NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 23:21 ET
- Luxury-brand video views on Instagram Reels rose 234% in Q2 2025, eMarketer data show
- TikTok luxury video views grew 4% in the same quarter after five straight quarters of gains
- A rise in engagement-chasing tactics is also surfacing in paid “branded content” posts promoting bought comments
Average video views for luxury brands surged on Instagram’s Reels in the second quarter of 2025, while growth on TikTok slowed sharply, according to industry benchmark data published on Monday. EMARKETER
The shift matters as luxury marketers head into 2026 campaign planning with a sharper focus on where short-form video discovery is happening. TikTok has dominated that role for years, but brands have been looking to spread risk across platforms as audience habits evolve.
It also adds to the competitive stakes between Meta Platforms, which owns Instagram, and TikTok owner ByteDance as both companies chase advertising dollars tied to short-video engagement. Stronger Reels performance can translate into higher-priced ad inventory if brands follow the audience.
Video views for luxury brands on Reels climbed 234% in Q2 2025 after about a year of flat performance, eMarketer said, citing “industry KPI” data provided by Dash Social. KPIs, or key performance indicators, are standard metrics used to track and compare marketing results.
By contrast, luxury video views rose 4% on TikTok in Q2 2025, after growing for five straight quarters, the same dataset showed. eMarketer said TikTok’s pull has softened as short-form vertical video is now widely available across rival apps.
Meta has said Reels now accounts for about half of time spent on Instagram, and that its “monetization efficiency” — how effectively it converts engagement into revenue — has grown by more than 30% year-on-year, eMarketer reported.
The report also pointed to a shift in how users approach TikTok, with more people treating it as a place for intentional discovery and quick searches rather than endless scrolling, a change that can reduce overall engagement time.
As engagement becomes harder to win, the market around social “signals” is growing alongside it. A branded-content post published on the Kansas State Collegian’s website on Monday promoted buying Instagram comments as a way to build “social proof” and prompt algorithmic visibility. Kansas State Collegian
The paid post recommended third-party vendors and marketed features such as custom comments, geo-targeting and drip-feed delivery — spreading activity over time to avoid a sudden spike that might look unnatural — underscoring how closely marketers watch comment and view counts.
For luxury brands, those counts can influence what content gets amplified by recommendation systems that power Reels and other short-video feeds. That has pushed teams to test formats, posting cadence and distribution across multiple apps, even when the creative is similar.
The Reels jump, if sustained, would strengthen Instagram’s case as a primary short-video channel for premium brands at a time when TikTok’s growth is showing signs of maturing, according to the benchmark figures.
Marketers will be watching whether the divergence holds in later quarters as platforms adjust recommendation algorithms and compete more directly for creators and brand budgets.
