Why Instagram Reels and Instagram Reel Ads are important?

When was the last time you scrolled through the Instagram feed and didn’t see someone’s reel shown on your screen? The answer is “never” (since the launch). Or, perhaps you must have directly gone to the reels section or must have entered there through Instagram explore.?

Alright, let’s put it this way: Just think of how much time you spent on Instagram last week and where did the significant part of it go? The answer would be “Instagram Reels”. Why did this happen? It’s because you were able to find your favorite celebrities, singers, friends, new trends, new accounts, and maybe found reels more entertaining than the other placements on Instagram.

Surprised? You should not be! Because this is trending now just like when Facebook introduced Facebook, Instagram, and what’s app stories a few years ago. Most of the users switched from feed to stories and till now there have been multiple interesting ways to engage users. Creators and brands took full advantage of it just like they are doing with the Instagram Reels now. The digital world is very dynamic and whenever something is introduced by the tech giants, there is always a series of studies, planning, testing, and execution involved before the launch! Justin Osofsky, Instagram Chief Operating Officer, said:

“We see Reels as a great way for people to discover new content on Instagram, and so ads are a natural fit. Brands of all sizes can take advantage of this new creative format in an environment where people are already being entertained.”

Following are some interesting statistics to look at:

·???????Instagram Reels launched as Cenas in Brazil, November 2019.

·???????Brazil’s Instagram users typically increase by 1% each month.

·???????Brazil’s Instagram users increased by 4.34% between October 2019 and November 2019 (when Cenas/Reels was released).

·???????Facebook updated and expanded Instagram Reels into the France and Germany markets on June 24, 2020.

·???????Instagram Reels was released in India on July 12, 2020.

·???????Instagram downloads in India increased from 7 million downloads in the 30 days prior to the launch of Instagram Reels to 7.8 million downloads after the launch (an increase in Instagram downloads of 11.4%).

·???????Instagram averages 100 million daily active users in India after the launch of Instagram Reels (same as before the launch).

·???????The average time spent on Instagram in India increased by 3.5% since the launch of Instagram Reels.

·???????Instagram Reels is available in 50 countries as of August 5, 2020.

·???????Two-thirds of the NBA’s franchises have posted at least one Reel since the feature launched in the United States.

·???????NBA franchises are getting 22% higher engagement with Instagram Reels as compared to Instagram posts or Instagram Stories.

·???????The Los Angeles Lakers top the league in engagement on Instagram Reels with more than 385,000 engagements and more than 4.1M plays on a single video.

·???????The Houston Rockets lead the league in total plays of their Reels with more than 11.7M plays across five videos.

·???????Louis Vuitton averages 7M views on each Reel.

·???????Sephora France gets more than 453K views on each Reel.

·???????Red Bull France has several viral Reels with more than 2.4M views on their most popular Reel.

·???????Fashion influencer Junesixtyfive has gotten more than 2.7M views on her outfit change transition Reel.

·???????Balmain gets more than 1.2M views and 100K+ likes on each Reel.

- Stats via influencer marketing hub

So, long story short, whether you are a start-up company or an established brand and looking to grow organically or through paid media, Instagram Reels is a great way to succeed!

How to set up the Instagram Reel ads?

·???????Simply set it from your Facebook ads manager. ?They are available for brand awareness, reach, traffic video views, conversions, and app installs objectives. You can find Instagram reels placement under Instagram.

·???????Please note that they are not available for traffic campaigns for apps (App installs objective is available though). So you can use you can send your users to your website instead or to any other landing page via Traffic objective and then select the website option.

·???????Another point to note is that you can either run them by using Instagram reels as a standalone placement or combining it with Instagram story placement! You will not be able to run it through automatic placement or with any other placement except for the Instagram story.

It is advised to keep your content relevant and trendy to the reels so that it seems like a native reel post than a sponsored ad!?

Thank you for taking out time to read this article. Happy e-marketing! :)