Instagram Algorithm Shift: 5 Niches to Avoid & 3 to Win — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] If you are running an Instagram page and most of your content is reposted, your page has about 60 days to list. I run over 30 Instagram pages with over 50 million followers combined. And in the last 90 days, I've literally seen the algorithm quietly bury every account that is reposting content right now.

[00:15] The same pages that were exploding in 2024 are now stuck at the same view count every single week. Meanwhile, the pages that are creating original content are growing faster than anything that I've seen in years. I'm going to show you exactly why this happened, the 5 niches that cannot survive what's coming,

[00:29] and the best niches you should head into right now if you want to make a lot of money. And I know the number one diet niche is going to piss off half of the people watching this, so make sure to stick around for that. Real quick, before we get into it, Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram,

[00:41] has been saying for over a year that they're prioritizing original content. Most people heard him and ignored it and kept doing the same thing, reposting content and just reparking other people's content. And what I'm seeing across my own pages is totally clear. Original content is running and reposting is dying.

[00:55] This right now really is the moment to make a change. Because the people that will figure this out in the next 60 days will look like geniuses in 12 months from now. Here's what's actually happening right now. Instagram's algorithm does three things automatically. It detects what amongst from TikTok and Pinterest,

[01:08] it sends audio fingerprint against copyrighted catalog, and it tracks how often your content appears elsewhere on the internet. And if any of those flags trip, your reach will drop. And we're talking about a 50 to 70% decrease.

[01:20] You're not a shadow band, your content just slowly gets pushed out of the feed of your followers. I pulled up the insights from one of her pages this morning, and over 80% of the reach came from people who didn't follow me yet. That page only runs on original content.

[01:32] The page is still running reposts in our portfolio, they are literally getting around 20% reach from non-followers. It's the same content type, but just different originality, and that's where the massive gap is right now. If you want to grow on Instagram in 2026, the mob is simple.

[01:45] The content has to be yours, and that's why picking your niche is super important right now. Because some niches simply make originality impossible, and here are the 5 niches to avoid. Counting down from 5 to 0 and the worst one is gonna be at number 1 and I know that this is gonna piss off some people Number 5 is repost creator content Hey guys I take another creator video slap that logo on it and simply repost it The algorithm sees the watermark the aria fingerprint the visual pattern it just simply

[02:09] knows. And worse, even if you actually have permission to repost the content, people still can pretend to be the original owner and file copyright strikes against you. So avoid doing this at all costs. And also if you're constantly reposting content, you're not building a signature content stack

[02:23] so that makes it literally impossible to build a brand and properly monetize it later down later down the line. Number 4. Movie and TV click pages. Companies like Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, they have entire teams whose only job is fighting

[02:36] DMCA strikes on Instagram. I've seen pages go from 0 to hundreds of thousands of followers and get white tiles in a single day. I know it's very easy to grow in that niche but you simply don't have the right to the footage so don't try to do it for a quick cashback because in the end your page probably

[02:50] won't stay up for long. Real quick, if you're sitting here thinking, okay but which news is actually right for That's literally what I do with my one-on-one clients. Niche selection is the first thing that we work on. So if you want my help building your own Instagram business, the link is in the description.

[03:03] Back to the list. Number three, sports highlights pages. Again, it's the same as with the movies and TV clips. The Premier League, NBA, NFL, F1, they all have full legal teams hunting down highlight pages. Again, you might hit hundreds of thousands of followers in one,

[03:17] but one strikes from later and your page is down. Besides that, sports highlights always have watermarks on them. They're posted on different platforms, different Instagram pages. but when it comes to the views, it will also be a lot lower than it used to be. So definitely something I recommend not going into in 2026.

[03:31] Number 2. Music, Song and Lyrics Pages. This used to be a big trend back in the day. But again, Universal, Sony, Warner Bros, they all have legal teams firing thousands of DMCA strikes every single week.

[03:43] They have an auto detection system, so you literally have no chance of actually using their content and rolling your page. Lyric and music pages used to be insane to run, but right now they're getting wiped out everywhere. Label simply decided that the request game is over.

[03:55] So in my opinion, it's dead and you just gotta move on. Alright tip number one which you should absolutely avoid at all costs is fully AI generated content This is gonna piss off half of all the faceless YouTube gurus but I have to say it If you are running a page where AI does literally everything generate the images write the captions even post it for you your reach is going to die

[04:16] Not because AI is bad, but because Instagram knows the difference between AI assisted content and AI generated stuff. AI assisted means you have a strategy, you pick the niche, you have a voice,

[04:28] You simply give AI direction and the output still reflects you. AI generated slop is just a script that kicks off. It generates 50 posts, schedules it for you and you simply don't even touch it. And the algorithm simply sees this pattern.

[04:40] In my opinion, fully AI generated content is always worse than AI assisted content, especially when it comes to the quality. Because AI can never do research like us and kind of get that feeling of knowing what works

[04:52] and knowing what good content is. Maybe in the future it will, right now it's not at that point yet. So please, don't stall the page and let AI do everything. Of course, use the tools available but put them together and make sure your page still reflects you.

[05:05] Otherwise you're simply going to get deprioritized, you're not going to go any followers and you're going to wonder what's happening. Right now I use AI on every single page that I run. But every post still has me and my brand voice behind it. It's still my niche, my strategy and my voice.

[05:18] And that's the difference between a tool and fully replacing yourself with AI. The Pure AI stuff had a moment in 2025 for a couple months, but right now it's dead. So, where should we be going right now? In my opinion, the absolute best niche is AI tech and business news.

[05:32] Because you're not reposting anyone's content. You're taking public information and you put it in your own format and design. MyPageExecutes does exactly this and it gained over 100,000 followers in the last 30 days. And right now it's actually growing over 5,000 followers a day.

[05:46] Almost nobody else is running this niche at scale, so it's a wide open range. Winning niche number two is original post pages. Instead of just reposting Pinterest quotes, you actually write and design your own quotes. Now obviously you don't have to be some philosopher in order to come up with your own quotes,

[06:00] you can still take inspiration from others of course, but just make sure it's slightly different. And you actually be amazed how few aesthetic quote pages actually write and design their own quotes Most pages you simply recycle the viral quotes that have been around for 10 years already But the ones that are actually writing and designing their own quotes they really growing

[06:17] fast right now. One of my pages where I put simple blackout quotes actually reaches over 30 million people a month and gains over a thousand followers a day at the moment. So that shows that you don't have to be super creative or be super good with designing, that you just gotta give it your own twist. And finally, winning niche number three is

[06:32] educational and how-to content. This doesn't have to be related to a specific topic. As long as you know something well, your knowledge is original content. This could be the face of a friend talking about specific business skills, or diet tips, or dating advice. There's

[06:46] an unlimited amount of material, but the catch is that you actually need to know what you're talking about, because otherwise you're going to get caught in the comment spot. Alright, so here are the three rules for any new page on Instagram in 2026. First of all,

[06:58] the content shouldn't exist on the internet before you post it. You can still retweet viral ids but the content needs to be yours and unique. Number two, your voice or perspective is in every single post. This is very underrated when it comes to Facebook brands but it's essential especially

[07:13] if you want to monetize later down the line and have a very engaged audience. Number three, music and b-rolls. Music comes from royalty-free libraries with proper licensing. So for music you can obviously use the Instagram app, they have most of the sounds available so I would go with

[07:26] of that and for b-rolls you can use tools like artlist or storybox. Just make sure you're following those three rules and you're fully aligned with where Instagram is going right now. Just to quickly summarize before I end this video, five niches to avoid are reposted created content,

[07:39] movie and video clips, force highlights, music and lyrics pages and fully AI generated slots. And the three to step into are AI, tech and business news, original quote pages and educational how-to content. If you want me to help you set up your own Instagram business and help you pick

[07:53] niche that actually fits your skills and will print money in the new algorithm, the link is in the description. I take on a small selection of people every single month and a niche selection is when we start. Here's the truth, 12 months from now half of the people watching this will still be

[08:05] reposting content and wondering why they reached out. Take which half you're in. Subscribe if you want me to keep showing you exactly what's working on Instagram. See you in the next one. Bye-bye.