Ads that tell a story have the greatest impact on consumers, new research suggests.

Digital media ad campaigns that tell a brand story before asking people to buy something are significantly more effective than ads that immediately encourage people to take an action, the study shows. Results come from research by Facebook and the social media advertising technology firm Adaptly.

For the study, researchers generated two ad campaigns on Facebook for Refinery29, an independent fashion and lifestyle website, and then compared the rate of email subscriptions and visits to the ads' landing pages.

by Chad Brooks, BusinessNewsDaily Senior Writer   |   July 18, 2014 11:11am ET