Unpacking Instagram’s Focus on Sends Per Reach: A Timeline, Why It Matters, and Tips for Creators & Brands

Lindsey Gamble / Instagram

You've likely heard phrases like 'sends per reach' or 'send rate' if you’ve been paying attention to Instagram recently. Adam Mosseri, Instagram's head, has been discussing this metric more frequently. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it's the rate at which people see your content and share it via direct messages (DMs).

A Timeline of Sends Per Reach

At the end of May, Mosseri first mentioned this during his Ask Me Anything session. Someone asked whether watch time is more important than likes or comments. He responded that send rates are actually more important for reach. Since then, this topic has surfaced several times, including in a recent interview with Colin & Samir, where he provided more detail. This week, he elaborated on how sends per reach is one of the most important signals in Instagram’s ranking.

Why Sends Per Reach Matter

Why the focus on sends per reach? Mosseri says this aligns with Instagram’s mission to help people connect over content they discover. The best indicator of this is content that you see and share with someone. You might like a post or comment on it passively, but when you send it to someone, it resonates with you in some way—it could be funny, entertaining, informative, or provocative. It’s also a better indicator of content you like because there’s content you feel comfortable sharing with friends but might not want to like or comment on publicly.

The Unique Role of Direct Messaging

One of Instagram's unique features is its integral direct messaging aspect. Personally, I spend a lot of time on the platform, sending and receiving Reels from my wife and friends. Recommendations like Explore and the Reels tab play a significant role in what we discover and consume on Instagram, but your direct messages likely do, too. This is why other platforms, like TikTok, are also pushing more messaging features.

Instagram's New Features Promoting Content Sharing

Instagram isn’t just emphasizing the importance of content sharing; it's also introducing additional features to support this behavior. These include a Share Button on Reels, prompting users to share their posts via DMs, and displaying public share counts on more content, not limited to Reels.

What It Means for Creators & Brands

Whenever Instagram prioritizes a certain type of content or action in its algorithm, it inevitably stirs reactions among creators, brands, and social media managers. If it’s something they aren’t already doing, it can be a significant change, which may cause frustration. On the other hand, some are excited about these changes because they see it as an opportunity to try something new that can help them grow.

Creating Shareable Content

With all the emphasis on sends per reach, creators and brands should adapt to optimize their content for reach and increase the likelihood of it being surfaced in Recommendations. How can they do that?

Firstly, creators and brands should track how often their content is shared. Currently, Instagram doesn’t provide native analytics for sends per reach, but Mosseri has mentioned that his team is exploring this. For now, creators and brands can manually track this to establish a baseline for their shares per reach, while analyzing which content was shared the most to identify trends.

Studies like the New York Times’ "The Psychology of Sharing: Why Do People Share Online?" and Harvard Business’ "Emotional Combinations That Make Stories Go Viral" show that people tend to share things that evoke emotion—whether it's entertaining, makes them angry, or validates their feelings. Depending on the content you create, bringing this to life will vary. A good practice is to think, “Would someone share this?” and “Why would someone share this?”

Additionally, include calls to action in captions or text overlays to encourage viewers to share the content. Instead of just urging viewers to like or comment, prompt them to share. This puts it at the top of viewers' minds and helps establish the habit of sharing your content via direct messages with relevant people. As with all CTAs, be clear about the action you want the viewer to take.

Incorporating This into Influencer Marketing

For brands running influencer marketing campaigns, consider metrics related to shares when evaluating creator partners and reporting on campaign content. With share counts now public, brands can gain more insight into how often content from creators is being shared. Although they won’t be able to see the reach of that post unless the creator shares it or uses an influencer marketing platform, you can request this information from creators as you would with any other metrics. When reporting on campaigns, incorporate metrics around shares as well.

In time, you can begin identifying which creators to collaborate with based on whether you aim to drive impressions, engagements, sales, and now shares. This allows you to select the right creators aligned with your specific campaign goals

What’s Next

Social media is often a copycat world. Plus, social media has moved to more intimate and close-knit experiences. It's likely that other platforms will also focus on shareable content. Therefore, it's wise for creators and brands to consider how to create content that people want to share across all their platforms, especially where short-form video is available.