How to Schedule an Instagram Story with a Link

Driving traffic from Instagram used to be a challenge, but scheduling a Story with a clickable link changes everything. It’s one of the most effective ways to turn your followers into website visitors, newsletter subscribers, or customers. This guide breaks down exactly how to schedule your Instagram Stories with links and offers practical tips to get more people to actually tap on them.

Why Scheduling Instagram Stories with Links Is a Game-Changer

Batching your content is a massive time-saver, but the real power of scheduling your linked Stories lies in strategy. When you plan your content ahead of time, you move from reactive posting to proactive marketing. You can align your Stories with product launches, blog post publications, or sales events, all without scrambling to post at the right moment.

Here’s what this process unlocks for your brand:

• Consistent Traffic: Regularly posting Stories with links keeps a steady stream of followers heading to your website, blog, or landing pages.
• Improved Time Management: Dedicate a block of time to create and schedule a week’s worth of Stories. This frees you up to focus on other parts of your business, like engaging with your community in real-time.
• Campaign Coordination: You can perfectly time your Stories to go live alongside an email campaign, a new YouTube video, or a big announcement. This creates a cohesive, multi-channel marketing push that amplifies your message.
• Higher Conversion Rates: By making it incredibly simple for followers to take action (just a quick tap!), you remove friction and make it easier for them to buy a product, sign up for a webinar, or read your latest article.

The Key to Clickable Stories: The Link Sticker

The magic behind adding links to your Instagram Stories is the official “Link Sticker.” A few years ago, this feature was exclusively reserved for accounts with over 10,000 followers, which was a huge barrier for smaller creators and businesses. Thankfully, Instagram has since made the Link Sticker available to everyone.

The sticker is a small, customizable element you add directly to your Story image or video. Viewers can tap it to be taken straight to a URL of your choice. You no longer have to rely on the clunky “link in bio,” which adds an extra, often conversion-killing, step for your audience.

Before scheduling, it’s helpful to know how to add it natively in the Instagram app:

1. Open the Instagram app and swipe to the Story creation screen.
2. Create your Story by taking a photo, recording a video, or uploading from your camera roll.
3. Tap the sticker icon (the smiley face in a square) at the top of the screen.
4. Find and select the “Link” sticker.
5. Enter the destination URL you want to use and tap “Done.”
6. You can now pinch to resize the sticker, drag it to the best position on your screen, and even tap it to cycle through different color variations.

Can You Schedule Stories Directly in the Instagram App?

This is a common question, and the answer is, unfortunately, no. While Instagram has a native scheduling feature for Feed posts and Reels, it does not currently support scheduling for Stories. To schedule your Stories - especially with a link - you need to use a third-party social media management tool that connects to Instagram’s API.

Let's face it: this limitation is why scheduling tools are so essential for serious creators and marketers. They bridge the gap between what the native platform offers and what you actually need to manage your content effectively.

How to Schedule an Instagram Story with a Link (Step-by-Step)

Using a management platform is the only reliable way to schedule Stories complete with a clickable link sticker. While the specifics can vary slightly between tools, the core process is generally the same. Here’s a breakdown of the steps involved.

Step 1: Choose a Social Media Scheduling Tool

First, you need a reliable platform designed for how social media works today. Look for a tool that prioritizes video content like Stories and Reels, not one where they feel like an afterthought. A modern interface and a visual content calendar will make the entire process smoother and more intuitive.

Step 2: Connect Your Instagram Account

Before you can start scheduling, you need to authorize the tool to post on your behalf. This usually involves logging into your Instagram account through the platform’s secure connection. Make sure your Instagram profile is set up as a Business or Creator account, as this is a requirement from Instagram for third-party tools to access scheduling features.

Step 3: Upload Your Story Media

Once your account is connected, navigate to the content composer or scheduler. Here, you'll upload the image or video you’ve prepared for your Story. Good scheduling tools allow you to upload high-resolution video without quality compression, which is important for keeping your content looking polished and professional.

Step 4: Add Your Link Sticker

This is where the magic happens. After uploading your media, you’ll see an option to add Instagram-specific elements. Look for a field labeled “Story Link,” “Website URL,” or something similar.

Enter the full URL you want followers to visit. This is the link that will be attached to the Link Sticker when your Story goes live. The scheduling tool will communicate with Instagram’s API to add this sticker to your Story automatically upon publishing.

Step 5: Customize and Set Your Schedule

Now, set the exact date and time you want your Story to be published. This is the core benefit of scheduling - you can set it and forget it. A good platform will show your scheduled Story on a visual calendar alongside your other planned content (like Reels, Feed posts, or TikToks), giving you a clear overview of your entire content strategy.

Some tools also allow basic edits, such as adding text overlays or cropping your media from within the scheduler, further streamlining your workflow.

Step 6: Review and Confirm

Finally, give everything one last look. Double-check the URL to make sure it’s correct - a broken link is a wasted opportunity. Check the scheduled date and time. Once you're confident everything is set up properly, hit "Schedule." The tool will take care of the rest, automatically publishing your Story with the clickable link sticker at your chosen time.

Best Practices for Driving Clicks from Your Stories

Simply adding a link isn't enough, you need to convince people to tap it. Here are a few simple but powerful strategies to increase your click-through rate.

1. Use a Strong, Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

Don't assume your followers know what to do. Guide them! Use text overlays, spoken CTAs in a video, or GIFs to tell people to “Tap Here!” or “Swipe Up to Read.” Make your instruction impossible to miss.

Some effective CTAs include:

• "Shop the New Collection Here"
• "Tap to Read My Latest Blog Post"
• "Get Your Free Guide Now!"
• "Register for the Webinar Here"

2. Design Your Story to Guide the Eye

Your visual design should subtly (or not so subtly) direct attention to the link sticker. People’s eyes are naturally drawn to movement and visual cues. Use animated GIFs of arrows pointing to the sticker or place graphical elements around it to make it stand out. When placing the sticker, avoid putting it too close to the edges of the screen where it might be obstructed or accidentally tapped while navigating between Stories.

3. Build Anticipation Before Dropping the Link

Instead of just dropping a single Story with a link, consider creating a short sequence. Use the first one or two Stories to tell a quick narrative, ask a question using the Poll or Quiz sticker, or share a compelling snippet of information. Get your audience engaged first, then present the linked Story as the next logical step. Viewers who are already invested are far more likely to click.

4. Keep Your Promise

Trust is everything on social media. If you tell someone they're going to get a recipe, the link better lead directly to that recipe - not a homepage they have to search through. Sending your audience to the exact destination you promised creates a positive user experience and makes them more likely to trust and click your links in the future.

5. Test and Track Your Performance

Pay attention to your analytics. Check Instagram Insights to see how many link clicks each Story gets. If you’re using a social media management platform, it will likely have its own analytics dashboard where you can track performance. Look for patterns. Do video Stories generate more clicks than static images? Do morning posts outperform evening ones? Use these insights to refine your strategy over time.

Final Thoughts

Scheduling Instagram Stories with links is a simple, strategic shift that saves you time and transforms your account into a consistent source of traffic. By using a third-party tool to plan your content, you can create cohesive campaigns, maintain a constant presence, and guide your followers right where you want them to go without having to post everything live.

At our core, we built Postbase because we wanted a modern tool that makes workflows like this feel effortless. Since today’s social media is all about video, we designed Postbase from the ground up to handle Stories and Reels flawlessly. You get a clean, visual calendar to plan everything out, and our scheduling is rock-solid, so you can trust that your content will go live exactly when planned. No glitches, no disconnected accounts - just a simple, reliable way to manage a video-first social media strategy.