Instagram Changes The Algorithm To Favour Image Based Content

Instagram recently admitted they made a big mistake with the algorithm last year and that they’re fixing it now, which might lead to a big jump in your reach if you pay attention to it.

You see, last year Instagram went all out on copying tiktok and going full noise with short form video content, to the point where users hated it.

Not only did consumers hate it, but creators were struggling to get reach and grow their audience too. No one was really winning.

However, in a recent Q&A, Adam Mosseri, the CEO on Instagram, said this: ‘I think we over focused on video in 2022 and pushed ranking too far and basically showed too many videos and not enough photos. We’ve since balanced so things like how often someone likes photos versus videos and how often someone comments on photos versus videos are roughly equal, which is a good sign that things are balanced. And so, to the degree that there is more video on Instagram over time, it’s going to be because that’s what’s driving overall engagement more.’

Put in Lehmans terms, it no longer matters whether you post a photo, carousel or video, if people respond positively by engaging with the content a lot, it’ll get strong reach organically on Instagram.

Now naturally, a video thats done right, is often more engaging than an image. However thats not always the case, if you produce a great image you will still get reach, which we have done over and over again.

On Josh's account @joshryan the main driver of growth was from static content. Every carousel posted would get thousands of likes and bring in anywhere from 200 to 2,000 new followers each. He had single images getting 5,000+ likes and bringing in 1,000+ new followers. However my best reel was sitting on about 11,000 views and 700 likes.

This is due to the fact my static content was more engaging, interesting and valuable. We had mastered that format but clearly my videos were lacking.

The carousels and single images we posted where some of the best in our niche on the platform, our reels were good but not top teir, so we grew faster with static content.

To summarise, the main change with the algorithm is very simple, reels will not be pushed for the sake of them being a reel. You can’t create an average reel and expect to get reach, as it should be. 2022 was a weird year with the algorithm where terrible content was sometimes pushed purely because it was of the right format and Instagram were trying to compete with TikTok.

Now, things are relatively back to normal, to win in the algorithm you need to create engaging content to captivates your audience and build a community around it to grow fast.

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