More than 500 million Instagram accounts are using stories every day, and so are plenty of advertisers.

Stories are a great way to connect with your audience: the content is full-screen, highly engaging and helps brands to tell great stories.

But great stories aren’t just about content.

With the right Instagram Story Ad Specs, Interactive elements, like polls and questions can take stories to the next level and return incredible engagement. And Instagram found that 60% of businesses on Instagram Stories use an interactive element in their organic story – hashtag, @mention or poll sticker – every month.

Now, Instagram has opened up these interactive elements to stories ads, enabling businesses to share super-engaging, interactive stories content with new audiences across Instagram.

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Interactive Stories Ads Specs

Starting with the polling sticker, interactive stories ads enable advertisers to experiment with one of the most-used and playful elements from organic stories in their ads.

Polls are a great way to increase engagement with your ads and the data from Instagram’s beta program is encouraging for marketers:

In 9 out of 10 beta campaigns, Instagram found that the polling sticker increased 3-second video views.
Brands like Dunkin’ achieved a 20% lower cost-per-video-view using the polling sticker
Next Games’ polling ad drove 40% more app installs

Impressive, right?

Here’s how the polling sticker ads look within Instagram:

Marketers who took part in the interactive stories ads beta also had some great feedback on the product:

“Delivering ads in Instagram Stories with the polling sticker showcased our new product story seamlessly and encouraged participation, while driving results that matter,” said Melanie Cohn, Senior Manager, Brand Stewardship at Dunkin’ Brands.

Hannah Craik, Head of Brand Marketing at COLLUSION, was also impressed with the new format:

“When we launched COLLUSION we wanted to collaborate with customers, and interactive Instagram Stories ads are a great format for this. Our poll asked “Do you think clothes should be gendered?” Nearly two-thirds of people who interacted with our story voted that clothes should not be gendered, in-line with how we concept COLLUSION and providing insight into the customer. We loved using the polling sticker to engage with our audience and make them feel a part of the brand.”

So it seems polling stories ads are worth experimenting with, let’s take a look at how you can get started.

How to Create Interactive Stories Ads

Interactive stories ads can now be created directly in Facebook Ads Manager, and it’s a super simple process.

First, head to Ads Manager, choose your objective and then when it’s time to select placements, ensure Instagram Stories is selected as your only placement:

Next, upload your ad creative and then under the area for entering your advert text you’ll see a button to ‘Add an interactive poll’. Check this box and you’ll then be able to create a poll for your ad.

Interactive Poll Instagram Story Ad Specs

Here are the key details you need to know for creating polls within Instagram stories ads:

Your poll question can be up to 100 characters long
Your polls are allowed two answer options
Each answer can use up to 24 characters

You can also edit the vertical and horizontal positioning of your poll as well as its rotation.

You can also see how your poll will look on your ad as you play around with these settings in the ad preview window:

Instagram Story Ad Specs

If you’re going to rock Instagram Stories, it’s vitally important to know what the Instagram Story Ad Specs are and how you can best utilize them to give your brand an edge over the competition.

Recommended Design Specs

Image File Type: JPG or PNG
Ratio: 9:16
Resolution: At a minimum, images must be: 1080 x 1080 pixels

We recommend leaving about 250 pixels, (equal to about 14%) of the top and bottom of the image free of text and logos, as well as any other important creative elements, because if you don’t, you risk covering them with either the profile icon or call-to-action.

Text Recommendations

Primary text MUST be kept to 125 characters at a maximum.

Technical requirements include:

The Maximum File Size: 30MB
The Minimum Width: 500 pixels
Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 1%

Instagram Poll Ads: Examples and Best Practices

Instagram poll ads have become one of the most engaging formats for businesses looking to interact with their audience directly. Unlike traditional advertisements that simply display information, poll ads invite users to participate actively by voting on options, creating a two-way conversation between brands and consumers. This interactive element significantly increases engagement rates, with studies showing that interactive content generates up to 2x more conversions than passive content. When users physically tap to vote in your poll, they’re not just viewing your ad—they’re engaging with your brand in a meaningful way.

Creating effective Instagram poll ads requires understanding both the technical aspects and psychological triggers that motivate user participation. The most successful poll ads ask questions that resonate with the target audience’s interests, pain points, or curiosities. For example, a fitness brand might ask “Morning workouts or evening sessions?” while a food delivery service could poll “Pizza night or burger night?” These simple binary choices make participation easy while providing valuable consumer insights that can inform future marketing strategies and product development.

Best practices for Instagram poll ads include keeping questions simple and direct, using visually appealing backgrounds that don’t distract from the poll itself, and ensuring your poll options are clearly contrasting. The visual component of your poll ad should align with your brand identity while being eye-catching enough to stop users from scrolling past. Many successful brands use bright colors, minimal text outside the poll question, and high-quality images or videos that complement rather than compete with the interactive element.

The timing of your Instagram poll ads can significantly impact their performance. Polls work best when they feel timely and relevant to current events, seasons, or trending topics. For instance, launching a seasonal preference poll at the beginning of a new season or timing a product preference poll just before a new release can maximize engagement. Additionally, consider your audience’s active hours on Instagram—posting polls when your target demographic is most likely to be scrolling through Stories will naturally increase participation rates and provide more representative results.

Strategic Applications of Instagram Poll Ads

Instagram poll ads offer versatility beyond simple engagement. Strategically designed polls can serve as market research tools, providing real-time feedback on consumer preferences at a fraction of the cost of traditional research methods. For example, a clothing retailer might use poll ads to gauge interest in potential new styles before committing to production, asking users to vote between two design options. This approach not only collects valuable data but also makes customers feel involved in the brand’s decision-making process, fostering loyalty and investment in the eventual product launch.

When designing poll ads for market research purposes, consider framing questions that provide actionable insights rather than merely interesting statistics. Questions should be specific enough to inform business decisions but broad enough to engage a wide segment of your audience. For instance, instead of asking “Do you like our products?” (too vague), or “Do you prefer the 7mm or 8mm thickness for our yoga mats?” (too specific for general audiences), a better research question might be “Would you prefer our next product release to focus on home fitness or outdoor workouts?”

Another strategic application of Instagram poll ads is using them as a lead generation tool by following up with personalized content based on users’ responses. For example, a skincare brand might ask “Dry skin or oily skin?” and then use Instagram’s retargeting capabilities to show respondents product recommendations specific to their skin type. This personalization creates a more relevant advertising experience and demonstrates that your brand listens to customer input, significantly increasing conversion potential compared to generic advertisements.

Driving Traffic Using Interactive Stories Ads

If you want to drive traffic back to your website and sales pages from interactive stories ads, you also have the option to include a website URL within your ad.

By ticking the ‘Add website URL’ button you can give viewers the option to swipe up and visit your website directly from the ad.

Advertisers can also choose from a bunch of CTAs to give viewers a clue of what action you’d like them to take once they visit your website—this is a great way to ensure targeted click-throughs. For example:

A restaurant could use the ‘See Menu’ CTA
A car dealership could use the ‘Get Quote’ CTA
A theatre could use the ‘Get Showtimes’ CTA

Measuring Instagram Poll Ad Performance

Understanding the metrics that matter for Instagram poll ads is crucial for optimizing your advertising strategy. Beyond standard engagement metrics like impressions and reach, poll ads provide unique data points including participation rate (the percentage of viewers who voted), option distribution (how votes were split between choices), and post-poll engagement (whether users took additional actions after voting). These metrics together paint a comprehensive picture of not just how many people saw your ad, but how compelling they found your question and how it influenced their perception of your brand.

Setting up proper tracking for poll ad performance requires attention to both the native Instagram analytics and your broader marketing measurement systems. Within Instagram’s Ad Manager, you can track standard performance metrics, but consider also implementing UTM parameters for any links associated with your poll ads to track the customer journey beyond the initial interaction. Additionally, creating custom conversion events in your analytics platform that capture poll-specific interactions will help you attribute value to these engagement touchpoints in your marketing funnel.

Comparing poll ad performance against other ad formats often reveals that while the cost-per-engagement for polls may be slightly higher, the quality of engagement and subsequent conversion rates typically justify the investment. A best practice is to run parallel campaigns—one using standard image or video ads and another using poll ads—targeting similar audiences with similar messaging to accurately measure the incremental value of the interactive element. Many brands discover that while poll ads may not always generate immediate conversions, they significantly improve brand recall and consideration, which translates to higher conversion rates in subsequent campaigns.

Instagram Poll Ads: 3 Ways Your Business Can Utilize Them

Polling stickers are a great way to spark a conversation, crowd source insights for product development, gamify your ad or run a contest. Here are a few ways your business could use this new feature:

1. Study Your Audience

Asking questions is one of the best ways to learn. And if you want to get to know your audience a little better… why not ask some questions of your own?

Instagram stories polls can be a great way to learn some extra details about your audience, test out ideas and figure out what’s important to your target customers.

For example, COLLUSION, one of the polling ads beta testers we mentioned earlier, used its stories ad poll to learn more about its audiences beliefs on whether clothes should be gendered or not.

2. Create Interactive Quizzes

Quizzes are a great way to make your community a part of your content and encourage engagement.Thanks to the polling feature in stories, your audience can directly respond to your questions too.

For example, Airbnb uses travel quizzes are a part of its TravelTuesday series on stories. It tends to give viewers a couple of clues about a location and then asks them to guess where they are talking about:

If you use stories to create a quiz, try to think about how you can match it directly to your brand like Airbnb does with travel quizzes.

3. Product Showcase

Stories are a great place to feature the products your business offers and polls can also add another interactive element to these type of posts.

This is something Dodge does well on its Instagram page. It has a stories highlight section focus on the different colors available for its cars and encourages its audience to vote on their favorite color options.

Tip: Test your polls organically

Instagram has shared that 60% of businesses use interactive elements in their organic stories and organic content could be a great way to test out your ideas before you commit any budget to ads.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will You be Using Interactive Stories Ads?

It’s incredibly exciting to see Instagram rolling out some of its popular interactive features to stories ads and I can’t wait to start testing out these formats with clients.

Will you be using these new ad types for your business? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or drop us a line if you’d like to discuss your ideas in person.

How much do Instagram poll ads cost?

Instagram poll ads typically follow the same pricing structure as standard Instagram Story ads, operating on an auction-based system where costs vary based on targeting, competition, and industry. On average, businesses can expect to pay between $0.50-$3.00 per click or $5-$15 per 1,000 impressions, though interactive elements like polls often yield higher engagement rates that can improve overall campaign efficiency and return on ad spend.

Can you track who votes on Instagram poll ads?

While Instagram poll ads don’t provide individual user identification for voters, they do offer aggregate demographic data about participants through the Instagram Ads Manager. Advertisers can access breakdowns of poll respondents by age, gender, location, and other demographic factors, as well as which option each segment preferred, allowing for valuable audience insights while maintaining user privacy.

How long should Instagram poll ads run for best results?

For optimal results, Instagram poll ads typically perform best when run for 3-7 days, providing enough time to collect meaningful data while maintaining relevance and freshness. Short-term polls (24-48 hours) can create urgency and are ideal for time-sensitive questions, while longer campaigns allow for audience optimization and reaching users at different times. Testing different durations with similar polls can help determine the ideal timeframe for your specific audience and objectives.

How Interactive Instagram Stories Ads Can Help Grow Your Business