How to increase my instagram reach

11 Tips to Boost Instagram Reach

It’s no secret that Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms out there. With more than 1.21 billion monthly active users, Instagram has become an essential digital marketing tool for connecting with your audience and improving brand awareness.

With countless companies flocking to the platform to market their products and services, though, how do you stand out from the crowd and get more eyes on your brand? How do you boost your reach?

We’ve got some tips for you. Here are 11 strategies to supercharge your Instagram reach and expand your audience.

What is Reach?

First, it’s important to emphasize that Instagram reach refers to the number of unique users that see your post. This is different from impression, which is the total number of views on a post. A post that was viewed 10 times by one user, for instance, would have generated 10 impressions but only have a reach of one.

Confused about all the different terms and metrics that Instagram uses? Our Ultimate Instagram Terms Glossary breaks it all down for you.

For companies concerned with growing their audience and maximizing brand awareness, reach is an essential metric to track since it lets you know how many different people are seeing your posts.

As long as you have a business or creator account, Instagram will report your reach as part of its Insights feature. You can see how many accounts you’ve reached in general, as well as the reach of a particular post, video, Story, or Reel. To check out those numbers, simply view your Insights from your profile or a specific post. Instagram has several guides on how to navigate to your Insights on their Help Center.

You can also see your Instagram Insights with an all-in-one social media analytics tool like Rival IQ, which displays not only your Instagram reach but countless other essential metrics through detailed and visual reports.

11 Tips to Boost Instagram Reach

Instagram’s algorithm, or its system of rules, classifiers, and processes that determine what posts appear in each person’s feeds, greatly affects your reach. This system is complex, but we do know that it strives to personalize the user experience by showing the most relevant and engaging posts based on each user’s activity.

So, what does that mean for brands looking to grow their reach on Instagram? Knowing your audience and delivering engaging content is more important than ever. Try implementing these 11 strategies for increased reach.

1. Post at the right time

While Instagram feeds are no longer organized chronologically, timing is still an essential part of getting seen.

Instagram’s algorithm tends to highlight new posts because they’re considered more relevant. Posting new content when your following is most active also increases the chance that they’ll see your post and interact with it. This jumpstarts a snowball effect where posts that earn high engagement quickly are deemed popular and served to more users by the platform.

The best times to post will depend on your unique audience and industry. Luckily, you can easily find the days and times that your followers are most active using Instagram Insights.

To understand more about your industry and your competition’s posting schedule, check out our insights into the best times to post on Instagram for 14 key industries across North America.

2. Experiment with different types of posts

Instagram has come a long way since its inception. Once limited to just static single images, users now have a lot more options in terms of the types of posts they can share, including carousel posts, videos, Reels, Stories, and more.

Try experimenting with these different types of posts to figure out what resonates with your audience the most. What kind of content gets the most eyes on your account? Which type of post tends to draw the most engagement? Why do you think that is?

Maybe you’ll find that your followers love to interact with and share the funny Reels you post. Or perhaps they’re big fans of the aesthetically-pleasing carousel posts of your products. Find out what works for you and adjust your social content strategy accordingly.

3. Get smart with hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to have your posts discovered by people outside of your following who may be interested in the kind of content you’re posting.

When it comes to your hashtag strategy, prioritize quality over quantity. Though Instagram does let you put up to 30 hashtags per post and up to 10 hashtags per story, thoughtlessly stuffing your posts with hashtags is rarely an effective approach. Instead, focus on finding hashtags that are relevant to your brand and generate high levels of engagement from your audience.

Luckily, there are handy tools that make hashtag research much easier. Rival IQ’s hashtag analytics equip you with the data you need to identify the most engaging terms and track their effectiveness as you use them.

Ready to start analyzing your performance on Instagram?

Try Rival IQ for free!

4. Reach multiple communities with Instagram Collabs

One of Instagram’s features — Instagram Collabs — lets you expand your reach by having your posts be exposed to another user’s community of followers. Collaborations in general have long been a popular strategy for reaching a new audience, but this feature makes doing so on Instagram a breeze by eliminating the clutter of duplicate posts.

With Instagram Collabs, a single joint post is shared with each collaborator’s community of followers and lives on each collaborator’s profile grids with both accounts tagged at the top. The Collabs post also enjoys combined views, likes, and comments.

As the original author of a post, you can invite up to 20 collaborators and have your post seen by up to 20 additional communities of followers. From partnering with other brands to collaborating with influencers or your customers, this feature opens up countless opportunities for boosting your reach.

5. Encourage engagement with contests and giveaways

Another way your brand can expand its reach on Instagram is by hosting contests and giveaways. Engagement-focused contests can signal to the algorithm that your post is worth serving to others while also boosting your reach by good ol’ word of mouth.

Most effective Instagram contests or giveaways provide an incentive for people to interact with the post by having entries be tied to particular actions, especially those that’ll get more eyes on your brand. Asking your audience to follow your page, tag a friend in the comments, or share the contest to their Story are some popular ways to do this.

Owala and EF Ultimate Break’s collaborative giveaway is a perfect example of how these kinds of posts can impact your Instagram performance. With more than 25K comments filled with tagged friends and 8K likes, this post had an engagement rate by follower that was 36 times higher than the average engagement rate of Owala’s other posts this year (as of this writing).

We also want to point out that Owala and EF Ultimate Break smartly utilized Instagram Collabs and made the giveaway a joint post to expand their reach even further. The insight here? Don’t hesitate to combine several reach-boosting strategies to amplify their effect.

6. Use interactive stickers on your Stories and Reels

Instagram’s algorithm is designed to reward engagement. So, what better way to encourage your audience to engage with your posts than by leveraging the platform’s interactive stickers?

Available on both Stories and Reels, these stickers are designed to spark participation from viewers and, as a result, signal to the algorithm that your posts are engaging and should be served more prominently on users’ feeds.

Here are just some of the interactive stickers you can use:

Poll Sticker: Ask your followers to pick between two options with a poll they won’t be able to resist answering.
Quiz Sticker: Kick it up a notch with multiple-choice questions that test their knowledge or pique their interest.
Emoji Slider Sticker: Maybe things aren’t as simple as A or B (or C or D…). Let your followers show you how they feel based on a sliding scale.
Add Yours Sticker: This sticker lets viewers add their own photos or videos to their story according to your prompt.
Question Sticker: Give your followers free rein to ask questions or answer your prompt through a text box. You can then share and respond to their question in another Story. (Not currently available on Reels.)
Hashtag & Location Stickers: Make it easy for curious users to discover more posts related to interesting hashtags or locations by adding these tappable stickers. Bonus: using them also helps your post show up in Search results and on the Explore feed.

For your audience, responding to most of these stickers is often as simple as a quick tap, making it a relatively low-effort yet fun interaction that they’re likely to engage in.

7. Spotlight user-generated content

Posting user-generated content (UGC) is another great way to boost engagement and reach on Instagram. When you share UGC, the original users are likely to return the favor by resharing the post and having their own following engage with it.

Additionally, regularly highlighting user-generated content on your Instagram can encourage others to create similar posts that can be used to promote your brand. We wouldn’t be surprised if a GoPro customer became inspired to post their own epic photos after seeing a GoPro UGC post like the one below.

Moreover, sharing user-generated content can strengthen your brand’s credibility, authenticity, and relatability. Posts from real customers — real people — tend to stand out as trustworthy and interesting amidst generic branded messaging. When people see posts they relate to on a human level, they engage.

8. Interact with your audience as an active Instagram user

It would make little sense for a brand to constantly request engagement just to leave its audience hanging. Communication is a two-way street. As people like, comment on, react to, and share your posts, don’t forget to engage with them right back.

Like or reply to their comments. Interact with those who mention your brand. Reshare relevant posts that would add value to your audience’s experience. In other words, be an active user! Go beyond simply posting by being a prominent and visible presence in your audience’s Instagram experience and you’ll naturally expand your reach over time.

9. Go Live

Here’s a “hack” to get your profile displayed front and center on your followers’ feeds: go live.

Placed at the beginning of the Stories feed and highlighted with a distinct “LIVE” label, live videos are hard to miss. This makes them one of the best ways to get more eyes on your account and boost brand recognition — an effect that occurs even if a follower doesn’t watch the live.

This feature also has the added advantage of automatic post notifications. For users who have this setting enabled, Instagram sends out alerts when an account that they follow goes live. Unlike regular post notifications where they have to “subscribe” to a particular account, Live notifications can be sent out for any profile that they follow.

Want to maximize your reach even more? Apply our tip on collaborations here by utilizing Instagram’s Live Rooms feature. Invite other users into your Live to reach their community of followers and partake in conversations for your audience to engage with in real time.

10. Amplify your reach with a boosted post

If you have the budget for it, you can also reach more people by putting some ad spend behind your Instagram efforts.

Referred to as boosted posts, these are Instagram posts that you pay to have shown to more people. They’re different from paid ads in that they’re created from already-published posts and have more customization options when it comes to targeting. This makes them a quick and easy way to have an organic post be seen by more people who are part of a specific audience.

You can head over to our post, How to Boost and Measure a Post on Instagram, for the nitty-gritty of how boosted posts work!

11. Track, analyze, and benchmark your performance

Regardless of which tactics you decide to implement, all efforts to boost reach must be accompanied by performance and strategy reviews. Your Instagram reach should be tracked over time so you can observe trends. It should be assessed in relation to your audience size, as well as in comparison to the industry benchmarks and your competitors’ performance.

Think about it like this. Let’s say that you’ve reached 10,000 users on Instagram this month. Is this number better or worse than it’s been in the past few months? How significant is your reach in comparison to your follower count? Are you outperforming your industry and the competition?

Being able to answer these kinds of questions is essential for assessing whether your social media efforts are working and how close you are to meeting your goals. This is where powerful tools like Rival IQ come into play. With comprehensive reports, competitive insights, and more, we make it easy for you to understand your performance and find ways to be even better.

Wrapping It Up

Instagram has been a powerful tool for connecting with others for over a decade but it takes more than simply being on the platform to effectively reach your target audience. Instead, taking the time to understand your audience, produce content that inspires engagement, and strategically utilize the platform’s features will be the best approach to boosting your reach.

Incorporate these 11 tips into your strategy, leverage analytics tools to help you make data-driven decisions, and you’ll see your engaged Instagram community grow in no time.

Therese Nguyen

Therese is a former marketing manager turned freelance content writer based in Dallas. Working with agencies and B2B brands, she specializes in covering the latest developments in marketing trends, insights, and strategies. When she’s not writing, you can probably find her researching her next travel destination, wrapped up in a book, or jamming to BTS’ entire discography.

10 Simple Tactics You Can Try Today

Since Instagram started sorting posts on users’ feed with an algorithm, many marketers have noticed a decline in their organic reach and engagement.

But that doesn’t have to be the case for you. In fact, it could be possible for you to reach more of your followers now than without the new Instagram algorithm.

In this post, we’ll share 10 straightforward ways you can use to increase your organic reach on Instagram today.

Buffer for Instagram now comes with direct scheduling! Schedule single-image or video posts or set reminders to post multi-image posts at your best times to grow your Instagram following. Learn more today.

Understanding the Instagram Algorithm

Here’s a quick side-note: Understanding how the Instagram algorithm works can be helpful in figuring out how to increase your organic reach in the algorithmic-feed world.

We’ve dug into the Instagram algorithm and broken down the seven key factors of the Instagram algorithm. If you’d like to learn about the algorithm and how it ranks content on users’ feed, feel free to hit the button below to read the post first.

Learn about the Instagram algorithm

10 ways to boost your Instagram reach today

So how can you increase your organic reach on Instagram? Here are the 10 powerful ways you can do that:

Find your optimal posting times
Experiment with videos
Host contests or ask questions to encourage engagement
Curate user-generated content
Tell Instagram Stories
Go live on Instagram
Use Instagram ads
Post less
Create specifically for Instagram
Be a great Instagram user

Let’s dive in!

1. Find your optimal posting times

Even though Instagram uses an algorithmic timeline now, optimal posting times are still relevant as Sue B. Zimmerman, suggests posting when the majority of your audience is online:

It may take time to get a long-term understanding of your followers’ activity, but it’s important to make sure you’re posting when the majority of your audience is online.

If you are using an Instagram Business Profile, you can check your Instagram Insights to find out when your followers are most active by the day of the week and the time of the day.

Once you’ve identified your ideal posting times, you can also schedule Instagram posts ahead of time to help ensure you consistently post high-quality content.

2. Experiment with videos

Several studies have found that photos tend to get more overall engagement (i.e. likes and comments) than videos on Instagram. On first look, it might seem that photos are better than videos for engagement — and it could well be!

On closer examination, we might draw a different conclusion. News Whip studied the Instagram accounts of 31 news publishers and made an interesting discovery. While photos, on average, get more likes (and overall engagement) than videos, videos generate more comments than photos. In fact, videos, on average, received more than twice the amount of comments than photos!

It is not certain if the Instagram algorithm values likes and comments equally or one more than another. But since commenting requires more effort from a user than liking, it’s possible that the algorithm values comments more than likes and would rank posts with more comments higher than posts with more likes.

Last year, Instagram found that the video watch time on Instagram increased by more than 40 percent over a six-month period. At this growth rate, it could be great to experiment with videos to see if it increases your engagement and organic reach on Instagram.

To make things easier for you, you can now schedule videos to your Instagram business profiles using Buffer.

3. Host contests or ask questions to encourage engagement

Asking questions or calling for an action is one of the fun ways to encourage your followers to interact with your Instagram posts. We found that hosting a giveaway contest is an effective way to engage our followers.

Some of the call-to-actions we have tried are:

Enter to win by sharing your favorite emoji party combo in the comments below ?
To enter, simply tag a friend below who you would “Vote” for as your favorite marketer and you’ll both be entered to win!
To enter tag a friend below who you know is rocking it on social media! ?
What’s on your reading list this week? ? Drop your book suggestions below for a chance to win a free book of your choice from the Buffer team! ❤

While giveaway contests usually generate more comments than usual posts, we try to give it a few months in between each contest to keep things fun and exciting.

Something that we do more often is asking a question in our Instagram posts. Several of our most-commented posts (excluding contest posts) are posts with a question such as this, this, and this.

4. Curate user-generated content

Brian Peters, our digital marketing strategist, grew our Instagram account following by about 500% (4,250 to 21,000) in under six months. His secret? User-generated content.

Curating user-generated content can encourage those users to engage with and share those content. Since the Instagram algorithm considers users’ relationships when ranking content on their feed, building relationships with your users through Instagram might also help your content rank higher on their feeds.

Apart from organic reach, Crowdtap found that user-generated content is 35 percent more memorable and 50 percent more trusted than traditional media and other non-user-generated content. This makes user-generated content a valuable strategy to try.

If you would like to repost user-generated content on your Instagram profile, we would love for you to try our Buffer for Android or Buffer for iOS mobile apps, which can help speed up the process.

5. Tell Instagram Stories

In our State of Social Media 2016 report, we found that while 63 percent of marketers surveyed use Instagram, only 16 percent have created Instagram Stories. There’s a great opportunity to stand out before it gets too crowded!

Instagram Stories take a prominent position on the Instagram app — above the feed. This allows you to stay on top of your followers’ feed and grab more of their attention. If your followers view your Stories regularly, it could possibly even help your Instagram posts rank higher on their feeds.

It’s worth noting that the Stories are also ranked by an algorithm; possibly one very similar to the feed algorithm. Spend the time to craft great Stories to help them rank better.

6. Go live on Instagram

A similar “trick” is to go live on Instagram. When you use live video, you will appear right at the front of the Stories feed, assuming no one else is live at the same time. The “LIVE” logo also makes your profile photo more prominent in the Instagram app.

Social Media Examiner found that the more they went live on Facebook, the more their non-live content received exposure. Michael Stelzner said that one reason might be their brand is in front of their fans more often so the fans might go to their Page to see their content more — even if the fans don’t watch the live video.

This effect could play out on Instagram, too. Seeing your logo at the top of their feed might encourage your followers to check out your Instagram profile.

From our State of Social Media 2016 report, we concluded that live video has yet to hit mass adoption as only 27 percent of marketers surveyed had created live video content. While the percentage might be higher today, I believe live videos aren’t mainstream yet. So it’s another perfect way to stand out and deliver great content!

7.

Use Instagram ads

This might sound a little counter-intuitive but Instagram ads can be an effective way to grow your organic reach.

If you have an Instagram Business Profile, you can promote your existing posts from within the Instagram app. (

So which post should you promote?

Here’s a quick way to pick a good post to promote:

Go to your Instagram Insights on the mobile app (tap on the profile tab and then the bar chart icon).
Tap “See More” under the “Top Posts” section.
Tap on “Impressions” at the top (a pop-up should apply to let you adjust your stats filters).
For the first filter, you can choose “All”, “Photos”, or “Videos” according to your preference.
For the second filter, select “Engagement”.
For the third filter, select “7 days”.
You will see your top posts by engagement for the last seven days. From there, you can pick a post to promote.

As these posts have received the most engagement from your followers, they would likely also resonate with the people you promote to (assuming you have targeted people like your followers).

8. Post less

When explaining social media algorithms, Michael Stelzner encouraged marketers to re-think your posting strategy.

Rethink is the keyword here. Rethink your posting strategy on social media – Less is actually more!

Sue B. Zimmerman also gave a similar advice for marketers who want to overcome the Instagram algorithm.

If you truly want to connect with your audience, it’s better to share one fabulous photo instead of 20 mediocre images. So next time, before you hit post, take a moment and consider how this content contributes to your brand, and does it effectively encourage engagement from your followers.

I believe this is about the allocation of your resources and time. Instead of publishing 20 posts a week, use the same resources and time for just one or two posts and make them great.

Quality content that is relevant to your followers has a higher chance of eliciting a positive response from your followers. In turn, this can help your posts rank higher on your followers’ feed.

9. Create specifically for Instagram

One way to create quality content is to create content specifically for Instagram. Instagram, being a very visual platform, has a greater focus on the photo or video itself than the text. So a post that would do well on Instagram is probably different from one that would do well on Twitter or Facebook.

For smaller social media teams or solo social media manager, it can be challenging to always create unique content for each platform. Crossposting and repurposing content from other platforms can be great, too. If you are doing that, it’d be best to craft specific caption for each social media platform as your followers likely follow you for a different reason for each of the platforms.

Now with Tailored Posts, you can write customized captions for each social network. We’re hoping that this feature would encourage you to be (even) more creative with your social media posts and would help you drive more engagement.

10. Be a great Instagram user

This last point might be a little vague but it nicely wraps up many of the points above.

Social media algorithms are built to encourage genuine, positive behaviors on the platforms such as sharing, showing appreciation, quick replies, and more. Often, they would also try to discourage abuse or hacks.

My gut feeling here is that being a great Instagram user will help you grow your organic reach over time. That includes:

Posting quality content that is relevant to your followers (be it informative, inspiring, or entertaining)
Answering questions on your posts quickly
Thanking people for commenting on your posts
Exploring other people’s profiles, engaging with their posts, and building a relationship with them

All the best!

The main objective of Instagram (and most social media platforms) is to make users happy and let them enjoy the experience. As brands on Instagram (and social media), I think we can do a lot to create great experiences for our followers — which will, in turn, benefit ourselves.

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How to significantly increase the reach and engagement on Instagram

The introduction of the algorithmic feed has seriously hit the reach and engagement of many users on Instagram. Even big bloggers are complaining that posts are getting far fewer likes and comments than they used to.

Instagram has complex feed generation algorithms, and Facebook does not share how they work. Still, marketers figure out algorithms from their own experience or from a few tips from Facebook.

Post content regularly

If you start posting much less often, the coverage may drop: this is how the social network algorithm works. To increase your reach on Instagram, post new content regularly and don't go missing for a few days.

Communicate actively

At a minimum, courtesy will work: if you regularly comment on your friends' posts, they will respond to you in the same way. In addition, you can increase the activity on Instagram. Ask questions, leave compliments, reply to Stories and send funny photos to your friends in direct.

Tell stories

Yes, first of all, everyone is interested in the image. However, you can keep the interest of the audience with the help of stories, the original style of presentation of materials and humor.

Posts with long texts show good results. The audience responds to such records. Concentrate not on describing the problem, but on solving it, then you will receive positive comments. This is a simple and working way to increase engagement on Instagram.

Use Call to action

Remember how you yourself behave in a social network: sometimes you would be happy to answer something under a friend's photo, but there is simply no reason to do so.

Ask questions to the audience, try to bring up interesting but easy-to-discuss topics: childhood memories, favorite food, plans for the summer.

Post Stories

The exact ranking factors for content on Instagram are unknown, but according to some assumptions based on the speeches of the developers, regular posting of Stories has a positive effect on your account. Posting regularly will help increase your story reach. Try to take into account the feedback and make them more interesting.

...and use them to promote content

Unlike posts in your account, subscribers will probably see your Story. Bloggers are already using this: they announce a new post with an intriguing caption and an offer to go to the account. This allows you to increase your reach on Instagram.

Drop the gallery format

Users have noticed that posts consisting of several photos fail in the feed and collect 30-50% fewer reactions, which in turn negatively affects engagement on Instagram.

Determine the correct time to post

Instagram algorithms keep track of how many reactions a post received immediately after publication, and based on this determine whether to consider it interesting and whether to show it higher in the feed. In fact, the high activity and engagement of the audience in your account is the best way to increase your reach on Instagram.

If you post a photo late at night, it will probably fail in the feed. To get the most out of it, focus not on your own impressions, but on statistics. This will help increase engagement on Instagram.

You can track activity by time of day using the service's internal statistics. And if you need to get data for a long time period or for a competitor's account, use Popsters. So you can analyze any account on Instagram.

What should be the engagement on Instagram?

A couple of years ago, an account was considered conditionally successful, where the number of likes was 10% of the number of subscribers. Now the situation has changed: small accounts have an average higher ER than large ones (more about ER calculation).

You also have the ability to analyze any account and view detailed Instagram analytics data with Popsters.

The ratio of engagement on Instagram and the number of followers was studied by the influence.co service team. Profiles with less than 2000 followers on average have an ER of 10.7%, 2000-5000 have an ER of 6%. See chart for details:

Useful articles continued:

What you can learn from Russian brands on Instagram;
Ways to view statistics on Instagram;
How to make a beautiful and effective photo caption on Instagram;
What is Social Media Outreach - The Complete Guide.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: 30 ways

The answer to the question of how to increase your reach on Instagram is of interest to anyone who blogs or sells products through this social network. In this article, we will tell you what affects reach and why they fall. Let's take a look at 30 ways to increase your reach through publications, live streams, and dedicated apps.

What are impressions and reach on Instagram
Why track reach on Instagram
How to find out the reach of an Instagram profile
What should be the reach on Instagram
What affects Instagram reach
Why Instagram reach is falling
Conclusion

What are impressions and reach on Instagram

Reach means the number of unique Instagram users who saw the post. If one person viewed the content several times, this is not reflected in the reach, but is taken into account in another metric - impressions.

Impressions is the total amount of views on your social media post.

Instagram statistics show coverage not only for individual publications, but also covered accounts - these are users who saw any of your content at least once during the specified period.

Why track Instagram reach

It is important for bloggers, various professionals and store owners who maintain Instagram pages to constantly monitor audience reach. If they are growing, most likely you have chosen the right promotion strategy and create quality content. If coverage is falling, there is some problem that needs to be identified and addressed.

Analyzing the reach of various publications will help you determine which format and type of content algorithms are more likely to offer to your audience - and thus understand their preferences.

If you're selling in-account ads or promoting products with bloggers, reach is one of the top metrics to look at. Of course, it is also important to look at the activity of subscribers and check the account for cheating.

We recommend that you read: "Effective work with bloggers: how not to run into a fake and not drain the budget."

How to find out the reach of an Instagram profile

The Instagram statistics that are available to business accounts show indicators of reached and engaged accounts. Engaged - those who interacted with the content on your page in some way.

Account statistics

You can also see the reach for each photo, video, Reels video, story and live broadcast.

Recording statistics

To clarify statistics on reach and impressions, you can use special services, for example, Iconosquare, Minter.io, Pur.Ninja and others.

What should be the coverage on Instagram

There is no exact figure, but the optimal coverage is 30-60% of all profile subscribers. At the same time, it is important to take into account their involvement - it should be at least 9-10% of the coverage.

As already mentioned, the number of engaged followers can be seen in Instagram statistics. Engagement for all publications can be calculated using the formula:

Engagement Rate formula

To calculate engagement for a single post, you need to divide the number of reactions to this post by the number of subscribers and multiply by 100%.

If the reach is high and the engagement is low, you need to work on the content, try new ideas and formats, find out from subscribers what they would like to see in the profile.

What influences reach on Instagram

Let's list the factors that affect reach.

Audience activity

The more likes, comments, saves and shares a post has, the higher the coverage will be — Instagram algorithms regard such content as interesting and offer it to other users more often. Activity in stories is also important - reactions, participation in surveys, answers and messages are taken into account.

The first hour after publication is considered especially important. If the post gets a lot of likes and comments during this period, then the reach will be good.

Content view time

The more time users spend on a post, the higher Instagram algorithms rate it. If subscribers open the text in full, scroll through the gallery, watch the video and do not scroll through the story, all this adds points to your publications.

Intrigue subscribers

Attractiveness and variety of content

If people save your posts, like, comment, share with friends, these publications are more likely to be shown in the feed of your followers and other users who may like your content.

It is important to take into account the preferences of different users and use all the features of Instagram. When you create a variety of content in various formats - stories, posts with photos and videos, Reels videos, live broadcasts - this has a positive effect on reach.

Activity outside of your account

Reach rates are thought to be influenced by activities in other profiles. If you pay attention to other people's content, write comments, put likes, the algorithms understand that the account belongs to a living person, and are more likely to show your posts in user feeds.

Search engine optimization settings

A clear nickname and description, clear images, the presence of alternative photo captions, hashtags and geotags - all this helps Instagram successfully read information about you and your content, and then offer it to users who should be interested in it.

Use hashtags to help your audience find you

Posting time

New posts are shown first in the feed, so you should choose the right time to post when your audience is most active. Analyze your account statistics to determine the days and hours of ups and downs in activity.

According to Hootsuite research, the best time to post in general is 11 am on Wednesday. Analysts say that at this time, users are more willing to like and write comments. Weekend activity is the lowest.

The best time to post on Instagram. Source

The authors of the study advise spreading Reels at 9 am or 12 noon from Monday to Thursday.

You need to understand that this is not a universal solution - if a lot of posts are published at the “ideal” time, due to their abundance, the user may simply not see yours. Rely primarily on the statistics of your account.

Why Instagram reach is falling

Let's look at a few reasons why this happens.

Low quality and activity of the audience

If subscribers, as well as likes and comments are cheated, the account may be shadowbanned.

If you are fond of mass following, then response subscriptions can spoil the statistics. Usually these users are not interested in your content, they do not follow your account and do not leave reactions. Because of this, reach rates are not just low, but fall even more, because Instagram algorithms give less impressions to low-engagement profiles.

Monotonous, unattractive content

Try different content formats and don't get stuck on one topic. Follow trends, test innovations, create interesting and high-quality publications that take into account the preferences of the audience.

Try different formats and creative ideas

Ignoring search engine optimization

Hashtags, alt text for photos and everything else mentioned in the section above - if you don't bother with such questions, it will negatively affect your reach.

Violations of the rules of Instagram

There are certain requirements in the social network, as well as some unspoken rules that should also be taken into account. If you bring up unwanted topics, organize giveaways, get subscribers or mass like, this can cause problems.

Giveway is a bad idea

Instagram updates

According to some observations, before updates on the social network, coverage drops for many profiles. This is a temporary phenomenon that you just need to wait out.

Tips on how to increase your reach on Instagram

In this section, we provide recommendations on how to increase your reach in various ways.

How to increase your Instagram reach with posts

A few tips for working with posts.

Test formats

Try to use all the features of the social network and create content in different formats. If you can spot a high-reach trend for a particular format, focus on it, but don't shy away from the rest.

Create Reels

Instagram launched the Reels video format due to competition from TikTok and promotes user videos from the very beginning, regardless of the number of subscribers. Reels provides an excellent opportunity to expand your reach and gain an audience for free.

How to increase reach on Instagram: create Reels

Post photos and videos in the carousel

If a user comes across a gallery post in the feed and ignores it, Instagram will show the post again, but from the second slide. This increases the likelihood that the subscriber will still pay attention to your content and react, and this will affect the reach.

Use gamification

Game mechanics help to engage users: this way they spend more time on posts, write comments more actively and share with friends. Gamification can be used both in posts and in stories: games for attentiveness, reaction, erudition, or simply with an element of luck, as well as combined with pranks.

How to increase your reach on Instagram using gamification

Ask questions and call for activity

Feel free to ask your followers to support you with a like if the content has gone. Ask for an opinion on the issues that you analyze in the post. People are especially willing to give advice: from choosing a movie for the evening to raising children.

Make helpful how-tos and lists

Create content you'll want to bookmark: useful checklists and guides, lists of movies, worthy places in the city, quality SPFs, and more. Share life hacks and invite subscribers to save the post for the future so as not to lose it.

Create useful content

Break down the topic into parts

You can tell an interesting story in several posts. If you manage to hook readers, each publication will be expected, and you will get a lot of feedback.

Optional to use storytelling. You can prepare a selection of life hacks or stylish images and promise the second part if the post gets a certain number of reactions.

Use hashtags and geotags

Don't forget about hashtags and geotags - this is a working way to increase your reach. But don't go overboard with the quantity and don't get carried away with high-frequency hashtags.

Show Before/After

Posts in Before/After format tend to get a lot of reactions. People actively comment and share with friends, which has a positive effect on reach, and also helps to get new customers.

How to Increase Instagram Reach: Show Before/After Comparison

Have a Liketime

It's good to have a Liketime from time to time. Invite subscribers to like this and several previous posts and write a comment so that you leave likes in return on their profiles. Also, commentators can give each other hearts - this way everyone will be happy, and you will increase the activity in your account.

Provocative content

Provocative posts, such as substantiating an unpopular point of view, usually get a lot of reactions. True, they are far from always positive, be prepared for this.

Contests and sweepstakes

There must be some activity in the conditions of participation: likes, saves, reposts in stories, comments, marks of friends. Contests help boost your reach significantly, but to avoid attracting random fortune hunters, promise your products or something your audience likes as a reward. For example, on a yoga blog, the prize might be a class suit or a yoga tour, not a supply of Nutella or a smartphone.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: run giveaways

We advise you to read:

"How to make an Instagram contest that will increase awareness and sales."

How to increase reach with stories and live broadcasts

Interesting stories and meaningful streams help increase account reach.

More interactive

Interact with your audience more often: arrange polls and quizzes, invent games, add emoji sliders, ask for reactions to stories if the topic is interesting.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: arrange quizzes

Show the workflow

Videos showing the process of achieving a great result help to keep the audience's attention. Artists show how they draw pictures from scratch, repairmen show how they stretch ceilings, lay parquet or glue wallpaper, make-up artists show how to apply makeup, and so on.

Show footage at high speed or upload individual clips so as not to create dozens of stories that will quickly bore people.

Answer questions

Enter the section "Question-Answer" - such stories are usually watched to the end. If subscribers asked few questions, you can come up with your own.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: answer questions from followers

Share personal

Sometimes you can tell your audience about your personal experiences, but don't overdo it. In a metered amount, such content is interesting, but an excess of personal dramas makes you want to unsubscribe.

Review and unbox

This content gets good reach if it's relevant to the account.

Show the unboxing to some nice music

Post a link to an interesting post

If a post gets undeservedly little attention, it's possible that subscribers simply didn't see it. To fix this, place a link to the publication in your stories.

Conduct live broadcasts

Live broadcasts are an opportunity to communicate with subscribers closer, increase their loyalty and get a lot of feedback. Joint streams with other bloggers will help expand your audience and reach. A big plus is that subscribers receive a notification about the start of the broadcast.

Show animals

Whatever the subject of the account, photos and videos with cute and funny animals are always great.

Content with pets engages the audience well

Engaging the audience and keeping their attention is an art. Check out our article with story ideas to create interesting content.

A few more tips on how to increase your reach on Instagram

Clean out the bots

Bots ruin your statistics and reduce your reach, so you need to get rid of them. This can be done manually, but the process will take a lot of time, so it's easier to use special applications, such as Followers - Unfollowers.

Make a content plan

In order for the coverage not to fall, you need to post content regularly and avoid long pauses. Therefore, be sure to prepare a content plan and create materials for publications in advance so that in case of unforeseen situations you do not fall out of Instagram.

Offer lead magnets and use a chatbot

Motivate your audience to be active in your account with lead magnets provided by a chatbot. SendPulse has chatbots for various messengers, including Instagram.

Set up targeted ads

Promote posts with targeted ads - if the settings are done well, this is a reliable way to increase your reach on Instagram.

Recommended: "Effective Targeted Facebook Ads - Tips".

Drive traffic from other platforms

If you have a Telegram channel, YouTube and TikTok accounts, do not miss the opportunity to advertise your Instagram profile there. Share links to interesting posts and do not duplicate all content everywhere so that subscribers have an incentive to follow you in all channels.

Buy ads from bloggers

Use influencers to increase your reach and get new followers. Don't forget to check bloggers for cheats, for example, using the Epicdetect and trendHERO services.

Test updates

If Instagram introduces a new format or makes changes to existing ones, test updates - most likely, the content will receive a lot of impressions.

Do not cheat subscribers and likes

We have repeatedly spoken about this, but we will repeat it again - so that the coverage does not fall, do not engage in cheating.

Recommended: "Instagram ideas to spice up your business account."

Try activity chats

There are free and paid activity chats in Telegram and Instagram, whose participants like each other, write comments and perform other actions. These are real people, so the risks of getting a shadowban are minimal, and coverage is growing. The method is not without drawbacks, but you can try.

Activity chats can be found by keyword search in Telegram and Instagram.

Try to increase your reach using activity chats

Reply to messages and comments

Do not ignore your subscribers - write answers to comments under publications and direct messages, repost stories on which you were tagged.