{"id":35024,"date":"2024-03-08T18:28:29","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T18:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivaliq.com\/?p=35024"},"modified":"2024-03-08T18:34:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T18:34:26","slug":"instagram-carousel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivaliq.com\/blog\/instagram-carousel\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is an Instagram Carousel? How to Create One and Why You Should"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you picture carousels, you likely envision those rotating rides with bouncing animals set to a happy soundtrack. If you\u2019re active on social media, however, you might know a carousel as something different. Since 2015, Instagram has offered a post format called a carousel that allows users to share up to 10 photos or videos in a single post, which a viewer could scroll through.<\/p>\n

Are Instagram carousels worth adding to your social media strategy? Let\u2019s get into the benefits of Instagram carousels and how you can make one yourself.<\/p>\n

Why Should You Use Instagram Carousels?<\/h2>\n

Year after year, our Social Media Industry Benchmark Report<\/a> shows us just how impactful posting carousels can be. Our 2024 report found that carousels were the type of post with the highest engagement rates for both the alcohol and higher education industries. However, carousels were still one of the most engaged-with types of posts for multiple other industries, trailing only slightly behind Reels.<\/p>\n

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\n Find out what is a good engagement rate on Instagram. <\/p>Learn more <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most successful higher education institutes in terms of engagement rate for 2023 was Drexel University<\/a>, which published 53 carousels throughout the year. While their photo posts only received an average engagement rate of 1.84%, their carousels scored 3.19%, outperforming photo posts by about 1.7x. Their top carousel by engagement rate of the year garnered 7.76%, about 4x the average engagement rate of photo posts.<\/p>\n

\"Drexel<\/p>\n

Hootsuite\u2019s research<\/a> is in line with our findings, as they found that carousels earn more than 3x the average engagement of a static photo post on Instagram. Their study also indicated that carousels outperform Reels<\/a> in terms of both engagement and reach, though our benchmark report discovered that\u2019s not always the case for every industry.<\/p>\n

Our Instagram Stories Benchmark Report<\/a> also discovered similar findings regarding carousels\u2019 ability to boost engagement. According to our research, carousels received the most significant jump in post engagement per impression of any Instagram post type between 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n

We always recommend experimenting with different content types and testing and reinvesting in what works best. While our industry benchmark report indicates that Reels shouldn\u2019t be ignored in 2024, our findings suggest that neither should carousels.<\/p>\n

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