Having trouble boosting your Instagram videos? You have come to the right place.
Promoting Instagram Reels is supposed to be very easy, whether you do it in the Instagram app or through your social media dashboard.
But the truth is that there can be many problems along the way. If you’ve ever been frustrated with the reel boost process: you’re not alone. That’s why we’ve put together this super list of troubleshooting tips for promoting Instagram reels.
Bookmark this page so you never have to frantically throw your phone across the room again. Then read the answers to the most common Instagram reel boost issues.
Why can’t I boost my Instagram Reels? 10 Common Error and Problem Messages
If you have a love-hate relationship with the new Instagram Reels boost feature, we feel you. Sometimes it only takes a few clicks to get your amazing content out to your target audience. Other days it seems like everything that can go wrong, goes wrong.
Why can I amplify this drum but not this one? Is cross-posting on Facebook ruining my life? Why can’t I even find the boost button today?
The truth is that no social media relationship is perfect. But armed with knowledge, we know that you crazy kids will get the hang of it. Give us a call Cupid: we just want to help you love Instagram Reels again – and keep growing in bliss.
Read or watch the video below to learn about the most common Instagram Reels Boost error messages and how to avoid them.
Unfortunately, if you posted your Instagram video to Facebook, you won’t be able to use the boost feature.
You may have posted your video on Facebook without even knowing it.
Remember the last step in the process of creating and publishing a video: there is a page where you add a title and any tags, remember? Here you will also find the “share on Facebook”option. If Past You turned on this toggle, unfortunately you are out of luck with this particular post.
How to fix it
You have one option: you can upload the video and share it on Instagram, this time making sure you don’t post it on Facebook.
Once this Instagram Reel is published exclusively on Instagram, you will be able to promote it.
Videos that use copyrighted music cannot be promoted as advertisements.
If you have included copyrighted music on your Instagram Reel, you will unfortunately not be able to apply the boost feature.
This is because using Boost turns your organic creative content into ads. It’s illegal to use copyrighted music videos in ads, even if you’ve spent hours syncing the footage to your favorite Lizzo track.
How to fix it
If you encounter this issue, you will need to start from scratch with your video, this time using non-copyrighted music or original audio.
Increasing the number of videos on Instagram is currently only available for Instagram business accounts. If you don’t see the upvote button on your Instagram videos, you may not have a business account.
Fortunately, anyone can switch their profile from personal to business.
- Go to your profile and tap the settings menu icon in the top right corner (three horizontal lines).
- Click “Settings”then “Account”.
- Then scroll down to click “Change account type”.
From there, follow the instructions to complete your Instagram Business account setup. (For a complete introduction, here’s our guide to switching your profile.)
Once you have identified yourself as a business account, you will be able to increase its content. Find them, tiger!
Pro Tip: Another great thing about an Instagram business profile? You can connect it to social media panels like Hootsuite and schedule your Instagram reels and your posts and stories ahead of time.
Moreover, you can also enlarge your Instagram videos from here. She is a complete package, mamaaaa!
You do not have permission to promote this post
If you’re getting a message that you don’t have permission to promote a video on Instagram, the issue can be resolved on Facebook.
Every Instagram business account must be linked to a Facebook page, as you probably discovered when setting up your business profile. But if you were somehow removed from the list of administrators on this Facebook page, you may have problems with Instagram ads.
Go to Facebook to make sure you have admin rights for the connected Page. You can even try disconnecting your Instagram account from this Page and reconnecting it.
To unlink your Facebook page from your Instagram account, go to your profile settings and scroll down to the Meta Account Center. Tap accounts and delete the erroneous Facebook page. You should now be able to start over and try adding your Facebook page again.
Videos containing gifs or other effects cannot be promoted as advertisements.
If you have a GIF in your feed, you won’t be able to enhance it. Gifs are copyrighted artistic content, so unfortunately you are not allowed to use them in commercial videos i.e. promotional video.
To avoid this mistake, remake your video without GIF and repost. Now you will be able to increase your Instagram Reel.
Reels containing clickable items cannot be boosted
You are not allowed to power up the reels with interactive stickers… with one exception.
Prohibited stickers include: questions, @mentions, or anything else with a sliding emoji bar.
What is allowed: voting sticker.
We’re racking our brains to figure out why this is against Instagram’s code of conduct, but we can’t. Sometimes Instagram is like a disappointing parent, isn’t it? “Because I said that should be reason enough!”
How to fix it
If you’re facing this issue, the solution is pretty obvious, but we’ll say it anyway: redo your video without that clickable sticker element. If you want to get your viewers interested in a question, try using text or a voice-over tool to ask a big question. You can also use the caption to frame your question.
The resolution of this video is too low
Instagram only wants to promote beautiful content. (Yes, that’s right, appearance matters.) If your video doesn’t meet Instagram Reels specifications and is low resolution or not in vertical format, your upvote will likely be rejected. (In our experiments, we also found that zoomed videos cause resolution issues.)
How to fix it
All Instagram videos must be 1080px wide by 1920px high, with an aspect ratio of 9:16. Learn more about reel technical details with our 2022 Instagram reel sizing guide: specs, ratios and more.
This video is too long
Although Instagram videos can be up to 90 seconds long, you are only allowed to upvote Instagram videos that are 60 seconds or less.
How to fix it
If your promotion is rejected due to length, it’s time to put on your editor’s hat and get to cutting. Go back and edit your drum to 60 seconds and try zooming in again.
Drums using effects cannot be promoted as ads
The beauty of Instagram’s library of filters and effects is that anyone can get creative with augmented reality and add their own. That’s how we get such a solid choice, from quirky disco lighting to a goatee filter and sunglasses that make us look like Guy Fieri.
It is possible to use Instagram’s own filters in your promoted videos, but if you use an effect developed by a third party, your promotion attempt will be blocked.
Unfortunately, there is no workaround for this – you just need to reshoot the video without the effect or choose another unfiltered video to boost.
Why can’t I promote my videos on Facebook?
We understand that you want everyone on every platform to see all of your incredible content, but the thing is, you can’t currently promote videos on Facebook.
It’s likely that Facebook will eventually add this ad feature, but it’s currently not possible to promote a video on Facebook.
However, what you can do is to upvote the video post on Facebook. So if you have an amazing video that you absolutely must share with the world, just download it to your phone and then upload it as a standard video post to your Facebook page. From there, click Boost to set your target audience, budget, campaign duration, and more.
Here’s a complete guide to Facebook post promotion that goes into the nitty-gritty if you want. Hot Tip: You can schedule a Facebook post and activate it right from your Hootsuite dashboard. Who needs coils?! We’re done!
We hope this guide has helped you troubleshoot Instagram video boost issues. Remember that promoting a video is just one of the options for advertising on Instagram. Learn more about Instagram Reels advertising here.