Instagram Confirms Carousels Get More Reach & Engagement

Fun fact: I’ve been preaching for YEARS that carousels are the key to double the exposure on Instagram. And now, Instagram has confirmed this, saying that carousels get more reach AND engagement.

Here’s why: when you come across a carousel post in your feed, if you do not interact with it (swipe through, expand the caption, share it, etc.) then when you come into Instagram the next time (within a day or so), Instagram will show you the same post AGAIN, with the second image in the sequence. So you get a second chance to connect with that user.

This has long been the case and has long been a strategy I promote as a means to increase engagement, increase conversions, and better connect with your audience.

So, this is great and all… should you do all Reels and carousels and just skip the single photo posts? No, absolutely not!

Carousels are posts with 2-20 slides/frames per post. That adds up to a lot of content. A lot for you to create and a lot for your audience to consume. If it behooves you to put more content into a carousel, yes, do it, 100%. But if you’re doing it “just” to get more reach, you’re forcing content that isn’t likely to appeal to audiences as much. And if it’s not valuable to them, they’re going to learn that the extra slides aren’t valuable and you start conditioning them not to scroll through. Which defeats the whole purpose! Or, if you’re always putting up so much extra content in carousels, it becomes too much to consume, and people start ignoring it, hurting you algorithmically in the long run.

So, instead, keep using singular images. Keep using Reels. And mix in carousels when it makes sense.

They are great for tips and tutorials, before and afters, meet the team posts, educational posts, live events, travel, company activities, etc. And they’re incredibly helpful for when you have that big call to action. That big launch or product push. Use those carousels strategically to make sure you reach more people, more than once, and increase your chances of conversions.

Oh, and pro tip: do NOT use the same image for the first and second slide in a carousel. If you didn’t capture their attention with the image the first time, why would it work a second time?