First version12,655 views
- On-screen hook
- “My trophy case of L’s at 30 years old 🏆”
- Length
- About 9 seconds
- Followers gained
- —
Growth experimentsChapter 02 / Instagram
I started learning Instagram. 5 days later, I posted a reel that reached 2.1M views. 16 days later, I posted one that reached 5.1M.
From March 8 to March 24, I posted 34 reels. Here are the actual videos, changes, and lessons behind the results.
01 / The beginning
How I started
When I don’t know how to do something, my strategy is to find 5 specialists who are experts in this particular domain, talk to them and really narrow down who I wanna learn from.
This experiment came after learning from one of them. I had posted on Instagram before, but March 8 was the start of putting those lessons into focused practice. Over the next 16 days, I posted 34 reels. This chapter shows what came out of that experiment.
2viral videos
7.2Mtotal views
16days of posting
34reels posted
02 / First comparison
Your hook should capture the audience’s attention in the first three seconds
For a simple reel I want to go viral, I focus on three things: a hook that captures attention, a visual that shocks the audience, and a caption that delivers the full story. I aim for about 7 seconds.
Second version2.1M views
- On-screen hook
- “MY BIGGEST FAILURES AT 30 YEARS OLD”
- Length
- About 6–7 seconds
- Followers gained
- —
Swipe to compare both reels
What I learned
I focus on three elements in an Instagram reel: a hook that sparks curiosity, a shocking visual that delivers the emotion, and the full payoff in the caption. While someone reads the caption, the video can keep looping. A caption that holds their attention gives them a reason to stay longer.
The first version reached about 12,600 views. Then I used the same hospital footage, shortened it to 7 seconds and made the hook more direct. And bam, 2.1 million views.
04 / Second comparison
This 5.1 million-view video took me 10 minutes to make
I found an old clip in my photos of 3 friends dancing in my kitchen. I cut it to about 7 seconds, used Tame Impala’s trending song “Dracula”, and added the on-screen hook: “POV: You’re a man and you live with 3 girls in Amsterdam.” The written caption was simply: “Ik ben niet homo. IFYKYK.”
I chose it because I thought the moment was fun. It took off as a trial reel. Later, I repurposed the same video to see if it would take off again, switching the audio to Sabrina Carpenter’s “House Tour” and updating the caption. It worked again: the repost reached almost 394K views.
March 24 · Original version5.1M views
- On-screen hook
- “POV: You’re a man and live with 3 girls in Amsterdam”
- Audio
- Tame Impala — “Dracula”
- Caption
- “Ik ben niet homo. IFYKYK.”
- Followers gained
- —
May repost · Different musicAlmost 394K views
- On-screen hook
- “POV: You’re a man and live with 3 girls in Amsterdam”
- Audio
- Sabrina Carpenter — “House Tour”
- Caption
- “Do you want the house tour?”
- Followers gained
- —
Swipe to compare both reels
What I learned
The footage and on-screen idea worked again, even with different music and a different caption. For me, this supports my hypothesis: a simple reel of about 7 seconds, paired with trending audio, can encourage people to watch again.
I still focus on the same three elements when aiming for a viral reel: a hook that sparks curiosity, a shocking visual that delivers the emotion, and the full payoff in the caption.
05 / Take it with you
A process you can try
Start with the footage you already have.
- 01
Look through footage you already have.
- 02
Choose a moment you genuinely find interesting or funny.
- 03
Write a hook that makes someone curious enough to keep watching.
- 04
Post, learn from the result, and test a new hook or tighter cut before abandoning the idea.
That’s the experiment.