Why You Should Use Instagram Reels to Promote your Podcast

If you’re venturing into podcast creation or you’re already in it and you’re looking for ways to promote it, you might have heard of Instagram Reels. Instagram Reels seem to be created in response to TikTok to maximise its growth.  Oh how everyone wants a part of that TikTok audience.

Instagram Reels allows content creators to upload videos between 15 seconds and 30 seconds, and they can use popular music from the built-in music library. 

With that, Reels is something worth exploring and here are some of the best reasons you should promote on Instagram Reels: 

Reach Your Target Demographic

Instagram Reels will let you reach the Instagram user base, which has a slightly different audience compared to other platforms. If your target demographic is between 25 and 34 years old, then Instagram is the best platform to be in and promote your podcast (though users on the site sit broadly within the 18-44 age range).

More Focus on Reels 

Instagram themselves declared that ‘Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app‘ and are pouring reseources into film. You probably have noticed that small movie-clapper in the middle on your main navigation bar at the bottom of your Instagram homepage; that is the button that will take you directly to the Reels feed. This only shows that the platform is focusing more on Reels, which means it’s the perfect time to take advantage of it. This is also a guarantee that Reels will continue to evolve and eventually, it could probably be monetised. Get in early, and it is still early days for Reels, and grow an audience now.

More Permanent Content

When you create promotional videos for your podcast, you take a lot of time and effort. Sharing it on Instagram Reels is great because it makes it permanent, unlike Instagram Stories. You can guarantee that the video will stick around and bring you more audience in the future. Also you can repurpose that video for TikTok, Facebook Stories, YouTube Shorts…

Target Reels Watches with Facebook Ads

You can retarget audiences from people who watched your Instagram Reels, which is excellent even though Reels isn’t monetised yet by Facebook. You can create Custom Audiences to retarget and use the power of a Lookalike audience to find more people who are similar to your Reels watchers. You can then serve your ads to these audiences. 

An Instagram Reels Primer

Now that you know the reasons you should promote your podcast on Instagram Reels, how do you do it? Here are some tips: 

• Grab funny/interesting/shocking/intriguing clips from your show.
• Create an engaging and concise title that describes what the clip is about. 
• Use the cover image of your podcast. 
• Make sure to add subtitles to your video to encourage users to engage with you. Subtitles serve as an anchor for your audience to stay in the moment and pay attention to what you’re talking about. Additionally, it can help non-native speakers understand what you’re saying. 
• Use a vertical template. If you’re using a pre-made template, choose a pre-built vertical template. In case you’re designing from scratch, choose the project dimension before you get started. Instagram Reels must be 1,080 pixels x 1,920 pixels, or 9:16 aspect ratio.
• Edit the text and replace the logo and podcast cover in the template and trim the clip. 
• Share your podcast clips with your audience. 

We love inVideo for its simplicity in making Reels and recommending trending music (affiliate link).

Conclusion

Instagram Reels is an effective way to reach a wider audience for your podcast. Use this to your advantage, and you will likely get more audience and receive more recognition for your podcast. 

Grow your podcast! Coaching for Geeks can teach you ways on how to get more podcast listeners. We will help you level up. Work with us today!