Is Instagram making it hard for brands and creators to get their desired reach?

Like any other brand, The Whole Truth Foods- a D2C brand focused on healthy food- was busy marketing themselves on Instagram. The brand focused on ‘Being transparent’ and educating consumers about healthy habits. They often used extended captions and videos to educate the consumers. 

However, the brand recently announced that they are going off Instagram and mentioned that the reason behind this was the constantly changing platform’s algorithm which was challenging their style of engaging with the audience. 

The situation is not exclusive to The Whole Truth Foods, as many brands are going through this situation. These changes in algorithm affect the immediate reach and brands across categories have experienced a downfall in engagement and interactions with audiences. 

BuzzInContent.com reached out to some brands that are heavy on Instagram to understand how the platform has changed for them. Digital experts were also approached to understand what this means for brands. 

Kruthika Ravindran

As per Kruthika Ravindran, Associate Director - New Business, TheSmallBigIdea, the overall organic reach has dropped for some brands, while for some brands the reach per post has dropped. She also suggested that this might not be great news for small brands that rely on organic reach. 

“This could be the start of a new trend where brands relook their social media strategies and move beyond the big 4 platforms because they are now prioritising their customers' needs over any social media metrics. While this could benefit some of the big brands, it may not necessarily work for every brand. For brands that are low on awareness and customer loyalty, going off Instagram can also prove to be detrimental.” 

“Brands are in a spot because Instagram has certainly become more user-friendly and less brand-friendly, but it is also because of the way users engage on the platform. Marketers have a constant challenge to adapt their content strategies as per the changing algorithms, to make the most of the platform,” added Ravindran. 

Archit Agarwal

Archit Agarwal, Reputation Architect - Digital, Design, and Influencer Marketing, TheMavericks India, stated, “Originally, the goal for growth on Instagram was to gain followers through a variety of content with a core focus on building a very targeted audience of people that would convert to becoming consumers for a brand. However, now there is a lot of content that needs to be developed that casts a wide net across the larger audience universe of the platform with the hopes that people who do follow you actually do that because they like the brand and not just the piece of content that brought them to the page in the first place. This not only creates an inaccurate follower acquisition strategy but also creates massive unfollows after content goes viral.”

How are brands looking at the situation? 

Experts say that user behaviour on Instagram varies from person to person. So, keeping up with the constant changes has been hard for brands who are being compelled to make loads of content to serve the different audience needs. 

Shankar Prasad

According to Shankar Prasad, CEO and Founder of Plum, they are trying to strike a balance between external factors such as changes in the algorithm and follower engagement. He said flexibility and agility have been their approach. “This enables us to adapt to newer strategies and test new formats proactively. Our focus has always been on building and interacting with our community. We keep audience engagement at the core of our content strategy. We actively ask them what they want to see and give them that and more. UGC is something that we consciously try to incorporate in our strategy to ensure relevant and engaging conversations with our followers.”

“The change in algorithm poses more of a challenge than a concern in this industry where consumer preferences are also constantly evolving. So, ensuring the right content in the right format is our constant goal across platforms which we actively try to achieve by understanding what our audience is looking for,” he added. 

Karan Chowdhary, Co-Founder, WOW Skin Science, suggests there has been a noticeable change in the reach numbers, especially in the last two quarters.  “The new algorithm does negatively impact the brand's reach. However, this also helps the brand to create content that is more engaging and relevant to its audience. As a brand, we are constantly evolving our content strategy to provide engaging and relevant content to the consumer. Which is compelling enough (for the audience) to either stay tuned or come back for more,” said Chowdhary. 

Chaitanya Nallan

Chaitanya Nallan, Co-founder and CEO, SkinKraft Labs, said although they have not been able to combat the shifts in the platform's algorithms all the time, they are prepared with alternative plans at all times to minimise the impact. “We try and keep different routes for content planning at all times, this helps us in shifting gear and rolling out refreshed content if we feel the algorithm is not behaving predictably.” 

“More than a concern, this is the way things are going to be in future, ever-changing, ever-evolving. Reels or short formats are more popular due to the push from the platform as well as the kind of attention they hold for the consumer,” added Nallan. 

Reels a boon or curse? 

In its Q1 2022 earnings call, Meta announced that Reels make up more than 20% of the time that people spend on Instagram. Some also argue that Instagram has been pushing Reels content to users. Some influencers have stated how the platform is pushing them to make reels to get the desired reach. 

This has again forced brands to focus on short video content to drive engagement. For example, Zomato had great organic traction because of its moment and meme marketing. However, the brand is now focusing on creating reels. 

“Reels as a short video platform is still far behind compared to its counterparts, and as a result of this Instagram has been pushing more reels. But it also means that users are consuming more reels which is what brands should focus on. We have started taking a reel-first approach when it comes to video content, adapting regular videos to reel sizes, using trending audios, etc,” said Ravindran of TheSmallBigIdea. 

“It would not be wrong to say that the current Instagram algorithm seems to be favouring Reels, however, it’s important to note the purpose of each content format. Reels are mainly a source of ‘virality’ allowing good content to reach a new and more diverse audience, while feed posts perform better in terms of engagement as they’re geared towards interacting with your current audience and reaching a more relevant base. At the end of the day, what matters most is the quality and relevance of your content, and diversifying the dissemination basis of what works best for each content format,” explained Prasad of Plum. 

As per Archit Agarwal, video content has been leading the trend on Instagram. This is because of the seismic shift in priorities for Instagram which originally was designed to be a community-led exploration platform. 

“Why The Whole Truth (and other brands) don't see engagement on their content is because their followers don’t see their content. Instagram has prioritised Reels to such an extent that audiences tend to move into the Reels section, get fatigued and quit the app before they move to their main feed.”