Instagram announced that creators will be able to schedule Trial Reels, which will give users more control over their Reels experiments. The move may also help to improve reach and response.
Trial Reels, which Instagram launched December 2024, enabled creators to share their latest uploads with a selection of users who don’t follow them. This allowed creators to glean feedback on new ideas and concepts outside of their regular follower base.
According to Instagram, Trial Reels helped many creators gain more confidence about their content. In June, Instagram reported that 40% of creators who used Trial Reels ended up posting more often as a result. The introduction of Trial Reels also led to an 80% increase in Reels reach among non-followers.
Now creators will also be able to schedule when their Trial Reels are displayed to non-followers, providing another way to gather insight.
As explained by Instagram Chief Adam Mosseri: “Back in November, someone asked why can’t you schedule a Trial Reel. And so we built it, and now you can. If you’re not familiar with Trials, basically, they allow you to share a Reel not with your followers, but with people who do not follow you yet. And you can see how well it does, and if you like how it’s doing, you can upgrade it and it’ll show up for your followers but also on your profile. Now you can actually schedule them ahead of time.”
Advance scheduling could be an interesting addition to the Trial Reels process. That’s especially true considering how some creators have used Trial Reels as a growth hack of sorts, in that they can get their content in front of a broader audience in the app by only showing their Reels to people who don’t follow them. Through this, creators can also re-post their older, popular videos as Trial Reels, enabling them to get more eyeballs on their best content outside of their existing audience.
Being able to schedule Trial Reels could also ensure that they better align with regional engagement times, or match up with the best times for each creator to post, based on their IG insights.
Essentially, it gives creators more options, which can only be beneficial when conducting audience sampling.
