagram story video ad specs

Instagram Story video ads that are under 35 seconds will be played for the full duration. For longer videos, Instagram Stories may split them into separate cards and automatically display several cards before showing the option Keep Watching where audiences can tap to view the rest of the video. 

Here’s a breakdown of Instagram story video specs for sponsored content: 

• Maximum file size: 4GB
• Ratio: 9:16 
• Resolution: 1440 x 2560 pixels 
• Duration: 1 second to 60 minutes
• Minimum width: 250 pixels
• Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%
• Accepted file type: MP4, MOV or GIF 
• Primary text: 125 characters 

Related article: How Long Should An Instagram Ad Be

Instagram story image ad specs

Static story image ads on Instagram may be displayed for between 5 and 16 seconds, or till they are swiped out. 

Below are the size recommendations you should know for Instagram story image ads:

• Maximum file size: 30MB
• Ratio: 9:16 
• Resolution: 1440 x 2560 pixels 
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%
• Accepted file type: JPG or PNG  
• Primary text: 125 characters 

Instagram story carousel ad specs

An Instagram story carousel ad can include up to 10 images or videos displayed on separate story cards. After showing 1-3 cards, Instagram Stories will allow audiences to tap Expand Story to watch the remaining content.

Here’s a breakdown of Meta ad specs for Instagram story carousels:

• Maximum file size: 30MB for images, 4GB for videos
• Ratio: 9:16 
• Resolution: At least 1080 x 1920 pixels
• Video Duration: 1 second to 15 seconds
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%
• Accepted file type: JPG, PNG, MP4, MOV, or GIF 
• Number of cards: 2 to 10
• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 40 characters 

Instagram story collection ad specs

The Instagram stories collection ad format is great for audiences to explore and shop from ads.

The layout of collection ads is a bit different from other formats. They often include a larger cover, which can be a photo or a video, followed by 2 smaller images. This layout can vary depending on the ratio of the cover image or video. 

Here’s a summary of Instagram story specs requirements for collection ads:

• Maximum file size: 30MB for images, 4GB for videos
• Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
• Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels 
• Minimum width & height: 500 pixels
• Accepted file type: JPG, PNG, MP4, MOV, or GIF 
• Primary text: 125 characters

Related article: The Best Instagram Ad Specs For All Ads Type

Important Note About Instagram Story Safe Zone

When you design images or edit videos for Instagram story ads, mind the safe zone to avoid your key content being obstructed with the profile icon at the top or call-to-action at the bottom.

Specifically, for image/video/carousel ads, you should leave about 14% of the top and 20% of the bottom of the image or video free from text overlays, logos, or key elements. For collection ads, you need to apply this rule to the cover image or video.

Why Do Instagram Story Ad Specs Matter For Advertisers?

Instagram story ad specs might be more essential than you think. Here’s why advertisers should follow these recommended specs for Instagram story ads:

• Improve user experience: Wrong size or resolution can reduce the quality of images/videos and the user experience. Your ads may be blurry, pixelated, cut off, or awkwardly cropped. By following the proper ad specs for Instagram stories, you can ensure the display of ads and enhance viewers’ experience.
• Boost engagement and conversions: Better ad visual quality and user experience can directly translate to higher engagement and conversion rates. You can get more clicks on ads, more visitors to your site, and ultimately more purchases. 
• Quicken ad approval & delivery: Instagram story ads that don’t conform to size requirements are more likely to be rejected or underperform. 
• Cut down ad costs: By following specs for Instagram story ads, you can enhance their quality and maximize impact. Improving ad quality and engagement is the key to reducing CPA and optimizing your ad budget.
• Show a professional brand image: Well-proportioned and designed image/video ads reflect a professional brand image, increase customer trust and loyalty, and boost marketing effectiveness.

By sticking to the recommended Instagram story ad specs, advertisers can improve audiences’ experience,  build customer relationships, drive more clicks and sales, and ultimately cut costs for more profits.

Pros And Cons Of Instagram Story Ads

Instagram story ads can work great for brand awareness campaigns. However, they might be less effective for optimizing CTR.

Here are the notable pros and cons of Instagram story ads:

Related article: 8 Types of Instagram Ads: A Complete Guide And Best Tips For 2024

6 Considerations To Ensure Successful Instagram Story Ads

To maximize your success with Instagram story ads, I’ve outlined 6 key considerations you should take.

Target the right audience

The first important thing when running Instagram story ads is choosing the right target audience for your brand, product, or service. This will increase your campaigns’ effectiveness and profits.

You should carefully analyze your potential customers based on criteria like location, age, gender, interest, behavior, demographics, etc.

Include creative and interactive elements 

Instagram Story ads allow multiple creative and interactive elements such as images, videos, GIFs, music, stickers, polls, Q&As, etc. Get creative with these elements to make your stories more like organic content and resonate with the audience better. 

Optimize ads for mobile

Instagram and Instagram Stories are designed for mobile first, so make sure you are optimizing your Instagram story ads for mobile.

To do that, you must follow Instagram story ad specs and keep text large enough to view on the mobile screen. 

Also, be sure your video ads work even with sound off by adding captions or subtitles. 

Finally, keep your brand or key message prominent in the first 3 seconds of the story because users swipe through cards really fast on mobile.

Add a compelling and actionable call to action

While stories are less effective for clicks, you can try to drive more clicks and conversions by including a compelling and actionable call to action. Besides the built-in CTA for ads, you can customize some calls to action in your image or video in an outstanding location to remind viewers to take further action. 

Collaborate with influencers

Instagram is the second most effective platform for influencer marketing, according to Traackr’s Report. If you want to boost your visibility with more credibility and authenticity, partner with some industry creators that align with your business. 

Experiment with content and track results

Note that it’s hard to win Instagram ads from the beginning. You will need to continuously experiment with different content, ad formats, and campaign settings to know what is effective and where to improve. 

You can run several test ads with small budgets and compare the results. Scale the budget on your well-performing campaigns and spend less or pause low-performing ads. 

By constant learning, testing, and optimization, you will be able to execute flawless Instagram story ads that drive your coveted results.

Tip: Leverage the Facebook agency ad account rent service to maximize ad performance and drive more profits.

Conclusion

Instagram story ad specs are critical things advertisers should bear in mind when running ads across Instagram story feeds. Make sure you adhere to these recommendations and take the above considerations to make the most of Instagram story ads. Remember, success is about hard work, persistence, testing, and learning from both successes and failures. 

To rent highly premium agency ad accounts and optimize your campaigns, reach out to GDT Agency via the contact methods below for details.

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