Reels, available on both Instagram and Facebook, are now an indispensable part of the media mix, and brands can supercharge their results by understanding the creative approaches that most effectively turn attention into action.
People are consuming more content in more ways than ever before. So, for marketers, it’s imperative to understand what makes thumb-stopping content and how to engage customers – not only to win attention, but to drive action.
Reels is one of Meta's fastest growing ad formats. According to the company’s internal data, these short-form videos available on Facebook and Instagram earn more than 200 billion plays per day and have accounted for a 40% rise in time spent on Instagram since launch. Two thirds of people say they have made a purchase after watching Reels, research by Factworks found.
It's therefore crucial that brands learn and execute the most effective ways of making Reels, which starts with the content creative. As marketers learned at the first ever Meta Festival in London in November, becoming fluent in the ’language of Reels’ can make the difference that supercharges campaign results.
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The ‘language of Reels’:
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“Creativity is so important and if you get that right, you can absolutely drive the performance you need as a brand,” said Journey Further head of social Tom Ruff, speaking during a panel session at the event. Conversion uplift testing has shown using the language of Reels effectively can reduce incremental conversion costs by up to 51%, for example.
There isn’t just one way to make successful Reels. They can be funny, they can be thought-provoking; they can be surprising or educational. But there are three non-negotiable qualities that the most successful Reels all have: they need to be relatable, digestible and entertaining.
Reinforcing the first point, Meta product marketing manager Camilla Taylor told the audience: “The rise of short-form video is essentially allowing us all to join the club of creative storytellers. We know that creativity has become democratised. And we know as well, accessibility trumps aspiration.” Audiences prefer lo-fi production values rather than highly polished videos, and featuring people in the creative is an effective way to help them connect. Reels including people earn a 27% higher clickthrough rate, according to Meta’s data.
“If you have any person in your content, it is going to perform better because people buy from people,” said Meta creative strategist Jane Kinnaird at the Meta Festival. “If I see someone like me using the product, I understand that I can use the product.”
The other two key elements of Reels – being digestible and entertaining – are closely related to one another, she added. “People want to be entertained by content. The way we can do that is to make it digestible. Stuff that's too long or hard to absorb is difficult to consume.” Being concise is key to this, and adding captions that distil key information can help people take it in.
For those brands in need of inspiration to create entertaining ideas, Meta has analysed the most popular trends on its platform and compiled a list of common story types that work well for Reels. They include listicles, photo dumps, Q&As and tutorials – all of which are simple and self-explanatory.
“You can use these to help you structure your content,” Kinnaird explained. “If you've got a business objective and story type, it becomes much easier to come up with an idea of what your campaign can be.”
Relatable, digestible and entertaining
A key part of Reels’ relatability is their appeal among diverse communities. Different people find different content entertaining depending on their culture and interests, and whether a brand wants to reach everyone or just a select audience, Reels need to be created with communities in mind.
Elfried Samba, CEO of agency Butterfly 3ffect and former global head of social content at Gymshark, told the Meta Festival: “You can’t own a community, you can merely rent one. You have to say, what community do I want to be a part of and eventually represent?” On today’s digital platforms, brands can only do this once they’ve “earned enough authority”, he added.
Of course, there are many independent Reels creators who already hold this authority among their communities. Brands can benefit from working with them in collaboration with Meta partners such as Smartly.io, Vidsy and Influencer, which have expertise in bringing brands and suitable creators together.
This may involve marketers letting go of some control in order to find the right balance between protecting their brand and bringing in new perspectives from Reels communities. As Samba summarised, when it comes to making content for today’s digital channels, “don't let your obsession for certainty stifle your creativity”.
According to Becky Owen, CMO of influencer agency Billion Dollar Boy, there needs to be a “mindset of testing and learning”. Some brands have gone to the extent of keeping creators on retainer for a year, familiarising them with the brand DNA and developing a series of posts over that time, starting with low-risk testing.
When marketers leave their comfort zone, they can find creators’ expertise achieves results they wouldn’t otherwise envisage. Owen gave the example of a Reels campaign for the Pucci fashion brand by creator Quyen Mike. With the shoot overrunning, the light failing and the intended location no longer available, production moved into the unlikely surroundings of a canoe shed, which seemed incongruous, but the resulting creative performed better than the rest of the highly curated campaign.
/// The creative essentials
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Connecting with communities
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An important aspect of entertaining different communities is to make sure creative can resonate with everyone. This may mean using multiple creatives to connect with different demographics, and creators can help here too.
As an example, Meta’s Kinnaird explained how fashion brand Penti used three ‘macro’ creators to develop the master templates for a campaign, then distributed each of these among three ‘micro’ creators, who used them to make their own Reels. This produced 15 different creatives in total, each resonating with a different consumer segment, with consistent sound and a shot of the storefront branding across all of them. What’s more, Reels users then adapted the templates to create their own Reels and further amplify the campaign.
“The results were hugely successful, above the sector benchmarks for the regions and the demographics they were trying to talk to, for both top-of-mind awareness and intent,” said Kinnaird.
Global beverage company Diageo, meanwhile, took a different approach to inclusion, as Baileys global head of digital and data Sarah Fleury told the Meta Festival audience: “Our content marketing strategy is based on creating billions of triggers for treating yourself, with content which is so delicious it makes you want to lick the screen. But we came to realise that if you are from the blind or visually impaired community and relying on screen readers to access that content, maybe it wasn’t so delicious after all.”
Since screen readers depend on the ‘alt text’ in image metadata to relay an audio description, Baileys set out to create more appealing copy to accompany its campaign visuals. It worked in partnership with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and the creator and activist Lucy Edwards, who initially brought the issue to Diageo’s attention. Edwards, who is blind, rounded off the campaign by recording her own Reel reacting enthusiastically to Baileys’ alluring new image descriptions.
These are just some examples of how brands have succeeded in entertaining diverse communities with Reels. Many others are already becoming fluent in creating content that’s equally relatable, digestible and entertaining.
Doing so is important, because understanding and speaking the language of Reels doesn’t just help win the attention of audiences, it can supercharge campaign performance while halving conversion costs. And there could be few better reasons to start learning a new language. ■
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Build Reels, Build Results: Download the guide to find out how to supercharge your creative
Just as important as knowing what kind of content is going to resonate is understanding the technical aspects that will lead to more clicks, more conversions and stronger business outcomes. These are simple to learn but imperative to follow in order to maximise the effectiveness of Reels, because doing so means people will find them more entertaining.
1. Build vertical videos
Naturally, Reels content needs to be optimised to fill the whole of a mobile phone screen, since nearly everyone is viewing it that way. Using a 9:16 aspect ratio makes Reels ads more captivating – and the proof is in the numbers. According to Meta’s data, Reels ads in 9:16 format achieve an average positive response score (including purchase intent) that’s seven percentage points higher than video ads created in other sizes. If needed, advertisers can use Meta Ads Manager to crop an existing video to 9:16.
2. Build for sound-on viewing
While brands may be used to creating sound-off content for other Meta platforms, such as the Facebook feed, with Reels sound is central to the experience. Over 80% of Instagram Reels are viewed with the sound on, and Reels ads with both music and voiceover achieve a 15-point higher positive response score. If brands are stuck finding a soundtrack of their own, Meta’s Sound Collection includes a library of free audio that can be used, while the Advantage+ Creative tool in the Meta Ads Manager can even automate music selection.
3. Build in the ‘safe zone’
Reels will be viewed within the context of the user interface that includes titles and share buttons, for example, so any important content or information – whether that’s ad copy or footage central to the video’s story – needs to avoid these parts of the screen and stay within the ‘safe zone’. Broadly, this is the central area of the screen which remains unobscured, and Reels ads that respect it have a 39% higher click-through rate on average versus those that violate it.
The first Meta Festival took place in London in November
“Don't let your obsession for certainty stifle your creativity,” former Gymshark head of social Elfried Samba said