Carousels vs video: what to post
Both formats work, for different reasons. Video reaches more people. Carousels hold the attention of the audience you already have. Cards builds both from the same text, so you can post each where it pays off.
Where carousels win: engagement
On Instagram, carousels post the highest engagement rate of the main formats. Socialinsider measured 35 million posts across 447,613 accounts for 2025:
- Carousels
- 0.55%Highest of the three
- Reels
- 0.52%Close behind
- Images
- 0.37%Single-image posts
Carousels sit narrowly ahead of Reels and well above single images. For saves and shares from the followers you already have, a carousel does more (Socialinsider Instagram benchmarks, published February 2026, 2025 data).
Carousels lead on LinkedIn too
The pattern holds beyond Instagram. On LinkedIn, native document posts (the carousel-style PDF) are the top-performing format by engagement rate at 7.00%, ahead of video at 6.00% and single images at 5.30%. Documents also grew the most year over year, up 14% (Socialinsider LinkedIn benchmarks, 2024–2025, 1.3M posts).
Where video wins: reach
Video gets distribution to people who do not follow you yet. On Instagram, Reels reach 2.25× more people than single-image posts (Buffer, 2024). On video-first platforms it drives more interaction too: TikTok video posts get 77% more engagement than photos, and Pinterest video pins get 83% more than images (both Buffer, 2026). To get in front of a new audience, video is the format the feeds push.
Which should you post?
It comes down to the goal. To grow, lead with video and let it carry you into new feeds. To land with your current followers, post a carousel. Plenty of accounts do both from one idea: a Reel for reach, a carousel for depth on the same topic.
Post both from one draft in Cards
Cards turns one piece of text into a carousel and a video from the same project. Write it once, export the carousel as PNGs, and render the video for Reels or TikTok. The preview matches the export, so both formats stay on-brand without redoing the work.