August 2026
Video is a coin flip. Carousel is not.
Compared brand by brand, twelve months of posts, at least five posts per format: carousels beat single images at 104 of 150 brands, 69 percent, with a median lift of 19 percent. Video beats single images at 73 of 129 brands, 57 percent, with a median ratio of 1.04.
Median video share in the feed: 22 percent of posts. Only 38 of 335 brands run more than half video.
What it means
The industry advice "more video" wins nothing at half the brands. Carousel is the more reliable bet, and almost nobody talks about it.
How it was measured
21,058 Instagram posts from 456 brands, June 2025 to June 2026. Median likes per brand and format, then paired per brand with at least five posts in each format. Likes, not reach. Video share from the August 2026 feed.
Have you measured your format ranking for your own brand, or adopted it?
