How To Optimize Instagram Reels For More Views?

With an average reach rate of 31%, reels have become one of the best-performing content on social media.

Whether you are a creator or have a business account, leveraging reels is the modern way to reach your target audience. 

This guide has all the trending hacks and tips to help you optimize your Instagram reels for more views and expand your Instagram reach in 2024. 

Instagram Reels: What Should You Optimize And Improve? 

There are various factors that affect a reel’s performance. From the core video content to the captions and reel cover to alt text, everything matters! 

So, if you want to get more views on Instagram reels, these are the elements you need to optimize and improve:

• Hashtags

• Content Quality

• Music and Audio

• Captions and Alt text

• Video Length and Format 

• Subtitles and On-Screen Text

• Transitions and Effects

• Reel Publishing Time

• Call To Actions

• Cover Photo

• Reels Share

All these key aspects significantly affect how the algorithm recognizes your reels. Therefore, optimizing them is crucial. Once you improve these elements, your reel performance will improve significantly. 

How To Optimize Instagram Reels For More Views In 2024?

Gaining more views on your reels needs consistent efforts, from creating unique content to maximizing your reels' share count. Here’s how you should optimize your reels for more views: 

1. Post When Your Audience Is Online

Timing matters and that holds true even for your reel posting schedule. If you want to gain real-time engagement on your reels in 2024 and optimize them for more views, start posting when your audience is most active. 

How to Find Your Audience’s Active Hours?

• Step 1: Go to your profile settings and access Instagram Insights

• Step 2: Tap on Audience to view insights related to your followers

• Step 3: Review the metrics to identify peak days and hours of engagement.

Based on your insights, you can reschedule your posting time for a few days to experiment and then start tracking your reel performance to measure the difference timing has made.  

2. Engage Your Audience In The First 10 Seconds

The average human attention span now stands at 8.5 seconds. Yes, that is it. You only have a few seconds to win your audience’s attention and make that first ‘good’  impression. 

Here Are a Few Tips to Engage Your Audience Quickly:

• Tip 1: Start your reel with a question or intriguing visual

• Tip 2: Immediately grab the audience's attention with a hook or latest stats

• Tip 3: Use storytelling to share compelling narratives.

You must engage your audience in the first 10 seconds to optimize your reels for maximum viewership. Use your creativity to pique curiosity among the viewers, and you will easily retain your audience. 

3. Create And Share Original Content 

Instagram has recently shared how it values unique content that is not recycled from third-party platforms but shared originally only on Instagram. Therefore, you must create original content on your reels.

How to Create Unique Content That Sets You Apart? 

• Tip 1: Conduct an in-depth search to understand your audience preference

• Tip 2: Impart your personal experiences to create unique content 

• Tip 3: Experiment with different content styles to share something new.

Most people engage with relatable content. Therefore, you must focus on creating content that offers your audience an experience of shared emotions where they can find themselves in your stories. 

4. Use Trending Audio And Music

You should also use trending music and audio clips to optimize your Instagram reels. Since they are already popular among users, using them will improve your reels’ discoverability and help you tap into their existing popularity. 

How to Find Trending Audio on Instagram? 

• Step 1: Go to Instagram’s Explore page  

• Step 2: Tap on the latest reels on the page

• Step 3: Click on its audio thumbnails in the bottom right corner.

You can either save the reel with the popular video or directly use its audio by choosing the “ Use Audio “ option. After identifying a few trending audios relevant to your content, use them creatively in your Reels to get more views for your content. 

5. Add 3-5 Relevant Hashtags

Using hashtags in your reels can improve their discoverability and help you reach a wider audience. You can include hashtags in your reel captions and your comments, but you must only include 3-5 relevant hashtags. 

How to Find Relevant Hashtags for Your Reels?

• Tip 1: Use Instagram’s search bar suggestions

• Tip 2: Analyze competitor’s content and hashtags

• Tip 3: Follow influencers in your niche

When you use 3-5 relevant hashtags in your reels, Instagram’s algorithm will start recognizing your reel content and show it to newer audiences, giving your reels better exposure and engagement.

6. Create Custom Reel Cover Photos

Cover photos are the thumbnails for your reels. When you share a reel, Instagram, by default, picks up a random frame from your reel as the cover photo. But you can also create custom reel cover photos for your reels. 

How to Create Custom Reel Covers on Your Own?

• Step 1: Screenshot one frame from your reel 

• Step 2: Go to Canva to enhance your cover photo 

• Step 3: Add text overlays and other visual elements.

Once your reel cover is ready, place additional keywords and phrases in your cover image text. Use clear focal points for each cover photo and add more human faces to evoke emotional actions. This will improve the click through rates on your reels, boosting your reel’s reach and improving your Instagram presence.

7.  Add Subtitles And On-Screen Text

Adding on-screen texts and subtitles makes your reel content accessible to a wider audience, including those who speak a different language, a person with hearing disabilities, or simply someone who watches videos on mute. 

How to Add Subtitles in Instagram Reels?

• Step 1: After recording your reel, click on Next and start editing

• Step 2: Tap on Stickers and choose the Caption Sticker

• Step 3: Edit your captions and finalize

Auto-generated subtitles will be added to your reel. However, since these subtitles can have errors, you must review and edit them carefully before hitting the publish button. Once you are done editing, place your subtitle text in the center of your reel for a better viewer experience. 

8.  Use Transitions And Special Effects

The next thing you must do to optimize your reels is to use some special effects. Instagram has various creative tools, including built-in templates, transition features, and interactive buttons to assist you with editing. You can use them to add effects to your Instagram reels and keep your viewers engaged throughout the video.

How to Add Transitions and Effects to Reels?

• Step 1: Import your reel clips on Instagram

• Step 2: Tap on the Edit Clips option 

• Step 3: Choose transitions and then click on save. 

Along with Instagram features, you can also use third-party editing tools to add more visual elements to your reels. Some editing tools to help you create a better reel video include Inshot, Fillmora Go, and Adobe Premier Pro. 

9. Shoot Your Videos Vertically

It is clearly evident that vertical videos will perform better on Instagram since it is a mobile-first application. Therefore, you must optimize your Instagram video format if you haven’t. 

Tips on Creating Engaging Vertical Videos:

• Tip 1: Utilize the entire space in video

• Tip 2: Add text and graphic overlays to enhance

• Tip 3: Place stickers and CTAs to engage audience

If you have old videos in a different format, you can edit them in software to fit the vertical aspect ratio of 9:16. After cropping the reel; add background images or graphics to fill in the empty space. 

10. Use More Compelling CTAs 

If you want to optimize your IG reels for more engagement, start using CTAs. A compelling CTA can encourage users to interact with your reel by liking and commenting, sending favorable signals to Instagram.

Tips for Creating Compelling CTAs:

• Tip 1: Use action words and phrases

• Tip 2: Create a sense of urgency

• Tip 3: Combine your CTAs with visuals

You can test different CTAs in your reels to determine what resonates with your audience the most and attracts more clicks and views on your Instagram reel content.  

11. Reshare Reels On Story And Feed

There are people who might not regularly browse through reels. Therefore, you must reshare all your reels on your story to get maximum success on Instagram reels. This will increase your reels' visibility and help you get more engagement on them.

How to Share Reels on Story?

• Step 1: Select the reel you want to share

• Step 2: Tap on the share button with a paper airplane icon

• Step 3: Select ‘Add post to the story’.

Also, while posting your reels, choose the option to ‘Also share to feed.’ When you do this, your reel gets posted on your main feed and appears as a regular post in your Instagram followers’ feed. This increases the chances of getting more engagement on your reels.  

12. Create Videos With Trending Templates

Creating reels with Instagram’s trending templates can also help you gain more views for your reel. Since trending templates are already familiar to many users, using them can give you an algorithmic advantage and help your reels appear in Instagram's "Explore" section.

How to Find and Use Trending Reel Templates?

• Step 1: Go to the reels section on Instagram 

• Step 2: Find reels with the ‘use template’ option

• Step 3: Click on this option and use the template.

You can create your own reel template by posting a reel of at least 3 clips of 5 seconds each. Add effects and music and share it on your feed. Once the algorithm favors your template, more people will start using it, and it might even get featured on Instagram, earning thousands of views. Who knows?

13. Embed Instagram Reels On Your Website

Another method to expand the reach of your Instagram reels and optimize the for more views is by embedding them on your website. This cross-promotion of your reels can help you get more views and improve the engagement on your reels. 

How to Embed Reels on a Website?

• Step 1: Go to your profile and select the Reel you want to embed 

• Step 2: Tap on the three dots in the bottom right corner of the Reel 

• Step 3: Now select ‘Embed’ and copy the embed code

• Step 4: Paste this code into your website’s HTML code. 

If you want to embed reels on your website more easily, use website plugins like Simple Social Icons or Instagram Feed Pro. Such plugins allow you to customize your reel designs to match your website’s aesthetics. 

14. Use Location Tags To Increase Visibility

Many users search specific locations on Instagram, and reels with that location tag may appear in their feed. Therefore, if you want your reels to appear more in such search results, you must add location tags to all your reels.

How to Include Location Tags in Reels?

• Step 1: Select the reel where you want to share

• Step 2: Tap on ‘Next’ and scroll down to find the ‘Add Location’ option

• Step 3: Type in your location and click ‘share’.

If you're targeting a local audience or trying to engage with users in a specific geographic area, adding location tags can help you connect with them more effectively, optimizing your reels for more views.

15. Add Additional Keywords In Captions

When users search for specific keywords or topics, reels with matching keywords in their captions are more likely to appear in search results or relevant explore feeds. Therefore you must place additional keywords in your captions too. 

How to Find Relevant Keywords?

• Tip 1: Use Instagram’s search bar suggestions

• Tip 2: Find common phrases used by your target audience

• Tip 3: Analyze the captions of your competitors.

Once you have finalized a few keywords, craft an engaging caption and place your keywords naturally. You can also ask questions in your captions to boost engagement on your reels. Add a proportionate mix of keywords and hashtags in your captions to help the algorithm find your reels.

16. Create And Share Looping Reels

If you want to get more views on Instagram reels, try creating more looping reels. Looping reels are short videos on Instagram that continuously replay once they finish playing. 

How to Create a Looping Reel?

• Step 1: Plan the intro and outro of your reel in advance

• Step 2: Start creating your reel and test the loop

• Step 3: Edit and add texts or visual elements to keep the reader watching it.

Currently, these types of reels are gaining popularity on Instagram due to their ability to captivate viewers and encourage more prolonged engagement with the content. 

These proven methods and practical steps will help you collect more impressions and views for your reels. 

Now that you know what you should do to optimize your reels, let’s find out the practices you must refrain from while trying to improve your reels performance. 

3 Mistakes To Avoid While Optimizing Instagram Reels

It can be tempting to try multiple hacks when you want to get your reels seen by your audience. But while optimizing your Instagram reels, making a few mistakes can affect your reels’s performance and account credibility in the long run. 

1. Using Copyrighted Music 

While trying to find audio that perfectly fits your reel content, you must avoid using copyrighted music in your reels. Instagram’s algorithms can easily detect reels that use copyrighted music and stop recommending them to the audience. 

2. Posting Videos With A Watermark

Instagram favors original content, so repurposing videos as reels with a watermark can make your reel appear less authentic. Therefore, before you hit that post button, make some edits and remove the watermark if you want your reels to appear on Instagram’s Explore page. 

3. Ignoring Your Audience's Preferences

Lastly, while optimizing your Instagram reels, you must never overlook your audience’s preferences. Boosting reels is only possible if your audience likes your content. Therefore, take the time to analyze your audience's feedback to tailor your content to their interests and preferences. 

Optimize Your Instagram Reels To Amplify Your Reach 10x 

Instagram reels are becoming more popular, and it is safe to say that today is the best time to create and share reels on Instagram and reach a global audience.

But if you want to create maximum impact with your reels, you must optimize them according to the Instagram reels algorithm. 

Now that you have an actionable plan to optimize your Instagram reels, try out these tips to create better reel videos and 10x your reach on Instagram.

FAQs

#1. How can I boost my reels on Instagram?

You can boost your reels with Instagram ads. First, go to your profile and select the reel you want to boost. Tap the Boost Reel option and select your ad goals, budget, audience, and duration. 

#2. What are the best ways to optimize IG reels?

Add relevant hashtags, location tags and captions in all reels on Instagram. Also,  create custom reel cover photos, and include additional keywords in your captions to optimize your reels.  

#3. What types of content perform best on Instagram Reels?

Behind-the-scenes videos, Instagram challenges, A Day in My Life, and short tutorials are currently gaining the most engagement on Instagram. However, trends keep changing; so keep experimenting to find your best content type.  

#4. How to select the best music for Instagram Reels?

While selecting music for reels, consider if it matches the pace of your clips and complements your content. Explore trending audio to find audio that enhances the overall vibe of your IG reel.

#5. Can reels enhance engagement on your Instagram account?

Yes, reels can significantly improve the overall engagement on your account. They have a 67% more engagement rate than regular videos and a 22% more engagement rate than static posts.