Eight things the data says about selling prints on Instagram
We looked at what happens on the store when artists post during a print drop: which posts send people to the shop, which do not, and when. Here is what this year’s drops say.
Announce the drop two to three weeks out
When the first mention of a drop lands 14 to 21 days before launch, Instagram sends more than twice the store sessions during the drop than when it is first mentioned in the final fortnight. Each extra week of notice is worth roughly a third more traffic. It is the early signal that counts, not the volume: how much you post before launch makes no difference to what happens during the sale.
Carousels beat reels for clicks
Mid-drop, a day with a carousel brings about three times the store sessions of a day with a reel. Head to head on the same account, carousels out-pull reels most of the time, by close to half as much again. Reels do not reach more people than carousels, and fewer of the people they reach click, save or share. Reels still earn their place when the caption is personal or asks people to sign up for early access.
During the drop, sell
Posts that announce the drop or say last chance lift store traffic to more than four times a normal day. A personal story manages under three times, process or behind-the-scenes content just over two, and a question or comment prompt about two. While the shop is open, the post that tells people the prints are there is the post that sends them.
Scarcity works in the last two days, and only then
A last-chance post in the final 48 hours doubled store traffic more than four times out of five, with a typical lift of over five times a normal day, and most were followed by an order within two days. The same wording mid-drop barely moves anything, and before launch it does nothing. Say when it ends, and say it at the end.
Process content is best posted before the drop
Behind-the-scenes, work-in-progress and studio posts are the posts people see and save most: before a drop they reach about a quarter more people than your other posts and get saved more than anything else. They are at their best in the weeks before the drop, building awareness of it when there is nothing to click yet and reach is what you need. Feel free to post them during the drop too, just be aware that they will not drive as many clicks as a post that sells.
Say the thing, and keep it short
“Sign up for early access” and “shop now, available now” lift traffic more than twice as much as “link in bio”, and “link in bio” only slightly beats saying nothing. Everyone still clicks through your bio, so the words change intent and urgency, not the route. Short captions (under 100 characters) beat long ones (200 and over) most of the time. A link call to action costs reach on carousels, about 40% less, but not on reels, and it still comes out ahead on clicks.
Email converts three times better than Instagram
Traffic from an early-access email converts at three times the rate of traffic from the Instagram bio link, and about six times the rate of story links. The early-access email is the single biggest source of orders in a drop. Collect emails before the drop, send the early-access email at launch and the last-chance email at the close.
Product tags barely sell
Orders placed through Instagram’s shopping tags are well under 1% of Instagram orders. Tag your posts by all means, but the bio link does the work.
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The drop playbook: five short emails from the same team.