How to Use Trial Reels to Test Content & Maximize Your Reach

Have you ever felt like your posts don’t make it past your followers? Or maybe you’ve been wanting to test out some new content, but you’re not sure how your followers would react to it.

Either way, Instagram trial reels might be the answer you’ve been searching for.

What are trial reels?

Officially released in December 2024, trial reels are Instagram videos that are shared to non-followers, helping you test content and extend your reach without posting to your feed. If the post performs well, you can share it with your audience.

If not, or if you just don’t want it on your feed for whatever reason, you can keep it hidden from your followers for as long as you like.

Who can use trial reels on Instagram?

Despite going public more than a year ago, the initial release of trial reels was limited to a handful of lucky business and creator pages to test the rollout. Once beta was over, IG slowly pushed the feature to more creators.

If you’re interested in using IG’s trial reel feature, you must:

• Have a public Instagram account
• Set your account to Creator or Business
• Have at least 1,000 followers (although I know plenty of people with fewer followers who have access to trial reels)

What are Instagram trial reels used for?

Instagram trial reels are primarily used to test new content on a broader audience before sharing it to your loyal followers. This allows you to see how well a piece of content will perform and experiment with different hooks, topics and editing styles before ever putting it on your feed.

Think of it this way: in order for Instagram to push your post to the masses, it needs to be liked by both followers and non-followers. If you’ve been posting to IG and getting good engagement from your audience, but struggling to reach beyond that, it may be because you’re not making content for non-followers in the first place.

Trial reels allow you to start experimenting with different content types to see what will hit with newbies without clogging up your feed and confusing your very much engaged current audience.

I mean, how could you not love that?!

How to share trial reels on Instagram

Sharing trial reels on Instagram is super duper easy, even for someone who’s new at social media. Just follow the steps below!

Step 1: Record or upload a video on IG

Trial reels work exactly like traditional reels. You can either record and edit within the Instagram app or upload a video to post.

Step 2: Edit your video

If needed, you can then edit your trial reel in the Instagram app or on Edits before posting.

Step 3: Add deets and prep your trial reel for posting

Once you’re done editing, press ‘Next’, where you will set up your caption, hashtags, and add a poll/prompt and location (all optional, btw). Toward the bottom of the screen, you toggle on the option titled ‘Trial’.

Note: If you crosspost to Facebook or Threads, your trial reel will automatically post there as a regular post and be shown to your current audience. If you do not want that to happen, you can toggle those options off.

Step 4: Post or schedule your trial reel

Once you’re done adding all of the information to your trial reel, it’s time to post! You can either save the draft to post later, click ‘share’ to post now, or select ‘more options’ and schedule your trial reel to be posted at a later time.

Where can I access my Instagram trial reels after posting?

Once you’ve posted your trial reel to Instagram, you can access it at any time to check its performance by going to your main feed, selecting the Reels tab, and clicking on ‘Drafts and trial reels.’ While you can see some performance stats early on, your key engagement typically won’t be viewable for about 24 hours.

Can I share my trial reel with my audience?

Yes, if your post performs well, you will be given the option to share it with your audience to further push your reach. You can also set this up ahead of time by adjusting your Instagram settings. Instagram will typically post to non-followers for 72 hours, and depending on how well it performs, will then automatically share it to your feed.

You can adjust this at any time by clicking on trial settings → share to everyone automatically. This can be found directly under the trial reel toggle within a draft.

Tips for getting the most out of Instagram trial reels

Contrary to what most people will tell you (so you buy their course, lol), trial reels are not some easy, get-a-million-followers hack. Like everything in marketing, they work best when you pack some strategy behind them.

1. Be consistent. While there really isn’t any hard proof that consistency makes the algorithm love you, it’s good practice for you as the creator to get in the habit of making them.
2. Post a lot, but don’t burn yourself out. Some people suggest posting three trial reels per day, but it’s really going to come down to what is manageable for you.
3. Make sure you’re posting things that actually align with what you’d be willing to post to your current followers. Say you get a trial reel that goes viral and you get 1,000 new followers. Those people are going to be expecting to see more of that same content, and you’ve got to deliver if you want them to stick around.
4. Think outside of the box. If you had a piece of content that you think should have done better than it did, change it around and repost it as a trial to see if you can get the results you were originally seeking.

What NOT to do when making a trial reel

Early on, users could repost something from their feed as a trial reel without making edits. But, and I’m sure you can guess where this is going, Instagram put a swift end to that loophole!

Now, if you want to repost a piece of content, you need to alter it in at least one way to protect your account from getting flagged.

When reposting an old piece of content as a trial reel:

• Never post the exact same piece of content twice. Instagram will see this as spam and potentially flag your account.
• If you are reposting a piece of content as a trial reel, you must change at least one thing about the post.
• Change the sound/audio on your trial reel
• Chop up the video and re-order some of your talking points
• Try a new visual or audio hook
• Speed up or slow down your video
• Add new sound effects or stickers

Get a done-for-you trial reel strategy and start expanding your reach!

If you made it to the end, congrats! You’re one step closer to taking advantage of Instagram’s trial reel feature.

Quick recap:

• Trial reels are shown to non-followers
• Posting trial reels allows you to test new content types and hooks with a fresh audience
• If your post performs well, you can post it to your own feed
• Consistency and creativity are key when it comes to getting traction from trial reels
• Never repost old content as a trial reel without adjusting at least one part of the content

And if you’re looking for someone to take this off your plate for you, our team at Do Epic Shit Media is ready to eat! Apply to work with us here.