Instagram expands collection ads & shopping bag icon for stories to all brands

In June, Instagram began letting a select number of advertisers include the Shopping Bag icon e-commerce feature in their Stories on the app.

Instagram is expanding its ad offerings to more advertisers. The Facebook-owned app is opening its Collection ad units to everyone starting today and says all e-commerce brands will be able to add the shopping bag icon within their stories for the holiday season.

Instagram’s Collection ads include a swipeable carousel display of images that allows users to browse multiple products from a brand within the main Instagram feed without leaving the app. The images and videos used within the carousel display can link to the brand’s site or product pages to drive e-commerce purchases.

The ad format was launched in February of this year to a select group of advertisers. Now, Instagram’s collection ads are available globally.

‘We’ve been testing this solution with brands such as Netshoes, which saw a 6.3% lift in conversions and 42% lower conversion cost when using Collection [ads] compared with other ad formats,’ writes Facebook on its business blog.

Along with giving everyone access to Collection ads, Instagram will also bring its Shopping Bag icon to Stories for all advertisers that have shopping on Instagram enabled during the holiday season.

Instagram’s Shopping Bag icons for Stories, which was announced last month, was made available to a select number of advertisers. The e-commerce feature allows brands to add a small shopping bag icon within their Instagram Stories so that users can click on a specific product within an image to view further product information like an item description, pricing information or links to the brand’s website.

‘Shopping on Instagram has enabled us to marry rich creative with commerce and tell a deeper brand story that’s linked to a product. We’re able to provide our customers with visual inspiration and helpful tips on how to wear, where to wear and what to pair, with a simple one-touch purchase payoff,’ says Old Navy’s VP of marketing, Liat Weingarten.

So far, only a limited number of brands have had access to the Shopping Bag icon, including The Gap and Old Navy, but now all brands will be able to include the e-commerce feature in their holiday campaigns.

These latest Instagram updates were part of a Facebook announcement that noted a new video ad tool to help advertisers create video ads for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook’s Audience Network. The Video Creation Kit allows advertisers to upload existing images and video footage and add overlays and logos to produce a video ad optimized for mobile viewing.

Facebook says it is rolling out the video ad tool, which is in testing mode right now, to all advertisers next month.