Why Brands make better Carousels than Reels

We haven't pivoted to video hard enough, and it shows

Author

Jack Appleby
November 20, 2024

I still can’t believe we got a new Linkin Park album in 2024. From Zero rips, and “The Emptiness Machine” might be my song of the year (give the lyrics a read, they’re all about parasocial relationships & the social masses).

But you wanna talk about social, not emo, so let’s hit on

  • Why are brands better at Carousels than Reels?

  • The TikTok Award Nominees

  • Can storytelling save your brand?

—Jack Appleby

Brands are crushing Instagram Carousels, but might still be missing on Reels.

I saw a stat floating around yesterday.

"Single Images (188.6k avg reach) and Carousel content (149.9k avg reach) achieve greater reach than Reels (109.4k average reach) for B2B brands."

But sometimes numbers lie, and I don’t think that stat means what you think it means.

It'd be easy to think "oh wow, Carousels are beating Reels by 50%!!! And Single Images almost 2x Reels performance!!! Let's make more Images and Carousels!!!"

But this data is a reflection of the content brands are currently making, and to me, what this actually says is brands are still not very good at making video content.

Why are Brands’ Single Images & Carousels outperforming Reels?

Well, because brands are better at making Single Images & Carousels.

We're 20 years into Social Media Marketing, and most people in the industry aren't professional video creators! We had tons of success for a decade and a half with just static content. That’s allllllllll we did for a long time, because that was the only type of content supported by social channels. So we kept pumping out photos and images. And when Instagram rolled out Carousels, we were able to easily adapt our skillsets—it’s just adding more images, maybe tying a storyline to it all.

Here’s a few examples + extra reading on Instagram Carousels:

I think most brands still struggle with modern video algorithms.

I’d say that short-form vertical video is the most important content format in 2024 by far, but if we’re being honest? Brands have had a hard time cracking video, especially in the TikTok & Reels era.

We know the opportunity: organic reach. The invention of the For You Page made social media into a meritocracy for the first time. If people watch / like / comment / share the content, the algorithms feed them to more people, even ones who don’t follow you! It’s why social-first brands with an emphasis on video can see such amazing results.

But the shift towards For You feeds also means your content isn’t just shipped to your followers the way it used to be. Pre-TikTok & Reels, your brand’s content was really only going to people who already hit the follow button your brand. They’d pledged allegiance to you already. Now, your video content is being gauged by people who don’t know your brand, requiring us all to adapt our social video strategies.

The reason you don’t see much brand content in your For You Page or Reels Feed isn’t because brands are being deranked, or because some algorithm is against you—it’s because your brand’s content now needs to be more compelling than creators & other humans, and that’s just not happening enough.

Why do brands need to be good at video, though? Why not punt video entirely?

The benefits of social video content really can’t be ignored.

I mentioned the For Your feed. The fact that your brand content can now reach non-followers is incredible. When we could only reach our followers? We were doing more re-marketing than we ever admitted to ourselves—making content for customers who already loved our brands. But now, your video content puts you in the For You feeds, giving your brand a chance to pull in new customers. That significantly increases the value of your content.

Even better: the same piece of short-form vertical video content can now live on every single social platform. Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts are identical in format and delivery. LinkedIn and Twitter both support short-form vertical content. You can put a single piece of content on every social network. That’s hugeee for efficiency & effectiveness.

@reedjd_

Content can go viral on every platform

So make more Carousels, AND make better Video.

You’re a pro. You’ve conquered Carousels. So, keep making Carousels! I love a good Carousel—such a fantastic format for clean storytelling & sharing greater depths of information without boring us to sleep.

But don’t just invest in video—invest in your video strategy. Really consider why your video approach isn’t working, what you can learn from creators in your brand’s niche, which brands are winning through video, and build out a strategy that’ll get you those big numbers. Becaue really? your video content should be outperforming all other content.

Social Cues

There are so many social big thinkers out there, writing all kinds of amazing strategies, analysis, and breakdowns. All ships rise with the tide, so here are a few reads from other places I think you could learn from.

Dakota Rae Lowe is a VP of Social at Edelmann, working on brands like Hellmann’s, Degree, Dove, and eBay. More importantly for you, she’s started a newsletter about social strategy & mentorship that you need to read. My fav quote from her last issue: “we have a responsibility to create content that’s meaningful, not just part of the slop.”

I love award nominee lists as a chance to learn about creators in categories I don’t frequent. Note that this one’s specifically UK & Ireland creators, but there’s a big list of creators by industry you should click around.

We can complain about TikTok Shop screwing up our feeds all we want, but it’s clearly gonna stay, so might as well learn about the company’s strategy with big brands.