A plasmonic nanoring antenna system on a nanopedestal, providing larger and more accessible local electromagnetic fields, enables higher surface-enhanced fluore­scence IR absorption (SEIRA) signals than conventional designs on dielectric substrates. Experimental results and finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations demonstrate that such an improvement in the absorption signal of protein vibrational modes is directly proportional to the overlap between the optical fields and the biomolecules in the vicinity of the antenna.