Daily views of Reels across Instagram and Facebook are over 200 billion. That’s right, with a “B.” So, it’s no surprise that marketers and content creators all want to know that secret formula for getting their Reels to go viral. ⚡
Look - There’s no “get viral quick” scheme like some people might have you believe. However, there are consistent best practices and strategies that all the top performers use to optimize videos that attract millions of views on Reels. 🥇
Once you understand these insights and use the most modern AI-powered video editing tools, you’ll have everything you need to get 100K views on Reels. 😎
If you make great content, keep consistent, and follow the seven steps below, you’ll set yourself up to go viral and explode your audience like never before. 🤝
What are Instagram Reels?
Instagram Reels (and now Facebook Reels) are a type of short-form video content that allows you to reach an enormous audience with clips up to 90 seconds long. Reels are the most popular form of content on Instagram, with 74% of users watching them.😉
Unlike Instagram Stories, Reels do not disappear after 24 hours so they are perfect to attract new followers as they can see your backlog of Reels anytime and quickly get to know what your brand is all about. 🧡
Instagram Reels are all about quickly engaging your audience and entertaining them for the entire length of the video. To help create captivating Reels, Instagram has a range of creative tools built into the platform like music, AR effects, text, and editing options. 💪
Once you know exactly how to use the native Instagram tools and combine them with AI-powered video editing from Submagic, you’ll know exactly how the pros get 100K+ views on their Instagram Reels. ⚡
How to get 100k views on Reels?
1- Understand your audience.
Whether you’re an aspiring influencer or an experienced professional marketer, the first step to creating content that lands with your audience is to fully understand who they are, what they want, and what they are watching. 🤝
If you don’t know who you’re speaking to - you’ll end up speaking to nobody. 🤔
Identify your target audience demographics
Perhaps the most simple (and traditional) way to understand your audience is through their demographics, which include things like age, gender, and geographic location.
Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, makes it easy to see your audience demographics through Insights, the analytics you get right from within the Facebook and Instagram platforms. 😎
If you are just starting out making Reels then of course, you won’t have any of your own data to analyze your audience yet. In this case, you need to make some assumptions about who you are targeting.
Once your Reels are live and getting views, you can then check Insights to see if your assumptions about your audience were correct. If you find the audience actually watching your videos is different from the demographic you predicted, you may consider updating your content strategy. ⚡
Dig deeper into your audience by checking your competitors
Basic demographic information like age, gender, and location is a useful start - but to build a full picture of your audience, you need to dig a little deeper into what really makes them tick.
Think about what makes them happy, what they are interested in, and, maybe most importantly, what problems they have that you can solve. 🤔
You can find these things out by talking to your customers directly through surveys and interviews - but this can be expensive and time-consuming - not to mention that it doesn’t help you if you’re making Reels on a new account without a following behind it.
An easier way to understand what is popular with your audience is to check what your competitors are doing.
Check their Reels to find which ones have the most views and engagement. Once you have a shortlist of your competitors' most popular Reels, look for patterns and similarities. Analyze which topics are popular, the style of the videos, and how they grab the audience's attention.
This research will help you to understand the type of things that lead to success in Reels with your specific audience. 😉
2- Understand the algorithm.
Anyone and everyone making content online talks about “the algorithm,” - but are you sure you know exactly what it really means and, more importantly, how to use it to your benefit?
The boring but essential bit - “An algorithm is a set of instructions designed to solve problems or perform tasks, transforming input into a desired output.”
When we think about an algorithm for Reels, or any other social media platform, we can think of it as the curator that chooses who and how many people see your content. If you’re reading this, you are a content creator, but you are almost certainly a viewer of Reels, too.
How many times do you start going down a rabbit hole of related videos that all seem to be following the same theme? 🤔
Or you’ll send a Reel to a friend, and they say, “I just saw that.” 😎
Why is 90% of the content you see interesting, even though you didn’t search for it? 😉
This is all to do with the algorithm understanding what type of person you are and what you will be interested in.
The algorithm chooses which videos get seen the most and ultimately go viral based on a set of rules. The exact details of the algorithm are not made public, but by analyzing millions of videos to find patterns and trends, we can figure out what the algorithm favors and optimize for it. 🧡
Focus on Relevance
Keep your content focused on what your audience is interested in. While it can be tempting to try to reach more people through broader content, this is a mistake. If you start posting content that doesn’t resonate with your core viewer base, your viewing times will start to come down as people click off, negatively affecting your standing in the algorithm.
Post Consistently
Posting consistently is critical to keeping your ranking within the algorithm. There isn’t a set amount you need to post; it could be once a day or once a week, but you need to keep it consistent. Regularly posting also helps to keep your content fresh, and the algorithm favors more recent content. 🥇
Increase Viewing Times
Reels are limited to 90 seconds, so it is extra important to grab your audience’s attention immediately. The Reels algorithm will favor videos if people watch them all the way through. People have short attention spans so you need to make sure your videos are truly engaging from start to finish. 💪
Encourage Engagement
Getting people to view your video all the way through is important but it’s not enough. The Reels algorithm also favors videos with high engagement numbers. This means likes, comments, and shares. Offer a quick but catchy reason for people to engage more with your video after viewing it.
3- Research trends and use them in your videos.
Staying up-to-date with the latest trends keeps your content fresh and relevant. Focusing on trends specific to your audience shows that you understand them and makes it easier to build a relationship. There are several types of trends you should pay attention to when elevating your Reels to the next level.
Trending Sounds
Sound effects can enhance engagement in videos by ensuring there is no downtime in the content. As you only have 90 seconds with Reels, you need to make every second count, and you can’t have any silences when viewers lose interest and swipe to the next video. You can also use the Submagic sound effect library to stay on top of the latest trending effects.
It’s important to remember that any sound effects you use must be appropriate for both your audience and brand. Sound effects that seamlessly fit with your identity can help elevate your content, but if they are just thrown in for the sake of it, they’ll actually turn your audience off.
Trending Music
Instagram has an inbuilt music library where you can choose the latest trending songs to add to your Reels. The library is copyright-free for personal use. Business owners get access to a limited library. Submagic also has a background music library of over 10,000 pieces to increase engagement on your Reels.
Content Trends
There are two types of trends in content: Consistent trends and fleeting trends or fads.
Consistent trends are more timeless and may be specific to your content’s topic or theme. For example, fitness accounts may make Reels about “what I eat in a day,” and beauty channels may make “Glow-Up” transformation videos. These types of trends are good because they are audience-specific, they are not time-sensitive, and because your competitors have already made similar videos, you have a blueprint for success. 😎
Shorter trends take the internet by storm but don’t last very long. Examples include the Ice Bucket Challenge and the Harlem Shake. These are not audience-specific trends, but everyone knows about them because they have gone so viral. Established channels often reference these for fun, but newer channels can really see a bump in their viewership by joining the craze. When people hear about a new viral challenge, they will often search for it, so be sure to use all the right hashtags in your video posts. 😉
4- Create quality, engaging content.
We discussed how making quality and engaging content helps the algorithm show your videos to more people. This means telling a good story, good lighting, and good audio—but this is true for any video. Let’s look at some things you need to do specifically for Reels to ensure your audience remains engaged from start to finish.
Add Subtitles
85% of people watch videos on Facebook without the sound on. If you don’t have a silent way to communicate with them, you are missing out on 85% of your potential audience, and you’ll never reach 100K views on your Reels like that.
Fortunately, it is easy to add subtitles to Reels now. Submagic has a library of built-in subtitle styles that not only replace the sound but actually elevate your brand’s image. These are the same subtitle themes used by the world’s biggest online creators to give your Reels that professional feel. Even better, Submagic’s AI automatically adds them to your videos in moments with an industry-leading accuracy of 98.9%.
Add a Hook
Now that the subtitles make sure your audience know what you’re saying, make it count with an intriguing hook. You need to give them a reason to keep watching the video and a strong hook will create interest and anticipation for what is coming.
Make it specific and relevant to your audience. If it solves a big problem, you might even get people to share it with their friends. 😉
For a beauty vlog, your hook may ask your audience, “Do you struggle with frizzy hair in humidity?” while showing a frustrated person with frizzy hair.
Or, for a fitness channel, “always wanted to do the splits but just can’t get there?” shows a person struggling to achieve a full split.
By immediately showing people what your video will talk about and what problem it will solve for them, you’ll guarantee everyone in your target audience will watch until the end.
5- Use filters and special effects
Filters can improve the color grading and mood of your videos. This helps you make professional-looking videos, even if you don’t have professional lighting or any past experience as a videographer. As always, make sure you choose filters that are appropriate for your brand and then use the same ones consistently to give your audience what they expect. 🧡
Special effects can be a wide range of things used to bring your videos to life and make them more engaging. Text animations, emojis, transitions, and time lapses are all used to ensure your videos are never boring. Remember, you have 90 seconds with Reels, but quality is much more important than quantity. It is much better to have an action-packed 60-second Reel that remains engaging throughout rather than a 90-second Reel with boring moments when viewers may click off.
6- Take time to edit your video
The time it takes to edit Reels is dramatically reduced when you use AI editing tools. All of the time-consuming stuff, like adding subtitles, special effects, and transitions, can be set to auto-pilot. ⚡
But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still take your time! The difference is you take your time to plan how you want your videos to look through the audience and competitor research we discussed earlier. 😉
Because Reel editors like Submagic have so many inbuilt options, you should spend time testing out which styles best suit your brand. Once you have invested this time in the planning phase, your future video editing will become fully automated, and all you need to do is check and make small adjustments. 🤝
7- Use hashtags
If you want to reach 1 million views on Instagram Reels, you are going to need to use the right hashtags. This isn’t a new idea. Hashtags have been around since Instagram started. But they remain incredibly important as they are one of the main ways the algorithm knowns how to categorize your Reels. Hashtags are important for several areas of Reels and they help to bring together a lot of the elements we’ve already discussed.
Research Relevant Hashtags
Use the Instagram Explore page to find trending hashtags within your niche. This can give you ideas for content by showing you what’s popular among your audience in real-time. If you already have content that could fall under a trending hashtag, add it when you post the Reel. 😉
But remember—don’t be tempted to add an irrelevant hashtag to your content. You may think that you can piggyback on the hashtag's popularity, but if your content doesn’t align, viewers will get annoyed and swipe off. This will negatively affect your brand and account in the long run.
Mix Broad and Specific Hashtags
Don’t be afraid to use broad search terms along with more specific ones. If you are making a video about solo backpacking, use the hashtag #travel. This will attract people interested in travel but may not think of searching for #solobackpacking.
Of course, you should also use the hashtag #solobackpacking. As long as you keep the content laser-focused on this topic, everyone searching this term is sure to be interested in your Reel.
Limit the Number of Hashtags
Instagram Reels allow you to add up to 30 hashtags, but it's a good idea to limit yourself to 5-10. This will allow you to remain focused on the topic and clearly signal to the Instagram algorithm exactly what your video is about.
Using up to 10 hashtags allows you to use a nice mix of broad and specific terms. But if you use more than this, your posts will look spammy and lose their relevance.
The Best Editing Tool to Help Get 100K Views on Reels
Submagic is the best editing tool for making your video quality so high that you can’t help but get 100K views on your Reels. This is true for several very simple reasons.
Subtitles
You need subtitles if you want to grab your audience’s attention and maintain it. Most people watch videos without sound, so without subtitles, they cannot engage with your content. Submagic’s AI-powered captioning allows you to add subtitles in moments with an industry-leading accuracy rate of 98.9%. You can then choose from a range of professional styles used by the world’s most successful content creators.
Focused on short-form content
Submagic is focused on optimizing short-form content for platforms like Instagram Reels. There aren’t a bunch of features for editing the next cinematic release of a feature film that you’ll never need. This simplicity and focus means the interface is super easy and streamlined to use.
AI-powered tools
You don’t need any video editor experience because the AI-powered tools do almost everything for you. Silences and filler words are automatically removed with AI, and you can even generate custom emojis using AI to make your videos stand out.
In addition to auto-captioning, AI can generate your titles, descriptions, scripts, and hashtags, saving you vast amounts of editing time.
Agile and relevant
Submagic is an agile startup company that became so popular that it gained 1.3 million users in the first nine months after launching. We stay on top of all the latest trends and quickly build the exact tools content creators need to stand out in the modern social media world.
Getting started with Submagic is easy. Simply sign up to try it for free and join the one million+ creators who have already revolutionized their content production on the way to earning 100K views on Reels.
People also ask…
How do you get 100K views on reels for free?
Reels are free to post on both Instagram and Facebook. To reach 100K views on Reels you need to create highly engaging, quality content that is laser-focused to your target audience. Inbuilt has free editing features, but if you really want to take your content to a professional level, create an account with Submagic to unleash the power of AI-driven editing.
How do you get high views on a reel?
To get high views on Reels, you need to grab your audience’s attention immediately. This means a strong hook so compelling, it forces people to watch the whole video. Remember that most people watch Reels without sound, so subtitles are an absolute must for audience engagement. Submagic’s AI-powered captions have an industry-best accuracy rate of 98.9%
How much does Instagram pay for 1000 views on reels?
Instagram doesn’t pay creators per view, but you can earn bonuses through the Reels Play Bonus Program. If you want to monetize your Instagram Reels account, consider brand collaboration, affiliate marketing, or link to your online store. Remember, the best way to make money from Reels is by creating professional-level content through AI-powered editing tools like Submagic.
Is 100K views on Instagram viral?
While getting 100K views on your Instagram Reel would be great, it doesn’t necessarily mean it has gone viral. Going viral is about getting out of your bubble and reaching many more people than your regular audience and followers. Once a Reel starts to gain traction outside your regular community, the algorithm will further favor it, and the views can quickly snowball into the millions. By using Submagic’s library of trending effects, you are always at the forefront of what is popular and going viral.
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