Build Your Marketing Muscles - Small Business Marketing Strategies · Gwen Montoya, Gwen Montoya - Marketing Strategist

Deep Dive into the Instagram Algorithm

·33 min·2 clips

“Instagram is like five social media platforms in a trench coat.”

1. Build Your Marketing Muscles - Small Business Marketing Strategies focuses on Instagram algorithm behavior and how it affects reach on feed, stories, reels, and explore. 2. Gwen Montoya hosts the episode as a marketing strategist who works with small business owners and uses her own Instagram analytics to judge traffic. 3. The episode asks what Instagram is “looking for” and how creators can make content that gets shown more often. 4. Gwen says there is not one algorithm on Instagram and describes “three or four” systems instead of a single rule. 5. She separates feed posts, stories, reels, and the explore page, and says each section has its own expectations and signals. 6. Feed ranking is described as “the best of the best,” driven by likes, comments, shares, saves, profile taps, and prior account history. 7. Gwen says Instagram surfaces posts from accounts you already interact with and accounts that already get traction. 8. Stories are framed as a 24-hour format where replies, reactions, and sticker interactions tell Instagram that a viewer is interested. 9. Reels are presented as short-form videos under 90 seconds, copied from TikTok, with discoverability built into the format. 10. Explore is described as a personalized discovery page that shows saved, liked, and shared content, plus posts related to your past activity. 11. Gwen says Instagram wants users to stay on the platform because longer sessions create more ad revenue. 12. She argues that sales posts often fall flatter unless they include humor, something unexpected, or a reason to lean in. 13. She notes that watching a reel all the way through is a strong positive signal, even when the video is only 30 seconds long. 14. Gwen says trending audio is useful because it can push a reel in front of new people, not just because it is popular. 15. She recommends checking a business bestie’s explore page against your own to see how different the recommendations can be. 16. She says if Instagram is not producing sales, leads, or website traffic, it may not be the right channel for that business. 17. The tone is practical and explanatory, with Gwen moving between platform theory and account-level experiments. 18. The format is a solo teaching episode with direct advice, repeated examples, and short side comments about her own account. 19. Small business owners frustrated with Instagram reach. 20. Listeners wanting entertainment or a celebrity interview.

As heard by us

A steady, practical look at why Instagram reach feels uneven and what actually matters for Reels.

This episode treats falling Instagram reach as a practical problem, not a mystery. Gwen Montoya explains how attention signals shape distribution, why Reels care about watch time and completion, and how past interactions affect what users see next.

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Why you'd press play

When Instagram feels frustrating, this gives you a clearer read on what the app is rewarding.

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