Instagram has introduced a groundbreaking feature called Instagram Trial Reels, allowing creators to experiment with content by testing it on a non-following audience. This innovative tool helps creators evaluate the potential success of their drafts before publishing and has rapidly gained popularity in 2025.

Trial Reels provide creators with quick insights into video performance, making it easier to identify which content styles resonate with specific audiences. Currently, the feature is available to Professional accounts and a limited number of Personal accounts, but it’s expected to roll out to more users soon.

Stay ahead of the competition and start preparing now by learning how to use Instagram Trial Reels effectively.

What are Instagram Trial Reels?

Instagram Trial Reels are perfect for content creators and marketers who are new to video creation or exploring different content styles. The feature minimizes the risk of sharing content publicly by allowing creators to test ideas privately. If a Trial Reel doesn’t achieve the desired engagement, it can be removed without ever surfacing to followers.

As Instagram describes in its official guide, updated in 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."

How to Use Instagram Trial Reels

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

1) Create a New Reel

From the Instagram home page, tap the Create option, represented by the "+" icon at the bottom of the screen.

Then, select the Reel option from the menu. You can either film and edit directly within Instagram or upload a pre-edited video.

Pro Tip: While Instagram offers basic editing tools, uploading a pre-edited video can save time and enhance your content. Free video editors like Kapwing provide advanced features such as:

• Saved Brand Colors: Maintain consistent branding across your content using a brand kit.
• Custom Resizing: Quickly resize your video for Instagram, TikTok, and other social media channels to make repurposing content effortless.
• Extensive Templates: Quickly create professional-quality content with a variety of free customizable templates.

Using an editor like Kapwing ensures that your Trial Reels are polished and ready to impress both new audiences and followers.

2) Enable the Trial Reel Setting

At the final screen before hitting 'Share":

1. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
2. Toggle the Trial option to enable the Trial Reel feature, allowing your Reel to be shared with accounts that don’t follow you.

You can also decide whether Instagram should automatically share your Trial Reel with your followers if it performs well:

• Enable the "Share to everyone automatically" option to allow Instagram to make the Reel public to your followers based on its engagement during the 72-hour trial period.
• Disable this option if you prefer to decide manually whether to publish the Reel to your followers.

Once a Trial Reel is published to your followers, it will appear on your profile grid like any other Reel.

3) Review Analytics

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."

But don’t worry — just because the Reel appears alongside your publicly posted Reels doesn’t mean it has been published.

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

For a deeper look at its performance, select “View more insights” for detailed analytics.

The full insights provide a starting point for evaluating how well your content resonates with a new audience and deciding whether to share it with your followers. However, the analytics are relatively basic and lack tools for comparing performance to previous Reels.

Available insights include:

• Views
• Likes
• Saves
• Comments
• Shares
• Watch Time and Average Watch Time
• Interactions
• Profile Activity

While these metrics are helpful, they offer limited value on their own. To gain a deeper understanding of your Trial Reel's performance, use Instagram's Insight Studio to compare it with prior content. This approach allows you to determine whether the statistics indicate an underperforming or standout Reel.

Kapwing Case Study Findings

In the example provided above, understanding the true performance of the Trial Reel proved challenging without manually comparing it to prior content using Instagram Insight Studio.

Initially, metrics like 137 views and a 12-second watch time seemed promising because recent Instagram posts typically achieved around 10 likes and 1-2 comments. However, this comparison wasn't directly relevant to Reels, as Reels were posted sporadically, leaving no consistent benchmark for performance.

An "average comparison score" feature for Reels would significantly enhance the tool’s value by streamlining this analysis.

Relying solely on this tool for every posting decision may be difficult, as there are often nuanced factors contributing to a Reel's poor performance beyond the data presented by a Trial Reel.

To maximize the tool’s potential, one approach could involve A/B testing. For example, if my social media team was committed to the topic in our poor-performing Trial Reel, I could edit and repost the Trial Reel multiple times with different variations. This method would allow us to identify the strongest version of the content to share, offering a more data-driven approach than a binary "post or don’t post" decision.

Pros and Cons of Using Instagram Trial Reels

Depending on your content goals, creating a Trial Reel might or might not be the best choice. Let’s explore the trade-offs in more detail.

Pros of Instagram Trial Reels

• Safe Space for Content Testing: Trial Reels provide a low-risk way to test creative ideas or unconventional content styles without the pressure of immediately sharing them with your followers. This is arguably the best use case for Trial Reels as insight data is limited.
• Audience Insights: Analytics data enables users to compare their Trial Reel performance with public Reels by examining metrics such as views, watch time, and more. However, this comparison must be done manually, as the tool does not provide automatic benchmarking.
• Controlled Visibility: Users may feel a greater sense of control over their profile content by utilizing Trial Reel. With the simple push of a button, the Reel can be published, making the process both flexible and convenient.

Cons of Instagram Trial Reels

• Engagement Statistics May Not Reflect Followers: Since Trial Reels are shown to a different audience, their performance might not accurately predict how followers would respond.
• Limited Availability: Currently, Trial Reels are only available to professional accounts and select personal accounts. However, Instagram plans to expand availability in early 2025.
• Algorithm-Based Success: The automatic sharing feature relies on Instagram’s algorithm to determine success, which may not always align with a creator’s goals or expectations.
• Potential Over-Optimization: Focusing too heavily on improving engagement metrics could detract from creating authentic, engaging content that resonates with followers.
• Manual Comparisons Necessary: Trial Reel insights provide valuable data for gauging initial performance and audience engagement. However, to fully understand how your content stacks up, users need to manually compare the Trial Reel's performance with their public Reels, as the tool doesn’t offer automatic comparisons.

How to Create a Professional Instagram Account

Instagram categorizes accounts as either "professional" or "personal." Professional accounts are designed for businesses and content creators, offering exclusive tools and features unavailable to personal accounts. While switching to a professional account has its pros and cons, it is currently a requirement for creators who want to post Trial Reels.

1) Access Your Instagram Profile

From Instagram's homepage, tap your profile picture in the bottom right to navigate to your profile. Then, tap the three-bar menu in the top right to open the Settings and Activity menu.

2) Change Your Account Type

Scroll down to the For Professionals section and select Account Type and Tools. This will open a screen with two options:

• Switch to a professional account
• Add new professional account

Here, choose whether you want to change your existing account type of create a new account. Instagram will then guide you through a brief setup process accordingly. During setup, Instagram will highlight key professional account features, including:

• Professional dashboard: Track your performance, access and discover professional tools, and explore educational information curated by Instagram.
• Linked permissions: When you link an Instagram account to a Facebook page, admins, editors, and other page roles will have equal permissions on the associated Instagram account.
• Category label: Professional accounts will show a category directly below the profile image. This category is the same as the category of your linked Facebook page. You can choose to display or hide your category label on your public profile after setup.
• Insights: Instagram Insights provides information on who your followers are when they're online, and more. You can also view insights for specific posts you've created to see how each performed and how people are engaging with them.
• Secondary inbox: You’ll have access to an inbox with Primary, General, and Requests folders. You can use this inbox to organize your messages and control your notifications.

3) Complete Account Activation

Once you've selected your account type, follow the on-screen prompts to complete the setup. Ensure you finish all required steps to unlock professional features and start leveraging them for your content strategy.

Having a professional Instagram account unlocks features not available to regular accounts, such as the ability to monetize your Reels and earn from your content.