How to Add Links to the Instagram Stories and Posts? Easy Ways To Do It

Instagram is God’s blessing for social media marketers. The latest stats show that the platform has over 112 million US users in 2022 and this number is expected to reach 117 million by the beginning of 2021. More and more businesses are leveraging this robust tool and its capabilities to present the products and services in the most alluring way, expand their digital footprint, increase brand awareness, attract new customers and consequently sell more. 

With 62% of people saying they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories, if you are not using this tool yet, you are losing your money. Unlike recent times, Instagrammers had only one place where they could include a link, which was in a bio. But things have changed! And this is huge for businesses that are looking to make use of the platform to its fullest. 

Adding links to Stories and posts has lots of potentials, and the good news is that it is pretty easy to use. Let’s take a look at how to add links to your Instagram stories and posts, as well as everything that goes into the process.

What are shoppable posts and stories? Types and examples

Shoppable content is a form of visual commerce in which marketers use catching imaginations with strong purchase points or product recommendations, streamlining the conversion rate from browsing to purchase.

Shoppable posts look like regular ones but for one exception – the displayed products are tagged and link to the website where users can buy them. On Instagram, one can identify such content from a small “shopping bag” icon located on the right-hand corner. Once you click on one of these posts, another panel will appear and display the tagged products along with their prices. This improves discoverability while the user is ON your Instagram profile.

Take Olivia Burton, a famous London-based brand selling accessories, watches, jewelry, as an example. By tapping on a post, users can discover which products on the picture are shoppable. They can see the price, item name, and when tapping one of those blurbs, they can buy the product.

Olivia Burton

It is worth mentioning that not only images can be shoppable but videos as well. For example, UBTECH Robotics uses them to their advantage. In order to present a new product in a commercial-like format, their team went with a video that the followers can tap to shop.

 UBTECH Robotics

Adding links to Instagram stories is a great way to show off your product, as well. This relatively new feature takes Instagram marketing to a whole new level. It doesn’t matter whether these posts are videos or photos, adding a “swipe up” link that appears at the bottom of the story as the phrase “see more” enables followers to visit the linked webpage. Having linkable Instagram stories with CTAs is a great option for businesses since they make promoting products on websites much easier and tell your visitors to take specific actions.

Take a look at Ali Manno’s account ( @Alifedotowsky). This bachelorette has become a product influencer and embedded swipe-up links in her stories. As a blogger, she advertises various products she uses so that the followers can buy the items online by swiping uplinks.

swiping up links

How to Add a Link to Your Instagram Stories

Yes, shoppable Instagram stories are a robust marketing tool that creates a direct connection between customers and brands by increasing the number of touchpoints. However, not everyone has the right to use it. There are two prerequisites:

  • Your account has more than 10,000 followers.
  • Your account is verified and you are a public figure or brand representative.

If your account meets at least one of the prerequisites, so accept our congratulations – follow these simple steps to start adding URLs into your stories.

#1. Tap the camera icon to begin your story

First, you need to open the app on your mobile device and switch to your business account if needed. Then you have to upload a photo/video from the gallery or take one and load it to your stories.

#2. Click on the icon that looks like a chain

A chain icon at the top right corner will appear only if you have a verified account or a business profile with over 10,000 followers. We recommend using byt.ly or any other form of trackable URLs to monitor your statistics. When the process is finished, you will be routed back to the created story. 

Upon tapping the icon, a new popup will appear where you are expected to input the URL that you want your followers to be redirected to after they swipe up.

input the URL

#3. Edit your story and add a CTA

Before you post the story, make sure that it looks captivating and alluring. You may play with filters to make your photo brighter and more attractive, use text tools to give followers a hint of what this post is about, or add stickers to adjust its look – your options here are unlimited.

Besides, since a “see more” link emerges at the bottom of your post, it is easy to overlook, so people still need to be directed to click on it. It may seem obvious but we recommend not to take for granted that all Instagrammers realize that they need to swipe up to know more about a product. So, don’t leave any room for doubt in their mind and simplify things for them as much as possible.

Feel free to make up your own call-to-action or choose one of the CTA phrases below:

  • Swipe up to know more!
  • Swipe up for more details!
  • Swipe up to see our offer!
  • Want more? Swipe up!
  • Just swipe up to check out this product!
Just swipe up

Voila! Now you can add the content to your story. 

What If You Don’t Have 10,000 Followers Yet?

If your business account isn’t followed by the required numbers of people, don’t worry. Originally, this feature launched with those who had over 1 million followers. Instagram has been reducing the needed number and we are sure that it will be available to everybody very soon (You can also read this post to get more Instagram followers). A piece of good news is that there are some ways to add clickable links to your stories even if the “swipe up” feature is not an option for you for the time being. 

Here are these ways:

  • Leveraging IGTV

With IGTV, your videos need to be at least 60 seconds and up to 15 minutes long when uploading from mobile. The algorithm is quite straightforward:

  1. Create an IGTV channel 
  2. Create a 15-second promo clip showing instructions on how someone can find your video. The text can be like this:text
  3. Upload this clip into IGTV specifying your title. In the description field, put the link you want to drive people to. Consider adding emoji to draw attention and make your message more visible.
  4. Post the clip on your Instagram stories.

There you have it. As you can see, a clickable link is located on the left corner of the video post. Tap here if you want to see a detailed video instruction on how to leverage IGTV to make shoppable stories.

Tap here
  • Using shoppable stickers for Instagram stories

The shoppable stickers are similar to the regular ones. They can be placed on both videos and images to enable businesses to tag products from their catalog or e-commerce platform. 

Using shoppable stickers

The algorithm of adding the stickers to your stories and posts is quite simple but requires connecting your Instagram business account to the product catalog. There are several ways to do so. The most simple way is to set up a shop on Facebook directly through an e-commerce platform. The process will depend on the CMS you are using. Thus, integrating a Magento 2 store with Facebook is not the easiest task and, in some cases, you will have to address a Magento eCommerce consulting agency for support.

In order to add the sticker to stories, you have to do the following:

  1. Take a photo or video with your camera or select one from the gallery.
  2. Then tap the sticker button and choose the “product” sticker.
  3. Select a product from your catalog.
  • Pay for a sponsored post

This option is for everybody who has an Instagram business account. The post tagged as “sponsored” will appear to people who fall within the target range that you specify. 

sponsored

How to incorporate product links into your Instagram posts

If you want to promote physical products on this social network, one of the easiest ways to do so is to create shoppable posts. They look like regular posts but when people tap them, they will see links to the featured products. By clicking on the links, the users are redirected to the product page of the brand’s website.

In order to create such posts, your account has to be approved for shopping meaning that your products must match the platform’s policies and your account must be connected to a Facebook catalog. Once you’ve been approved, feel free to enable product tagging in your settings, and start adding links to stories and posts.

In order to enable the ability to link to products from the Instagram App:

  1. Switch to your business account and tap to this icon in your profile. 
  2. Click on “Settings” 
  3. Click on “Business”
  4. Tap “Shopping”. Keep in mind that this option is available only to accounts that have been approved for shopping. if you don’t see the option, that means that your account is still under review or it hasn’t been approved yet. The process takes up to 2 days.
  5. Tap “Continue”
  6. Select a product catalog to connect to your professional account. 
  7. Tap “Done”.

Final Say

Instagram links as a marketing tool can provide much value to e-commerce businesses. Thus, links to the products featured in posts or stories can significantly improve traffic to your website or blog from Instagram by rooting buyers right to the items they are looking for. The decision to purchase is often impulsive – when we want something, we want it at that very moment. By creating direct links from your Instagram account to corresponding product pages, shorten sales funnel, and simplify the decision-making process.

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