The truth behind Instagram's new update | MKTRSU #013
Hello fello marketers, business owners, content creators or otherwise interested people!
Instagram released 4 important updates in the last couple days and weeks including how they count views across all formats, how carousels and reels audio work and what makes things go viral.
And we need to talk about it.
My name is Mark Valasik, and this is the lucky #013 edition of Marketing Right Side Up newsletter, your source of social media and marketing news, memes, and almost weekly stories.
Top Social media news from the past week or so:
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Winning meme of this week? This one about hiring marketers to fix fired marketers’ work.
The Reality Behind Instagram's Latest Updates
What if I offered to increase your Instagram Reel views at the cost of engagement and quality? Would you take it? Most likely, your answer would be no. Yet, Instagram is doing just that, and we need to talk about it, along with the release of 20-slide carousels.
Instagram's New Unified Metrics
Instagram recently updated its insights, unifying metrics across all formats—stories, feed posts, carousel posts, livestreams and Reels. The single metric for all these formats is now "Views." Previously, Reels used a metric called "plays," but this has now changed to "Views" as well as losing “Impressions” as a metric. This unification helps in determining which content and format works best for your audience, which doesn’t and how your audience reacts to different format.
The Catch: Redefining Views and Impressions
While unifying metrics sounds great, Instagram also redefined what constitutes a view. Previously, a Reel view (“Play”) was counted if someone watched for at least 3 seconds. Anything before that was just an Impression and 1 account could create multiple impressions or views. Now, a View is counted after just 1 second. This change essentially downgrades plays and views to impressions, meaning your content will rack up more views but not necessarily more engagement. Rather, influencer marketers and agencies might be in a pickle as engagement rates are one of the key decision making metrics and now they will be TOOOTALLY screwed up.
Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, has stated that "shares per reach" are the most crucial metric, making views and impressions even less significant. This change will likely lead to an increase in views but a decrease in the ratio of views to social-proof-esque engagement, such as likes and comments.
Recommended by LinkedIn
When I first discussed this change on TikTok and Instagram, I thought it was a step in the right direction.
However, after further reflection and insights posted by certain Nick Cicero on LinkedIn, I’ve come to realize this may not be what creators wanted. Other platforms like TikTok and Snapchat have already made similar changes, but it’s not necessarily the right move. Creators want more reach, not just inflated views. That solves nothing.
This update will roll out gradually in August and September 2024, and there’s nothing we can do but adapt our expectations and KPIs accordingly.
The 20-Slide Carousel and 20-Song Reels Updates
Instagram has also rolled out 20-slide carousels, which seems more beneficial to creators than consumers. Personally, I can’t imagine investing time into more than 4-5 slides, let alone 20. While I had debates with some marketers who seemed very excited for the possibility, I don’t think these Carousels will become a standard. As a matter of fact, my honest opinion is that later down the line, we might hear from Mosseri a similar “warning” as we did with longer reels - do it if you need to, but the longer they are, the worse the impact on it’s reach will be.
Additionally, Instagram is allowing up to 20 audio tracks in a single Reel, a decision that leaves me baffled. While this might be helpful to people who are cutting and editing their reels directly in IG app and need to express their whatever better with multiple songs in 1 video, 20 seems like an absolute overkill, and what I expect to happen is creators trying to hack their way into virality with adding full 20 of popular trending audios, while the placement of those songs would not make sense creative-wise.
The whole mood around these updates is as if Instagram listened only to very biased few creators and tailored the experience based on their feedback. Funnily enough, when Mosseri created a Reel explaining why they prefer Sends per Reach as the most important metric for growth, he replied something along the lines of “when you find a funny comedic skit and you send it to a friend who you know will like it too, it’s very social” to which he received a lot of angry comments stating “we’re running businesses Adam, not comedy clubs” 😀
Your Thoughts?
I’m curious—what do you think about these updates? Do you agree with the unification of metrics and the lower threshold for views? What are your thoughts on the 20-slide carousels and multi-audio Reels? And what’s your opinion on the “sends per reach” being the key metric for organic growth?
Let me know in the comments below.
For more Instagram content, check out my previous article on why you should never want to go viral or the previous-previous article about everything you need to know about Instagram growth.
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Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!
Cheers,
Mark.