What works on Instagram, with receipts.
I collect every Instagram growth tip from creator videos and keep the ones at least two creators agree on. Each tip links to the second it is said. Where they disagree, you get both sides.
- 24 tips
- 11 videos
- 8 creators
- 322 tips screened
- Updated 2026-10-20
Three labels per tip.
Creators
How many different creators say it. Two videos from the same creator count once.
Evidence
Numbers shown: analytics or screenshots in the video. From experience: their own account, no data shown. Claim: no basis given.
In use, Testing
Tips I run on @MrB2Beast right now, or test there as an experiment.
24 tips, strongest first.
- 01
Spend your effort on the first two to three seconds
The hook decides your skip rate. Ash Harris saw up to 16x more views from a different 2 to 3 second hook on the same video; one hook was the gap between 5,000 and 140,000 views. Build Your Tribe and Brendan Jowett put the hook first too.
“the hook alone was the difference between 5,000 views and 140,000 views”
- 02
Borrow the idea, rewrite the post
Study why a post worked, then make it yours with a new hook and body. Digital Income Project gave Claude the most viral scripts in their niche, asked for new variations, and got a video past 200,000 views with under 2,000 followers.
“you're also seeing the idea behind it, which I think is more important”
- 03
You can stay faceless and still use your own voice
For voiceovers, pick an AI voice like ElevenLabs, which BerkanViral calls very cheap, or just record yourself. Your voice works without showing your face: Digital Income Project ran a faceless YouTube channel to over 10 million views.
“if you didn't want to use Eleven Labs, you could just record yourself”
- 04
Watch shares first, and aim for 4 percent
Shares drive virality more than any other stat. Digital Income Project puts the average at about 2 percent of viewers and treats 4 percent or more as the trigger; viral posts land at 5 to 10. Build Your Tribe agrees: share rate separates great from viral.
“Reshares is probably the most important stat for viral content”
- 05
Set your design system before the first post
Fix fonts, colors, logo and, if you use one, a mascot before you produce anything, and fit them to your audience. Digital Income Project has Claude lock a palette and font direction first. Jay E (RoboNuggets) builds the system in Claude Design.
“you need to have your fonts, your background color, your colors, your logo”
- 06
A/B test two trial reels, post the winner fresh
Ash Harris posts two trial versions and puts the better one on his grid as a new post. In one test, listing the tools first doubled the other version; on his grid it reached 140,000 views. Brendan Jowett promotes his best trials the same way.
“I posted two trial reels to AB test which would perform better”
- 07
Test every new concept as a trial reel first
Trial reels reach non-followers first, so use them as a test bench with several hooks. Ash Harris ran ABCD tests on 27 of his 97 posting days, and his grid only ever sees the winners. Brendan Jowett tests hooks and editing styles the same way.
“Your grid only ever sees the winners”
- 08
Test a different background color
A simple variant: black background to white, or dark mode to light. Ash Harris tested the same post with a white background and got 40,000 views against 4,000. Brendan Jowett keeps the editing style and changes small things like this.
“switching the color from black to white”
- 09
Add a comment CTA with a lead magnet
Offer something useful and ask people to comment to get it. 81 of Ash Harris's last 100 posts did this and averaged 13x the views and over 180x the comments of the rest. Brendan Jowett closes reels with "comment photo and I'll send you the link".
“comment CTAs with a lead magnet because it's just going to up to 200x”
- 10
DM the link automatically when someone comments a keyword
Set up an automation that sends your link by DM whenever someone comments a chosen keyword. Digital Income Project used "star" on a client carousel that reached 66,000 views and 1,200 saves. Brendan Jowett runs the same setup on his reels.
“build out a DM automation that automatically DMs people every time they comment”
- 11
Treat your first 15 to 20 posts as practice
Almost nobody sees your first posts, so stop polishing them. Eden calls the first 15 to 20 practice. Digital Income Project's first upload got about 400 views, and it took 17 uploads before one broke through. Keep shipping.
“is not worry about their first 15 to 20 posts”
- 12
Say what you do in the bio, but don't sell there
Your bio should say what you do and who you help. Skip the hard pitch in bio, highlights and pins. heyDominik's point: people hate obvious sales posts, and a small account has to look like a real person before it asks for anything.
“it's wise to include what you do and what you can help people with”
- 13
Lean on Reels when you want followers
Reels bring most of the reach and most of the new followers. Eden sees far more follower growth from Reels than from single images, and Digital Income Project says most of their views came from Reels as well.
“I feel like reels lead to a lot more follower growth”
- 14
Add carousels for likes, shares and comments
Carousels give people more to do: swipe, like a single slide, share it to their story. Ash Harris posted five of them next to his Reels and got 140,000 views, over 600 followers and around 650 comments per carousel.
“Carousels can get spread more simply because people can swipe”
- 15
Keep a swipe file of posts and designs that work
Save strong posts and designs with a short note on why they work. Eden calls it an idea museum. Jay E (RoboNuggets) pulls references from Dribbble, Awwwards and X into one library that Claude can read before it builds anything new.
“I want you to build an idea museum”
- 16
Scan your niche once a day for small-account breakouts
Once a day, look for posts in your niche that beat the account's usual numbers, especially from small accounts. Eden does it every morning. Brendan Jowett has a system that checks X daily for viral posts in his space. Save the good ones as ideas.
“breakouts as smaller accounts that are doing really well”
- 17
Don't ship the default Claude look
Carousels and animations in Claude's default style are easy to spot, and Eden says everyone can tell. Jay E (RoboNuggets) runs every build through his own design system so the result doesn't look like vibe-coded AI design.
“even some Claude skills can create carousels now, even though everyone can tell”
- 18
Design in 4:5 portrait, not square
Set your post frame to 1200 x 1500 (4:5). Digital Income Project recommends 3:4 or 4:5 and advises against square. For carousels, Eden duplicates the frame and only swaps the text, which keeps every slide consistent and fast to make.
“I just duplicate that and I add the text inside of here”
- 19
Take the opposite side of what your niche repeats
When everyone in your niche says the same thing, argue the other side from your own experience. heyDominik's trick: look for posts you disagree with. People love to hear something different, and Eden goes contrarian on purpose.
“then take the contrarian approach”
- 20
Post consistently and make each post better than the last
Don't bet on one viral hit. Eden says what matters is writing good content and posting it consistently. Digital Income Project puts it even shorter: show up every day and post something that's better than the last one.
“is that you're posting consistently”
- 21
Write your bio as one line for your ideal follower
One short sentence: who it's for, the problem, the result. heyDominik's example is "I help busy moms beat the 3:00 p.m. energy crash." It names a real problem, so the right visitor knows to follow. Digital Income Project says the same.
“write a short bio that speaks directly to”
- 22
Post at least three times a week to your grid
Ash Harris does at least three grid posts a week on top of his trial reels. heyDominik sets the same floor for a 30 day push: pick three or four posts a week and hold it.
“make sure you're doing at least three grid posts a week”
- 23
Check your insights after every post
Open insights after each post and see what actually worked. Digital Income Project checks every carousel this way. Ash Harris has Claude audit his channel data to surface patterns he'd miss, then he builds more of the formats that win.
“some other thing that Claude is going to surface for you”
- 24
Post more carousels while few accounts do
Build Your Tribe found carousels did 89 percent better over 90 days, averaging 1.9x the views of Reels. The reason is supply and demand: fewer accounts post them, and nobody needs sound on. Digital Income Project sees the same gap.
“that's created a gap in the market for people uploading carousels”
Where they disagree.
Same platform, opposite advice. I keep both sides instead of picking one for you.
- vs
Lean on Reels when you want followers
Reels bring most of the reach and most of the new followers. Eden sees far more follower growth from Reels than from single images, and Digital Income Project says most of their views came from Reels as well.
Post more carousels while few accounts do
Build Your Tribe found carousels did 89 percent better over 90 days, averaging 1.9x the views of Reels. The reason is supply and demand: fewer accounts post them, and nobody needs sound on. Digital Income Project sees the same gap.
- vs
Start posting before your profile is perfect
Profile picture and bio can wait. Eden puts profile setup last on purpose: fiddling with it keeps you from posting, and early on posting is the only thing that moves the account.
Make your profile clear in two seconds
New visitors decide in about two seconds whether your account is for them, says heyDominik. They read the bio, glance at highlights and scan the first nine posts. Build those three so the answer is obvious.
- vs
Treat AI copy as a first draft, never the post
Eden's rule: AI output is a prototype, not the post. Don't accept the default version. Rewrite it until it sounds like you, because readers spot the default tone fast and it's your voice they follow.
Let the agent write captions and post without review
Brendan Jowett goes all the way: his agent writes its own captions and posts Reels right away, with no approval step. It removes the bottleneck, but nobody checks tone or facts before a post goes live.
- vs
Repost grid winners as trial reels
Ash Harris takes Reels that did well on his grid and reposts the exact same file as a trial reel. Trial reels go to non-followers first, so a proven post gets a second shot at people who haven't seen it.
Instagram now flags duplicate trial reels
Build Your Tribe reports that Instagram is cracking down on trial reels that repeat the same video. If you recycle content, watch your trial reel views. A drop compared to before is the sign your reposts are being held back.
- vs
Test a winner four or five times with new hooks
Don't repost a grid winner as a trial just once. Ash Harris runs it four or five times, each with a different hook and different on-screen text, to find the opening that pulls the most views.
New text on the same B-roll now counts as a duplicate
Build Your Tribe says swapping only the overlay text on the same footage no longer counts as a new reel. Each trial needs a real change from the last one: different footage, structure or angle, not just new words on top.
- vs
Swap only the text hook on the same base video
The cheapest variant: keep the base video and change only the text hook on top. Ash Harris uses new text on the same base layer as one of his standard test types for trial reels.
New text on the same B-roll now counts as a duplicate
Build Your Tribe says swapping only the overlay text on the same footage no longer counts as a new reel. Each trial needs a real change from the last one: different footage, structure or angle, not just new words on top.
- vs
Record the talking parts yourself
Brendan Jowett automates most of his Reels pipeline but still films the speaking parts himself with a real camera. Talking AI avatars are not quite there yet, he says, and his own footage simply performed better.
An AI persona can be the face of a niche account
Digital Income Project built an AI influencer as the recurring face of a niche account instead of a real person and reached 10,000 followers in 30 days from 41 uploads. Instagram now labels more content as AI, so be open about it.
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I keep adding videos and testing the strongest tips on Instagram. The newsletter gets what worked and what didn't, with the numbers.
How this list is made.
Every tip comes from a YouTube video about growing on Instagram. A tip makes the list when at least two different creators say it, and the list is sorted by that count. Tool prices, upload hacks and tricks to dodge duplicate detection stay out.
Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript at the linked second and stay under 15 words. Everything else is rewritten in my words, so watch the videos for the full context.
Not affiliated with any of the creators. Their videos are worth your time.