What are Instagram Reels?
Written by Merle Andringa
Digital Marketing & Design
In 2020, Instagram launched ‘Instagram Reels’. Instagram Reels are short, entertaining or informative videos. With Reels you can creatively convey your brand story to your target audience. You can take part in creative trends, engage with your target audience and discover new ideas. You can inform your target audience through videos using a variety of effects, sounds and stickers.
What is the reach of Instagram Reels?
Instagram has changed the design of the app to add Reels in the middle, which has increased the organic reach of Reels. Thanks to this greater reach, Reels can be discovered by your potential target audience. People who don't follow you can discover your business on the ‘Reels’ tab, on the home screen of the Instagram feed and in the “Explore” section within the app. Ultimately, this helps your business achieve certain goals.
Via business.facebook.com you can easily create ads. Reels ads are then shown between other Reels; the ads can last up to 30 seconds and are played back to back. All functions, such as liking and commenting, are also available on Reels ads.
Advertising with Instagram Reels
Tips for a good reel
Tip 1: put yourself in your target audience's shoes
Create content that appeals to people. When people watch your reel, the aim is for them to recognise themselves or learn something from your video. You could also consider working with an influencer through a paid partnership to reach a wider audience.
Tip 2: join conversations or trends
Interaction with your target audience or with the community is very important. You can, for example, join conversations so that others notice you. Taking part in popular trends is also important to get seen; use trending sounds, for example.
Tip 3: show your perspective
Show your brand's personality, create a community by sharing the same passions or interests, or teach people something new. Try to be unique so that people want to keep watching your content.
Tip 4: stay realistic
No video is perfect, and it doesn't have to be. For the viewer, it is important that it feels realistic and that they can recognise themselves in the video.
Tip 5: use an attention grabber
Grab your visitor's attention by using the right tone of voice or visuals in the first few seconds of the video. Make sure people keep watching until the end with, for example, the text: ‘three healthy recipes for losing weight’; your target audience will keep watching until the last recipe if they are interested in this.
Tip 6: don't use an external tool for Instagram Reels
Instagram prefers that you don't use an external tool for Reels, such as TikTok. Use Inshot or Instagram Reels itself, for example, to edit the videos.
Making a reel yourself as a business?
Via the plus icon at the top right of the Instagram home screen you can post a post, story or reel. You can also do the same via the plus icon on your profile picture at the top left. You can now add a video or record one. Before you start, first follow these steps:
- Choose audio/music that suits your video. Also try to check whether the audio is trending at the moment. This step is very important when making your reel, since good trending audio can lead to a higher reach.
- At the three sparkles you can choose an effect or filter.
- As a third step, you can click on the timer icon, where you can set how long you want your video to last. You can set your reel to 15, 30, 60 or 90 seconds. The shorter the video, the more likely people are to watch it to the end.
- Under speed you can indicate whether you want your video to play faster or in slow motion.
- You can also choose a layout, for example to split your video into two parts.
- Lastly: set a timer if you want Instagram to count down before recording starts.
- As an extra, you can add a dual camera. This lets you use the selfie camera and the regular camera at the same time.
Want to know more about Instagram (Reels) and advertising with Reels? Feel free to contact us, we are happy to help.