Since first launching Instagram Stories in August 2016, and ads in stories in March, it's been exciting to see how our community of businesses has taken this full screen experience and made it their own. In just one year, the stories format has changed the way brands connect with and inspire their customers—with more than 50% of businesses having created a story in the last month¹.

As 250M people around the world watch and create stories every day, Instagram Stories is becoming an increasingly powerful way for brands to stand out and inspire action. And today, we're giving advertisers more flexibility with how they create and buy ads in stories with added capabilities that include:

• Integration with Facebook Canvas, offering a seamless extension of the full screen experience of Instagram Stories

• An uploading tool that allows businesses to use their existing organic stories as ads in Power Editor and Ads Manager, unlocking the creative tools of the native Instagram Stories camera

• Placement optimization to run campaigns across Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network

With the ability to utilize Facebook's fast-loading full screen Canvas format in Instagram Stories, marketers are able to use the creative versatility of Canvas to tell compelling brand and product stories. This seamless extension of the full screen experience allows advertisers to capture the attention of customers with just a single ad.

During a recent campaign on Instagram Stories, mattress company Casper (@casper) tapped Facebook Canvas to educate its audience about its unique product benefits and warranty, as well as share client testimonials for the feel good brand.

For advertisers looking to get the most out of Instagram Stories and its immersive, full screen format, we're giving them the ability to now upload their existing organic creative added. This new uploading feature allows advertisers to extend the reach of their existing stories creative and have it live permanently within Power Editor and Ads Manager for future use.

Now, advertisers can use camera features like face filters, boomerangs, and drawing tools to create an organic piece of media, and then repurpose as an ad. Take for example online flower retailer, The Bouqs Company (@thebouqsco), and their recent campaign.

Offering cut-to-order flowers from eco-friendly and sustainable farms, The Bouqs Company repurposed an organic story media it created with our stories camera by using our uploading tool to upload into Ads Manager as an ad optimized for Website Conversions.

For a look at how the tools works, check out this demo from luxury candy boutique, Sugarfina (@sugarfina).

Looking to build awareness around its newest beauty product Genoptics, Procter and Gamble's SK-II brand (@skii) ran a split-test to see how Instagram Stories performed in conjunction with its feed campaigns across Facebook and Instagram. It achieved a brand lift of +13pts for its new product and +30% reach among its target audience of females in Japan aged 18-54 versus running on Instagram and Facebook feed alone. Advertisers are seeing success in driving incremental impact when adding Instagram Stories to their campaigns.

And now, we are rolling out the ability for Instagram Stories to be automatically added to Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network campaigns through placement optimization and allowing advertisers to take advantage of the efficiencies of running a cohesive campaign. We are excited to bring more flexibility to the ways advertisers can buy Instagram Stories. This feature will be fully rolled out globally in the coming weeks.

To learn how other businesses and advertisers are successfully running ads in stories and using its versatile capabilities to share their passions with the world, check out this how-to guide and get started today.