Instagram Ads are paid promotional posts that appear seamlessly in users’ feeds, Stories, Reels, and Explore pages. Unlike organic posts, businesses pay to display these ads to specific audiences, ensuring precise targeting and measurable results. Here’s how it works:

Explore Ads appear on Instagram’s discovery hub, the Explore page, where users actively seek new content. These ads target niche interests with grid-style visuals, directing curious viewers to profiles, product catalogs, or landing pages. By integrating ads into the spaces users naturally engage with—whether scrolling feeds, watching Stories, browsing Reels, or exploring trends—Instagram ensures promotions feel native and non-disruptive, boosting the likelihood of meaningful interactions.

Story Ads occupy the full-screen, vertical space between users’ Stories, offering 15-second visuals with interactive elements such as swipe-up links to websites or polls to drive instant engagement.

Feed Ads appear directly in users’ scrolling feeds, mimicking regular posts with eye-catching photos, videos, or carousel galleries, all marked with a subtle “Sponsored” label. These ads allow users to engage by liking, commenting, or clicking calls-to-action like “Shop Now.”

Reels Ads are inserted between short, entertaining Reels videos, leveraging sound-on, vertical video clips (up to 30 seconds) to capture attention in a format users already love.