Primacy Effect on Instagram Stories

While Instagram stories currently does not directly allow advertisers to select serial positions, these have previously been found to influence the effectiveness of advertising. Previous television research has found that primacy effects (being placed in earlier commercial pods rather than later commercial pods) lead to better brand recall. The aim of this article is to show if primacy effects are also occurring on Instagram stories. The article builds on two experiments: One with still ads and one with moving ads to show that primacy effects lead to better recall on Instagram stories both when ads are moving and when they are still. The study opens for more research into the characteristics of social media and their influence on social media advertising.