Instagram stories have become one of the most popular ways for influencers, businesses, and everyday users to connect with their audiences. The ephemeral nature of stories leads to high engagement as viewers tune in daily to catch the latest updates.
However, simply posting stories is no guarantee that people will actually watch them. The average Instagram story only receives a few hundred views. So how can you double or even triple your Instagram story views? The answer lies in strategic calls-to-action (CTAs).
What is an Instagram Story Call To Action?
An Instagram call to action (CTA) is an instruction to your audience designed to provoke an immediate response. For Instagram stories, effective CTAs encourage viewers to engage further with your content while the story is still live.
Some examples of story CTAs include:
- Swipe up to shop
- Comment for more info
- Tap to join the challenge
- Share your thoughts
- Follow for more
Crafting a compelling CTA takes careful thought, but including them can have a huge impact. According to Instagram, stories with CTAs receive 36% more views on average. Even better, viewers are 138% more likely to swipe up on stories with a CTA sticker.
Benefits of Using Instagram Story Call To Actions
Utilizing strategic Instagram story CTAs has many advantages beyond simply increasing views:
Drive Traffic: Direct viewers to your website, online store, or blog with a simple “Swipe up” link.
Gather Leads: CTAs allow you to collect contact info from engaged followers. Offer an eBook, coupon code, or exclusive content in exchange for an email address or phone number.
Boost Engagement: Spark conversation and connection with questions, polls, quizzes, and challenges.
Promote Events: Increase sign-ups or ticket sales for upcoming webinars, conferences, or meet-ups.
Grow Your Following: Encourage viewers to follow your account for more content.
Sell Products: Motivate purchases with limited-time sales, special promo codes, and product launches.
Essentially, crafting CTAs allows you to guide your Instagram story viewers to take whichever action best supports your goals, whether that’s driving ecommerce revenue or collecting more free Instagram followers.
4 Types of Effective Instagram Story CTAs
Wondering what kind of CTAs perform best on Instagram stories? Consider these top options:
- Swipe-Up Links
The swipe up CTA is exclusive to Instagram accounts with over 10k followers. It allows you to directly link to any webpage from your story. This makes it perfect for driving traffic to your site.
Drive views to popular blog content, promote a sale or event, or create FOMO with limited-time offers. Just make sure your link goes to eye-catching, relevant content to maximize conversion rates.
- Tap-Forward Arrows
Similar to swipe ups, tap-forward arrows let you link website pages or other Instagram content. The main difference is that any account, regardless of follower count, can access tap-forward stickers.
Use arrows to guide viewers to shoppable product pages, link your IGTV video content together for binge watching, or create cliffhangers to upcoming stories.
- Interactive Stickers
One of the best ways to inspire audience participation is with Instagram’s interactive story stickers such as questions, quizzes and polls. These on-screen CTAs encourage viewers to engage by prompting a response.
Asking questions and requesting opinions feeds your followers’ desire to feel involved. It also provides valuable user-generated content you can repurpose across other marketing channels.
- Solid Color Background + Text
Don’t overlook the power of simple text-based CTAs either. While less flashy than stickers, a solid color background with a compelling message works extremely well.
This approach gives you more room to clearly explain the offer value or next steps to viewers. Some examples include:
- “Shop this Look @storename”
- “First 5 to comment get a discount code”
- “Click the link in our bio to join”
Keep background colors and text short, punchy and consistent with your brand style for an Instagram-worthy call to action aesthetic.
Crafting Effective CTAs for Instagram StoriesNow that you know the various CTA formats available, let’s discuss exactly how to create calls to action that convert viewers.
Follow these best practices when developing CTAs for your Instagram stories:
Know Your Audience
Having a solid understanding of your target viewer is vital for connecting with what motivates them. Determine your audience demographics as well as what content and offers resonates most. Develop CTAs that speak directly to their preferences and behaviors.
For example, a BOGO shoe sale works well for a fashion brand’s audience, while an eBook full of Instagram growth tips appeals more to aspiring influencers.
Highlight Value
Clearly communicate what viewers stand to gain by engaging with your CTA. This could be monetary savings, access to exclusive content, entry into a contest, entertainment value or another benefit.
Emphasize the urgency, scarcity and desirability of your offer to inspire immediate action. For example, “First 50 people to fill out the survey get a $10 Starbucks card!”
Make It Visual
Eye-catching graphics and video complement text CTAs by capturing viewers’ attention as they quickly flip through stories. Use stickers, animation, captions, filters and interactive elements to make your message stand out in their feeds.
For example, ask a question sticker on top of an exciting video teaser or offer a “Swipe up to Reveal” text overlay on a product close-up.
Time It Strategically
Pay attention to when your target audiences are most active on Instagram and engage with stories. Scheduling CTAs for peak times means more impressions and less chance of your message getting buried.
Likewise, place your CTA toward the start or end of a story carousel since attention spans tend to dip in between. Quickly prompt action once you have people’s focus.
Simplify Next Steps
Clearly articulate what you want viewers to do after seeing your CTA whether it’s tapping, commenting, swiping up, etc. Reduce friction by minimizing clicks or confusing instructions required to convert.
For example, “Click the link in bio for 10% off” is more effective than vague CTAs like “Shop this look now!” that fail to direct specifically.
While crafting the perfect Instagram story CTA requires some work, it drives incredible ROI. Dedicated testing and optimization of different formats, placements, verbiage and graphics helps refine what resonates most with your audience.
Top 8 Instagram Story CTA Examples from Brands
Need a little CTA inspiration for your brand’s Instagram marketing strategy to go viral on Instagram? Check out how these eight companies create compelling calls to action.
- Benefit Cosmetics: “Swipe up to shop”
The popular cosmetics company drives ecommerce sales by inviting viewers to shop exclusive products featured in tutorial videos. The clear direction and incentive to access deals tapped into their audience’s motivations.
- Buzzfeed Tasty: Vote in polls
Buzzfeed’s Tasty brand frequently asks questions and polls to involve their community. It reflects their engaging, pop culture style while crowdsourcing content ideas.
- Woman’s Health Magazine: Share Your Thoughts
Rallying user-generated content, Women's Health calls upon professional expertise from their health-focused community. This builds loyalty by making readers part of the conversation.
- Garyvee: Comment for Giveaway Entry
Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk offers viewers the chance to win one of his books by commenting. The low-friction CTA nets contact information for his email list.
- Sephora: “Tap to Shop” Makeup Looks
Sephora utilizes Instagram’s shoppable posts feature to link makeup products used in video tutorials. Viewers can seamlessly tap featured items to browse additional colors and purchase.
- Airbnb: “Swipe Up to Book”
Travel company Airbnb promotes limited-time housing deals to motivate booking. Urgency and scarcity principles encourage viewers to swipe up and claim the rates before they disappear!
- Starbucks: “Swipe to Try”
Innovative Drinks This popular coffee chain builds hype for new seasonal menu items by prompting viewers to visit stories for a sneak peek. Offering an early reveal helps attract engagement.
- The Walking Dead: Instagram AR Effects
This hit television series developed a custom augmented reality effect for fans. Activating their camera to “survive the apocalypse” made for a highly interactive and shareable activation.
Testing Instagram Story CTAs for Maximum ImpactGetting Instagram users to not only view your stories but also engage as directed is part art and part science. The most effective way to validate what works involves methodically testing different CTAs.
Consider A/B testing factors like:
- CTA placement (beginning, middle, end of story)
- Call to action messaging
- Interactive sticker vs text overlay
- Swipe up link vs tap forward arrow
- Contest prize or exclusive offer
- Target audience demographic (age, gender, location)
Closely monitor the view-through rate, conversion rate, shares, follows, comments and other relevant analytics for each variant. Determine the optimal approach for your account based on what performed best.
You can also conduct polls asking followers directly what types of CTAs and content they prefer. Apply their feedback towards crafting even more compelling calls to action.
Investing in automatic Instagram story views can also help expand the Instagram reach and Impressions of your CTAs by sharing them with more users outside your existing follower base.
Just remember - set up accurate tracking so you can continuously refine what resonates over time as algorithms and preferences change. Stay on top of Instagram CTA best practices for lasting success.
Conclusion
Implementing strategic Instagram story CTAs represents one of the most valuable tactics to engage audiences. Compelling calls to action allow you to increase views, drive conversions, boost engagement, and gather valuable data.
Carefully crafting CTAs targeting viewer motivations and offering clear direction on next steps is key. Likewise, continually testing formats, design, placement and messaging helps you optimize impact.
Apply these best practices for integrating smart CTAs into Instagram stories and watch your view count and results double! Leverage what you learned to guide followers seamlessly into more of your content, promotional offers and channels.
Consistently inviting participation instead of just passive consumption trains audiences to become excited to check your stories daily. They’ll eagerly anticipate each new opportunity to tap, comment, swipe up or browse.
Turn every story viewer into an engaged, long term follower using Instagram CTAs that convert!
FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about increasing Instagram story views with CTAs:
Q: How often should I post Instagram story CTAs?
A: Aim to include some kind of call to action in about 70% of the Instagram stories you post. Spreading CTAs across multiple weekly stories keeps them from feeling overdone while still nudging engagement. Mix up Offering variation between swipe ups, questions, incentivized alerts etc. prevents the messaging from becoming repetitive.
Q: What is the ideal Instagram story length?
A: Unless utilizing tap-forward arrows, most Instagram story slides tend to be viewed for only 1-2 seconds by users flipping through. That means you typically have just a brief window to capture attention and communicate an effective CTA. Individual story slides with a single photo or short video clip work best. You can link multiple story slides together to create a swipeable carousel, but lengthy standalone videos often see high drop-off rates.
Q: How do I add clickable links to Instagram Stories?
A: Accounts with 10K+ followers can add swipe up links to website URLs or specific Instagram posts. Smaller accounts can use tap-forward arrows to link additional story slides. The shoppable post feature also allows tagging and linking products from image slides. Links need to be enabled within 24 hours of the original story expiring for viewers to still access them.
Q: What’s the difference between swipe ups and tap forwards?
A: Swipe ups allow linking external webpages while tap forwards only work between connected Instagram content. Swipe ups are exclusive to verified accounts and those with over 10k followers. All users have access to Instagram’s tap forward linking between stories, posts, reels and profiles.
