Use Auto Advance to enhance web story user experience

Dec 8, 2022 | , read

auto-advance-features-google-web-stories-makestories

Web stories are a great way to create engaging content for your audiences across platforms. Editors like MakeStories make it very easy to create and publish web stories. Web Stories are all about multi-page content. Brands create unique stories and present them in a tappable format, discoverable on Google Search, Discover and Images. As web stories grow in popularity marketers and creators are learning how to optimize reach and conversions with better user experiences.

Here’s a game changing feature that can create a completely hands free, intuitive experience for your user. The Auto Advance.

What is the auto advance feature for Web Stories?

Auto Advance, much like the title, allows viewers to watch your stories without having to tap the screen. They can move from one slide to the other based on your pre-built selection. Free web story creator editor, MakeStories has this feature with a wide range of creative variations. These variations make for a captivating read or watch.

Ways to use Auto Advance for Web Stories

MakeStories allows you to set the Auto Advance feature to three types of triggers.

  1. Waiting Time Duration
  2. Video Ending
  3. Animation Completion

How to optimally use each of the Auto Advance triggers

1. Send a viewer to the next slide after a set wait time

waiting-time-duration-auto-advance-features-makestories

An average adult can read about 4.5 words per second. It is best to base the wait time on the number of words on each slide before it advances to the next one. It is not recommended to keep a standard wait time per slide as some may not take as long to read. Getting the wait time right could be the difference between your viewer staying on till the end versus a viewer dropping off half way through.

2. Send a viewer to the next slide after a video ends

video-ending-auto-advance-features-makestories

Web stories with video content in them can intuitively move on to the next slide when the video ends. MakeStories allows two videos on each slide. If videos are set to play consecutively, it is best to auto advance after the second video ends. This would avoid any discomfort to the viewer of switching slides in the middle of a video. If the video is set to play first and then text appears, you can add a further wait time.

For eg: 3 seconds after the video ends. Web stories are consumed in a very quick fashion, it’s always better to keep videos between 5-15 seconds, although web stories can handle videos upto 60 seconds too. Read more about how to optimize your videos for web stories here.

3. Send a viewer to the next slide after an animation completes

animation-completion-auto-advance-features-makestories

MakeStories has a plethora of animated elements and animation features. They help web stories stand out from the crowd. Generally, brands only have 1 second to grab a viewer’s attention and animation can certainly do so. On a web story, viewers can enjoy an intuitive, hands free experience if the slides are set up to advance after an animation completes. You can select which animated element is your trigger to start the waiting time.

For eg: 3 seconds after animation ends. This could be a text animation, animated image or an animated element.

Auto Advance is a very unique web story tool. The ability to switch between video slides, image slides, quote slides, and text slides during the story without tapping make your story much more unique.

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