If you’re stuck in 200-view purgatory on Instagram, then get ready because I’m about to help you create your next viral Instagram reel.

Let’s talk about why your Instagram reels aren’t going viral and how you can fix it. 

If you’ve been posting consistently on Instagram, but you can’t manage to create reels that surpass 200 views, then this post is for you. Today, I’m going to help you get out of what’s commonly called the ‘200-View Jail.’

Without realizing it, you might be committing a couple of deadly Reels sins. Okay, maybe not deadly sins, but you might be making a few mistakes that are backfiring and hurting your reach. 

So today, I’m going to show you two things that you can do to create viral Instagram reels. I’m also going to be honest with you about what mistakes you’re making on your reels (aka what’s keeping you stuck under 200 views), and at the end I’ll share three moments that every video needs to have if you want to increase your chances of going viral.  

As always, if you’d prefer to watch instead of read, click the video below. And a huge thank you to Manychat because they’re the sponsor of that video.

DISCLAIMER: Links included in this post might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide, I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting me so I can continue to provide you with free content each week on my blog and on my YouTube channel!

2 Things That Help You Have Viral Instagram Reels

I want to start with the basics and build from there. These are two things that I think help any reel go viral. 

1. Viral Instagram Reels Know How to “Disrupt the Scroll”

It’s safe to say that we all know by now how important the hook of your video is. I’ve been talking about hooks on this blog and on my YouTube channel for several years now. 

But if you’re new around here, when I talk about hooks, I’m talking about those first 3 seconds of your video, those initial moments that capture a viewer’s attention and keep them watching, instead of scrolling. And in reality, this moment that you have to capture attention is getting shorter and shorter. 

Viewers are so desensitized to standard hooks and they’re going to scroll past content that they don’t immediately perceive as helpful or entertaining. Viral creators know how to use their hooks to disrupt someone’s scrolling behavior. 

How do you do this?

One way, and the way that I talk about the most, is called ‘Hook Layering.’ The reason I’m starting with this one is because I think this method has become common knowledge in the industry, so it might be review for some of you. If you’ve never heard of hook layering, I recommend watching this video from my YouTube channel next. 

Hook layering is when you simultaneously use these 3 hooks within the first 3-seconds:

• Visual hook
• Text hook
• Verbal/Audio hook

Visual Hook:

This is what’s on camera, what is being seen or shown to the viewer in your video.

Text Hook:

This is the text on screen that someone reads to capture attention or stop the scroll.

Audio Hook:

This is something audible that a viewer hears to make them want to stop.

Examples of an audio hook might be:

• Trending audio
• Trending sound fx
• A bold statement like “Stop doing this on Instagram.”
• An exclamation “Aaah!” “Ooooh my gosh” “*gasp*” *loud thud*

And an example of all of these working together could be this video (click to watch): 

These three hooks layered on top of one another increases the chances of someone watching your reel all the way through, telling Instagram it’s worth watching, which encourages the algorithm to show it to more people. 

If you can layer all 3 of those elements together in a way that captures your audience’s attention, you can have a viral reel. Again, if you want to deep dive into this concept, I recommend watching this YouTube video I created on Hook Layering. 

2. Viral Instagram Reels Spark Conversation 

Instagram pushes content that sparks conversation. That’s why you often see people’s controversial opinions going viral–because that controversy has sparked a conversation. Engagement is engagement and if your video is getting lots of it, Instagram doesn’t filter good vs. bad engagement. 

All that the algorithm sees is an active conversation happening. 

There’s a push and pull to sparking conversations on Instagram. On one hand, you need to spark the conversation and get the ball rolling and then on the other hand, you need to continue the conversation. So don’t leave people hanging once you’re gotten them talking. 

In other words, sparking conversation is you inviting people to comment down below, or giving them a reason too. Whereas continuing the conversation is when you reply to those comments, giving your post even more engagement. 

3 WAYS You can SPARK Conversation are: 

• A call to action
• Deliver EXTRA value (where someone has to comment to get the “reward”)
• Talk about a polarizing topic or opinion

Call to Action

Let’s talk about each of these. First up, our lowest hanging fruit, is simply adding a call to action to your video. This could be as simple as:

• Comment the podcast you’ve had on repeat down in the comments.
• Tag your favorite brand that you want to collab with in the comments.
• What’s the best mom advice you’ve heard, let me know in the comments.

Instead of asking a broad question like, “What do you think?”, think about a question that invites the viewer to talk about themselves. What’s their favorite thing? A lesson they’ve learned? Or their unique story?

People are much more likely to comment about themselves than they are to comment about you. 

Deliver Added Value

The next way that you can spark conversation is to deliver extra value to the viewer. For example, if they’re watching your video about your 5 favorite AI tools to help content creators, give them something at the end that they’ll get as a reward for commenting. 

So for example, I would say, “I created a free guide that has 50 AI prompts you could use to automate running your business as a content creator. Comment the word ‘guide’ and I’ll send this to you for free.” And just like that, you’ve leveled up the value that they originally came for.

Because you’re offering them something in exchange for their comment, you’re almost guaranteed way more comments on your post. This is genuinely one of my favorite things to do, not just because it helps my reels go viral, but because I love creating freebies for my audience. 

And I’m not kidding, everytime I use this value strategy where I have a DM automation on the backend, the post performs consistently better than any without a DM automation setup. 

I’m not just saying this because of bias; I have an app connected to my instagram account called Stanley. It’s an amazing tool for reading your analytics and getting content ideas, but I asked Stanley to analyze my content from the last 30 days to see what was top-performing for me. Stanley identified that my top performing posts or viral Instagram reels, have always had comment-to-DM automations set up. 

If you don’t have comment-to-DM automation set up with your content, you’re missing out wildly on such easily accessible engagement opportunities. I set up all of my automations with Manychat, which I’ve been using since 2022. 

Let’s chat Manychat

Manychat is the #1 automation platform in the world dedicated to empowering creators by equipping them with tools that streamline marketing, so that they can focus on CREATING. 

In Manychat, when I have extra value that I want to deliver to my audience, I’ll just set up a comment-to-DM automation. That way, when somebody comments a specific phrase or word, they’ll immediately be sent a link to that resource (whether it be a guide, affiliate link, youtube video, article, etc).

That’s instant gratification your followers now associate you with. 

If you don’t have a freebie or digital product to deliver, another option is to send personalized audio or videos. Yes…that’s a thing too!

 Let’s say your Reel was about listing out YouTube gear recommendations, the CTA could be “Comment SETUP” and I’ll show you my exact YouTube setup. Then when someone comments they get a message confirming they want to receive a video from you. And IN that video you can show your setup.  

Pro Tip: When adding media to your Instagram automations, it’s important to follow the platform-specific guidelines to ensure everything looks and works perfectly.

We talked before about the ‘push and pull’ of creating conversations on Instagram. Well, not only does the CTA spark comments, but Manychat will also automatically reply to those comments after they’ve sent somebody the DM-automation, ensuring more engagement on your post. This makes your job way easier because you don’t have to worry about which comments have been replied to, or which person has messaged you. You’ll never miss a connection again. 

Again, any time I have this set up on one of my pieces of content, the engagement goes through the roof. So one simple automation can turn a post into a viral snowball.

If you want to try out Manychat Pro for free for 30 days, use this link with code MODERNMILLIE, and you can start your free trial today.

So, The 3 WAYS You can SPARK Conversation are: 

• Call to action’s
• Deliver EXTRA value (where someone has to comment to get the “reward”)
• Talk about a polarizing topic or opinion

The 3rd one is where controversial opinions can work in your favor. Let’s talk about how that can help you have more viral Instagram reels.

Talk about a polarizing topic

Here’s an example of a video that I made, where my goal was to spark a conversation about how creators use AI (watch the video):

• What sort of polarizing topic can you talk about? 
• Do you have a contrarian take that could be worth sharing? 
• Do you say Recees or Receeeees? 

If I were to start a video saying something like:

• “Being a content creator is a real job.”
• “College isn’t necessary anymore.”
• “9–5 jobs aren’t secure.”

Those would spark some HUGE feelings for people, and even debate. And debate = engagement. Some topics that might drive conversation could be:

• money
• career
• relationships
• productivity
• business
• mistakes
• unpopular opinions

Not just wide topics like “your health matters.” That’s like a no-duh, but more so your unique take on widely appealing topics. Mention examples like:

• “How much money I make as a ___”
• “Why you’re anxious all the time”
• “How to lose weight in 30 days”

Just know that when you post polarizing or controversial things online, those conversations are not always going to be from people who love you. You’re going to get people commenting things like, “Go get a real job” as well. 

What You’re Probably Doing Wrong on Your Reels

In other words, now we’re going to talk about the thing that’s keeping you under 200 views. 

Why Most Reel’s Hooks Fail

Most creators start like this:

“Hey guys so today I wanted to talk about…”

Which gives people zero reason to stay.

If the first 2 seconds aren’t interesting, the Reel dies immediately.

Examples:

• “Nobody talks about this Instagram trick.” vs “Cool Instagram Tricks”
• “You’re doing IG Reels all wrong.” vs “Tips to help your Reels grow”
• “3 mistakes killing your reach on Reels.” vs “3 Common Reels Mistakes”

Visual fails:

• Standing still
• talking slowly

Audio fails:

• Millennial pause
• Breaths
• Umms and Uhhs
• No sound fx or music

Why Most Reels Fail at Sparking Conversation

Creators often avoid any opinion at all. They stay neutral…

safe…

and forgettable.

The algorithm pushes content people interact with, not content people politely watch. I get it, it can be scary to put yourself out there with your opinion because people are going to disagree with you. But, if you want to start seeing your Instagram reels go viral, this might be a strategy you try embracing. 

Why Most Reels Fail at Adding Value

Creators often make content about:

• what they did today
• random thoughts
• niche inside jokes

Content that matters to them… but not to the viewer.

While these can still go viral, it’s less likely, especially if the “random thought” lacks a good hook. Viral content solves a problem or sparks curiosity.

Testing formats helps you discover what your audience actually likes.

Why Most Reels Fail at Being Different

Creators often post the same type of video over and over. We want to see content variety. Different delivery formats perform differently.

Examples:

• talking to camera
• voiceover
• B-roll
• reaction videos
• trending audio

3 Key Moments Viral Instagram Reels Needs to Have…

Hook → Itch → Payoff

This structure is everything. And when you understand this structure, you start realizing that viral videos are rarely viral because of the topic itself. They’re viral because of how the video is crafted. 

So let’s start with the hook. We talked about Hook Layering already, this is a little beyond that. 

The Hook

Instead of asking yourself,

“What topic do I want to talk about today?”

Try asking:

“What visual moment would make someone stop scrolling?”

• Something slightly confusing.
• Something unexpected.
• Something that creates curiosity.

For example:

• Drinking soda through a licorice straw.
• Pouring a gallon of paint over your hair.
• Opening a briefcase full of $1 bills.
• Standing outside a building holding a sign that says “I have to give this away today.”

Those visuals immediately make the viewer think:

Wait… what is going on?

That moment of curiosity is what stops the scroll.

That’s the hook.

The Itch

Now comes the second moment: the itch. 

This is where you introduce a curiosity gap that makes the viewer want to stay until the end. And I don’t mean the typical YouTube line like: “Stay until the end for five tips.”

That’s not an itch. That’s just an instruction.

An itch is when you plant a question in the viewer’s brain that they think they thought of on their own, and naturally want answered.

For example:

“I didn’t realize it at the time, but walking into this place ended up changing the entire direction of my life.”

Now the viewer is thinking:

Okay… how could a bathroom stall change someone’s life?

That curiosity is the itch. And the most important thing is: you don’t scratch it right away. You let that curiosity carry the viewer through the story.

The Payoff

Which brings us to the final moment: the payoff.

The payoff is when you finally deliver the answer to the curiosity you created at the beginning. But here’s where a lot of creators get it wrong.

The payoff shouldn’t come after five minutes of filler content. It should come “at the right time.” Now there is no right time of like 30 seconds or 2 minutes.

The goal is to deliver the payoff where the viewer leaves feeling:

“Oh wow… that was actually worth watching.” and not “I watched this whole video for that?” or even worse “This is dragging, I’m not watching the rest”

That’s the goal.

Real Example (Ryan Trahan Style)

A perfect example of this structure would be something like:

Hook:

• He starts the video holding a penny and says:
• “I’m going to try to travel across the country using only this.”
• Immediately you’re curious.

Itch:

• “How far can you actually get starting with just one penny?”
• That question sits in the viewer’s brain the entire video.

Payoff:

• At the end, you finally see how far he made it and whether the challenge worked.

The whole video is built around answering that one question.

 So when you’re planning your next video, don’t start by asking: “What topic should I post about?”

Start instead by asking: “What hook would make someone stop scrolling?”

Then create the itch. And finally, deliver the payoff.  

When those three moments are done well, the entire video becomes easier to watch. Want to go viral on YouTube? Read this post next. 

Thank you so much for being here. I’ll see you in the next one! Follow your joy.