• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, September 15, 2016

When Instagram launched link ads, late last year, the plan was to help brands elicit more “actions” from users -- like driving Web site clicks, mobile app installs and site conversions. Unfortunately for the social giant and its brand partners, that didn’t happen. Why?

Well, through a series of internal studies, Instagram learned that the presence of its call-to-action button wasn't getting users’ attention in the original ad format.

In one eye-tracking study, the Facebook unit concluded that users simply weren’t seeing the button tucked in the bottom right corner of ads.

In response, Instagram recently started testing a bigger call-to-action button, which extends across the full width of the ad with the call-to-action text appearing on the left hand side.

The result? Since June, the ads’ performance has increased by more than 45%, according to internal findings.

In an effort to improve those numbers even further, Instagram plans to roll out some similar link-ad enhancements over the next month or so.

“Each [new feature] is focused on driving better visibility and interaction for the community while driving better performance for advertisers,” an Instagram spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Soon, the call-to-action button will be highlighted when users show interest on or around an ad -- like when they rest on an ad for four seconds or tap on the profile name.

When users tap into a brand’s profile from an ad, a call-to-action button currently appears at the bottom of the profile. In addition to adding the button to the advertiser’s profile -- which was implemented in June -- the button will soon extend to the comments section.

Also, when Instagram detects additional information from an ad -- like price, destination URL or app store rating -- it will automatically add it to the call-to-action button.

For video link ads, meanwhile, when users unmute a video, they’ll soon be taken to the destination URL while the video continues to play at the top of their screen.