MENLO PARK, CA: Five months after launching its Stories feature, photo-sharing app Instagram is to start offering not only advertising but also associated metrics, something rival Snapchat has been slow to embrace.

"One of the requests we've gotten from businesses is they want more advanced tools for targeting and reaching people even beyond their followers inside this new experience," said Jim Squires, director of marketing operations at Instagram.

"We are going to take all the targeting, delivery and measurement that people have access to on Facebook and Instagram and apply that to Stories with this new immersive format that will be available."

Airbnb, AT&T, BuzzFeed, Coca-Cola, General Motors, L'Oréal, McDonald's and Nike are among more than 30 companies that have been testing the service in the US, Campaign reported, with the option set to become globally available in the near future.

The 15-second ads will run between Stories in the feed with the ad initiating a full-page takeover and with sound automatically on according to Ad Exchanger.

Vishal Shah, director of product for Instagram's business platform, claimed the app could now offer "an unmatched advertising experience in Stories that combines targeting, access to measurement, self-service creation tools and API ad partners".

"We're excited to see how brands think about integrated storytelling to get their message in front of people," he added. "Given the measurement and targeting capabilities on the back end, it gives businesses a tool they actually need."

He was less forthcoming about the number of ads users could expect to see but referred to the "thoughtful" rollout of ads in the main Instagram feed.

"We will be applying that same level of rigor, a blend of art and science [to the Stories rollout]," he told Business Insider. "We feel pretty good about using a lot of that playbook for what we are going to be doing [on Stories]."

Data sourced from Campaign, AdExchanger, Business Insider; additional content by Warc staff