A sequence, tapped through
Viewers tap through Stories in seconds, so each frame should carry one beat: the set-up, the product, the proof, the action. Instagram opens a brand's Stories at the first frame the viewer has not yet seen, so a sequence posted across a day is often joined half-way. Every frame therefore needs to make sense alone, with the brand visible and the offer restated near the end. A video frame can run to 60 seconds before Instagram splits it, but a frame that asks for a minute is fighting the thumb. Put the link or the question on the last frame, where the sequence has earned it.
Leave room for the sticker
Stickers are what set Stories apart: the link sticker, which sends viewers to a web page, plus polls, quizzes, questions, countdowns, emoji sliders and, where Instagram Shopping is live, product stickers. They are added in the app or by a scheduler that supports them, not generated into the image, so the artwork has to leave a clean area for each one. A poll dropped onto a busy scene hides the product it is asking about. Brief the layout with the sticker in mind, and never draw a fake sticker into the artwork: viewers tap it, nothing happens, and some of their trust goes with it.
Safe bands at the top and bottom
The top of each frame carries the progress bars, account name and close button. The bottom carries the reply field and, in ads, the call-to-action. For Stories ads, Meta suggests keeping roughly the top 14 per cent, the bottom 35 per cent and 6 per cent at each side free of text and logos. Organic frames face much the same clutter. Generated compositions should place the product and headline in the middle of the frame from the start. Re-framing a landscape key visual to 9:16 after the fact is where logos end up under the progress bar and prices behind the reply field.
Highlights, and Stories at volume
Highlights keep chosen Stories on the profile, just below the bio, for as long as the brand wants: size guides, care instructions, store details, new ranges, answers to common questions. They deserve evergreen frames and a matching set of covers, because they sit above the grid where every profile visitor sees them. Synthetic White turns a campaign's approved assets into Story sequences per market: 9:16 re-frames with the product kept exact, on-screen text rewritten in 30 languages with approved claims enforced, sticker space reserved in the layout, and Highlight covers made in the brand's own style.
Updated 25 September 2026