Instagram makes Stories advertising easier with automatic full-screen support

Over the years, Instagram has grown to be much more than just 1:1 aspect ratio content. The evolution moved from square to landscape and portrait content, and now full screen Stories. This has put a burden on Instagram advertisers. Multiple creatives were needed to run ads across different formats… until today.

Instagram has announced that when an advertiser uploads creative that is square or landscape, Instagram will automatically transform it to fit full screen.

This change will apply to any creative that is either a single photo or a video that is under 15 seconds (and adheres to the Instagram Feed aspect ratios).  The text from the Instagram feed will be added underneath the image if the creative is square or landscape like so:

If the image is taller than a square, no ad text will show. Furthermore, Instagram will use pixel matching technology to make the experience seem more native–matching the added content colors to look more intentional. The swipe up functionality will be supported as well to allow an advertiser to include a relevant link.

This change should help to lure more advertisers into testing Instagram Stories advertising by eliminating the need for manual ad creation. Knowing that most Facebook advertisers live outside of the full-screen vertical space, it should help ease the pain for their foray into Instagram Stories.