The problem? Posting videos on Instagram isn’t enough to succeed. You need to understand what your audience craves. Thus, it’s important to keep up with Instagram video marketing trends and leverage the power of them to cut through the noise and get your content in front of your followers. High resolution videos are essential for maintaining quality and engagement, especially when viewed on different devices. Brands can also showcase ‘day in the life’ stories to provide authentic, behind-the-scenes content. Users can save their favorite videos and photos to their gallery for offline viewing, making it easy to access content even without an internet connection. Instagram and related tools can be accessed via any web browser or directly through the website, ensuring compatibility across devices.

The role of Instagram videos and Instagram reels on business growth

Back in 2021, when Meta realized the growing demand for videos and the platform doubled down on videos, Instagram shifted toward video formats.

Not only did Instagram make video format consolidation, but it also started producing guides for different niches on how to make the most out of Instagram videos.

Instagram video marketing has become a powerful tool for niches with a strong visual appeal like fashion, travel, beauty, and lifestyle. Lifestyle brands, in particular, often use ‘day in the life’ videos to engage their audience and provide authentic, behind-the-scenes content. Even non-visual niches now can achieve business growth with Instagram videos.

Case in point:

Looking for new alternative ways to boost sales, the home safety company RedPro USA decided to give Instagram video ads a try.

During a one-month period, the campaign reached a 35% conversion rate from acquired leads and resulted in a 50% year-over-year sales growth. Amazing, no?

The above-mentioned success was not a coincidence. Recent report on video marketing statistics by Wyzowl proves the importance of Instagram videos:

• 69% of marketers create social media videos, the most popular video content type
• Instagram has become the second most effective video platform after YouTube
• 67% of marketers plan to start using video in 2026

Why is keeping up with Instagram video marketing trends important for your social media strategy?

Instagram has been gaining in popularity for years and it has reached a new milestone of 3 billion users, keeping it as a valuable marketing tool for businesses of all sizes and niches.

With its highly competitive environment, where millions of businesses try to cut through the noise and get the attention of their target audience, companies seek out Instagram tips and tricks to succeed and leveraging Instagram video marketing is no longer optional. When using Instagram video marketing tools and strategies, it’s crucial to respect user privacy by ensuring that any data accessed or content used is publicly available and does not violate privacy rights.

Here are three main reasons for businesses to keep up with Instagram video marketing trends:

• Master the Instagram algorithm. Back in 2021, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, announced the shift toward video content on Instagram. He also made another video in December 2025 to explain the new updated Instagram AI algorithm feature and its possibility to help users prioritize video content they crave. All in all, it proves that Instagram video content gets more social interaction and it gets noticed more by Instagram algorithm.
• Get more user engagement. Modern Instagram users crave dynamic and engaging content, so it’s no wonder that Instagram videos have become the favorite content type on the platform. In fact, videos drive 3x more engagement than photos.
• Provides competitive advantage. The number of uploaded videos on Instagram is growing, but just a few companies try to understand what their audiences want and create video content that resonates with their needs.

All in all, when you know what is getting traction and update your Instagram marketing strategy to these changes, you get more opportunities to achieve business growth. Staying updated with trends also allows businesses to save time and resources while maximizing engagement. In this post, we’ve collected six Instagram video marketing trends to know and follow in 2026.

AI-Powered Instagram Video Creation Enhances Creativity

The idea of using AI in social media isn’t new. From editing social media posts to automating posting and gathering data, it has revolutionized social media marketing. When it comes to Instagram video marketing, AI has become trendy, too. Not only does it help to generate ideas, but it also makes it possible to turn scripts or ideas into videos, enhancing your creativity at any stage with multi clip videos and footage.

Here’s how it works:

When one content creator, known as @browniecreator.ai on Instagram, decided to create conceptual spec commercials for Tom Ford’s fragrance Cherry Smoke, she turned to an AI-powered video production platform.

With its text-to-video and reference image upload capabilities, the platform allowed the creator to transform ideas into complete videos effortlessly. Plus, built-in features such as storyboards and character profiles further enhanced storytelling consistency and streamlined script-to-scene workflows, making high-quality video creation faster and more accessible on any device easily. The user friendly interface includes an input box to paste URLs and add music or audio to videos, enhancing engagement.

The most important thing is that AI-powered video tools offer a wide variety of features for marketers to improve their ideas and therefore enhance creativity which helps to stand out from the crowd.

Instagram Live Collaborations Dominate the Feed

Instagram live broadcast has always been a game-changer. Its great potential for businesses is proved by the numbers: Instagram livestreams attract around 100 million people daily and 80% of users would rather watch a live broadcast than read a blog post.

The idea of going live on Instagram to boost engagement isn’t new for brands, but more and more companies realize the power of Instagram live collaborations. Now that users can invite guests to join their livestream and collaborate with up to three people gives more opportunities on how to boost visibility and tap into each other’s already-established audiences.

How? The collab feature makes a co-author partnership tag and therefore a livestream post appears on collaborators’ profiles, combining reach.Just look at how Sephora UK used this feature back in Oct 2025.

When the company opened its first store in Wales at the St David’s shopping centre, the company invited the top local magazines to cover the event and all of those companies used the Live Room to go live together and showcase a local event for their online audiences.

Instagram Reels Advertising Takes Priority

The introduction of Reels has changed Instagram’s core focus from photo-sharing to video content and it keeps on getting traction. According to Instagram, 3.5 billion times per day that people reshare Reels and 74% of people claim that they have messaged a business after seeing their reels.

This means businesses could get wonderful results with various Reels ideas, but investing into Instagram Reels advertising can lift your brand’s performance even more.

Global brands tap into the power of trends and experiment with Reel ads, too. For instance, LG Electronics put a bet on creator-led video partnership ads in Reels for its Radio Optimism campaign. Collaborating with various creators, not only did the company replace its brand asset for something more creative, but it was also able to reach entirely new audiences. Here’s how it looks in action:

The campaign saw a 7.1-point lift in brand favourability and got 5.2-point lift in top-of-mind awareness as well as 32X return on ad spend for items added to cart.

Obviously, you need to track ad performance to get similar results and therefore Instagram analytics tools come in handy. To track your overall ad performance and understand what adjustments you can make to improve your ad or cut down on spending with ease, rely on Sotrender.

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Video Commerce Boosts Awareness and Sales

Back in the days when brands saw potential in using social media for ecommerce, the idea of using video commerce appeared. Videos have a strong influence on consumer behavior. In fact, 85% of people have been convinced to buy a product or a service after watching a video.

Today, video commerce still boosts awareness and sales.

For instance, travel-related gear company Osprey often creates Instagram videos to show their products in action and it sparks interest from followers. Not only do they share their reviews which helps potential clients, but they also ask questions and get replies which brings them to the next stage of the customer journey.

The best thing? Even if you sell digital products on Instagram, the right video commerce videos can drive brand awareness and turn followers into paying customers as video describes much more than a text.

Short Video Series Keep Audience Hooked

For businesses of all sizes and niches, Instagram videos give opportunities to showcase products or services and educate their followers on how to make the most out of them. Moreover, 50% of marketers claim that they plan to keep up with visual storytelling and video-driven engagement, according to the AI-powered marketing trends report.

With the shrinking attention span, when people quickly lose interest, it’s better to focus on short videos. Moreover, Instagram has introduced a new feature called “linked Reels” that lets creators add a clickable button and therefore connect related Reels as sequential series.

Let’s take a look at Vicky Chan, an Instagram influencer who runs a lifestyle blog.

Vicky often creates “daily routine” videos and saves them to the same Instagram Highlight album, making a series of these videos, just like in the example below:

The “linked Reels” feature is a perfect solution for this type of content as it allows viewers to continue watching related content. As a result, people spend a lot of time on your profile, driving engagement.

Instagram Video Co-Creation Drives Authenticity

Let’s face it: not every business can create eye-catching Instagram videos that drive results due to the lack of time, budget, or skills. Even if your company knows how to make great videos for Instagram, it should be beneficial to collaborate with creators or influencers on video co-creation.

Why? Not only does it give you an opportunity to get your business in front of a new and already-established community which means a wider reach, but it also adds authenticity as people still believe influencer endorsements more than traditional branded content which leads to business growth.

Look at how BMW USA hopes on the video co-creation trend:

With the help of social media email finders, you can extract contact information to get in touch with influencers you’ve chosen for collaboration.

Alternatively, to find influencers and content creators who fall within your brand’s values, it’s effective to rely on influencer marketing platforms like Shoutcart that has a huge database of co-partners from all over the world. It offers influencer demographics and filtering which makes it easy to reach out to the right influencers for your brand.

The Bottom Line

Instagram videos have become an important element of any Instagram marketing strategy. The power of video content is undeniable, but it is also important to keep up with the current Instagram video trends to cut through the noise and give your viewers what they crave.

Now let’s summarize the key Instagram video trends that could lift your brand’s performance in 2026:

• Leverage the power of AI video creation tools for more creativity.
• Invite guests to join your broadcast via the “Live Room” for a wider reach.
• Choose Instagram Reels ads as the most effective ad type.
• Keep on using Instagram videos for ecommerce sales.
• Divide long-form video content into short-form series for higher engagement.
• Team up with influencers and content creators on video production.

To stay ahead of your competitors in 2026, pay close attention to the above-mentioned Instagram video trends. Follow the simple steps outlined in this article to implement these trends effectively and maximize your results. Even if you can’t afford giving a try to all of them, choose several that resonate with your brand and audience and see how the implementation of these trends help to lift your brand’s performance. Using an Instagram video maker can help your brand quickly create engaging content that aligns with current trends. Good luck!