A picture is worth a thousand words. Now, Instagram brings a new way of sharing stories using multiple images. The photo-sharing service has introduced its interactive advertisements, a.k.a. "carousel ads" for brands.
On Wednesday, Mar. 4, Instagram unveiled carousel ads, which promise to be more engaging, helping brands promote their products in a better manner. Thanks to this feature, advertisers will be able to upload a series of images.
In 2014, Instagram introduced its video ads, which were a hit with the Instagram community. The sponsored photos and videos propelled the users to delve deeper into the brands or products. Encouraged by this feedback, Instagram has come up with its latest carousel ads.
"Today we're introducing a new format we're calling carousel ads -- a new way for brands to share more images with people interested in their posts," revealed Instagram in a blog post. "Carousel ads give brands more flexibility in telling their stories by allowing people who view their ads to swipe left to see additional images and link to a website of the brand's choice."
With carousel ads, a fashion brand for instance can "deconstruct" a specific outfit or look from all angles, highlighting the individual components.
If an Instagram user is not interested in viewing these carousel ads, they can scroll past them just like it is possible with the video ads and photos appearing in a user's feed.
This new feature will be available for advertisers, and carousel ads will be introduced initially on a "limited basis." In the next few weeks, Instagram will play around with the format of these carousel ads to test which ones go down best with consumers.
Instagram's decision to let brands test out the new feature hints that the photo-sharing service is giving advertisers priority over regular users.
Whether Instagram will eventually bring the carousel ads feature to users or restrict its use to advertisers who are shelling out big bucks remains to be seen. Hopefully, the carousel ads will not clutter the service and deviate from the current user experience.
