Your Instagram Reel Went Viral, Now What?

In February, I woke up to 20,000 new views on a CPG client’s Instagram reel. It’d been live for less than 24 hours. And based on the Views Over Time chart, the views weren’t going to slow down anytime soon. This was the most views the client had ever gotten in 24 hours. Which meant I got to send an email with the subject line: Your Instagram Reel Went Viral.

But then what?

Well of course I already had that covered; my client opened the email to find our next steps for encouraging continued growth on that reel, capitalizing on the moment, and insights for future Instagram content. And now I’m going to give you those same next steps.

The best part? Their quick action helped encourage continued growth and that reel now has over 230,000 views!

Case Study: CPG Health & Wellness Brand Goes Viral

I’ve worked with this CPG health & wellness brand for almost four years. They’ve collaborated with Influencers, brand ambassadors, universities, and fellow CPG brands. They have worked with professional content creators and photographers. They’ve featured podcast episodes and events. But what went viral?

A 90 second video of the founder explaining the three different formats of creatine and why he chose not to create creatine gummies. Spoiler alert: it’s because it’s impossible to retain any actual creatine, so it’s a total waste of money. Or in his words, “total healthcare fraud”.

And that’s exactly why this video went viral.

An expert shared a controversial take that was relevant to their brand, products, and expertise. They spoke clearly and plainly; in language that’s easy for the average person to understand. He didn’t read off a teleprompter or script I wrote, he spoke naturally and the video feels genuine.

There’s no fancy edits; it feels like you’re sitting next to him as he helps you understand the differences in creatine products available to purchase.

You don’t need a professional videographer, an AI-written script, or fancy lighting. You need to be knowledgable about your products, you need to speak clearly, and you need to have a genuine desire to help consumers understand something important. But most importantly? You need to be comfortable being controversial.

Okay cool, the Instagram reel went viral. But what does that do for your CPG business?

The Social Media & Revenue Results of a Viral Instagram Reel

To start, let’s take a look at some of the insights from this viral Instagram reel:

Generally speaking, there are a lot of Instagram insights to pay attention to.

For the sake of this blog post, I want you to see the amount of followers this reel brought in the first week after posting (550 and counting) and the increase in website taps compared to before the reel was posted (+6,6860%).

Those numbers demonstrate a significant impact on the business, not just their Instagram account.

In the 7 days after the Instagram reel was posted, this client’s website had 74.6% more new users than the week prior. These are people who’d never been on their website before.

Let’s talk cash because as I like to remind clients: views don’t pay the bills or fund production. And as much as social media experts like to say virality isn’t the goal, when you go viral for a post that’s highly related to your brand and products, you should see a revenue lift.

In the 7 days after the Instagram reel was posted, they sold 222% more bottles of the product featured in the viral reel, resulting in a 227% revenue lift. The Creatine product is also included in one of their supplement bundles. That bundle saw a 635% revenue lift.

All because of an Instagram reel that took them about 5 minutes to film. It took me about 30 minutes to edit, plus a caption to write and reel cover to design, but because they’re one of my social media marketing clients, they didn’t have to worry about any of that.

Your Instagram Reel Went Viral, Now What?

There are two questions I’ve always asked myself when a client’s Instagram reel went viral.

The first is how can I encourage this post to continue performing well? The second is how can I replicate this win for my client going forward?

Because ultimately, one viral moment isn’t going to sustain your CPG brand for more than a couple of weeks. But it does provide a wealth of information about how to improve your content going forward.

You might even get feedback about how to improve your product or product page; this client did! Customers had very specific questions their product page didn’t answer. That gave them real-time feedback to improve their product page (and therefore conversion rate) going forward.

Step One: How Can You Help this Post Do Even Better?

Reply to All Comments

The first thing you can do is reply to every single comment. This increases the post’s total engagement, signaling to the Instagram algorithm that it’s keeping users engaged on the app. That tells the algorithm to show your post to more people.

This is also basic social media management: always reply to comments. These people, whether they follow you or not, have taken time out of their day to engage with your post. The very least you can do is respond.

Make a Follow-Up Video

If you’re getting the same comments over and over, it’s worth a follow-up video. You can either directly reply to a comment with your reel, or post a new Instagram reel and link the original video. Either way, you’re creating more content on a topic that just went viral; this video will perform well.

Share the Reel in Your Instagram Stories

If you haven’t already, share it in your Instagram stories to make sure your most engaged viewers see it!

Repurpose the Reel on Other Marketing Channels

If you haven’t already, publish the reel on TikTok, turn it into an email newsletter, or even a blog post if it’s a topic that’s highly related to your brand and products.

This is one of the benefits of being my social media marketing client; I’ll do all of that for you 🙂

Step Two: How Can You Replicate this Win Going Forward?

After the views have slowed down and you feel like the post has done all it’s going to do, it’s time to review the data.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What’s different about this post?
• What’s the same?
• At what point in the video did people drop off?
• What were people talking about in the comments?
• Did this get more saves or shares? Was the post shared in stories or between two accounts?
• Did this video bring in new followers? Profile visits? Website taps?
• Was there an increase in website traffic?
• Was there a revenue lift?

All of this information helps you understand how you can replicate this win again and again. While one viral post is great, getting consistently higher views is what transforms your business.

Your Next Steps: Done-for-You and DIY Options <3

Tired of chasing views with nothing to show for it? Book a Make it Make Sense Instagram Account Audit to get a step-by-step plan to turning those views into sales through your Instagram profile, content, and workflow.

Want to hand off your socials entirely? Say less! Learn how the process works and apply to be a social media marketing client.

Still want to DIY? I’ve got just the thing. Fix your product messaging, get 30 days of content (captions included), or speed up your workflow.

Don’t forget you have access to my entire Get Seen Framework (AKA how I get my CPG food, beverage, and wellness clients more visibility, engagement, and revenue) and my personal dashboard of Hook Ideas.

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Wait, Who Am I?

Hiiii! 👋🏻 I’m Sarah, a CPG social media strategist with over 10 years of experience. I went from starting a clean beauty blog right out of high school to managing social media for Canada’s largest wellness retailer. Now I live in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina, helping high-growth entrepreneurs get SEEN so they can build a crazy fun life their business supports, and not the other way around.

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