Do you have a Trial Reels strategy?

A non-gimmicky guide to Instagram's content testing tool.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a Reel from a brand had over 40M views just a few hours after being posted. How is that possible? When I asked the marketer behind it, they shared it had been live in Trial Reels for a few days and it was only just now being released to feed. It made me wonder how many other brands were having success with Instagram’s testing tool right now.

Trial Reels allows accounts to test video performance with non-followers. The posts are shared into feeds without showing up on the account’s grid. When it was first announced in late 2024, lots of brands immediately experimented. But from my conversations at the time, it seemed like social marketers used the feature a few times, saw middling success, and sort of forgot about it.

Not all brands ditched Trial Reels though.

Lately I’ve been hearing whispers from social marketers about how impactful the tool is when used properly. That if you put together a testing strategy, it can be an essential part of the posting process. For today’s newsletter, I talked to brands, agencies, and the platform itself to learn more about what’s working. One marketer shared with me, “We regularly see 10x to 100x differences in performance outcomes between video variations.” Another said, “What wins [in Trial Reels] shapes how we make everything else.”

Below you’ll find:

• What a Trial Reels strategy looks like

• The four types of Trial Reels tactics

• Why one agency calls the tool the “Second Chance Machine”

• Best practices that Instagram shared with me

• The reason non-follower testing is important right now

You’ll also find three post formats to try this week, @jeremyfindsai on if more platforms should adopt LinkedIn’s AI Slop button, inside The Booker Prizes’ longlist social rollout, and more.