Do you solely have time and assets to dedicate to 1 short-form video platform?
Instagram has been a social media staple in advertising for over a decade now, however there’s no denying the quantity of affect TikTok has.
On this submit, we examine how every platform handles short-form movies and share tips about methods to decide one to concentrate on.
All the things you’ll want to learn about TikTok movies
Though Instagram is older, most of the options out there inside Instagram Reels had been impressed by options that had been native to TikTok for years earlier than Instagram even launched Reels, so we’re going to debate TikTok’s options first.
TikToks have a most runtime of 10 or 60 minutes: 10 for movies you file in TikTok and 60 for movies you add to TikTok.
Every video on TikTok has a caption, a “sound,” and 4 engagement buttons: like, remark, favourite and share.
To view a brand new video on TikTok, customers scroll up.
As you already know, movies are made up of two elements: video and audio. On TikTok, it can save you the audio portion of your video as a “sound” for different TikTok creators to make use of because the “sound” for his or her movies.
Music labels even make licensed music out there to make use of as sounds when you’d desire to set your video to a tune moderately than your individual audio.
This function, together with the short-form video format TikTok grew to become common for, allowed TikTok to thrive as a platform. There are whole social media traits that change into common on TikTok that contain creators utilizing common sounds from different creators.
TikTok additionally has filters, stickers, native enhancing options and highly effective collaborative options, together with stitches and duets.
Your bio can have one fundamental hyperlink in addition to hyperlinks to different social media platforms.
As a creator, you need to use a private or enterprise account on TikTok. A enterprise account provides you entry to helpful analytics, such because the variety of video and profile views you’ve obtained, your site visitors sources on TikTok (For You vs Following web page), complete play instances for particular person movies, and extra.
All the things you’ll want to learn about Instagram reels
All movies on Instagram are actually reels, however what are Instagram reels?
Reels are short-form movies which have a most runtime of three minutes. Every reel has a caption and as much as three major engagement buttons: like, remark and share.
Beneath the Share button is a three-dot button that opens further choices, together with a Save button and buttons that unlock collaborative options, together with remixes (much like duets on TikTok) and sequences (much like stitches on TikTok).
Just like TikTok, if customers need to view a brand new reel, all they should do is scroll up.
Additionally much like TikTok, reels have audios different creators can use. Licensed music will also be used as audios.
Stickers, filters and in-app video enhancing are additionally out there.
All Instagram accounts have entry to a single hyperlink creators can add to their bios.
On Instagram, you’ll be able to create a private or enterprise account. Enterprise accounts are maintained through Meta, which additionally controls your Fb account.
Analytics embrace metrics for the variety of profile views, video views, follows and engagements you’ve obtained.
Statistics that examine Instagram reels and TikTok movies
In our stats submit for Instagram Reels, we found that Instagram has over 2 billion month-to-month lively customers (MAUs), in accordance with Statista.
Statista additionally says TikTok reached 1.9 billion customers total in 2023 and 135.79 million in the US in early 2025.
It’s clear that irrespective of which platform you resolve to make use of, you’ll have a big and lively person base to focus on.
Let’s go over a couple of statistics from Metricool’s short-form video research as nicely.
In response to this research, Instagram Reels get a mean variety of 16,153 views every whereas TikToks obtain 18,173 views.
That doesn’t appear to be a lot of a distinction, however the numbers get extra spaced out while you examine numbers between several types of accounts:
- Accounts with 0 to 500 followers
- Instagram – Reels posted by accounts with this many followers obtain a mean variety of 558 views every
- TikTok – TikTok movies posted by accounts with this many followers obtain a mean variety of 1,200 views every
- Accounts with 501 to 2,000 followers
- Instagram – 1,200 views
- TikTok – 3,600 views
- Accounts with 2,001 to 10,000 followers
- Instagram – 2,900 views
- TikTok – 9,200 views
- Accounts with 10,001 to 50,000 followers
- Instagram – 9,000 views
- TikTok – 19,700 views
- Accounts with over 50,001 followers
- Instagram – 65,800 views
- TikTok – 91,400 views
You possibly can see that for smaller accounts, TikToks obtain twice as many views as Instagram reels do.
Engagement charges are related between the 2 platforms with Instagram reels receiving a mean engagement price of 5.53% per video and TikTok receiving 5.75%.
In response to Similarweb, listed here are the demographics that use Instagram:
- High International locations
- United States – 20.1% of instagram.com’s site visitors originates from this nation
- Brazil – 10.15%
- India – 5.35%
- United Kingdom – 3.41%
- Canada – 3.33%
- Gender Distribution
- Male – 55.62% of instagram.com’s site visitors belongs to this gender group
- Feminine – 44.38%
- Age Distribution
- 18 to 24 – 23.12% of instagram.com’s site visitors belongs to this age group
- 25 to 34 – 29.23%
- 35 to 44 – 18.55%
- 45 to 54 – 13.35%
- 55 to 64 – 9.65%
- 65+ – 6.1%
Listed here are the demographics that use TikTok:
- High International locations
- United States – 20% of tiktok.com’s site visitors originates from this nation
- Vietnam – 7.67%
- Brazil – 5.23%
- Indonesia – 4.2%
- Peru – 3.47%
- Gender Distribution
- Male – 55.72% of tiktok.com’s site visitors belongs to this gender
- Feminine – 44.28%
- Age Distribution
- 18 to 24 – 26.67% of tiktok.com’s site visitors belongs to this age group
- 25 to 34 – 29.35%
- 35 to 44 – 18.17%
- 45 to 54 – 12.13%
- 55 to 64 – 8.47%
- 65+ – 5.21%
You possibly can see how most of Instagram’s main site visitors sources are English-speaking international locations whereas TikTok has the next share of Gen Z customers.
7 main variations between Instagram reels and TikTok movies
1. Platform
TikTok is a video platform. The app opens the For You web page (fyp) on launch. It’s crammed with movies which are tailor-made to the person’s earlier searching historical past inside the app.
All you’ll want to do is scroll as much as view the subsequent video in your fyp.
There’s additionally a Following tab that solely accommodates movies from creators you observe.
Instagram works slightly in another way.
Whilst you can repeatedly scroll up on reels when you open one, you’ll want to discover one in your feed first.
The app does have a devoted part for reels customers can entry by clicking the video button on the backside of the app, however they’re positively not readily accessible in the way in which TikTok makes them.
2. Video Size
TikTok movies could be as much as 10 minutes lengthy when you file the video within the app itself. They are often 60 minutes lengthy when you add the video.
Instagram reels, alternatively, have a most size of three minutes.
3. Algorithm
That is subjective, however the TikTok algorithm is much more correct than the Instagram algorithm tends to be.
What I imply is, when you like a video about shrimp tacos from a selected creator on TikTok, you’ll doubtless see extra movies from that creator and possibly much more movies about shrimp tacos.
Sadly, Instagram’s algorithm isn’t fairly as sharp. You’ll principally see reels which are common on the platform moderately than reels that relate to content material you’ve seen and likes up to now.
4. Sounds
In response to Instagram, the platform has over 14,000 songs and sounds creators can add to their movies.
That is nice, nevertheless it pales compared to TikTok’s Business Music Library (CML).
The CML has over 1 million songs which are pre-cleared and freed from copyright restrictions.
Happily, you need to use any video’s sound because the sound to your video on each platforms.
5. Filters
Instagram has loads of preset and user-made filters to make use of, together with enjoyable filters like Guess the Giberish, however there’s no denying that TikTok’s intensive library of filters is way extra entertaining.
Some change your look whereas others are only for enjoyable, equivalent to a pattern that exams your singing pitch.
6. Creator fund
Whereas creators typically really feel short-changed by the TikTok Creator Fund, particularly while you examine it to the quantity of income creators are capable of generate from YouTube’s advert program, it’s nonetheless higher than what Instagram pays for views: nothing.
Instagram has promoting, nevertheless it doesn’t have a program that permits you to earn income from Instagram itself from individuals merely watching your content material.
It is a perk you’ll be able to obtain by posting your movies to TikTok, even when you solely obtain a couple of hundred {dollars} for tens of millions of views.
7. Store
Instagram has built-in ecommerce options that enable customers to purchase straight from creators on Instagram, nevertheless it’s pretty light-weight compared to TikTok’s store options.
You possibly can even use this function to advertise different store’s merchandise and obtain affiliate commissions.
Must you use each platforms?
It’s greatest to optimize your movies for one platform or the opposite, however you must positively repost movies you make for one platform onto the opposite platform.
Concentrate on the platform your viewers primarily makes use of.
Then, use a social media scheduling software like SocialBee or Pallyy to simply cross submit to different platforms.
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