Carousel ads 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 ad unit. Over time, we’ve seen carousel campaigns perform better for ad recall than single photo campaigns on Instagram, driving on average an additional 2.5 point lift in ad recall.¹ Starting today, you can add video to your carousel ad 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 spent watching video on Instagram increased by more than 40%.² And research shows adding video to an existing campaign drives higher favorability than campaigns with static photos only.³ As people watch more and more video on the platform, video carousel ads can help businesses reach potential consumers in new, 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 ads. The swipeable ad format lets businesses showcase three to five videos or photos within the same ad unit. That means you can use any combination of videos or photos you’d 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 movie studios to automotive companies, businesses from various industries are using the new video carousel format to tell deeper stories on Instagram.

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

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 driving in uncharted terrains. The ad was targeted to people 18-34 in the US whose interested 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 where people could get more information about the vehicles.

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

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