You’ve toiled away in your edits, filters and sound clips in your newest Instagram Reel and are nearly able to hit put up… however then you definately hit the caption discipline. Time for an existential disaster.
Do you have to simply toss in a couple of hashtags and name it a day? Or is it time to wax poetic with a mini-essay? (Don’t neglect your third choice: simply delete the draft and throw your telephone within the ocean.) Out of the blue, a enjoyable alternative to share on social media has change into a possibility to query every part.
In terms of Instagram Reels captions, it’s arduous to know simply how a lot is an excessive amount of — will a prolonged caption assist or damage your engagement?
Effectively, in the event you beloved my story on whether or not lengthy captions work higher on Instagram than quick ones, contemplate this the sequel and buckle up.
It’s time to discover out the perfect size of an Instagram Reel caption the one method we all know how: by spamming my poor, unsuspecting Instagram followers with content material and taking some candy candy notes.
Let the science start.
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Speculation: Reels with lengthy captions get extra engagement and attain
Famed designer Coco Chanel as soon as stated, “Earlier than you allow the home, look within the mirror and take one factor off.” Whereas pared-down minimalism will be the option to go for trend, relating to Instagram, it generally looks as if extra is extra.
A minimum of that was the case for my final caption experiment. Evaluating super-short captions and prolonged, detailed ones, we discovered that longer captions overwhelmingly led to increased engagement on Instagram Posts.
Our speculation is that Instagram Reels can be no totally different. (Want an Instagram Reels crash course? Right here! You! Go!) In spite of everything, with Instagram Posts, longer captions supplied extra data, extra alternatives to attach with followers, and higher web optimization.
Presumably, all of these advantages may also be true of Reels. However why presume after I can spend a weekend crafting 10 Instagram Reels and utilizing them as fascinating bait to seek out out the reality? Time to place my caption-craft to the check.
Methodology
To check out the perfect size for an Instagram Reels put up, I posted 5 movies with longer (125+ phrases). I additionally posted 5 movies with a quick, fundamental one-line description.
I made a decision that each the long-caption and short-caption movies must be fairly comparable so as to be sure that the content material itself wasn’t a think about any engagement.
As a result of I lately accomplished an elaborate renovation and am simply itching to speak about it for hours at a time with anybody who dares to face nonetheless sufficient to hear, I made a decision that before-and-after content material was the way in which to go.
I made a pair movies about my bed room (one with an extended caption, one with a brief one), one in regards to the rest room, and so forth.
For every video, I grabbed a special trending sound, simply to verify Instagram didn’t assume I used to be being too spammy.
I additionally wished to do that to faucet into the facility of the Instagram Reels algorithm, which tends to spice up movies that embrace music clips.
Ten movies went out into the world. Once I checked again 48 hours later to see how they’d fared, right here’s what I discovered.
Outcomes
TLDR: Instagram Reels with shorter captions obtained increased engagement and additional attain.
Whereas Instagram Posts with longer captions obtained increased engagement in our final experiment, I used to be stunned to see that shorter captions have been extra profitable when it got here to Instagram Reels.
| Reels with Lengthy Captions | Reels with Brief Captions | |
|---|---|---|
| Complete Likes | 4 | 56 |
| Complete Feedback | 1 | 2 |
| Complete Attain | 615 | 665 |
I suppose I didn’t have to spend all that point composing lengthy captions in spite of everything. However whereas these are minutes I’ll by no means get again, the teachings of my previous change into the knowledge of my future. (And I’m not upset in any respect that completely unbelievable inspirational phrase I simply coined is probably going too lengthy and wordy to ever use as a caption for a Reel.)
What do the outcomes imply?
As with all of those experiments, these outcomes must be taken with a grain of salt. I solely left my Reels up for 2 days, and clearly they have been closely centered on one particular subject.
It’s very potential that one other kind of Reel with one other viewers would’ve fared in a different way. I didn’t even use hashtags right here, in order that additionally might have impacted my attain.
However I believe there are some key takeaways right here — specifically that you simply’re higher off spending your time honing your modifying abilities than composing the right bon mot.
Reels are for skimming, Posts are for deep-dives
Reels, like TiKTok, are designed for discovery — so the individuals viewing them is probably not your largest followers or cousins who really feel an obligation to comply with you again.
That might be the reason as to why long-caption Posts did so significantly better than long-caption Reels. In case your viewers is simply watching your content material to devour as a part of an infinite stream of quick-to-digest video content material, a sturdy caption isn’t going so as to add a lot to the expertise.
Inform your story with the content material, not the caption
With Reels, it looks as if it’s greatest if the caption provides supplementary materials, not a full-on backstory.
Make sure that your video can stand alone, and is sensible even with out the context of a caption: if somebody doesn’t learn it, they need to nonetheless really feel like they received all the important thing takeaways. (Searching for some ideas for creating stand-out Instagram Reels? We’ve received you lined.)
Faucet into the web optimization energy of captions
Simply because captions aren’t essentially the most fascinating aspect of your Reel, doesn’t imply it’s best to simply depart that discipline clean. The caption is a chance to plug in a couple of sturdy key phrases and hashtags, to extend your likelihood of discoverability. Even when no human being ever reads your caption, the search index positive will.
In fact, everybody’s social media account is a singular and particular butterfly, so your mileage might differ. The attractive factor, although, is that it prices you nothing to experiment for your self with how captions (or if captions!) give you the results you want and your private social media targets. When you’ve poured your coronary heart into crafting the right Instagram Reel, a intelligent caption is de facto simply icing on the cake.
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