What Is Instagram’s New Retention Chart for Reels?

Instagram describes its latest Reel metric as an “interactive chart that shows the percentage of views from people who continued to watch your Reel at each moment.”

Essentially, it uncovers the exact moments of your video that keep your viewers hooked, as well as those that drive them away. 

As well as this, Instagram is replacing its view rate metric with skip rate, which indicates the number of viewers who skip past your Instagram Reel within the first three seconds. This will be available in the coming weeks, and can be found directly below the retention graph.

I’ve found retention charts to be one of the most valuable insights when analyzing our brand’s YouTube videos. However, there are a few important things to know when you start interpreting the data.

Firstly, here’s how the graph is constructed:

• The horizontal axis of the graph represents the duration of your video
• The vertical axis shows the retention level of your audience
• The purple line tracks these aspects in relation to each other

The line of the chart will always be at 100% retention for the first second of your video, since this marks the start of a Reel view.

The most important thing to know is that your Reel retention graph will always slope downwards from this point, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. 

What you want to note is the angle of the slope, and whether there are any bumps along the way. Here’s what it all means:

• A gradual downwards slope: Viewers are slowly dropping off your video at various points, but engagement is good
• A sharper downwards slope: Viewers are less engaged with your Reel and are exiting at a faster rate
• A dip: This indicates a less engaging part of your video that has a higher drop-off rate than the rest

While not as common, you may also see a bump in your Instagram Reel retention chart. This represents a part of your Reel that people are replaying often.

To put this data into action and boost the performance of your future Reels, you should look for patterns across your content. Watch your videos that have high skip rates or declining or dipping graphs, and ask yourself:

• Are there overall themes or topics that have a lower retention rate?
• Are there specific elements of your content that perform poorly, such as voiceover segments or specific editing choices?
• For Reels with a high skip rate, can the opening hook be punchier, phrased more clearly or read in a different tone?
• Is important information and calls to action delivered at optimal times, or after a dip in retention?

I recommend comparing these Reels to your content with flatter retention graphs and lower skip rates, since these will give you a guide to the themes, structure, and hooks that your audience find most engaging.

If your content isn’t hooking your audience, don’t be afraid to experiment! Instagram’s Trial Reel feature is a great way to test new short-form video content to smaller groups of users who don’t follow you.

Combining these analytics tools and features will put you in the best position to improve your Instagram content and drive serious social media growth for your business.