Instagram just launched something new (it will help you)

Today’s Tip: Instagram just launched “Trial Reels,” a new way to test your content before going live.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new Trial Reels feature (and why it will help you) in 60 seconds…

Link to announcement: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDZ1zq0P9bo/

Trial Reels let you “trial” a new video without posting it to your followers (just by toggling the trial button when posting).

The trial version will be shown to a sample of non-followers. After 24 hours, you can view metrics on how it performed.

You can then decided to boost the Reel by expanding to include current followers or keeping it in trial mode, hidden from the rest of your following. You could also tell Instagram to conditionally release it automatically if metrics are favorable.

This is a super helpful feature (and you should be using it) for a few reasons:

1. Conditional Creative Testing: One of the biggest benefits of organic short-form IG Reels for brands is that you can validate winning content ideas to better allocate paid spend. If you only pay to boost winning ideas, ROAS will improve. The downside before was that failed experiments often meant poor performance with existing followings. This both upset audiences and skewed metrics/growth. With Trials, you can essentially test any amount of new creative for free with zero risk. If you get a winner, releasing it as an organic post is something you’d want to do anyways. This should lead to wilder experimentation
   

2. More Traffic From Followers: Believe it or not, my most successful videos were shown to a split of 99% non-followers / 1% followers. This meant that my followers weren’t actually getting shown my best content. This new update signals that IG will push winning videos to your following. This should mean deeper engagement with existing followers.
   

3. Rapid Hook Testing: The way to really take advantage of this feature is to test many hooks per video at the same time. You can shoot and test 10 different hooks on the same video to A/B test before releasing the best one into the wild. I expect you’ll see a lot of this from sophisticated creators.
   

4. Instagram Is All-In On Video: This means IG realizes Reels is the future and is doubling down to help laggards feel comfortable playing here. One of the biggest barriers to non-video native creatives was the fear of having poor performance metrics impact social proof and brand deals. IG wants to make it easier for everyone to use Reels

This should be your signal to start making short-form videos…it’s never been easier to win.

Keep crushing!

PS - If you want more help improving your short-form videos, you can check out my full breakdown on how my Ironman video got 46M views and drove 29K new followers in 8 days