The swipe-right era of social is here: How to make your carousels stand out
Lia Haberman is the author of the popular ICYMI newsletter, sharing weekly platform updates and social content trends. She’s been tapped for social media insights by brands such as Google, Robert Half, and AT&T; led social branding and creator workshops for Disney's Creator Lab, Macy's Style Crew, and YouTubers Colin and Samir’s Creator Startup, and she teaches social media and influencer marketing at UCLA Extension. When she's not working, she's scrolling TikTok and Instagram looking for new places to eat in Los Angeles.
Carousels are the underappreciated social media workhorses of the year.
Short-form video content might get all the buzz, but it’s not the only thing you should focus on.
Swipe-through storytelling has quietly become one of the most powerful content formats for engagement — not just on Instagram, but across LinkedIn, Threads, Facebook, and even TikTok.
Let’s let the data tell the story:
- On LinkedIn: Carousel PDFs drive more engagement (clicks, shares, and interactions) than any other format. In fact, LinkedIn carousel posts get 5 times as many clicks as any other post format.
- On TikTok: Photo carousels can average 2.9x more comments, 1.9x more likes, 2.6x more shares than videos.
- On Instagram: While Reels deliver the highest reach, carousels drive 12% more engagement.
- On Facebook and Threads: Photo-based content ranks the highest for engagement. On threads, photo-based content earns 37% more engagement than posts with links and 60% more than text posts while photo-based content on Facebook earned 35% more engagement than text posts and almost 44% more than video content. Quick tip: Use Adobe Express’ Resize and Quick Actions to repurpose carousels across Meta’s platforms.
But beware, this isn’t an old-school photo dump. Carousels should be a strategically curated, swipe-right selection of images (and sometimes video) culled from your camera roll. And it’s become one of the most creative ways to tell stories.
Keep reading as we walk you through the best (and easiest) ways to make carousels that stand out on social!
Different carousel formats
Carousels are versatile. Whether it’s two slides or ten, a new product launch or a community spotlight, the format lets you build tension and tell stories in mini chapters.
Some popular frameworks to inspire you are:
- Tips and Tutorials (step-by-step breakdowns or how-tos)
- Follow-along (behind-the-scenes or day-in-the-life sequences)
- 360 Storytelling (showcase multiple angles of one moment, product, or idea)
- Listicles (a structure for best-of reports and countdowns)
- Stats and insights (bite-sized reports, data visualization)
- Tension / This or That (comparisons, reveals, before-and-after)
Netflix uses Instagram carousels to unveil new cast members of a popular series, give voice to a character’s inner monologue, and even to reveal different movie posters. Each grouping is a new opportunity to establish the story they want to tell. It’s a masterclass in creativity.
Listicle and ranking carousels are also a favorite of food, travel, and local community accounts, such as Eater, Infatuation and the Camber App, for covering a lot of gourmet ground in just one post.
Pro tip: Use Resize and Quick Actions to roll out a carousel across platforms without starting from scratch for each one.
Platform-specific features and formats
Not all carousels are created equal. The way people swipe, scroll, and interact varies by platform — and the smartest brands design accordingly.
- Instagram offers a hold-and-scroll option on carousels that’s been used for creative effects on brand accounts like Disneyland, Crumblr Cookies, Siete Foods, and Microsoft. It can be used to create a stop-motion effect and to bring content to life.
- LinkedIn removed its native carousel option in 2023 but still allows for a carousel effect by uploading a multi-page PDF document. Carousels on this platform function like mini-presentations to emphasize social-first storytelling, like this Robert Half post. When designing, aim for a balance of professional and engaging. Think high-quality graphics, charts, and brand colors to make slides more eye-catching and easier to understand.
- TikTok offers two styles of carousels. The platforms offers an automated slideshow feature where the swipe is automatic. There’s also a carousel tool that stitches together images for seamless swipe storytelling, whether you use this for product launches, panoramic image reveals, or creating a to-be-continued masterpiece that tells a romatnci tale about meeting a nehghbor in Paris, one frame at a time.
- Threads carousels allow for swipe or pinch gestures, which helps accounts create playful illusions, side-by-side comparisons, and clever visual storytelling extensions. The Patriots account used the pinch feature and also uses Threads carousels to tell stories from multiple viewpoints.
Pro tip: Create standout carousels using LinkedIn-optimized templates in Adobe Express.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3VeNJ1MYPe/?img_index=1
Test. Tweak. Slide Again.
Every carousel is a mini-experiment. The data helps you refine your next one.
Some things to watch:
- Engagement numbers: Monitor saves, shares, comments, and likes across platforms. Multiple pieces of media on Instagram means more interactions with your carousel posts, and more interactions means more reach on average, according to Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram.
- Format mix: Test static-only versus animated slides versus hold-and-scroll options. Or compare five-slide posts versus ten-slide posts. Or try carousels with and without graphic directions that encourage people to keep swiping.
- First-slide impact: Compare bold hooks versus subtle ones. Cover slides matter, especially on LinkedIn. In Instagram, carousels get a second chance in the feed and automatically move to a second piece of media for the viewer.
- Slide-level analytics: Instagram is doubling down on carousels and recently announced it’s rolling out more granular insights showing which individual image or video was on screen when someone liked the post. This should provide better feedback on the actual content that’s grabbing people’s attention.
Pro tip: Use Metricool as an add-on in Adobe Express to track performance, spot top-performing carousels and make smarter creative decisions in real time.