Top 8 Simple Tips on How to Make Your Reels Viral on Instagram (2025)

It’s no secret that Instagram has become a popular platform for businesses and creators to showcase their content. Instagram Reels share a huge chunk of this space with 2.35 billion monthly active users. Reels are a great way to share short, engaging videos with your audience. If you want to know how to make your reels viral, there are a few strategies you can use to increase your chances.

In this article, we’ll share simple tips on how to make your reels viral and grow your followers. From choosing the right type of these viral tips online, you will be able to boost your reach. In this blog post, we will discuss 8 viral online tips on how to make your reels viral.

We will cover topics such as selecting engaging content, using trending hashtags, and creating an eye-catching thumbnail to make your reels stand out. By following these strategies, you can master how to make your reels viral and elevate your Instagram presence.

Top 8 Tips on How to Viral Reels on Instagram

If you want your Instagram reels to go viral, you must be creative, strategic, and understand your target audience. To help you achieve this, here are some viral tips online on how to make your reels viral on Instagram:

1. Target the Right Set of Audience
2. Use Trending Music and Hashtags
3. Reels Should be Visually Appealing
4. Add Text Overlays and Captions
5. Collaborate with Other Creators and Brands
6. Leverage User-Generated Content
7. Experiment with Different Formats and Styles
8. Choose An Eye-catchy Thumbnail

1. Target the Right Set of Audience

The most important tip on how to make your reels viral is to identify your target audience and create content that resonates with them. You should analyze your target audience’s interests, demographics, and behaviour on Instagram to understand what type of content they engage with.

2. Use Trending Music and Hashtags

Using trendy music and hashtags in your reel can be highly effective when understanding how to make your reels viral. This approach increases visibility and reach, allowing you to tap into current trends and conversations. By leveraging these trends, your content can be discovered by a broader audience, potentially featuring in Instagram’s “Explore” section. Additionally, using relevant hashtags attracts followers interested in your niche.

3. Reels Should be Visually Appealing

Want to learn how to make your reels viral? Use visually appealing content! Instagram is a visual platform, so it’s important to use high-quality images and videos with the correct aspect ratio, bright colors, and visually striking elements to grab your audience’s attention. You can also use filters, effects, and editing tools to make your reel look even better.

4. Add Text Overlays and Captions

Including text overlays and captions in your reel can be useful to communicate your message and increase engagement. How to Make Your Reels Viral involves adding brief and catchy captions so viewers can quickly read and comprehend them. Additionally, consider using text overlays to emphasize essential details or to create a sense of humor or suspense in your reel.

5. Collaborate with Other Creators and Brands

Collaborating with other creators and brands can help expand your audience. You can team up with influencers or brands that share your interests to create a reel that is beneficial to both parties.

6. Leverage User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) can be a powerful tool for understanding how to make your reels viral. Encourage your followers to create and share their content using your branded hashtag or by tagging you in their posts. By featuring UGC in your reel, you can create a sense of community and inspire your followers to engage with your content.

Also Read: 9 Simple Steps to Get Your First 1000 Followers on Instagram

7. Experiment with Different Formats and Styles

Keep trying different formats and styles to see what your audience likes the most. Experiment with various camera angles, editing techniques, and music styles to create a unique and captivating reel. Following these tips on how to make your reels viral can increase your chances of getting more followers, and making a trending reel on Instagram.

8. Choose an Eye-catchy Thumbnail

The thumbnail is the first thing people see when they come across your reel, so it is important to make it eye-catching and relevant to the content of your reel. How to Make Your Reels Viral involves creating a good thumbnail that uses a high-quality image or video, ensuring clarity, and incorporating bright colors and contrasting text. However, this approach does not work similarly for all creators, so you must experiment with different thumbnail designs until you find one that works best for you.

How Does the Instagram Reels Algorithm Work?

While searching for “viral tips online Instagram”, we often think how algorithm of Instagram reels acutally works. The algorithm considers various factors when deciding how visible a reel is on a user’s feed. Some of these are:

1. Number of Views and Engagement

If your reel receives a good number of views within a few hours of posting it, understanding how to make your reels viral can significantly increase its reach. Instagram might push it on the Explore page, where it can attract even more views and engagement. Moreover, a reel with high engagement (likes, comments, shares, and saves) signals to the algorithm that the content is relevant and valuable to users, making it more likely to appear on their feeds.

2. Relevance

The algorithm examines the relevance of your reel to your target audience’s interests. To increase relevance, ensure your content is tailored to your audience’s interests and use relevant hashtags that accurately describe the content. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post. Once you develop your authority in a particular niche, you can become an influencer on Instagram.

3. Account Activity

The algorithm takes into account the frequency of posting and interactions with followers, so understanding how to make your reels viral can be key. If you have an active account with a high level of engagement and frequent posting, your reel is more likely to appear on your followers’ feeds. This is why it is suggested to be consistent.

4. Captions and Hashtags

Using descriptive, funny and interesting captions that explain your content can make it more valuable.
When you use trending hashtags, your reels are more likely to be seen by people who are interested in those topics. When choosing hashtags, make sure they are relevant to your content and that they are not too popular.

How to Promote Your Reel on Instagram

To make your Instagram reel video go viral, you need to promote them effectively and engage with your audience. Here are some effective promotion strategies on how to make your reels viral:

1. Share your Reel on Other Social Media Platforms
2. Engage with Your Audience through Comments and DMs
3. Encourage Followers to Share and Save Your Reel
4. Run Paid Ads and Sponsored Content

1. Share your Reel on Other Social Media Platforms

To make your reels go viral on Instagram, you should share them on other social media platforms. How to Make Your Reels Viral includes expanding your reach by sharing your reels on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. You can also share them on TikTok and YouTube to connect with new followers and increase engagement.

Also Read: How YouTubers Make Money: The Ultimate Guide to Monetization and Earnings

2. Engage with Your Audience through Comments and DMs

Responding to comments and messages shows your followers that you care about their opinions and want to connect with them. How to Make Your Reels Viral includes engaging with your audience to create a community around your content and build trust among your followers. This, in turn, can result in more views and shares of your reel.

3. Encourage Followers to Share and Save Your Reel

To make your reel more popular, include a call-to-action at the end, like asking viewers to share or save it, or offering rewards such as shoutouts or giveaways. How to Make Your Reels Viral involves strategies like these to attract more followers who are interested in your content and likely to share it with others. Saving a reel is also essential because it signals to Instagram’s algorithm that your content is worth promoting to a larger audience.

4. Run Paid Ads and Sponsored Content

Using paid ads and sponsored content is a great way to reach a targeted audience and get your reel seen by more people. How to Make Your Reels Viral includes utilizing different types of ads, like carousels, stories, or videos, to help you achieve your goals. Partnering with influencers or other brands is also a key strategy for expanding your reel’s reach. Collaborating with influencers who have a large following and high engagement can increase visibility and build brand awareness.

Boost your Reel

Instagram reels get more views from a wider audience! Reels offer unparalleled engagement and can rack up views faster than many other features on Instagram.

By leveraging the paid boost feature on Instagram, you can enhance the visibility of your Reels and extend your reach to an even broader audience. How to Make Your Reels Viral is key, as boosted Reels appear across Instagram: in main feeds, Stories, the Reels tab, and even on the Explore page.

1) How to Boost Your Reel (Paid Option)

In July 2022, Instagram rolled out an update about boosting reels. Now, you can transform your top-performing Reels into paid ads, reaching an even broader audience. If you’re intrigued by the boost feature and would like to give it a shot on how to make your reels viral, here’s how you can do it:

1. Select the Reel: Begin by choosing the Reel you want to promote. Ensure it’s a captivating piece of content that aligns with your promotional goals and is likely to resonate with your target audience.
2. Boost Reel: Locate the Reel you wish to boost and tap on the three dots (…) to access the options menu. From there, select “Boost Reel” to initiate the process.
3. Define Your Objective: Instagram will prompt you to specify your promotional objective. Options typically include increasing profile visits, website visits, or views for your Reel. For our purposes, select the “More Views” objective.
4. Audience Targeting: Tailor your audience by selecting specific demographics, locations, interests, and behaviours. This ensures that your promoted Reel reaches users who are most likely to engage with your content.
5. Set Budget and Duration: Determine your budget and the duration of your promotion. You can opt for a daily budget or set a total budget for the entire campaign. Instagram will provide estimated reach and results based on your selections.
6. Review and Launch: Take a moment to review all aspects of your promotion, including audience targeting, budget, duration, and ad content. Once you’re satisfied, click “Boost Post” to launch your campaign.

While this will help you increase impressions and get seen by significantly more users, boosted Reels only perform well if they have great content. How to Make Your Reels Viral involves crafting compelling content and targeting the right audience—both vital steps in maximizing the impact of your promotion. That’s why creating reels that will resonate and interest your target audience is exceptionally important.

2) Which Reels Are Eligible for Boosting?

When it comes to boosting Instagram reels, some guidelines have to be followed. How to Make Your Reels Viral includes understanding Instagram’s requirements for boosting content. According to Instagram, for a reel to be eligible for boosting, it must meet the following criteria:

1. Duration must be less than 60 seconds.
2. The format of the reel should be in a 9:16 vertical aspect ratio.
3. Cannot be shared on Facebook.
4. Must not contain third-party intellectual property, such as copyrighted music or stickers.

Also Read: How to Download Instagram Reels

Consistency is the Key

Narratives hold immense power – a compelling story or relatable scenario can deeply resonate with viewers. Additionally, keeping an eye on trends and participating in popular challenges can significantly amplify your reel’s visibility. Collaborations and strategic use of hashtags broaden your reach by tapping into existing online communities.

Lastly, optimizing descriptions and captions for searchability enhances discoverability, making it easier for users to find and engage with your content. While viral success isn’t guaranteed, integrating these straightforward strategies on how to make your reels viral into your creative process creates a larger and more engaged audience. With creativity, consistency, and adaptability, your reel could be on its way to viral stardom.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)