I get a fair few DMs about my Instagram reach and how I grew my account. Right now, my reach (and every creator I seem to talk to) has much lower that it should be. And that is just the way it goes sometimes with Instagram! But this is all of my tips and tricks on improving your reach. If you want to see my most recent numbers, you can view them here in my media kit.
My Beginner AdviceWhen I first started creating short form video content, I searched around on Instagram to see what is popular and without copying other creators, I used it sort of as a base of the style of content I would create as well as seeing what hashtags to use, timings to post etc. Mainly with transitions and style of shots and it works! Typically your first clip should be under two seconds long to draw in the viewer to watch the rest of the video. For timings of when to post, I find it honestly doesn't matter too much but also check your insights to see when your audience is online the most. I also never post on the hour because that's when most content will be scheduled and it can then get lost in feeds.
Stalk Your Insights
I am a numbers girl, I wouldn't create content if I didn't want it to do well and there is so much you can learn from your insights! I like to look at my watch time regularly and try and match the average, the shorter my videos the better for the most part.
You can also see what countries you are most popular in which is helpful to see what audios and products are popular in that country. While I create the content I really enjoy creating, I do also try to adapt it to the audience I have. My audience is of an age when typically, they have more disposable income so I post more luxury beauty products whereas if my audience was teenagers or younger, I would post more affordable content.
Trending Audios
Instagram is making it even easier to find trending songs as they now have a chart! To make the best audio choices you are going to want to pick one that has less than 10k reels but to also see what kind of numbers reels under that audio is pulling. If an audio with under 10k reels has videos with over 100k views, and up into the millions, I pick that one.
I spend far too much time on TikTok and Instagram is a little slower when it comes to trends so if you notice an audio trending on TikTok, jump on it early on Instagram before it takes off over there! Last year when The Summer I Turned Pretty TV show started, I picked up on two songs that were about to blow up on social media, Cruel Summer and Can't Do Better, I used those right before they took off online and each video got to almost a million views.
Creator Masterclasses
I don't see a lot of other creators talk about this but the @Creators Instagram account is an extremely helpful resource. They share what's new with the app, any improvements or changes coming as well as tips and tricks on growing your account. This is where I learnt to pick trending audios for specific countries I have a higher audience based in.
SEO - Keywords & Hashtags
I have been sharing content online for the last decade so I'm not new to SEO but if you are, it stands for Search Engine Optimization. A every basic explanation of this is to put searchable words and terms into your captions, and on screen in your videos so that the search engine can pull thet content for the user. For beauty content, I try to make sure brand names and shades are in my captions so when the user searches for that on Instagram, my content will pop up. I prefer to add them into sentences but a lot of creators just dump a bunch of words at the bottom of their captions along with their hashtags.
I have noticed the biggest difference since adding text on screen in my videos just for a couple of seconds. But the key is to make sure you add them in the Instagram app when editing and not an external editing app as Instagram cannot read any text you've added in a different app when uploading it.
Speaking of in-app editing, Instagram does want you to edit your content within the app rather than use an external app, it also does not seem to like when I shoot in 4K on my iPhone as it struggles to upload it.
Don't Delete Your Content
The only time I have deleted content is when something has gone wrong while uploading it or because of brand deal issue, I would never delete a video because it doesn't have a lot of views on it. The reason you shouldn't delete content as it could start getting crazy views after weeks, or months, of being uploaded! A lot of the videos I have had get millions of views hasn't been immediate, a lot of the time it takes a couple of weeks to start getting pushed.
Knowing When Your Content Isn't Working
This can sound a little mean but sometimes it is your content and not the algorithm/ranking system. It's really unfortunate when you spend so much time and effort in to creating your content. I know for my account, skincare content typically doesn't do as well as my makeup videos. That doesn't mean to say it won't ever do well and because I enjoy creating it, I will continue to do so but it hardly ever brings in the big views. Sometimes a video will do well on TikTok but not on Instagram - it's just the way it goes.
But as soon as you start to see what type of content performs well...KEEP MAKING IT! 18 months ago when I started creating Reels, I did 'Makeup Bag Monday' style videos, showing my makeup product picks for the week. After a while, one of them got close to a million views (even without a trending audio) so I did one every week. Only in the last couple of months have I stopped doing those videos every week but I do like to do them every now and again and they almost always pull in the top views. I also started creating makeup collection videos and showcased all of one specific product in my collection, my liquid highlighter collection reel has 4.5 million views, my mini concealer collection has 2.5 million, a liquid blush collection video has 1.9 million views.
Get creative and try something new! And when something works, keep making that content!
...And sometimes it isn't you.
I mentioned at the start of the blog post that my reach hasn't been as high as it has been in the last couple of months and that is okay. Not every video is going to do extremely well and it's not personal (even when it feels like it is). When the ranking system isn't pushing your content, the key is to keep posting as Instagram wants you to be consistently posting.
While reels reach seems to be down for everyone at the moment, I thought I would post a couple of photo posts to see how the reach is with that form of content and it is much higher at the moment! It's always worth trying something new with Instagram and seeing if you can grow with a different form of content.
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