How I Turned $75 Per Day in Ad Spend Into 1 Million Views on My Instagram Reel With Only 1,000 Followers

Learn the process Samantha Abrahamson followed to find a Reel format that would get the maximum ROI for her social media advertising budget.

Here’s the flashy version of my story: Last fall, I posted a Reel to my business’ small Instagram account and backed it with $75 a day in ad spend. Within a week, the Reel had over one million views. Now, less than a year after launching my AI-based healthy eating app, I have an Instagram advertising strategy that regularly leads to not only downloads but purchases as well! 

Miraculous, right?

Well, you know how they say it takes years of work behind the scenes to achieve an “overnight” success? I should start this article with a similar confession: It took me about six months of laying the groundwork to achieve those results. Which, frankly, is still pretty miraculous considering I knew nothing about paid advertising previously and barely even thought about social media when I launched my app. 

I wish I could tell you there was a magic bullet when it comes to paid social media advertising. While I don’t have that, I do have a process that any business owner can replicate to find an advertising strategy that gets results. Here’s how I did it.

I used trial and error to find a winning video format for my audience

I’ve watched my husband grow and scale several companies using social media advertising, giving me a peek into what it takes to succeed. Unfortunately, this didn’t mean he could help me with my strategy—it's a totally different business. What works for one product and target market isn’t necessarily going to work for another. 

From his experience, I knew I wanted to create a specific type of video or Reel. First of all, I wanted it to get results—not just views on Instagram, but actual conversions to clicks, downloads, and purchases. I knew I also wanted to find a video style that was repeatable: that we could recreate over and over again with slight variation, and that somebody other than me could easily make. 

I started trying anything and everything on our Instagram then paying close attention to the results to find our winning video format. First, I simply shared my story as a founder: why I started the app and the process of development. I also tried following trends for a while, doing TikTok dances and the like. Both of these got a surprising amount of traction in terms of views and new followers but didn't lead to many downloads, showing me that the formats weren’t quite right.

I decided I needed to showcase my app if I wanted people to be tempted to download it. I tried doing simple screen recordings walking throug