In actual practice, the format of Instagram reels (Facebook and Instagram are companies banned in the Russian Federation) also works for promoting offers of almost any vertical. Today, the algorithms for promoting Instagram reels make it possible to drive traffic from this social network and still do that quite profitably. Perhaps you, the people who’re reading this particular article on Webvork’s blog, are one of those affiliates that left your Instagram efforts in the first half of this year (due to its ban in Russia), but we’d still like you to consider it a useful platform. And if you’re ready to do that, then hurry up and read this article to find out how to promote your offers via Instagram reels.

What are reels?

Reels are short videos up to 60 seconds long. With this format, users can edit videos in the application itself. For more creativity and greater involvement in your reels, you can:

• add music

• create various effects

• attach stickers

• insert text

Changes in reach after Instagram was blocked in Russia

Basically, in Russia, reels have always been popular, as well as promoting your business with reels, of course. After Meta was recognized as an extremist in the Russian Federation, the coverage of all its products, including Instagram should have dropped sharply. Nevertheless, if we go to the Yandex Wordstat service and look at the statistics for the “reels” query, we will see with our own eyes that reels’ popularity still remains high. As a result, people still watch reels and the algorithms for promoting reels on Instagram are still very much relevant for the Russian-speaking audience.

Why are reels better than other Instagram formats?

In practice, reels are the most effective form of promoting goods and services on Instagram. Even the company itself sees reels as the main format for the further development of the network and is ready to leave ordinary posts and stories behind in favor of reels. Here are some numbers for the reel format:

Likes:

Saves:

Reels have 170% more average reactions than posts with images. 36% more than carousels and 72% more than videos:

Reels exceed every other format in terms of coverage, too:

Do you want to hear more about the upsides of posting reels?

Ok, then let us list all the advantages provided by the algorithms that promote Instagram reels:

• More opportunities to tell about the benefits of your offer to a larger chunk of your target audience.

• Instagram is actively promoting new features and, accordingly, the creators who use them.

• Reels actively promote creators with fewer subscribers.

• Promoting goods is easier done with the help of short videos.

• And most importantly, the Instagram audience perceives reels as entertaining videos, and not as ones for advertising products. That’s why users do not spare their precious time to view them.

Affiliate marketing offers and promotion with Instagram reels in 2023

With reels, you can showcase anything that you’ve ever previously promoted with other Instagram and TikTok video formats. Reels have a nice bonus – they are easier to promote than regular posts with videos. Here’s how reels’ promotion works: people’s feed is formed not only from their following but also from vids selected according to the user’s interests. The resulting feed is then analyzed: the algorithm estimates what the user scrolls through and what videos they watch to the end.

Let’s go through the main affiliate marketing verticals briefly, to see what their Instagram reels promotion looks like in 2022-2023:

Nutra

Any health advice or beauty advice can drive your nice traffic and people will see you as an expert.

Goods

Reels are a universal tool when it comes to selling physical goods – you can promote any goods whatsoever. Collaborations with bloggers, in this case, also can increase the visibility of your offer. Before ordering an ad from an influencer, thoroughly research their content, read what they post about, watch their videos and comments, and find out their reach rates. You also need to understand that the influencer must share your views and values. You can choose the bloggers you can work with by using platforms such as uForce or Epicstars.

Gambling and crypto

In this case, make your video creative show the emotion of winning, but don’t overdo it. If you choose to promote with the help of reels in the gambling niche, remember the main postulate that will save your account from getting banned and give you the desired profit – you can demonstrate a luxurious life, but you can show slot machines and roulettes and anything of the sort.

Betting

Do you want to warm up the audience in this vertical? To do this, you need to become sort of a “mentor” for your followers. What does this mean for the betting vertical? You can make predictions, give some advice, share your personal experience with your followers, revealing some secrets of the vertical and at the same time demonstrating how much you could earn in this way.

The secrets of promoting reels on Instagram: what you need to know

Here’s what will help you skyrocket your reels’ reach:

• Storytelling. Embed stories in your videos through which the audience can learn more about the offer.

• Focus on immersive shooting, i.e., the one where your product is shown in 360°.

• Prioritize vertical videos over horizontal or ONLY post vertical. CPA rates of vertical videos are 48% higher than horizontal ones.

• Frame your videos correctly. It is important that the likes and comments panel does not sit over anything (especially anything important) in the frame. Such a mistake can cost you 28% of your conversions.

• 

• Pay great attention to what music you select. 80% of videos on Instagram are viewed with sound, so reel promotion directly depends on the selected soundtrack. Music in your reels should convey the mood of the video: inspire, energize, or, perhaps, relax.

• Be bold with video effects. For example, you can apply masks, filters, or change the background.

• The secrets of promoting reels on Instagram are also hidden in interactive elements. What can these be? This category includes quizzes, games, polls, or just life hacks, as well as challenges.

• 

• Motivate viewers to comment. The more responses you get, the higher your chance of being recommended.

• Create tension in the video and keep it up until the right moment. To put it simply, people should find your reels enticing.

• Voice-over creates the effect of live communication and brings you closer to the target audience. Combine voice-over with subtitles. In short, use this strategy: duplicate the main information on the screen too for those who won’t watch your reel with the sound on. But also remember that Instagram only allows no more than ⅓ of the text on the video.

• “Human” videos, i.e., those where we can see an actual person in the frame. These collect 25% more clicks than all animated or simply impersonal videos.

A working promotion strategy for Instagram reels

The winning strategy of promoting affiliate marketing offers via Instagram reels itself is never static – you have at least your own vertical and, at the most, your own offer with its own characteristics, your own budget, and goals, both short-term and long-term. Therefore, the strategy here will be more of a summary to start your work:

1. Choose a vertical and come up with the positioning of your ads via Instagram reels in accordance with the vertical.

2. If needed, use tools like Canva or influencer search sites like uForce or Epicstars

3. Take into account all the so-called secrets of successful reels from the list we gave you above and use them to the max.

4. Look at the statistics and wiggle these “secrets” if the result does not satisfy you.

Conclusion

Of course, the fact that the Meta giant is on the list of extremists in Russia made working with reels so much more difficult for residents of the Russian Federation. Users, of course, are not happy that they constantly have to connect to a VPN and wait longer for image carousels or videos to load. But, nevertheless, reels are still a great force; you can promote your offers using this format in various verticals if you just find the right approach.