Increasing views on Facebook Reels can seem challenging, but with the right strategy it is very achievable. Reels are short, entertaining videos that live on Facebook and Instagram. They auto-play as users scroll through their feeds, which makes them a powerful way to reach a large audience. With over 1 billion daily active users on Facebook alone, there is huge potential to get your reels seen. This article will provide tips and best practices to dramatically boost your Facebook Reel views.
Optimize Your Reel Before Posting
The first step is creating a compelling reel that will capture attention. Here are some key factors to optimize:
Choose Eye-Catching Visuals
Visual content is crucial for reels since they auto-play without sound when first viewed. Use bold colors, interesting textures, or exciting moments to immediately grab the viewer’s interest in the first couple seconds. This will make them curious to turn on the audio or keep watching.
Pick The Best Music Or Audio
Music or audio that complements the visuals is essential. Choose instrumental background music or sound effects that match the mood and pace of your video clip. You can also use popular songs but make sure to avoid copyright issues.
Edit For Seamless Transitions
Use transitions like zoom, swipe, spin, slide to smoothly move from one video clip to the next. This creates a professional, dynamic sequence that looks polished. Quick cuts between short video segments is the signature reels editing style.
Add Captions Or Text
Overlaying key words, phrases, or captions helps convey your message to viewers who watch without audio. Use clean, easy to read fonts that pop against the video background.
Keep It Short
Reels are intended for quick viewing so ideally make yours 15-30 seconds long. Aim for a complete story or message the viewer can grasp in that short time.
Strategically Choose Your Content
Now let’s get into the actual content ideas and themes that tend to perform well in reels.
Leverage Trends & Challenges
Popular trends like outfit changes, dance challenges, meme sounds and more get high engagement because they are current and highly shareable. Make timely trending content but give it your unique spin so it stands out.
Be Entertaining Or Educational
Funny, heartwarming, or lighthearted reels get a lot of likes and comments. But informative “how to” videos and educational content also connect with audiences. Find the right blend of entertainment and value for your niche.
Show Behind The Scenes
Give viewers insider access to your life, brand, or business to feel more connected. Candid behind the scenes footage feels authentic and exclusive.
Spotlight UGC & User Interaction
User generated content from customers and fans helps showcase community engagement. Likewise, asking viewers questions or prompts to respond boosts comments.
| Content Theme | Example Ideas |
|---|---|
| Trends & Challenges | Outfit change transitions, dance videos, trending audios |
| Entertaining / Educational | Funny bloopers, DIY tutorials, recipes |
| Behind The Scenes | Office antics, daily vlogging, brand operations |
| UGC & User Interaction | React to user comments, customer content highlights |
Optimize Your Reel Descriptions
Writing compelling reel descriptions optimized with SEO helps increase views. Here are some best practices:
Hook With An Eye-Catching First Line
Grab attention right away with a creative opening line that makes users want to watch. Ask a question, use humor, mention the payoff, or share an interesting stat.
Include Relevant Keywords
Incorporate keywords and phrases people would search related to your reel topic. This helps surface your content to interested users. But avoid keyword stuffing.
Provide Context In Captions
Give some background on what the reel is about and why viewers should watch. Add some personality to connect with your audience.
Use Strategic Hashtags
Include a mix of popular hashtags and niche hashtags tailored to your reel content to expand reach. Place hashtags at the end for readability.
Prompt Shares & Interaction
Ask viewers to like, comment, tag friends, or share to help spread your reel organically. Prompts for engagement boost overall views.
Leverage Facebook Ad Campaigns
Running paid ads to your reels is a key way to scale views dramatically through the Facebook advertising platform. Here are tips to maximize your spend:
Target Interests Aligned With Content
Create hyper-relevant audiences based on interests, behaviors and demographics likely to appreciate your reel subject matter. Avoid shotgun targetting.
Test Different Placements
Try running ads both in-stream within Reels feeds and via the Facebook News Feed. See which placement drives more cost-efficient conversions.
Experiment With Bidding Strategies
Test lowest cost bidding along with value based bidding optimized for view duration, shares, follows or other engagement metrics. Measure results.
Retarget Engaged Viewers
Create custom audiences of people who viewed past reels, shared them, or engaged to serve them more of your content.
Monitor & Optimize
Check back regularly on your campaign metrics and make changes to placements, audiences, bids & budget to continually improve cost per view.
Follow Best Practices For Distribution
How and where you share your reel out also impacts views. Use these distribution tips:
Post Frequently
The more consistently you publish new reels, the more the Facebook algorithm will show them to new users in feeds. Aim for multiple posts per week.
Share To Facebook & Instagram
Cross-promote new reels by sharing to both your Instagram and Facebook profiles and pages. Maximize reach.
Re-share Older Reels
Resurface your best performing older reels by re-sharing them to refresh engagement. New audiences may discover them.
Promote On Other Channels
Embed your reels on your website, email newsletters, YouTube and elsewhere to get added visibility.
Run IG Story Ads To Reels
Use Instagram Story ads to drive traffic to your reels tab and highlight your best videos.
Collaborate With Partners
Work with influencers, brand partners and others to co-create and cross-promote reels for wider distribution.
Leverage UGC & Influencer Marketing
Encouraging user generated content and collaborating with influencers presents another opportunity to boost Facebook Reel views. Some ideas:
Launch A Branded Hashtag Challenge
Create a branded hashtag challenge asking users and influencers to make and share their own Reels around a theme.
Share & Repost The Best UGC
Keep tabs on your hashtag, mentions and tags to find the best user generated reels to repost and amplify.
Run An Influencer Reels Takeover
Have influencers in your niche guest post Reels directly to your Facebook page for a day. Promote these collaborations.
Give Away Prizes Or Swag
Incentivize participation by offering rewards to top contributors who create stellar co-branded Reels.
Use IG Badges In Reels
Leverage Instagram badges for “Seen in Reels” to highlight UGC; “Top Fan” for loyal fans, and others.
Analyze Performance & Continuously Improve
Taking time to analyze which types of reels, captions, sounds, and promotion tactics perform best is key to guiding your strategy. Some analytics tips:
Track Views, Shares, Comments & Likes
Measure reach and engagement metrics for each reel to see what content resonates most. These signals influence the Facebook algorithm.
See Which Reels Are Reposted or Shared
A high volume of reshares indicates very engaging content. Pay attention to these organic amplification wins.
Check Audience Retention/Drop-Off
This metric shows how long viewers are staying engaged before dropping off. Longer retention means better content.
Look At Click-Through Rates
The percentage of viewers who click through from the reel to your page or profile gives helpful insight.
Review Insights Regularly
Check analytics at least weekly to spot trends and opportunities. Continuously refine your approach and improve.
Conclusion
Boosting Facebook Reel views takes strategy but yields big dividends in reach and engagement. The key is publishing compelling, entertaining and useful short form video content. Optimizing descriptions for discovery, running strategic ads, collaborating with influencers, and analyzing performance are also instrumental. With this full funnel approach, your next viral reel sensation is within reach! Consistently make and promote great Reels and watch your view counts climb.