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IGTV is home to the longest video content on Instagram. It’s the perfect channel for introducing products, fashion tips, and step-by-step guides – the kind of content that engages the audience and helps them build long-term relationships.

This guide will share everything you need to know about IGTV, from building channels and making audience-friendly series to analyzing your performance.

Table of Contents

What is IGTV?

IGTV was Instagram’s response to YouTube – a mobile-friendly platform that can stream video content for up to 60 minutes.

Its  originally only supported vertical video (9:16). However, the platform has grown so much that it now supports the 16: 9 landscape format, providing a good opportunity for developers working on YouTube.

When you post a new video, users can put a 15-second preview of it on their Instagram posts. This is one of the most effective ways to watch IGTV videos and increase the number of video views.

Plus, when you post a video, a new tab will be added to your Instagram profile – where visitors can watch all of your IGTV series and videos at once.

IGTV also has its tab on Instagram Explorer, making it a great opportunity to reach a new audience.

Here, IGTV videos are categorized based on search history and user likes. The algorithm essentially displays videos based on what * the viewer * likes most.

IGTV has recently released new features that help businesses and content creators monetize the platform.

The IGTV Store allows businesses to tag their products directly on their video content so that their viewers can tap and buy them while watching the video without any problems.

For content creators, IGTV advertising is a way to monetize Instagram. In an interview with The Verge, Instagram CEO Justin Osowski said content creators use IGTV ads to benefit from industry-standard 55% of the total IGTV ad cost, just like YouTube.

How to share an IGTV video?

IGTV videos must be made outside of Instagram and then uploaded to the platform.

To share your first IGTV, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the Instagram app, go to your profile page and select the + sign

Step 2: Select the video from the gallery section. Remember that you can only select videos that are over 60 seconds long. The video time limit is 15 minutes for most accounts, but some can upload videos up to 60 minutes.

Step 3: Once you have selected the video, select a photo for it as a cover of your video frames or from your gallery

Step 4: Add a title and description to your video.

Note: For visitors, the description will be visible by tapping the triangle next to the video title – and may include clickable links.

For brands, this is a great opportunity to increase their site traffic. Content producers have a good opportunity to share paid links.

Step 5: Add your IGTV video to a series (this is optional) and decide whether or not you want a 15-second preview of it to be published between your posts by using a button or not…

Step 6: Select the edit preview option. Select the part of your 9:16 video that you want to be displayed in the 4: 5 view.

Step 7: Select how to display your IGTV video cover by selecting the Edit profile cover option.

Step 8: Enable subtitles for your It’s videos by entering the advanced settings section and turning on the auto-generated captions button

Step 9: Either select the post to IGTV option to post or select the save to draft option to publish later.

When your first video is released, you will notice that a new section has been added to your Instagram profile – a tab for your IGTV videos.

How to make IGTV video?

IGTV videos are made outside of Instagram software and then uploaded, unlike Instagram reels.

To get the best results, you can use these technical settings:

• Video format: MP4
• Duration: The video must be at least 1 minute long. The maximum time for uploading with a mobile phone in 15 minutes, and uploading from the website is 60 minutes.
• Size: 650 MB for videos less than 10 minutes and 3.6 GB for videos up to 60 minutes
• Mode of display: vertical (portrait) or horizontal (landscape)
• Ratio: Instagram offers 9:16 for vertical videos and 16: 9 for landscape videos

When making an IGTV video, keep in mind that the preview is always the first 15 seconds of the video.

Make sure that the beginning of your video is attractive enough to grab your audience’s attention and prepare them, and prepare the image for 4: 5 display as a preview between posts.
How to share a preview of an IGTV video in the Instagram posts section?

Instagram users can put 15 seconds of their video between their posts.

If you want to do this, your IGTV videos will live between your posts in your profile, with the IGTV icon in the top right corner.

You do not have to do this, and it is completely optional – but it helps you see more sham content.

All you have to do is turn on the post a preview button. After selecting this option, a preview of your IGTV video will be displayed among the posts that your followers will see, and a cover photo of your posts on your profile page.

When you post a preview of the IGTV video, the title and description will be in the caption. But keep in mind that links are not clickable and become plain text.

Additionally, you can select the edit preview option to adjust how your IGTV video is displayed (you only have this option if your video is 9:16. If your video ratio is 16: 9, the video will be shown in full. became).

To edit your IGTV video cover displayed in your Instagram posts (1: 1), select the edit profile cover option and move the photo.

Posting previews to posts is one of the best ways to increase the visibility of IGTV videos – and with all these editing features and cover photos, you do not need to disrupt your Instagram order.

How to schedule an IGTV video?

You can use Facebook Creator Studio to schedule your IGTV videos to be uploaded at a specific time.

Created for PC, Creator Studio allows users to create and schedule their IGTV posts.

Note: Keep in mind that IGTV posts are not displayed in the Instagram API, so there is no other program for scheduling IGTV videos. If this feature is available, we will discuss IGTV transmission planning later. But for now, we suggest you program your IGTV content using Creator Studio.

Scheduling your IGTV content is a great way to have content to publish and keep up with your content calendar.

How to make a series?

The IGTV series is a great opportunity for brands. If you are regularly seen by your audience and provide quality content, you will soon see an increase in engagement and the number of your followers.

Collections are made as follows:

Add a video to a collection by clicking the add to the series button. If this is your first video in the collection, you must first enter the name and description of the collection.

In addition, adding existing content to the collection is easy. Select the IGTV tab from your Instagram profile, select the video you want to add to the collection, and click edit.

You will see a new feature called add to series. From here, you can create a new collection or add a video to one of the existing collections. Finally, click the post in the upper right corner.

Creating different collections is a good solution to let the audience know what to expect from you.

To take full advantage of this trend, Jan Yoshaei suggests on Instagram that “Have a recurring theme and style so that the audience knows what to expect from you in each episode.”

If the audience knows what they should expect from you every time they see your profile, they will press that cute follow button and come back to you for more.

Visit statistics, comments, and…

While IGTV’s goals are not as accurate as Instagram analytics, there is still a lot to learn from video performance.

To access the analysis, click on the three dots in the corner of the image while playing the video and select view insights.

This opens a page that shows your video interactions, including the number of views, likes, comments, and saves.

Each view will be counted when someone watches your video for only 3 seconds.

Goals IGTV is the right tool for understanding what works for your audience and what doesn’t.

But IGTV has stepped back since Instagram shifted its focus to Reels.

But the features of this flexible format, such as auto-subtitling and many ways for brands and content producers to monetize this environment, still make IGTV a valuable investment platform.

If a photo has thousands of words, a video can have millions of words.

Long videos are always an effective way to tell a story, generate valuable content and improve sales.