The Guide to Instagram Video Marketing in 2026
Back in 2010, when Instagram first launched, it was a simple square photo-sharing app where users could upload their images, adding some filters.
Over the years, user behavior has changed and videos have gained traction. As a result, Instagram has changed its focus from photos to videos. With 91% of Instagrammers watching video content daily, this content format sees higher engagement rates than static image posts.
Today, the new era of Instagram video marketing is taking the world by storm.
The Power of Instagram Video Marketing in 2026
Video marketing has become one of the most effective content formats. Previously, it was essential for ecommerce growth, but businesses of all sizes and niches see potential in this content type.
According to the Social Media Industry Report, nearly half of marketers (46%) choose video as their most important type of content and Instagram is the top platform for video usage where 63% of marketers plan to upload more Instagram videos.
If you wonder why Instagram video marketing has become such an effective marketing tactic, here are three explanations for its success:
- Instagram videos have short and engaging nature that hooks audience’s attention
- The platform’s newsfeed algorithm prioritizes video content, which helps companies to ensure their content is seen
- Instagram video marketing gives brands a competitive advantage
In short, Instagram video marketing is a powerful strategic decision. We’ve gathered six Instagram video marketing tips for companies of all sizes and niches to consider in 2026.
Understand Your Audience Better and Create Videos for Them
Instagram puts its users and their preferences first. Thus, engagement has always been a crucial metric for understanding if your content resonates with the audience and drives interest. The better you know what works for your followers and viewers, the better Instagram videos could perform.
Moreover, the platform has rolled out its “Your Algorithm” recently; a new feature that gives users an opportunity to adjust their preferences and interests and therefore see more Reels that matter.
Understanding your audience is not just a cliche in marketing anymore. It’s a key to your ideal Instagram video marketing strategy, so more and more brands rely on social media analytics tools and analysis with Claude when planning their video content. Take a look at the picture below to understand the role of these tools:
Scale Video Content Creation with AI-Powered Tools
People spend more time watching videos on social media and the demand for video content also influences the number of Instagram videos production rate. Just imagine: users upload around 66,000 Reels every minute.
If you’re not one of the world’s popular brands with unlimited budgets, you may have trouble producing high-quality and engaging videos at scale due to high costs and time investments. However, the rise of AI-driven video content creation tools makes it easier for companies of all sizes and niches to automate idea brainstorming, repurposing, scripting, and editing.
Looking for reliable tools to scale video production, AI-powered filmmaking platforms like LTX by Lightricks make it possible to go from script to fully edited video in one video workflow while maintaining creative control over camera movement, visual style, and scene composition.
Thanks to integrations with AI models such as Flux, Veo, Nano Banana and Lightricks’ own LTX-2, the LTX platform web app lets you easily generate scenes, backgrounds, and even characters with photorealistic detail, then transform those visuals into motion using image-to-video and text-to-video generation. This approach makes it faster and more efficient to produce a higher volume of high-quality videos without sacrificing consistency or creative intent.
Leverage the Power of Reels Serial Content
The idea of serial content, when you come up with one idea and divide it into several posts, isn’t new, but it has gained in traction lately. Instagram users show interest in this video content type and it keeps them coming back. For companies, it helps to improve planning, boost engagement, and build deeper connections with audiences.
Instagram has rolled out a new feature “Link a Reel” that makes it easier to produce multipart content into connected stories. Whether you make a new Reel or edit the existing one, this feature allows you to connect related Reels together and therefore create a seamless video experience.
Whether you offer services or digital products to sell, you can still grab the interest of potential customers with your Reels serial content. Just think about actionable ways on how to showcase your offer and interest followers. For example, a series of “how to”, “explainer”, or “testimonial” videos could work perfectly.
Give On-the-Go Posting a Try to Boost Authenticity
To raise personal brand awareness and create an eye-catching Instagram feed, some companies invest in branding on Instagram and it gives wonderful results.
However, modern users crave authenticity more than ever so unpolished on-the-go video content drives higher engagement rates. When it comes to creating a winning Instagram video marketing strategy in 2026, consider adding on-the-go simple videos. Those videos work perfectly to share behind-the-scenes content, brand stories, or latest business news.
On-the-go posting looks authentic and creates a deeper bond with your audience, so these videos could drive higher engagement rates. To give you an example of this video type, take a look at the example below:
These Instagram videos raise an emotional response from viewers and on-the-go videos are easy to create. You just need to come up with an idea, take out your phone, and start creating a video. If you’re afraid of uploading this content type to your main feed, consider creating videos for Instagram Stories first.
Keep Up with Creating Short-Form Video Content
The introduction of short-form videos on Instagram has quickly gained popularity among users. From videos in Instagram Stories to Reels, people have seen various ways on how to interact with short-form videos on the platform.
The success behind short-form video content is based on the shrinking attention span of 8 seconds. It proves that people quickly lose interest so short-form content resonates with them more. For businesses, it’s important to keep up with creating brief videos.
For instance, a fitness expert Pat Chadwick constantly creates Reels with physical routine hacks as short-form videos for his Instagram profile. His tutorial videos range between 30 and 60 seconds in length, like the example video below:
Taking into account the popularity of serial content, you can come up with one video idea (e.g. workout routines) and divide it into several short-form videos. This way you keep your audience hooked and give them a reason to come back to your profile or sign up for notifications in order not to miss out on new related videos. Don't forget the audio element either. Staying on top of music trends helps you choose sounds that resonate with your audience and boost your Reels' reach.
Consider Running UGC-Style Instagram Video Ad Campaigns
As specified in the latest report on Instagram statistics meantioned earlier, 91% of users watch Instagram videos weekly, video content generates over 50% of Instagram engagement, and ads reach more than 1.6 billion users worldwide.
The takeaway? Creating Instagram video ads is important. But if you want to stand out from the crowd, run UGC-style campaigns. The same report states that user-generated content ads perform better than brand-only visuals.
Looking for successful Instagram ad examples, let’s find out more about the campaign from H&M. When the company realized that user-generated content resonated more with their target audiences, they selected several content creators with strong video editing skills and invited them to the workshop where the company shared its ‘Find your beach’ campaign concept as a brief. Creators had to showcase the new summer collection and those assets were used as ads.
Here’s an example of this ad campaign from Lera Shutovskaya, content creator, who made a video within the given concept.
Just within two months, the company got 94% lower cost per lift for brand consideration with campaigns featuring creators, 4.8X higher lift in brand consideration, and 9-point lift in message agreement for campaigns that featured creators.
Working with creators isn’t the one way to get user-generated video ads for your profile. You can also work with small influencers, turn employees into brand advocates, or even learn how to make the most out of AI-powered tools to make hyperrealistic UGC videos within a few clicks.
The Takeaway
With the growing popularity of video content, Instagram video marketing has become an important element of a successful social media marketing strategy. Marketers claim that they plan to keep on using Instagram videos and invest more in Instagram video marketing.
Obviously, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to Instagram video marketing, but there are some trends that shape the future of in-app videos.
Select a few tactics that sound like the best fit for your brand and keep on experimenting to find out what works best for your audience. After all, Instagram video marketing is here to stay for a long period of time.