Instagram Trial Reels help creators and brands experiment with content before going fully public. Instead of sharing a Reel directly to your followers, a Trial Reel is shown only to non-followers, allowing you to test new ideas without affecting your main profile.

Instagram Trial Reels are designed to help creators reach new audiences and measure how their content performs beyond their existing community. Our team has seen this firsthand: one of our Trial Reels went viral with over 1.4 million views. This got us 130 new followers, 8.6K profile visits, and 290 external link taps.

However, while we’ve seen strong short-term engagement, we wanted to understand whether Trial Reels actually promote sustainable brand growth, or if they simply inflate reach and view counts. To find out, we ran a 10-day Instagram Trial Reels experiment, comparing the performance of Trial Reels to standard Reels. In this article, we’ll break down:

• What Are Instagram Trial Reels?
• Do Instagram Trial Reels Work? Our Case Study
• Are Instagram Trial Reels Worth It?
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Are Instagram Trial Reels?

Instagram Trial Reels are a testing feature designed to let creators and marketers experiment with new video content. Unlike regular Reels, Trial Reels don't appear on your feed or to your followers. Instead, they let you test engagement with non-followers to gauge performance.

According to Instagram’s official guide (updated January 2025):

"Trial reels on Instagram allow creators to experiment with new ideas and get early feedback on whether their content resonates by allowing them to share reels with accounts that don’t follow them. You can later choose to share a trial reel with your followers at any time."

Posting a Trial Reel is pretty simple and follows the same basic steps as creating any Reel on Instagram:

1. Tap the Create button (the "+" icon at the bottom of the screen), and select the Reel option from the menu.
2. On the final screen before posting, scroll to the bottom of the page and toggle on the Trial option.

Approximately 24 hours after your Trial Reel is published, you'll gain access to engagement analytics. These insights are available after navigating to your grid of posted Reels and clicking on the Trial Reel, which will be labeled "Trial Reels."

Simply click on the labeled Trial Reel to open it. You’ll see some initial statistics and the option to “Share to everyone.”

Do Instagram Trial Reels Work? Our Case Study

While Instagram Trial Reels offer plenty of benefits, the key question for creators and marketers is: do Trial Reels actually work, and who are they best for? To answer this, we partnered with our social media manager, Jasmine Chen, to run a 10-day Instagram Trial Reels case study.

Jasmine brought a lot of relevant experience to the project. During her internship, she experimented extensively with Trial Reels, even producing one that went viral with over 1.3 million views.

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While these metrics were impressive, bringing in a surge of new followers, profile visits, and link taps, we questioned whether this level of success was sustainable or repeatable. Like any social media strategy, Instagram Trial Reels work best under certain conditions, and their impact can vary depending on the content and audience.

To better understand their true effectiveness, we set out to determine whether Trial Reels actually perform better than regular Reels, and to identify the specific scenarios where they deliver the most value.

The Experiment

To test whether trial reels actually work, we executed an experiment. We created two Reels, uploading each twice: once as a Trial Reel and once as a regular Reel.

We made sure to test with two different kinds of reels: trend-based and product-based. We analyzed the results five days after posting, measuring the views, likes, saves, and gained followers.

Here is the data we collected:

Reel 1

While the first trial reel received 2.3× more views than the regular reel, the engagement was similar. Both reels earned the same number of likes despite the trial’s higher reach, and the trial only gained one additional save and follower.

This means the regular reel actually performed better in engagement rate (1.6% of viewers liked compared to the trial’s 0.7%), indicating that while the trial captured attention, it didn’t translate into interaction.

Reel 2

The regular reel performed better than the trial reel in every metric. While the trial reel had 802 views and no engagement, the regular reel had 836 views, 11 likes, and 6 comments. This means 1.3% of viewers liked the reel and 0.7% commented.

Since Reel 2 is product-centered, focusing on Kapwing's mission and features, it makes sense that existing followers would engage more than non-followers. On the other hand, Reel 1 is trend-based, making it more likely to reach new audiences.

Insights and Takeaways

Overall, while our experiment highlights the value of using Instagram Trial Reels, it also shows that they’re not an all-in-one solution for driving social media traffic.

In our study, the strongest use case for Trial Reels is trend-based content. Because Trial Reels are only shown to non-followers, posting trends work to reach new audiences and boost awareness.

However, Trial Reels may not be the best strategy for driving engagement or conversion. While they can increase viewership, that visibility doesn’t always translate to audiences who are genuinely interested in your brand.

To achieve stronger engagement and conversion outcomes, it may be more effective to focus on nurturing your existing audience, who likely already align with your brand values and are more likely to take action.

Are Instagram Trial Reels Worth It?

Overall, creators and brands aiming to maximize reach, attract new audiences, or diversify their content strategy would benefit most from Instagram Trial Reels. Because this format pushes content to non-followers, it’s ideal for testing ideas and expanding brand visibility beyond your existing community.

Those who benefit most might include:

• Small creators and brands
  Since they distribute almost entirely to non-followers, they provide discovery opportunities for accounts with a smaller following.
• Creators experimenting with content formats
  Trial Reels can be a great testing tool for videos, letting creators test new content ideas without cluttering their profile.
• Brands exploring new niches or audiences
  Trial Reels help measure whether content resonates outside a brand’s established following.

That being said, trial Reels aren’t equally valuable for every creator or brand. Since Trial Reels are only shown to non-followers, accounts focused on building loyal audiences or driving conversions may find that Trial Reels aren't beneficial.
Those who may not benefit might include:

• Creators prioritizing community engagement
  Our case study showed that Trial Reels drove more reach but not necessarily more engagement.
• Brands prioritizing conversions
  Because followers don’t see them and non-followers are less likely to convert, Trial Reels work better for top-of-funnel discovery rather than conversions.

Frequently Asked Questions