Advertisers on Instagram have a new feature that expands their video options when trying to reach the app’s users, a slideshow option that creates video carousel ads. Beta versions of the ads have been rolled out on Tuesday from Taco Bell, Macy’s and Airbnb.
The video slideshow allows advertisers to show anywhere from three to five videos or images, which can be viewed by users in a side-to-side view. While this style is new to Instagram, it was unveiled on its parent company Facebook’s platform last fall.
Last spring, Instagram allowed advertisers to use image carousel ads and the shift was successful, with multi-image ads being 2.5 percent more successful than single-image ads, according to Instagram's head of business and brand development, James Quarles.
"Video's better than static image and carousel's better than single image, and we've brought them together here," Quarles told Mashable.
Recently, Instagram changed their 15-second video limit to 60 seconds — this extended time limit was previously exclusive to advertisers. This raises the possibility that the platform could soon allow users ti create video carousel content as well, in the near future.
At the time of the change, Instagram revealed that consumption of video content on the photo-sharing app has increased by 40 percent in six months. Keeping video consumption and engagement in mind, it would seem only fitting for Facebook to eventually roll out the video carousel feature for all its users on Instagram.
