Quick answer:
Step 1: Add hashtags in either the caption or first comment
Step 2: Create a Balanced Hashtag Strategy
Step 3: Research relevant hashtags using Instagram search and competitor analysis
Step 4: Track performance through Instagram Insights
Step 5: Implement Advanced Techniques:
- Rotate hashtags regularly.
- Leverage trending and branded hashtags strategically.
- Place hashtags in captions or first comments for optimal impact.
Instagram hashtags are the markers that tell the algorithm what your content is about and which people to show it to. Hashtags act as keywords and phrases to link topics together.
This helps you grow your audience as more people find your content as they scroll through related Instagram Reels. In fact, Instagram posts with at least one hashtag get 12.6% more engagement.⚡
Getting started with hashtags for Instagram Reels is easy, but there are a few key points to consider. Today, we’ll cover the basics and then explore advanced techniques used by the most successful content creators on Instagram to explode their audience growth. 💪
How to Add Hashtags for Instagram Reels
To add a hashtag to your Instagram Reel, use the “#” symbol followed by the keywords related to your Reel. You have two options of where to place them.
In the caption: The easiest way to add hashtags to your Instagram Reels is in the caption directly when you upload the Reel—just type it as you would for a regular post. If you forget to add hashtags when you upload the Reel, don’t worry—you can edit the Reel caption at any time.
In the comments: If you want to keep your caption simple and clutter-free, you can add the hashtags in the comments on your Reel. The algorithm will still pick up the hashtags in the comments or the caption, so it’s just what you prefer. 🧡
Be aware that captions within the Reel itself won’t work, unlike Instagram Stories. You need to place them within either the caption or the comments. 😉
Understanding the Importance of Hashtags in Instagram Reels
Hashtags are super important for any content creator wanting to grow their Instagram following. They extend the reach of your videos beyond your current audience to find more people who share the same interests. 😎
They do this by appearing in hashtag search results and trending pages, helping the algorithm organically place your videos in front of people who are likely to be interested in them. 😉
When people search for hashtags, they can be related to topics they are always interested in (hobbies) or relevant to the moment (trending topics). The right hashtags around a trending issue can help your content go viral if enough people are searching for it at the time.⚡
As hashtags naturally bring people together with shared interests, they generally foster more engagement and make building a community around a topic easier. These higher levels of interaction signal to Instagram that your videos are interesting, and they will be boosted even higher in the algorithm. If you create quality Reels and use the right hashtags, your videos will have every chance of finding a huge audience and going viral. 💪
Researching and Selecting the Best Hashtags for Your Niche
So, how do you know which hashtags to use? 🤔
Well, the first thing you need to do is define your niche. This is simply the topic your Instagram account focuses on and the audience you’re trying to build. There is a reason you created your Instagram account - you wanted to talk about something - that “something” is your niche and is the reason people follow you. 🧡
Check other related accounts and influencers to find the best hashtags in your niche. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Identify the top-performing accounts in your niche and analyze the hashtags they are using to grow their video audience. Make a list of the most popular hashtags across all the top creators, and then use only the hashtags that apply directly to your Reels. 🤝
You can go a little deeper in your research to find which of these hashtags are the most searched for. This is done by simply typing the hashtag keywords into Instagram’s search feature. This will show each term's search volume. 😉
If you want to further your analysis, you can use tools like Hashtagify.me, Later, or Display Purposes for more insights on hashtag trends, relevance, and niche-related suggestions. You can also get started immediately by testing out Submagic’s free Instagram hashtag generator.
Creating a Balanced Hashtag Strategy
When choosing your hashtags, consider that popular terms with high search volume will also have high competition. More specific terms focusing on a micro-niche will have a lower search volume and fewer people competing for that audience. Building a strategy that balances broad search terms and specific phrases is key to success on Instagram Reels. ⚡
Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, but it’s unnecessary and sometimes even harmful to meet this limit. If you have too many hashtags, your Reels can look spammy, and people won’t trust your content. Using too many hashtags may also dilute the audience you are trying to reach by confusing the algorithm with too much information. 🤔
The optimal number of hashtags to use for your Instagram Reels is between 3 and 5. Use this as a rule of thumb, but ensure that every hashtag is relevant to your niche and to the specific Reel you are attaching it to.
Here’s an example of achieving a balanced strategy for an Instagram Reel showcasing a chicken burrito recipe for an account focused on high-protein meal preparation. The post would break the hashtags into the following groups: 🧡
Popular Hashtags
#mealprep
#healthyfood
#healthyrecipes
#highprotein
#foodreels
These broad search terms highlight which niche the account focuses on as a whole. They are highly competitive terms, but they have a high search volume and, therefore the potential to bring in new viewers. 💪
Moderately Competitive Hashtags
#highproteinmeals
#mealprepmonday
#proteinrecipes
#fitmeals
#burritolovers
These are less competitive terms and more specific to the account and the specific Reel. The audience for these will be smaller, but if they are interested in the hashtags, they are more likely to engage with the content. 😎
Hyper-Specific Hashtags
#proteinburrito
#chickenburritorecipe
These are hyper-specific hashtags that describe exactly what the Reel is about. The audience for these terms will be much smaller, but if someone searches for them, they are guaranteed to be interested in your content. 🧡
Analyzing Hashtag Performance and Making Adjustments
Tracking performance, seeing what’s working, and making adjustments when needed are crucial to getting the most out of your hashtags. Many third-party tools offer in-depth analysis of your hashtag performance, but it’s best to get started with Instagram Insights.
Insights is the built-in analytics tool on the Instagram platform, so it’s free and convenient. It also offers powerful insights into the key metrics you should track on your hashtag analysis.
To be able to view Instagram Insights, you need to ensure you have a business or creator account and then follow these simple steps:
For mobile:
- Go to your profile.
- Click the hamburger menu at the top right, and tap Insights.
- Tap the metrics under the Overview section or specific content that you've shared for a more detailed breakdown.
For desktop:
- Go to your profile.
- Click View Insights.
- View metrics under the Overview section or click on specific content you've shared for a more detailed breakdown.
“From Hashtags”
This is the most valuable insight for judging the quality of your hashtags because it tells you how many times your Reel was viewed as a direct result of your hashtags. This is the number of impressions for users who discovered your Reel through hashtag searches or hashtag pages. A high number of impressions “From Hashtags” indicates your strategy is working. 🥇
Reach
While not directly related to your hashtags, the Reach metric shows how many unique accounts saw your Reel. These accounts could have found your video through any method, not just hashtags, but this is still important data to consider. Look for trends in your reach numbers and cross-reference this with any changes in your hashtags to find patterns for what is working and what isn’t.⚡
Plays
Plays is another general metric that isn’t directly related to hashtags but can be a good indication of positive or negative trends in your content. Plays differ from Reach because they show the total number of views on a video, including repeat watches.
Likes, Comments, Shares, Saves
These engagement stats can also be used to identify patterns in your content. The amount of interactions you get from your videos will depend on various factors. One of these factors will be using the right hashtags to find your target audience. 😉
When analyzing your hashtags' performance, be prepared to make changes based on what you find, but also remember to be patient. It’s good to maintain consistency with everything you do when building a social media presence, and hashtags are no different. Consider keeping your niche's broad hashtags consistent and experiment with more specific hashtags.🧡
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Hashtags
We’ve covered many best practices for optimizing your hashtags for Instagram Reels. Let’s make a clear list of things you absolutely have to avoid doing to succeed with hashtags on your Instagram videos. Here are five common mistakes to avoid:
1. Overusing Hashtags
Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, but you shouldn’t use too many in your caption as it can look messy, unprofessional, and honestly, a little desperate. Use a nice balance of hashtags, but make sure they are all absolutely relevant so you don’t dilute the message you send to the Instagram algorithm. Confidently select 8-12 relevant hashtags per Reel to look clean and professional.
2. Using Irrelevant Hashtags
Like using too many hashtags, irrelevant ones will send mixed messages to the Instagram algorithm, and you won’t be matched with your intended audience. If people find your Reels through a hashtag search but realize it is not what they wanted, they won’t just swipe past; they’ll be annoyed. This could result in negative engagement because you’ve wasted their time and angered them.
3. Ignoring Banned Hashtags
Instagram periodically bans certain hashtags for a variety of reasons. They could be considered inappropriate, spammy, or against terms and conditions, but whatever the reason, you need to be aware of them and ensure you don’t use them.
If you use them, your account risks being shadow-banned and not appearing in hashtag searches. Before you post on Instagram, check your hashtags using this free Instagram Banned Hashtag Checker.
4. Neglecting Hashtag Research
Now that we’ve discussed exactly how to conduct hashtag research and why it’s so important, there is no excuse not to do it. Without the necessary research, you are just guessing what will work, which also makes the next mistake inevitable.
5. Not Tracking Performance
If you aren’t doing any research, you can’t track your performance because you have nothing against which to benchmark your hashtags. If you do carry out proper hashtag research, remember this is not a one-time event—you need to keep tracking your performance, conducting more research, and updating your strategy to guarantee you don’t get left behind.
Advanced Hashtag Techniques for Maximizing Reach
Let’s pull back the curtain and look at some more advanced techniques the world’s top brands use to build and engage with their audiences.
Rotate Hashtags Regularly
Don’t use the same hashtags for every Reel you post. If you do, Instagram may flag you for repetitive hashtag use. You will also miss the opportunity to mix up your hashtags for different content types to reach different audiences. Have several groups of core hashtags that you rotate and change depending on the type of Reel you post.
GoPro use a series of hashtags in addition to their main #GoPro. These are all quite similar, but importantly not identical. All their hashtags remain on brand, but they have enough variation to be specific about the post and avoid being repetitive.
Ride the Trending Wave (Carefully)
Using trending hashtags can put your content in front of a massive audience excited about a topic. Because trends are fleeting, you need to get in quickly to successfully piggyback off the popularity of the moment. Remember, only try to ride trends that make sense for your brand—if it is not a natural fit, your content will feel inauthentic and turn people off.
Here we can see ASOS playing off the popularity of Squid Games and they actually created their own hashtag #fashiongames. We’ll take a little more look at branded hashtags now.
Create Community Brand Hashtags
Once you’ve built up a community, don’t be afraid to start your own hashtags to bring people together. If you have a challenge that encourages people to create their own user-generated content (UGC), give them a hashtag to share their content and enjoy what others in the community have created.
Here, Starbuck’s used their popularity to create a competition among their followers. The incentive of winning a prize encourages people to create their own content and tag the images with the Starbucks branded hashtag #RedCupContest. This helps to give Starbucks very cheap advertising and the potential to go viral on Instagram.
Strategic Placement
If you’re using the recommended 3-5 hashtags, these can look messy on your Reel caption. Add them in the first comment to hide them from view. This keeps your caption clean, tidy, and professional. They will still have the same impact on the search algorithm when they’re in the comments.
Top Hashtags for Instagram Reels
As we’ve said, your hashtags need to be specific to your niche and brand. But here are some popular Instagram hashtags for different purposes to get you thinking about options for your own posts.
- General Hashtagssome text
- #reels
- #reelsinstagram
- #instagramreels
- #reelsvideo
- #viral
- #trending
- #explore
- #instagood
- Engagement Boosting Hashtagssome text
- #fyp
- #reelitfeelit
- #viralvideos
- #trendalert
- #trendingnow
- Niche-Specific Hashtagssome text
- Fashion: #fashionreels, #styleinspo, #ootd (Outfit of the Day)
- Food: #foodie, #foodreels, #foodstagram
- Travel: #travelreels, #wanderlust, #explorepage
- Fitness: #fitnessjourney, #fitfam, #workoutmotivation
- Creative and Fun Hashtagssome text
- #funreels
- #laughoutloud
- #behindthescenes
- #transformationtuesday
- Community and Trend Hashtagssome text
- #youngcreators
- #socialchangemakers
- #digitalgeneration
Get into the Hashtag Routine
Hashtags are essential for categorizing your videos on Instagram. Research what is currently working with creators in your niche, list popular hashtags, and then rotate which hashtags you use.
Keep your captions clean, and don’t be afraid to experiment with hyper-specified keywords and trends. You need to be consistent but adaptable. Social media moves fast, and the hashtags you use today may not be the ones you use tomorrow.
Do the research, but have fun with your hashtags. When you’re authentic with your audience, you can’t go wrong. If you think a hashtag is appropriate, the chances are, they will too!
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