Carousels are a blessing for marketers that allow showcasing multiple images and videos in a single post, which can be significantly engaging for your audience. It also allows you to tell stories through multiple visuals that will help keep your followers hooked.
With the latest social media marketing strategies changes, you must stay up-to-date with all of the relevant data and statistics related to Instagram carousels. To help you get started, here are some key Instagram carousel stats that will give you an insight into how this feature can benefit your brand.
What Is an Instagram Carousel?
We all value aesthetics. From clothes to our homes, there’s something special about having visually pleasing designs that bring joy and beauty to our lives. We’re no different when it comes to our Instagram posts. We not only post but also engage with posts with a strong aesthetic value and compelling visuals.
This is where Instagram carousels come in. An Instagram Carousel is a post that allows you to share up to ten pictures or videos in a single post, which users can view by swiping left on the phone app.
Carousels are great for highlighting different products and services, sharing multiple photos from an event, creating a lookbook, or telling a story. They get people to pause and look at each photo or video in the carousel, which increases engagement.
Top Instagram Carousel Stats You Can’t Miss
Here are a few Instagram carousel stats that can give you an idea of what kind of engagement carousels can generate:
Instagram Carousel has a Higher Engagement Rate than Images and Videos
The average engagement rate per post for Instagram carousels is 1.92%, higher than the average engagement rate of 1.74% for images and 1.45% for videos. This means that users are more likely to interact with posts containing multiple images or videos in a single post rather than viewing one image or video at a time.
Carousels Have the Highest Engagement Rate but Represent a Small Share of Content
Instagram carousels have the highest engagement rate but only account for 19% of Instagram content. This means that most marketers have still not tapped into the power of carousels to boost engagement rates.
Creating a 10-Slide Carousel Boosts Engagement by 2%
Using all 10 slides in a carousel post, Instagram users can expect their engagement rate to surpass 2%. This is because users are likelier to stay on the post and interact with it when viewing multiple slides. The longer an audience looks at your content, the more likely they will engage with it.
Carousels with Both Images and Videos Get the Highest Engagement Rates
Carousels that include images and videos bring an average engagement rate of 2.33%. This is significantly higher than posts with images (1.74%) and videos (1.45%). If you want to maximize your engagement rate, mixing images and videos in your carousel posts is best.
Telling People to Swipe Left on Carousels Drives More Engagement
Telling followers to swipe left and continue exploring the carousel can increase your engagement rate from 1.83% to 2%. However, this strategy is under-utilized, as only 5% of carousels contain the “swipe left” slide.
Ways to Use Instagram Carousel
There’s no doubt that the Instagram carousel is a powerful tool for personal and business use. Here are just some of the creative ways you can use it:
Showcase Your Process
Businesses are always looking for ways to increase their customer base. But, if your Instagram feed is filled with endless sales pitches, it can be difficult to attract potential customers.
One way to effectively use an Instagram carousel to engage your followers is to showcase how your product or service is made. For example, if you own a bakery, use an Instagram carousel to show the entire cake-baking process from start to finish.
You could also use the Instagram carousel to showcase your behind-the-scenes visuals. By giving people an inside peek at your business, you can create a more personal connection, making them more likely to support it.
Recommend and List Products
If you’re a blogger or business owner with products to recommend, the Instagram carousel is an excellent tool.
Let’s say you’re an Instagram blogger that runs a beauty page. You can use the Instagram carousel to dedicate a post to recommending the best sunscreens.
Similarly, if you run a jewelry store, create a post sharing the different silver jewelry pieces. This will tell potential customers that you have various products they can choose from.
Add a caption summarizing what you’re sharing and encouraging your followers to check out your listed products. Instagram strategist Socialsam’s carousel post about the 100 best content creation tools is the perfect example of using carousels for recommendations and listings.
Don’t have the time or resources to create captions? You can check out an Instagram caption generator like Publer AI Assist. The tool generates content based on user input and automatically customizes posts for social media platforms to ensure that the captions are optimized for engagement. That’s not it. The tool also helps create images that are not only stunning but also optimized for maximum engagement.
Share Testimonials
Building trust with your customers is essential for creating a successful business. Prospects are more likely to purchase from you when they see that others out there had a great experience with your product.
You can use the Instagram carousel to share customer success stories. Ask your customers to provide photos of themselves using your product or service, and then use the Instagram carousel to post it on your feed. You can also create a carousel of before and after photos or customer reviews. This will motivate your potential customers to take the plunge and purchase from you.
If you share your customer success stories, ensure those align with Instagram post dimensions.
Here’s a breakdown of the image size and aspect ratio for Instagram carousels:
Landscape: 1080 x 566 pixels
Portrait: 1080 x 1350 pixels
Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels
Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 (landscape), (square) 1:1, (vertical) 4:5
Promote an Event
Are you hosting an event or webinar? Instagram carousel is a great way to promote it. Create a post with the event’s details, such as time and location. Include a few photos from previous events you’ve held to build anticipation for your upcoming one.
You can also add images of speakers who will be speaking at the event or webinar, or any sponsors you may have. The more information you include in your post, the better.
Key Takeaways
Instagram Carousels are yet to be explored to their full potential. With brands finding new ways to cater to their audience’s needs effectively, Instagram carousels can be the solution with higher engagement and conversion rates.
Remembering these stats about Instagram carousels is essential:
- Instagram carousels have an average engagement rate of 1.92%.
- Instagram carousels only account for 18% of Instagram’s content.
- Using all ten slides of the carousel can boost your engagement rate to over 2%.
- Carousels with images and videos bring an average engagement rate of 2.33%, higher than using either images or videos.
Did these stats compel you to use or modify your Instagram carousel strategy? Which of the stats surprised you? Let us know in the comments!
Ervin Kalemi
