The short version: tap the sticker icon when you’re creating a Story, search for “Link,” paste your URL, then customise the sticker text before you post. Anyone can do this now regardless of follower count, but the tap rate is usually far lower than people expect, often under 2 percent of story views, so don’t build your whole traffic strategy around one sticker.
The bit everyone gets stuck on: where is the actual link sticker
I get asked this in almost every workshop I run. People assume they’re doing something wrong because they can’t find the option. You’re not doing anything wrong, Instagram just hides it behind a generic icon rather than calling it out.
- Open Instagram and tap the camera icon top left, or swipe right from your feed
- Take a photo or video, or upload one from your camera roll by swiping up
- Tap the sticker icon at the top of the screen, it looks like a square smiley face
- Type “link” into the search bar at the top of the sticker tray
- Tap the Link sticker, then paste or type the URL you want people to visit
- Tap “Done” in the top right
The sticker will drop onto your story with the word “Link” on it in a small box. That’s the default and it’s fine, but almost nobody leaves it as is because it’s not particularly persuasive on its own.
Customising what the sticker says
This is the step most people skip, and it’s the one that moves the needle. Tap the sticker itself once it’s placed and it cycles through a small set of preset labels: “Link,” “See more,” “Use link,” “Tap here,” and a few others depending on your app version. Some accounts also get the option to type a short custom label of their own.
I always test the label against whatever action I want. If I’m sending people to a download I use “Get it here.” If it’s a blog post I use “Read more.” Generic “Link” performs the worst in my experience because it gives no reason to tap.
Resize it with two fingers, move it somewhere that doesn’t sit over a face or key text, and place it in the lower third where thumbs naturally rest, that’s simply where people’s fingers already are when they’re holding a phone one handed.
A real number from my own stories
Last spring I posted a story linking to a free checklist I’d put together on AI tools for small business owners. It went out to just over 3,000 story views. I got 42 sticker taps. That’s a 1.4 percent tap rate, and I checked afterwards, that’s fairly typical for me across dozens of stories, usually somewhere between 0.8 and 2.5 percent depending on how strong the offer is and how many stories deep the sticker sits in the sequence.
Compare that with a pinned comment or a pinned link in my bio, which over the same week pulled in more total clicks simply because it sat there for days rather than disappearing after 24 hours. I’m not saying skip the sticker, I’m saying don’t expect it to carry your whole funnel on its own.
The bit nobody wants to admit about link stickers
Most posts on this topic will tell you the sticker is a brilliant traffic driver and leave it there. It isn’t, not on its own, and pretending otherwise sets people up to feel like failures when their numbers look like mine. Stories decay fast, most viewers watch the first two or three frames of a sequence and drop off, and the sticker itself competes with the “next story” tap zone on the right side of the screen, which is where thumbs naturally land anyway. You’re fighting the platform’s own navigation for attention.
What works better is treating the sticker as one touchpoint in a chain rather than the whole strategy. Mention the link in your caption on the feed post too, pin a comment with the same link, put it in your bio, and if you’re running a proper campaign for a course or a lead magnet, back it with an actual landing page rather than a generic homepage. If you’re building a wider online business around this kind of traffic, it’s worth reading through how to start an online business so the story link fits into something bigger rather than sitting on its own.
Do you still need 10,000 followers
No, and this trips up a lot of people who last used Instagram seriously a few years back. Instagram removed the 10,000 follower threshold for the old swipe up feature back in 2021 and replaced it entirely with the Link sticker, which is available to every account regardless of size, business or personal. If you’re seeing anyone claim you need a certain follower count to add a link, that information is out of date.
What you do need is the latest version of the app. If the sticker isn’t showing up in your search, update the app first before you assume it’s a permissions issue.
Adding a link from a computer
You can’t. Story creation and the Link sticker only work through the mobile app, there’s no desktop or browser version of this feature. If you’re managing several accounts and want to schedule stories in advance with links already attached, you’ll need a mobile scheduling tool that supports sticker placement rather than a desktop dashboard. I’ve tested a fair few over the years and covered the ones worth your time in 101 best Instagram tools and apps, most desktop schedulers will post the story but drop the sticker entirely, so check before you commit to a workflow.
Where to send the link once it’s clickable
The mistake I see constantly is a lovely, well designed story with a link sticker pointing to a homepage. Nobody lands on a homepage and knows what to do next. Send the tap somewhere specific: a single product page, a booking calendar, a lead magnet with one clear form. If you’re using stories to generate actual sales leads rather than just brand awareness, it’s worth looking at how proper prospecting funnels are built, I go through this in the best sales prospecting tools, and the same logic applies whether the click comes from a story sticker or a cold email.
Also check your bio link at the same time you’re setting up a story link. If your bio still points to something outdated, you’re wasting half your traffic before it even reaches the sticker. I wrote about the profile errors I see most often in 9 mistakes you’re making on your Instagram business profile, it’s worth ten minutes to check your own profile against that list before you post your next story link.
Checking whether it’s working
Instagram shows you tap numbers directly if you have a professional account, business or creator. Tap your own story while it’s still live, swipe up on the viewer count, and you’ll see “Sticker Taps” listed alongside likes and replies. That number is your actual click count, not an estimate.
Track it for a fortnight before you draw conclusions. One story is noise, ten stories start to show you a pattern, which stickers, which labels, which times of day pull taps for your specific audience.
A few small things that trip people up
- Make sure the URL includes “https://” or the sticker sometimes fails to register as a valid link
- Test the link yourself before posting by tapping it in preview mode
- Don’t stack more than one link sticker per story frame, it confuses the tap target and splits your data
- If you’re adding UTM tracking parameters to measure the click in Google Analytics, add them to the URL before you paste it into the sticker, not after
None of this is complicated once you’ve done it a handful of times, it just isn’t obvious the first time, which is exactly why I still see experienced marketers ask me about it in workshops.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a business account to add a link to my Instagram story?
No. Instagram opened the Link sticker to every account type in 2021, personal, creator, and business, regardless of follower count. A business or creator account does give you access to sticker tap analytics though, which a personal account doesn’t show.
Why can’t I find the link sticker in my story tools?
Usually it’s an outdated app version. Update Instagram from the App Store or Google Play, restart the app, then check the sticker tray again by tapping the sticker icon and searching “link” directly rather than scrolling.
How many people tap link stickers on Instagram stories?
In my own experience it typically sits between 0.8 percent and 2.5 percent of total story views, so a story with 3,000 views might get 25 to 75 taps. It varies with the strength of the offer, the label you use on the sticker, and where in the story sequence it appears.
Can I edit or add a link sticker after I’ve already posted the story?
No. Once a story is live you can’t add or edit a link sticker on it. You’d need to delete the story and repost it with the sticker added during creation, which also resets your view count, so it’s worth double checking the URL before you post rather than after.
Sources worth reading
Related reading: How to Use Search Filters on Instagram Stories (Step by Step) and What Hashtags Perform Best on YouTube in 2026.
This builds on my main social media marketing guide, my main guide on the topic.
