Report Shows In-Stream Video Ads Drive More Purchases than Story Ads

A survey by Wibbitz of 1,000 consumers was conducted in hopes of finding out more about the usage of Instagram and found that after watching an in-stream video ad, people were more likely to make a purchase versus a Story Ad.

For driving more purchases for advertisers on Instagram, it may be a good idea to concentrate on in-stream video ads rather than Story Ads, due to findings of a recent report by Wibbitz. A survey by the online video editing platform of 1,000 consumers in the US, France, and the UK in order to get a broad look at the platform’s user behavior. 73% of the people surveyed said they were Instagram users.

Story Ads versus In-feed Video Ads

Out of that 73 % of respondents that said they use Instagram, 31% of them said that they also have bought items or a product directly following a video they watched on the platform. When getting into the video ad types that resulted in a purchase, the number of respondents that said they made a purchase right after watching a video ad that was in-feed was 27%, and of those that did the same after watching an Instagram story video ad, only 12% did the same.

The pool of Instagram users in the survey is pretty small since it is under 1,000 users spread out across three separate countries, however, since the number of respondents that made a purchase was twice as high after watching an in-feed video as over a Story ad is a big deal.

Using the Explore Tab to Drive Engagement

According to the survey, of the respondents of the survey, 26% of the Instagram users said they used the Explore tab on Instagram, a section on the platform wit branded accounts and curated content based on the interest of the user, and they follow new brand accounts from this tab at least once a month. Overlapping this discovery with the numbers of Instagram, that over half of its users (which totals one billion) each month will visit the Explore tab, meaning that the Explore tab has the potential to drive a substantial amount of brand engagement.

Instagram first introduced ads for the Explore tab this past June. When they first rolled out the ads, they were said to be rolling out “slowly and thoughtfully,” and tested them first with running promotions for Instagram’s own IGTV and slowly, over a span of a few months, the ads were made available for a handful of brands. The availability of these ads is now global. Since the Explore tab is getting such a high amount of traffic, along with the followers that brands on the Explore tab are attaining, the ads on the Explore tab could offer another way to advertise on the already overused and almost run-down in-feed ad inventory on the platform.

When to Post and What to Post for Organic Video Content

Of all video content being watched on Instagram, the most popular ranking form was how-to tutorials. The next most popular form is far behind, as behind-the-scenes type footage was second (with 66% in comparison to tutorials being 80%). Out of the most popular six video themes, also including creative inspiration, interviews, news coverage, ranking dead last was motivational posts.

Out of the 73% of the respondents that stated they use Instagram, the amount of them that spend most of the time watching videos on the platform was 69%. The largest majority of users of the app (33%) watch the most video between 8-10:59 pm. Basically, brands that wish to gain more organic engagement on Instagram should be pointing most of their spend in more video content and sharing later in the evening when most users will be on the app and scrolling through their feed.

Why Is This Important?

For younger audiences, Instagram has ranked as the preferred social platform consistently. Out of the Gen Z respondents of the survey, 95% use Instagram, as well as 85% of the Millenials who responded to the survey. Understanding how these younger audiences engage with brands on the app – and the type of content that is going to be most likely to drive interactions and make money – is a crucial insight that needs to be optimized by marketers for both their ad dollars and organic posts on Instagram.