Want to know how to get more views on Instagram Reels? Stick with us, kid. We\u2019re giving out free social media advice that doesn\u2019t involve black-hat techniques (we look better in white, tbh), get-rich-quick schemes (tried, failed), or snake oil (not good for the snakes).<\/p>\n
We\u2019re breaking down the best practices social media managers, creators, and Instagram pros use to get those reel view gains! Do what the experts do, and you\u2019ll pump up your watch numbers au naturale<\/em>.<\/p>\n This inclusive guide tells you exactly how to get more views on Instagram Reels using twenty tried-and-true methods.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Bonus:<\/b> Download the free 10-Day Reels Challenge<\/span><\/strong>,<\/span> a daily workbook of creative prompts that will help you get started with Instagram Reels, track your growth, and see results across your entire Instagram profile.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Before we dive into how to get more views on reels, you first need to know what counts as a view. Instagram has a couple of rules, which we\u2019ve outlined below.<\/p>\n There are also a few black-hat baddies out there that will promote paid hacks on how to get your reels seen, but buyer, beware. It may not be worth it in the end.<\/p>\n Despite many sources claiming Instagram reel view counts happen instantaneously (like TikTok), Instagram only counts views after three seconds<\/strong><\/a>. Your viewer can\u2019t click away before the three-second mark, or else it didn\u2019t happen. The takeaway from this is to make your first four<\/em> seconds engaging. Give your viewer a reason to stick around.<\/p>\n Instagram only counts the first few views per user<\/strong>. So, you can\u2019t use your friend\u2019s account to watch your reel a hundred times over to bump up your views.<\/p>\n You might be thinking of ways to hack the system, like racking up your own <\/em>views by replaying your reels. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn\u2019t make it that easy. Viewing your own reels won\u2019t register as a view<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Paying your way to social media stardom doesn\u2019t often net the results you want. Believe us, we\u2019ve tested it by buying Instagram followers<\/a>.<\/p>\n So, while buying views may seem worth it, there\u2019s usually a catch<\/strong>. Often, these views are provided by bots that can\u2019t engage with your content otherwise. These black hat techniques can put your account at risk of being banned. They also skew your data, so you can\u2019t use it for any actual insights into your content.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re trying to build an audience or monetize your content, buying them isn\u2019t the answer to how to get views on reels.<\/p>\n As we mentioned above, you need a minimum of three seconds of attention for the view to count.<\/p>\n There are a few tricks you can take to make sure people stick around for that magical four-second mark. Start in media res by jumping right into the meat of the video; people don\u2019t want a long lead-up to the good stuff.<\/p>\n You can also promise your viewers a surprise or a treat of some kind at the end of the video to keep them interested. On a totally unrelated note: if you read to the end of this blog, you\u2019ll get a recommendation for a hashtag AI tool that can predict the tags your audience will respond to!<\/p>\n Once you share your video, it will automatically be stored in a separate Reels tab on your profile.<\/p>\n If you want it to appear on your main profile grid (and trust us, you do), you also have to share it to your Feed. This is one of the easier answers to how to get more views on reels\u2014just toggle a button.<\/p>\n Doing this increases the visibility on your reel. You can choose a custom thumbnail for your video so it doesn\u2019t mess up your grid aesthetic. The reel will show up like a normal post, with a reel icon in the top right corner. Keyword research isn\u2019t just for websites and blogs anymore. Your social media algorithms use a similar set of rules to Google\u2019s search algorithms, as every digital platform has the same goal: To keep the user using the platform.<\/p>\n It stands to reason that you can use SEO to better your reach on social, and that starts with keyword research on your social platform. Keyword research can also help to inform your content. If you\u2019re stuck on what kind of reel to make, take a look at what your audience is searching for and the search terms Instagram suggests.<\/p>\n Take a look at the experiment we did on how traditional SEO tactics impact social media success<\/a>. You can straight-up copy the TikTok methodology we used, which is step 2 in the how-to guide<\/a>, and use it on Instagram.<\/p>\n Pay attention to keyword placement by top-loading your sentence with your target keywords. Also, don\u2019t stuff your captions with keywords. Social caption writing should follow the same rules as long-form SEO and be written for a human audience, not a machine\u2019s algorithm.<\/p>\n You can find a few other easy ways to tackle social SEO<\/a> here.<\/p>\n By the way, social media algorithms aren\u2019t just crawling written text. It\u2019s likely Instagram takes into account your audio, too, when pulling keywords. YouTube certainly does.<\/p>\n Make sure you\u2019re frontloading your script with your target keywords, then peppering them throughout your reel for maximum results.<\/p>\n Of course, all of this SEO-algorithm-talk helps if you understand the Instagram reels algorithm<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhat counts as a view on Instagram Reels?<\/h2>\n
The three-second rule<\/h3>\n
Replays: What are they worth?<\/h3>\n
Watching your own reels<\/h3>\n
Is buying views worth it?<\/h3>\n
20 ways to get more views on Instagram Reels<\/h2>\n
1. Make your first few seconds count<\/span><\/h3>\n
2. Don\u2019t hide your content in your Reels tab<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/how-to-get-more-views-on-Instagram-Reels--620x707.png?resize=620%2C707&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n3. Do keyword research<\/span><\/h3>\n
4. Be specific with your captions<\/span><\/h3>\n
5. Use keywords in your script<\/span><\/h3>\n