Carousel adverts have been a part of the Instagram experience since last March, allowing advertisers to showcase multiple photos with a call-to-action button in a single advert unit. Over time, we've seen carousel campaigns perform better for advert recall than single photo campaigns on Instagram, driving an additional 2.5-point lift in advert recall on average.¹ Starting today, you can add video to your carousel advert units. With the addition of video, advertisers can share up to five pieces of content (video or photo) for a richer storytelling experience.

Over the last six months, the time people spend watching video on Instagram has increased by more than 40%.² And research shows that adding video to an existing campaign drives higher favourability than campaigns with static photos only.³ As people watch more and more video on the platform, video carousel adverts can help businesses reach potential consumers in new and more immersive ways.

There are many ways to tell your story on Instagram. And now, for the first time, you have the ability to share a combination of static photos and video with carousel adverts. The swipeable advert format lets businesses showcase three to five videos or photos within the same advert unit. That means that you can use any combination of videos or photos you like. Advertisers also have full control of the order of the content, so photos and videos will appear in a sequence you choose. For businesses wanting to tell a more sequenced story, placing creative in a specific order will work to your advantage.

From film studios to vehicle companies, businesses from various industries are using the new video carousel format to tell deeper stories on Instagram.

Disney created a video carousel advert to introduce its upcoming film, Alice: Through the Looking Glass, coming out on 27 May. Teasing the premise of the film, the videos showed the journey of Alice stepping through the mirror into Wonderland. The advert was targeted to Disney lovers, females aged 13-24 and other specific audiences to reach those most likely to be interested in the trailer. It also included a "Book Now" button, with the ability to purchase tickets being just a click away from the carousel advert.

And the Jeep brand sought to increase awareness of its iconic four-wheel-drive vehicles. Through a combination of five alternating photos and videos, Jeep showcased many of its models being driven in uncharted terrain. The advert was targeted to people aged 18-34 in the US whose interests matched the brand's Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Patriot, Jeep Compass, Jeep Grand Cherokee or Jeep Wrangler nameplates. The Jeep brand also included a "Learn More" button, through which people could get more information about the vehicles.

As you can see, businesses are reaching customers with more immersive content through video carousel adverts. Whether you run a full video carousel adverts or adverts wth a mixture of videos and photos, adding video to your carousel adverts gives customers a richer understanding of your business, product or app. Video carousel adverts are also available on Facebook, so you can seamlessly run your adverts across both platforms to reach a wider audience more efficiently.

You can create video carousel adverts in Adverts Manager, Power Editor or the marketing API. Learn more about carousel adverts.