According to a new report from influencer marketing platform HypeAuditor, Reels account for 22.1% of content on Instagram—but they generate 35.4% of likes, and 33.8% of reach (aka views).
Photo posts, meanwhile, make up 42.2% of the content on Instagram, but generate 24.6% of likes and 29.9% of reach.
To come up with this data, HypeAuditor looked at 77.6 million photo posts, Reels, Stories, and longer-form videos uploaded in July 2022 by 13.6 million individual users.
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It found that 5.7 million of those users, or around 42%, posted Reels. The other 58% stuck to other kinds of content, “even though Reels gave more reach and engagement,” HypeAuditor notes.
Findings indicated that across the board, longer-form video is the most unpopular type of content: it made up just 9.6% of posts and generated 13.9% of reach, 15.6% of likes, and 17% of comments.
Comments were the only area where Reels were outdone by photo posts. Photo posts bring in a solid 30% of comments. Reels bring in 28%.
So what does all this mean? Did Instagram actually make Reels happen?
Well, maybe. The short-form boom across platforms is undeniable. But also Instagram is really, really, really trying to make Reels happen. It’s paying creators to make them, and is giving them more and more visibility on people’s feeds. With that kind of weight behind them, it might be inevitable that they get more eyeballs and more engagement than other types of posts.
