There are two ways to create an Instagram story ad. The quick one is to promote a story you've already posted, straight from the app. The one with more control is Meta Ads Manager, where you choose an objective, set your audience, pick Instagram Stories as the placement, upload a vertical 9:16 video or image, add a call to action and publish.
Story ads appear full screen between people's everyday stories, so they work best when they look like something you'd happily tap through. Before you start, you'll normally need an Instagram business or creator account and an Ads Manager account linked to it. If you haven't set that up yet, my guide to finding Facebook Ads Manager and setting it up takes you through it first.
Boost a story or build it in Ads Manager?
Both routes end up in the same place, a story ad on someone's screen. The difference is how much you can shape along the way. Here's how I'd compare them.
| Boost from the app | Build in Ads Manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | A story that already got good reactions and deserves more eyes | A planned campaign with one clear goal |
| Audience control | Basic choices, or an automatic audience | Location, interests, saved and custom audiences, exclusions |
| Placement control | Instagram only | Instagram Stories only, or add other placements |
| Creative | Uses the story exactly as you posted it | Upload a file made specially for the ad |
| Set-up time | A few minutes | Longer, but you can reuse the set-up next time |
If you're brand new, I'd boost one story first just to see how the flow feels, then move to Ads Manager once you know what you want to test. Button names change from time to time, so if something in your app is worded differently, search the app for the word 'promote' or 'ads' and you'll find the same option.
How to create an Instagram story ad in Ads Manager
This is the route I'd use for anything beyond a quick test. It takes six steps.
- Open Ads Manager and click Create. Choose the objective that matches what you want people to do. Meta lists these as outcomes such as awareness, traffic, engagement, leads and sales. Traffic suits sending people to a web page, and engagement suits getting story replies and messages.
- Set up the ad set. Name it, choose your budget and schedule, then pick your location. For the audience, start broad and let Meta find people, or add a few interests if your product is niche.
- Choose your placements. Switch from automatic placements to manual placements, then untick everything except Instagram Stories. That stops Meta spreading your ad across feeds and formats built for a different shape of creative.
- Create the ad. Pick your Instagram account, choose a single image or a video, and upload a vertical file made for the full screen.
- Add your text and call to action. Keep the main text short, choose a button such as Learn more, Shop now, Sign up or Send message, and paste in the page you want people to land on.
- Check the preview, make sure the Stories preview looks right, and publish. Your ad goes into review before it starts running.
Meta reviews ads before they run, so give it a little time. If an ad is rejected, Ads Manager shows the reason next to it, and you can edit and resubmit. Menu wording moves around, so if you can't see a setting I've named, use the search box in Ads Manager and type the word.
The creative checklist for a story ad
The set-up is the easy part. What people see in the first moments decides whether the ad works, and I've written more about that in story ad copy that works. Here's the short version I'd check before publishing.
- Hook in the first second. Open with movement, a face, a clear question or one bold line. A slow logo fade-in loses people.
- Vertical 9:16 so the ad fills the screen with no bars at the sides.
- Captions on. Plenty of people watch stories with the sound off, so the message has to work with no audio.
- Keep faces and key words away from the very top and bottom of the screen, where the account name and the button sit.
- One idea and one action. If you ask people to do three things, most will do none.
- Use real footage from your business where you can. A phone video of your actual product or place usually feels more natural in stories than a polished stock-style clip.
- Finish with a clear button and a line that tells people what happens when they tap.
If you'd like to see these ideas in action, I broke down a good story ad example for small businesses that shows how the pieces fit together.
Budget, in plain terms
I'm not going to name amounts here, because the right figure depends on your country, your industry and how much you can afford to lose while you learn. What I can explain is how the choices work.
A daily budget spreads your spend evenly each day. A lifetime budget lets Meta decide how to spread a total across the dates you set. Beginners usually find a daily budget easier to understand and easier to stop.
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Meta needs some time and a few results before it learns who responds to your ad. That early stretch is often called the learning phase. If you change the audience, budget or creative every day, you keep resetting it. My advice is to set the ad up, leave it alone for several days, and only then judge it. If you want to test, change one thing at a time, such as the first second of the video, and keep everything else the same.
Reading your results
Open the Ads Manager table and look at the columns that match your objective. You don't need every number. These are the ones I'd check first.
- Reach and impressions, which tell you how many people saw the ad and how often.
- Link clicks or outbound clicks, if your goal was sending people to a page.
- Results and the per-result column, which show how Meta is counting success for your chosen objective.
- Video plays, if you used a video, to see whether the hook is holding people.
Compare two creatives side by side at the same budget. Pause the weaker one, keep the hook of the stronger one, and make the next version a small improvement on it. That loop of test, keep, improve is how story ads get better over time.
Last thing: story ads sit in a fast, personal space, so write like a person. A friendly, specific line beats a polished slogan almost every time.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make an Instagram story ad without Ads Manager?
Yes. If the Promote option shows on a story you've posted, you can boost it from the app. You get fewer choices about audience and placement than you do in Ads Manager.
What size should an Instagram story ad be?
Make it vertical at 9:16, so it fills the screen. Meta's ad specifications list 1080 by 1920 pixels as the recommended size, so exporting at that size is a safe choice.
Do I need a Facebook Page to run an Instagram story ad?
Usually you'll connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Page and an Ads Manager account. Follow what Meta asks for on your own account, as the set-up steps can vary.
Why isn't my Instagram story ad showing?
The most common reasons are that it's still in review, the audience is too narrow, Instagram Stories was left unticked in placements, or there's a problem with the payment method on the account. Check the status next to the ad first.
