Instagram began testing another revenue-generating options for businesses, introducing a feature extending access to company Stories to a larger audience, TechCrunch reported.

The feature allows businesses to pay to have their Stories appear as adverts when users are scrolling through friends’ photo and video slideshows, an approach similar to the boost option offered by parent Facebook. Previously these Stories would only be available to users following a particular business.

The approach aims to save companies the effort of creating separate advertisements, TechCrunch stated.

Companies can choose which users the Stories will be visible to, based on parameters including location or existing followers. The Stories can include links to an Instagram page or a website.

“I can confirm that we are testing this feature globally. We don’t have an immediate timeline for 100 per cent rollout, but will keep you posted”, an Instagram representative told TechCrunch.

The move could be crucial to Facebook, which experienced a slowdown in its revenue growth rate during Q3. In an earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the popularity of Stories among Instagram users is not being replicated with core Facebook users.

Instagram recently launched a feature called Analytics, providing businesses tools to scrutinise statistics around users and their lifetime value.