Instagram Algorithm 2026: Key Changes & Data Insights — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] Because it seems like every few weeks, another a massive shift or that everything is different gurus actually don't do.

[00:15] data that I gathered myself, because that's basically clients, having helped clients gain over 5.3 actually convert hundreds of thousands of dollars through

[00:30] And while, to tell you the truth, the much, it actually does reward some different drivers cliff recently, chances are you might be still

[00:44] have a GPS. Who remembers still driving the car with maps? Now, essentially when I broke this data down,

[00:57] slight changes that are very important for you room right here, reels or carousels, right? the most important thing right now.

[01:12] If we take a look at the data, bit, right? six months ago when we suddenly had creators

[01:26] single carousels with some of our strategies. to 2024, things are pointing in a totally Now it's important that you understand it's not

[01:40] It's just that Instagram kind of stopped rewarding sort of surface level, boring attention content. broad and stuff like this.

[01:54] a game of actual content depth, which is So reels, generally speaking, still drive by far gonna make it big in terms of building

[02:08] But actually, and here's an interesting thing, carousels Average likes of carousels are around two times

[02:20] And saves, and that's even more interesting, are carousels than compared to reels, which shows me deep engagement and to actually build and solidify

[02:35] Now here's the really important thing though. The thing that I actually see is, looking a massive gap right now currently for carousels

[02:51] So there's a big opportunity for carousels to What are the best practices for carousels? So you can actually create more without wasting

[03:04] here, we can see something very interesting, something Because usually gurus, they're like, well, you need afterwards, you're not gonna get as many likes

[03:18] But, I didn't expect this too. more than 30,000 posts, we don't really There is a slight uptrend with actually longer

[03:33] I did not expect because people are like, But if we kind of look, because it gets skewed sometimes, but if we look, it's

[03:47] So whether you have a carousel with three or with 20, it's roughly the same. grain of salt right here.

[03:59] slides and stuff like this are actually pretty Point being, and this is the main point the past year or so, if you can

[04:12] quality content, whether it's a carousel, even stories, reels, you're gonna win as simple as that. the time, which is how often should you

[04:28] And surprisingly, there are also some changes to optimal reels length, right?

[04:40] So first of all, under 10% reels, 10% reels have actually dropped compared to don't have it rendered here, but it's around

[04:55] So really short videos don't really do it But, and here's the interesting thing, we can for reels lengths and this is also very

[05:07] similar than how it was before, between 11 between 60 and actually 90 seconds or 60

[05:19] In between, yeah, obviously if you can hold it, but here we can kind of see The one that just start out and the

[05:33] shorter content or create good short content. attention for a minute or two. Let's not even talk about this right here.

[05:46] We can just see the only thing you If that is a 10 second reel, still How can you actually figure that out?

[06:00] Take a look at your average watch time, And then basically reverse engineer and try to Because that's another thing we see again and

[06:14] This time it's even more clearly pronounced. for longer videos, right? there more than 60 seconds or actually more

[06:26] So if you can do it, if you you personally do if you join the mentorship, gonna be way above everyone else just because

[06:41] And yeah, it's essentially easier. How many times should you post a week? Instagram usually says you need to post around

[06:54] span of a while because otherwise you're not But the data that I actually found kind For the first time, we can clearly see

[07:09] What you actually need is consistency and not Three to four strong reels a week, totally outperform seven or more, basically daily posting, both

[07:23] After that, basically after seven a week, it's much content, whatever. feel like is an actual algorithm change right

[07:35] platform that rewards blindly posting more, right? long as possible, as we can see in Instagram confirmed that recently by saying, yeah, watch

[07:49] this posting frequency data was that, for example, algorithm will essentially forget you.

[08:01] once a week all throughout eternity, basically, seems And the algorithm doesn't forget you if you

[08:13] angle anymore. There clearly seems to have been a change If you look at that graph, for example,

[08:26] Yeah, basically it's a flat line showing that Actually, they don't matter anymore. Last year, we could clearly see some sort

[08:41] a bit below 10. it's just whatever, right? they're basically just random, really good viral videos

[08:53] So disregard them, but overall it's a flat But, and that's important, that doesn't mean that There's actually one small, powerful way to use

[09:07] And I actually made a full guide on way more traction on Instagram, especially with SEO, below, totally for free.

[09:19] So yeah, next big interesting insight revolves around which is interesting, because they are really, really So for reels, it's interesting.

[09:32] this is kind of gone down, shorter captions For carousels, it's actually the opposite. Now here's the thing about captions and basically

[09:46] and say, okay, I have 10 words in sentence because Dominic said 10 words are important Obviously that's not how it works, but we

[10:02] or if you have actual good long captions, Instead, think of them as basically a second There's a way to actually structure captions that

[10:19] We just had a session, the mentorship talking in the swipe through mode. So once they're done, they're like, oh, I

[10:32] So naturally longer captions tend to help out Now let's talk about the other elephant in time, which is the perfect posting time, right?

[10:46] who have like these overlays where they say, But one thing I don't understand why they, comments.

[10:59] were from. Some people are saying, it's always 11 a audience is in Europe, for example?

[11:12] about posting times, take a look at yourself, As you can see, the top performing reels clock.

[11:26] to identify your best posting time, right? of your concerns. with some clients is that views and basically

[11:40] get going, right? three to four weeks even until the algorithm The shelf life of reels especially is getting

[11:56] you post does not really matter because at time for it, right? In that case, subscribe to this channel right

[12:10] But don't worry about posting times too much. nailing your hooks because that's another data point and reels, also carousels and just creating, let's

[12:27] skip rate and stuff like this will completely to views to actually revenue through your content. session in my mentorship walking over exactly how

[12:43] get you to blow up or to break And this video right there is gonna show 10 times better.