Big Idea

The argument in one line.

Instagram's carousel distribution is rising while the number of creators posting carousels has stayed flat, making carousels the highest-leverage format in 2025 for anyone who acts on the gap before it closes.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…

You post regularly on Instagram for a brand or business and feel like Reels are producing diminishing returns.
You already have a library of podcast clips, YouTube videos, or interview footage you want to repurpose.
You want to grow followers on Instagram without continuously shooting new footage.
You are a business owner or solo creator who wants a format that reaches existing followers reliably, not just new ones.

SKIP IF…

You have no Instagram presence yet and are still choosing a niche.
You are focused exclusively on short-form video and have no interest in static or swipe content.

TL;DR

The full version, fast.

Instagram publicly admitted it oversaturated the platform with Reels and has been redistributing reach toward carousels since 2022, but carousel posting volume has not increased at the same rate, so the supply-demand gap still favors the format. The old carousel (solid color background, cutout headshot, big text hook) is obsolete. Eight formats are working now: a two-slide hook carousel, freeze frame comic-book-style clips, photo dump plus text overlay, a wide-canvas collage split into slides via PineTools, same meme with label swaps for different audience segments, curated quote collections, interactive swiping mechanics, and the flipbook drag effect. Adding music to any carousel before posting makes it eligible to appear in the Reels feed, extending reach at zero extra production cost.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 01:33

01 · Why carousels beat Reels right now

Supply-demand gap explained: Instagram increased carousel distribution while posting volume stayed flat; Reels views declining year-over-year.

01:33 – 02:32

02 · The carousels of the past (dead formats)

Solid color background plus cutout headshot plus big text hook is obsolete. Eight new formats incoming.

02:32 – 03:57

03 · Pro tip: always add music

Adding music makes a carousel eligible to appear in the Reels feed, providing a significant distribution boost.

03:57 – 05:35

04 · Carousel 1: Hook Slide

Two-slide format: headline hook on slide one, existing Reel or long content on slide two. Easiest repurposing format.

05:35 – 06:14

05 · Carousel 2: Freeze Frame

Comic-book-style stills from existing podcast or interview footage with caption text overlaid on each frame.

06:14 – 07:34

06 · Carousel 3: Photo Dump + Text

Lifestyle or travel photos as the visual background with story, tips, or copy overlaid on top.

07:34 – 08:54

07 · Carousel 4: Collage Style

One wide Canva canvas (1440px tall x slides x 1080px wide), exported and split into individual slides using PineTools image splitter.

08:54 – 10:38

08 · Carousel 5: Same Meme, Different Meaning

Repeat the same meme template across slides but swap the label for different audience segments, serving multiple groups in one post.

10:38 – 11:56

09 · Carousel 6: Curated Collection

A series of quotes or visuals under one thematic umbrella, each slide self-contained so viewers get value without swiping through all.

11:56 – 12:54

10 · Carousel 7: Interactive Carousel

Swiping triggers a narrative or game mechanic.

12:54 – 13:50

11 · Carousel 8: Flipbook Carousel

Designed for hold-and-drag navigation on the dot indicators, creating stop-motion or time-lapse effects from a series of photos.

13:50 – 14:39

12 · Outro: start messy, start sloppy

Host self-discloses being bad at graphic design but still posting multiple carousels per week.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

Carousels have a higher average engagement rate than Reels or single images on Instagram in 2025.
Instagram publicly admitted it went too far pushing Reels and has since increased carousel distribution to correct the imbalance.
The number of creators posting carousels has not risen at the same rate as carousel distribution, so the supply-demand gap is in your favor.
Year-over-year Reels views continue to decline; carousel reach is trending in the opposite direction.
Adding music before publishing makes any carousel eligible to appear inside the Reels feed with no additional production cost.
A two-slide hook carousel pointing to an existing Reel or long text post is the fastest repurposing format for existing content libraries.
Freeze frame carousels built from comic-book-style stills with caption overlays convert video content into a standalone static format.
The collage carousel technique uses one wide Canva canvas at 1440px tall by (1080 x slides)px wide, exported and auto-split by PineTools image splitter.
The same meme with different labels across slides lets one post serve two distinct audience segments simultaneously, increasing share probability across both.
Curated collection carousels work because each slide delivers standalone value, and no viewer needs adjacent slides for the individual slide to land.
The flipbook effect uses hold-and-drag on carousel dots to move through slides fast enough to create stop-motion or time-lapse sequences.
The biggest barrier to carousel output is design confidence, not design skill.

Takeaway

Eight carousel formats exploiting Instagram's supply gap

WHAT TO LEARN

Instagram's algorithm has increased carousel distribution while posting volume stayed flat, and eight specific formats capture that advantage right now.

Carousels now generate higher average engagement than Reels or single images, and Instagram has been actively increasing their reach since pulling back on Reels oversaturation.
Adding music before publishing makes any carousel eligible to appear in the Reels feed, extending distribution without any additional production work.
A two-slide hook carousel with a headline on slide one pointing to an existing Reel or post is the fastest way to repurpose a content library with minimal design effort.
Freeze frame carousels built from comic-book-style stills with caption overlays convert existing podcast or interview footage into swipeable static posts.
The collage carousel technique uses one wide Canva canvas at 1440px tall by (1080 multiplied by number of slides)px wide, then auto-split using PineTools free image splitter.
The same meme with different audience labels across slides lets one post serve two distinct segments simultaneously, increasing share probability across both.
Curated collection carousels work because each slide is self-contained, so a viewer gets full value from any single slide without needing to see adjacent ones.
The flipbook carousel exploits a lesser-known navigation mechanic where holding the dot bar and dragging creates a fast frame sequence that functions as stop motion or time lapse.
The chief barrier to carousel volume is design confidence rather than skill, and the host self-reports being a poor graphic designer while posting multiple carousels per week.

Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

Hook slide carousel: A two-slide carousel where slide one is a headline designed to compel a swipe, and slide two is the actual content such as a Reel, long text post, or any existing asset.
Freeze frame carousel: A carousel built from video stills in comic-book style with a top-half image and bottom-half caption text, turning existing podcast or interview footage into swipeable static content.
Collage carousel: A carousel built from one very wide horizontal image that is sliced into individual slides, creating a seamless panoramic effect as viewers swipe.
PineTools: A free web tool at pinetools.com with an image splitter that divides a wide canvas into equal-width slices ready for Instagram carousel uploads.
Flipbook carousel: A carousel designed to be navigated by holding a finger on the dot indicators and dragging, moving through frames fast enough to simulate animation or stop motion.
Same meme, different meaning: A carousel format where the same meme template repeats across slides with the label or context changed, allowing one post to speak to multiple distinct audience segments.
Curated collection: A carousel of quotes, visuals, or messages sharing a unifying theme where each slide is individually self-contained and delivers value without requiring adjacent slides.

Resources Mentioned

Things they pointed at.

09:15toolPineTools image splitter ↗

08:00toolCanva ↗

07:10productInstaClubHub ↗

07:08channel@herfirst100k ↗

Quotables

Lines you could clip.

01:08

“Carousels are being pushed out to more people maybe than ever before, but there's not more people posting and creating carousels than ever before.”

Tight insight, no setup needed→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

02:58

“When you add music to a carousel, your carousel can actually show up as if it was a reel.”

Counterintuitive platform mechanic→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote

14:19

“Your carousels don't have to be perfect, but they have to be posted.”

Clean standalone closer, no context required→ Newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote

The Script

Word for word.

analogy

00:00Carousels are one of the best ways to grow on Instagram. And in fact, in 2025, they have a higher average engagement rate than Reels or single images.

00:08And while Instagram Reels might average a slightly higher reach, Carousel posts can be a really powerful tool for reaching your existing followers or for reaching new followers who are more interested in carousels than they are in reels. I believe that a healthy, well rounded Instagram strategy that is setting you up for success is not just all about reels, but it also includes carousels.

00:30And so today, I'm gonna share with you eight new styles of carousels that are effective reaching more people and helping you grow your followers and customers, and I'm gonna show you some examples for each style. As a business owner on Instagram, it's important to be consistent in your effort but adaptable in your strategies.

00:47And since 2022, carousels have been on the rise. Instagram admitted that they went too far in pushing reels out to too many people and oversaturating the platform with reels, and since then, they have been giving more reach and views to carousels.

01:03But since that announcement was officially made, the number of people posting carousels hasn't risen at the same rate. Basically, what I'm saying is the supply demand difference is in your favor when it comes to carousels.

01:16When we talk about reels, the supply demand is flipped. There's so much supply with so many reels being posted, the demand just can't keep up. And that's why year over year, Reels views continue to go down.

01:27But like I said, carousels is the opposite. Carousels are being pushed out to more people maybe than ever before, but there's not more people posting and creating carousels than ever before.

01:37But here's the problem. If you're still creating and posting carousels today like you were in 2022 or 2023 or even 2024, you're gonna get left behind because what people look for and engage with when it comes to carousels has changed.

01:52And so I'm gonna share with you eight new trending popular easy to create carousels that you could apply to pretty much any niche, and they're going to outperform the carousels of the past.

02:04Before we hop into those eight, let me quickly define what are the carousels of the past. The carousels of the past are the carousels where it's a solid color background with an image of yourself cut out and some big text hook that says, three tips for losing weight.

02:21Boring. Instead, use one of the eight following ideas, and your carousels will reach more people. Also, one more pro tip that's really important for me to note before we continue talking about these different kinds of carousels, is that you should always add music to your carousel.

02:36Right before you press post, below the caption, there will be an option to add music to your carousel. When you do this, it will help you get more views, engagement, and followers. And that's because, number one, just human nature, I am more likely to consume something and interact with something if there is an audio component to it.

02:54But number two, algorithmically, when you add music to a carousel, it makes the carousel eligible to show up on the reels tab.

03:02This might be a little bit confusing, but stick with me for a second. You know as you're scrolling through the recommended reels, not the explore page, not the tab on your profile of all of your reels, but the recommended reels. For most people, it's in the fourth position down at the bottom of your screen.

03:18Well, when you're scrolling through that, of course, we're typically used to just seeing reels. But when you add music to your carousel, your carousel can actually show up as if it was a reel.

03:28And people can swipe through it just like they normally would, and it's mixed in with all the other reels. This means it could provide a significant boost in reach or distribution to your post, which of course could turn into a significant boost in engagement and potentially followers.

03:43So make sure when possible you always add music to your carousels. But with all of that being said, let's talk about the eight different carousels that are super popular and super trending and pretty easy to make. Number one is what I call the hook slide carousel.

03:57Basically, this is a carousel that is only two slides long. The first slide is supposed to be a hook. It's supposed to be a headline or something that really grabs people's attention and encourages them to slide, thus interacting with your post.

04:13The second slide is the context or the background. A really easy way that you could do this is to take your existing reels, maybe even take one of your existing high performing reels, and make that reel your second slide.

04:27Then come up with a headline or a hook or some sort of catchy statement that's going to grab people's attention and create a first slide with that hook or headline on it. Then people will slide from the headline first slide onto the second slide. It's a really easy way to recreate content and draw people in.

04:46It's the same idea of like a YouTube video. Right? YouTube videos have the thumbnail and the title.

04:52That's kind of like the first slide of this two slide carousel. It's a headline, a title. It's gonna grab your attention.

05:00It's gonna be really visually attractive. And then when you click on the YouTube video, here you are. I'm giving you the value.

05:05I'm actually teaching you whatever it is I'm gonna talk about. In the Instagram example, the slide onto the second slide represents the click on the YouTube video, and then people are watching your reel, or they're reading your, uh, long text post, or they're just consuming the content that you have to share. This kind of carousel is especially popular and effective if you are doing breaking news or some sort of actual headline related post.

05:29The second trending super popular form of carousel is what I call freeze frame carousels. These carousels are super effective if you're someone who has a podcast or a YouTube video or you do interviews. Basically, the idea here is it's kind of comic book style, where you're getting two frames, a top half and a bottom half on each slide.

05:50And instead of just watching someone talk, the closed captions of what they are saying in that frame is added on top of the video. I've seen this done super effectively. I've done this myself.

06:01And I've even done this myself with some of my own podcasts, posting them on my own Instagram. Super effective, super easy to create. Idea number three is taking the carousels that used to work and creating a new refreshed version.

06:14So in the past, like I described earlier, what used to work was a solid color background on every single slide, and you just have you know, text on every single slide. And maybe there's a cutout of you on the first slide, but that's really it. Now what people are doing is they're taking a popular carousel style called photo dumps, which is not one that I'm necessarily covering today.

06:34But photo dumps are popular in the travel niche. They're popular in the lifestyle niche, which I don't necessarily consider a niche, but I digress. Basically, photo dumps are where you take a bunch of photos from a recent vacation or maybe from the past month, and you just post them all.

06:49Right? It's not one specific occasion that you're posting about. It's kind of like, here's the last month, or here's my trip and all the photos I took.

06:56Well, this third kind of carousel that I would recommend for you as a brand or business owner is to take this photo dump style carousel and just add text on top. Basically, the photo is visually appealing, engaging, and makes someone want to continue swiping and going through the post.

07:13But then the text on top is maybe telling a story, or entertaining them, or giving some tips. The account her first one 100 is an awesome account. She's got like a million followers, and she helps women make their first $100,000, and she's all about mindset and investing and saving and all of that stuff.

07:30She's really awesome. Check her out. And she does a ton of these carousels, these photo dump plus text style carousels.

07:37And they're a great updated version of what was effective a few years ago. Idea number four is one that won't necessarily fit for every niche or business, but it's collage style carousels. These carousels are super, super fun to make.

07:51These style of carousels can be a really great way to highlight a recent vacation, maybe show some photos from an in person event or meetup, or to just highlight a lot of different photos in a really interactive way all at once. There are some apps out there that will help you create these carousels, but the easiest way that I found to create these collage style carousels is actually right in Canva.

08:13Basically, just go to Canva and then create a new project with a custom size. Instagram now allows your photos to be three by four, three being the width and four being the height. So if we convert that into pixels, that's ten eighty wide by fourteen forty tall.

08:29But for this collage carousel, instead of creating your custom project as ten eighty by fourteen forty, you're gonna make the width a multiple of ten eighty based off how many slides you want the carousel to be. So let's say you wanted to make a seven slide carousel. Well, seven times ten eighty is 7,560.

08:48So you would make your height fourteen forty, and you would make your width in pixels 7,560. Then you can have fun with it. You can play around, add a bunch of photos, and text, and cutouts onto this really long horizontal image.

09:01And then when you export it, you can just cut the image so that each individual image is the right size for Instagram. You could manually do this in your photos app, but what I prefer to do is to use the website pine tools. Pine Tools has an image splitter tool where you can tell it how many images you want to be split, and then it will automatically cut it for you and you can save it, uh, so that you have the individual images ready to be posted as a carousel.

09:28Carousel number five is what I call same meme, different meaning. Basically, you take the same meme and you just repeat it multiple times across multiple slides, but you change up the context or you change up the label or you change up what the meme is describing.

09:44This is a really great style of carousel because oftentimes, people just want to see the different way the joke is applied. It can also be a great style of carousel because just memes in general are a super effective way to captivate people and make them laugh and be relatable and connect with people.

09:59And this is especially a great kind of carousel if you have different or competing ideal audiences. For example, a lot of my followers are content creators, and a lot of my followers are small business owners.

10:12And oftentimes, small business owners don't consider themselves content creators, and content creators don't consider themselves small business owners. And so sometimes, I will take the exact same meme, and I will just swap out the word content creator with business owner, and then post it as a carousel. So one slide says one thing, one slide says another thing, everyone's happy, I'm more likely to get shares and engagement, and it's a really easy carousel to create.

10:35Carousel idea number six is what I call a curated collection. And really, a curated collection of quotes or a curated collection of visuals. I find that this style of carousel is most effective when you just bring together a bunch of motivational quotes that really inspire you or that relate to your niche, or you bring together a bunch of visuals that kind of describe your niche or describe common mindset shifts that people need to have.

11:02These curated collections, each slide doesn't necessarily talk to the next slide. Right?

11:07You could see one individual slide, and you don't need to see the slide before it or after it for that individual slide to be motivational or to make an impact or to really inspire you. Instead, each of these slides might all fall under the same umbrella.

11:21They might all be motivational. They might all be super funny. They might all be, uh, very philosophical.

11:27But because they're all under the same umbrella, they're all being posted together, and it's a super easy style of carousel to create. For this one, I encourage you to just ask yourself what quotes or phrases or verses are super inspirational and motivational to you, and then just create a series of images that have on each image one of those quotes or inspirational messages, and then post that as a curated collection.

11:50Carousel idea number seven is definitely going to take a little bit more work, but it is the interactive carousel. It's the carousel where swiping actually means something. Maybe on the first slide, people are prompted to pick a race car, and then by the last slide, one of the race cars wins.

12:06Basically, the carousel itself is interactive in some way. There's a popular meme format that's going around right now, uh, where people take a trending audio, and then the trending audio just loops back and forth between the lyrics and then the saxophone and then the lyrics and a saxophone. And so you make your first image, uh, yourself singing the lyrics, and then you make the second image yourself playing the saxophone, and so people kinda swipe back and forth.

12:28It's interactive. It's fun. It's And then last but not least, the eighth and final carousel that is performing really well right now on Instagram.

12:45And this one is especially for those of you who do photography or videography or who create art. And it is what I call the flipbook carousel. You know those flipbooks that you would create when you were little where you would take like a notebook or a sticky note and you would draw a little stick figure on the first one, and you draw another stick figure on the second one, and then the third.

13:04And then when you would fan the paper with your finger, it would make that stick figure do a little dance or, like, move around or, like, jump up and down or something. It's the same idea. What you can do on Instagram is you can tell your followers to hold their finger down on the little dots that are below the carousel.

13:19And then instead of manually swiping one carousel at a time, they hold their finger down on those dots and they drag them back and forth. It basically moves through the carousel super quickly. And so you can create stop motion effects.

13:31You can create time lapse effects, or you can show a series of photos in really cool, creative, and engaging ways. Now I don't know about you, but I suck at graphic design. I can admittedly say that that is one of my biggest shortcomings, one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to content creation.

13:50And yet, I'm still posting numerous carousels a week, and I'm still editing and graphic designing and creating probably 95% of them.

13:58And so I want to encourage you to start messy, start sloppy, but just start experimenting. Start having fun with it. Maybe if you felt burnt out about reels recently, this is going to be a great opportunity for you to experiment and bring some creativity and some fun and some joy back into the process of creating content for Instagram.

14:17Your carousels don't have to be perfect, but they have to be posted. Thank you so much for watching today.

14:23Don't forget to subscribe if you learned something new or if you enjoyed this episode. Every single Thursday, I put out a new episode just like this with some quick tips, ideas, or strategies for growing your business or brand on social media. Thank you so much for listening.

14:36Don't forget to subscribe. And as always, happy networking.

The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

In 2025, Instagram's algorithm has quietly shifted in carousels' favor — distribution is up, posting volume is flat, and the old solid-color-background format is dead. Brock Johnson breaks down the eight carousel styles that are actually working now.

Frameworks

Named ideas worth stealing.

00:48concept

Carousel Supply-Demand Gap

Instagram increased carousel distribution while posting volume stayed flat, creating an arbitrage window for creators who post carousels while competitors focus on Reels.

Steal forAny pitch for why to start or increase carousel posting now

03:57list