The Power of Instagram Carousels: Best Practice Guide

Instagram Carousels are a format within the platform that enable users to share up to ten images within a single post. Instagram Carousels could be described as visual album-style posts that stand out on users’ feeds. They have the power to capture users’ attention, get them engaged through their swiping feature, and keep followers invested in your content.

While Instagram Carousels are relatively simple to create, you should still put some thought into them before posting, particularly if you are a business that wants to heighten engagement levels. Things like captivating and consistent visuals and compelling captions all help to sustain users’ engagement and attention. Your goal should be to ensure that users swipe to the end of your Carousel and like, comment, and share it with other users.

This guide will cover the best practices for creating Instagram Carousels to take your engagement rates to the next level. Let’s get started.

The Power of Instagram Carousels

A study by Later found that Instagram Carousels have the highest average engagement rate of all feed posts. While research by Hootsuite also discovered that carousel posts get 3.1x more engagement than regular, single-image photos. This highlights and reinforces the power of the Instagram Carousel.

Social media, and Instagram in particular, is becoming a highly saturated platform. Businesses need to find new ways to capture audiences’ attention through all the noise and this is where Instagram Carousels can help. Many different studies have found that Carousels see higher engagement rates and more impressions compared to single-image posts. Instagram Carousels are engaging and visually-driven posts that help to stop users from scrolling further down their feeds. Looking to optimize your reach and engagement on Instagram? Consider leveraging the best time to post on Instagram for maximum visibility and impact.

Unlike traditional single-image posts, carousels offer a versatile platform to tell stories, showcase products, provide behind-the-scenes glimpses, and foster interactive experiences. By incorporating captivating visual content, engaging captions, and interactive elements, brands can transform their Instagram carousels into powerful storytelling tools, driving brand awareness, boosting sales, and building a loyal following.

Crafting Compelling Instagram Carousels

By understanding the main components of effective Instagram Carousels content, businesses can elevate their Instagram presence and reap the benefits of this highly engaging format. Here’s how to craft compelling Instagram carousels:

• Planning and Structuring: Like any Instagram format, it’s important to plan your content well in advance, rather than just posting ad-hoc. You’ll want to come up with a consistent posting schedule that integrates the use of Carousels. Planning your content in advance enables your business to create a Carousel that is cohesive and features an engaging narrative. A well-structured Carousel guides viewers through a journey, fostering curiosity and encouraging them to swipe through the entire sequence.
• Captivating Imagery: Like other Instagram formats, Instagram Carousels require high-quality images and videos that will resonate with users. You must ensure that your Carousels align with your overall brand image and the rest of your feed to create and foster this sense of consistency, professionalism, and authenticity. You can craft captivating imagery through a consistent colour palette and branding.
• Compelling Captions: Captions can be adopted to add context, depth, and personality to your Instagram Carousels. While visual content captures attention, captions provide the opportunity to engage audiences on a deeper level. You can enhance your captions by ensuring they are an optimum length (we recommend 2-3 lines), add personality through humour or emojis (if relevant, of course), and encouraging interaction (we recommend always adding some form of call to action e.g. “comment below!”, or get interacting with your followers by asking them a question). 

All of these elements combined will really help your business take your Instagram Carousels to the next level and help you achieve maximum engagement.

Creative Instagram Carousels Concepts

Now that you know how to craft compelling Instagram Carousels, it’s time to come up with some ideas that work for your business. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with some ideas:

• Behind-the-scenes Carousels: Give your followers an inside look at your business that they can’t find anywhere else. For example, you could showcase a step-by-step guide into the process of creating a product, packing an order, getting ready for a product photoshoot, or show. You could also use this type of Carouse to let followers have a sneak peek of your company’s culture. This type of Carousel narrative really works well for businesses of all sizes and industries.
• Before and After Carousels: Use a Carousel post to display a compelling glow-up. For example, if you’re a makeup artist, you could show a before and after shot; if you’re an accessories business, you could show an outfit before accessories then after; or if you’re a furniture/interior design business, you could show a room or space before and after. The list is endless and this is likely going to be another type of Carousel that works well with a lot of different business types.
• Countdown Carousels: Build suspense and engagement by documenting the lead up to an exciting reveal such as a new product launch, tour date announcement, store opening, and more. All of this helps to build up excitement amongst your followers which, in turn, keeps them engaged with your page and your posts.
• A Day in the Life Carousels: Business owners or team members can give their customers and followers an insight into their everyday lives. This kind of content really fosters customer-brand relationships and creates authenticity, loyalty and a sense of exclusivity. Choose key moments that encapsulate the daily experience from start to finish. It feels fun and relatable.
• Animated Infographics: Create engaging infographics using animated elements, conveying complex information in a visually appealing and easily readable format.
• Meet the Team: Create a slideshow of different team members that work in your organisation. Depending on the size of your business, you could split this into different teams. This helps to show the human side of your business and enables followers to get to know your business more. This then helps to enhance user engagement through creating customer-brand relationships and connections.

Get creative with what stories or ideas you can split into engaging slideshow narratives. Brainstorm angles and hooks that fit the Instagram Carousels format – your followers will love getting a peek behind the scenes or coming along on the journey through these dynamic posts. Make sure to adapt these concepts to your own business identity and in a way that resonates with your audience and this should really help to drive engagement on Instagram.

Other Helpful Tips

We’ve compiled a quick list of essential tips you’ll need to know before you start adding Instagram Carousels to your social media marketing strategy:

• Don’t add to many pictures – while you’ll want to encourage swiping, don’t add unnecessary photos.
• Make your first image highly engaging – ensure the colours are visually appealing, ensure there is a focus/subject within your image, add a bold statement.
• Make sure your Carousel is not information-heavy – While you can add infographics and some text, remember that Instagram is a visual platform.

Key Takeaways on Instagram Carousels 

Instagram Carousels are a really useful tool on the platform that have the proven ability to boost engagement and capture your followers’ attention. Above simply driving engagement rates, Instagram Carousels will enable your business to connect with followers in a dynamic, visual storytelling medium that users feel necessary to interact with.

The main point is to ensure you craft carousels purposefully; this involves strategic planning and scheduling to ensure primarily, consistent brand imagery, but also a compelling narrative and cohesive images/videos. 

So incorporate Carousels into your Instagram marketing strategy and watch your engagement rates ascend to the next level.

For more Instagram tips, check out our YouTube videos, like the one below: