Facebook is trying to brew up something new for Facebook Pages out there, especially those who love to use Stories as part of their online marketing strategy. They are currently testing a call-to-action feature right straight in your business’ stories.

Currently, pages are only allowed to post Stories like everyone else – a simple promotion photo or short video. But soon enough, businesses can now push their customers to act (or react) to their advertisements right away. Through call-to-action buttons, online marketers and various businesses can now make their Stories more than just a display of promotional creativity.

This feature is something that advertising or marketing are looking for. Something that would boost the purpose of a Facebook Story. Not only does this change the game in online marketing, but it pose a new and exciting challenge in Story production.

First, let’s get to know what are the available call-to-action functions for now. Next, we’ll discuss how you can maximize these functions to help you boost your online marketing efforts.

Available Call-to-Action Functions

While this feature is not yet rolled out, RocketSocial has learned that the new call-to-action function on Facebook Stories have quite a lot to offer to business pages.

The new function could work best for online shops who wants their customers top instantly purchase the items feature on their Story. A ‘Shop Now’ button could soon be integrated on your online marketing efforts.

Another neat function is the ‘Book Now’ action. This could work best for those who are into hospitality management and tourism businesses. This action is best to link it to your booking page, or open a new and simplified booking window that would sync  to your booking system. It’s easier to track and it won’t be a hassle for your customers.

The ‘Sign Up’ action is best for businesses who need customers to sign up before they could use their service. This is also best for Stories containing promos for new customers. It could be a creative way to gather and acquire new patrons. Plus, having a call-to-action on your story makes it easier for them to sign-up and not even think twice about registering.

If you already have that in place, a ‘Contact Us’ button could also be good for other promotions. This is best if you can’t place all your promotion details in your Story. This could prompt your customers to ask for more details by giving them an option to contact you right away.

For pages who need more than a few seconds to promote a product, service, or event, you can add a ‘Watch Video’ CTA button on your Stories. You can create a short teaser as a Facebook Story then link it to your website or YouTube page to watch a full video. That’s a creative form of engagement for your business!

The ‘Use App’ or ‘Play Game’ actions are best for tech companies who will (re) introduce an application or game that might be interested for your followers. Just like videos, you can create a short teaser of your app or game (just like the ads we see, right?).

Although this current line-up of actions seem limited, but this doesn’t mean that Facebook would not add more in the future. We bet they will! This already looks promising for the time being. We sure can’t wait for more on what’s to come.

A New Challenge

Now that Facebook will add this new feature, this comes with a new challenge.

Creating a Story may seem so easy. But if you want to optimize it for marketing purposes, you have to be creative about it.

(Read: Boost Your Business with Instagram Stories to know how to create effective Stories for online marketing that could be applied to Facebook Stories, too!)

The new call-to-action feature adds up to that challenge. The content of your story must not only be creative, but should also be engaging to the point that it would drive your followers to click and make an action. The question now is: what would compel them?

What would compel them to book for a hotel stay? You can give promos, or highlight the best reviews about your place. Feature your best amenity or a nearby tourist destination that they would surely say no to. This could be the same motivation for them to shop. Aside from promos, look into their pain points and offer solution to them through your products.

How about compel a user to sign up or contact your business? Offer something new. You can also offer something that they would benefit from. Or probably a great promo, especially to new users. Give them something to push them to spare a minute of their time to register. Show them how your business could help them solve their problems or satisfy their needs.

It might be extra challenging to compel one to download an app or game. Unless the app is something they would badly need, you have to sell out your app and show features in your Story that would bring out the highlight or importance of it. Games, unless fun and targeted to the right audience, is an easier pick to market.

Another challenge that this new feature might pose is creating a Story that would consider the positioning of the call-to-action buttons. You can’t just sloppily put the button anywhere on the story. It has to ‘flow’ with the rest of the content. Imagine the button as part of the graphic design – or production design. Compose your story in a way that it would leave a considerable amount of space for the button.

That being said, we believe it’s important to recall a few important specifications for Facebook Stories.

Facebook Story Specifications According to InstaPage

InstaPage published a neat guide for image and video ad specifications for Facebook Stories.

Image ad specs:

• Image: 500 X 500px minimum
• Image ratio: 1.91 minimum to 9:16 maximum
• Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%
• Available call-to-actions: shop now, book now, learn more, get showtimes, sign up, download, watch more, contact us, apply now, get quote, request time, see menu
• Avoid using text or a logo in 14% (250px) area at the top and bottom of the image
• Ads with more than 20% text may have limited delivery
• Vertical ads are viewable for 5 seconds or until a user swipes from the story.

Video ad specs:

• Video size: 500 x 500px minimum
• Video ratio: 1.91 minimum to 9:16 maximum. Videos under 9:16 have colored gradient bars rendered below and above. Text field appears below video.
• Aspect ratio tolerance: 1%
• Video length: 1 to 15 seconds
• File size: 4GB maximum
• Available call-to-actions: shop now, book now, learn more, get showtimes, sign up, download, watch more, contact us, apply now, get quote, request time, see menu
  Optional sound
• Avoid using text or a logo in 14% (250px) area at the top and bottom of the video
• Ads with more than 20% text may have decreased delivery
• Video ads are viewable for up to 15 seconds or until a user swipes from the story.

Remember that most Stories are view in mobile phones so have that considered. While others can view Stories on their Desktop but Stories are more accessible via mobile.

Ready To Go!

You’re all set and ready to go! Go and be bold and brave on your online marketing strategies with these tips. Look out for the new call-to-action function and you’ll surely think of so many ways to not only get creative, but proactive.