Most people trying to find viral Reels on Instagram do the same thing — open the app, scroll the Explore page, and copy whatever's blowing up.
It feels productive. It's really just a quick way to make Reels nobody watches.
The problem is what you're looking at. A Reel with two million views can't really teach you anything — here's how to find the ones that can, and make your own version.
What actually makes a Reel worth copying
Don't go for the one with the most views. Go for the one that did way more than that account usually does.
- A small page that usually gets a few thousand views suddenly hits 250,000. That's the one to learn from — something about it worked.
- A huge page that normally gets a million views does 1.2 million. Nothing special — just their usual crowd.
The first one worked on people who'd never heard of the account — exactly what you need when you're starting out. (It's the idea behind outlier scoring.)
How to find viral Reels on Instagram by hand
Slow, but it works:
- Pick 15–20 accounts your size, in your niche. Skip the huge ones — their numbers won't help you.
- Save their best videos. Look through each account's recent Reels and grab the ones that got way more views than they usually do.
- Write down what made each one work. The hook ("how I do [X] in 30 minutes"), the camera shots (does it open on a close-up?), and the ending (a question, a payoff, or a loop back to the start).
- Rebuild them for your own brand. Keep the hook, the angle, the shape — swap in your own topic. Copy the structure, not the clip.
A faster way to do this
Those four steps work — they're just slow. Going through accounts and re-watching videos eats a whole evening. Here's how it looks by hand vs automated:
| By hand | With Crevia |
|---|---|
| Look through each account for the videos that did better than usual | Shows you the Instagram and TikTok videos already working in your niche |
| Re-watch and note the hooks, shots, and endings | Hands you the hook, the visuals, and a replication guide — through AI |
| Rewrite the format for your topic yourself | Paste your website and get video ideas tailored to your brand |
Either way it's the same work. Crevia just skips the scrolling.
The Reels that are already huge just show you someone else's audience. Copy the small accounts that blew up instead — the idea, not the clip.
Or skip the evening of scrolling and let Crevia find your niche's breakouts for you →