Find Viral Instagram Reels in Your Niche

To find viral Instagram reels in your niche, scan the hashtags your buyers and competitors use, save the public posts, and rank them by views and by engagement (likes plus comments, divided by views). Views show how far a reel travelled; engagement shows how strongly people reacted. The reels that score well on both are the formats worth remixing for your own product. We build OnPromptAds Brands, and its Viral Spy Chrome extension automates the scanning and saving, so weigh our perspective accordingly.

What counts as "viral" in your niche?

Viral is relative to your niche, not to the whole platform. A reel with a modest reach that gets a strong reaction from the right buyers can teach you more than a huge reel that people watched once and forgot. Use two signals together:

Signal	What it tells you	What to watch out for
Views	How far the reel travelled	Reach can come from a trend or sound unrelated to your product
Engagement (likes plus comments, divided by views)	How strongly viewers reacted	A small number of views can make the rate look better than it is

A reel high on both is the strongest candidate. A reel high on engagement but lower on views often points to a format that converts viewers well and has not been copied much yet.

How do you pick the right hashtags?

Start with three kinds of hashtags and keep the list short:

1. Product hashtags: what your product is called by the people who buy it, such as the category or item.
2. Use-case hashtags: the situation or problem your product solves.
3. Style or community hashtags: how your audience describes its taste.

Open each hashtag first and check that the top reels show your kind of buyer and product. If they do not, the hashtag is too broad or too far from your niche. Viral Spy lets you scan up to 6 hashtags at a time, so choose the few that match your customer closely rather than adding every tag you can think of.

How do you scan hashtags with Viral Spy?

Viral Spy is a Chrome extension that saves public Instagram posts from hashtags you choose into your OnPromptAds Brands library. The flow is:

1. Add the extension from the Chrome Web Store (the Viral Spy page has the link) and open OnPromptAds Brands.
2. Choose your hashtags and start the scan from your brand.
3. Let it read the public posts. The extension opens the hashtag and reads the posts Instagram already shows. Hashtag grids leave out view counts, so it also asks Instagram for the same public media details a reel page loads.
4. Take it 50 at a time. Each scan returns 50 posts. After each batch you can take the next 50 from the same hashtag, move to the next hashtag or finish, and each batch tells you how many posts were new and how many were already saved and updated.
5. Let a later pass fill in the numbers. View counts are filled in later without counting the same post twice.

Viral Spy is read only. Nothing is liked, commented, followed or posted, and it does not collect your Instagram password or copy your session cookie to our servers. In version 1.2.0, a scan can include up to 6 hashtags and the extension stays inside a daily limit of 30 hashtags. You can read the details on the Viral Spy page.

How do you read the results?

Open your library and sort it twice: first by views, then by engagement. Then look for patterns rather than single reels:

• The opening. What happens in the first moments, and is the same type of opening repeated across several reels?
• The structure. Is it a quick hook, then the product, then the result? Write the sequence down in plain words.
• The length and pacing. Do the strongest reels run short or take their time?
• The caption and call to action. What does the caption ask the viewer to do?

Save about ten reels per hashtag as a short list of formats, then ask one question of each: can I repeat this format with my product and a real person or scene I can actually show? If not, move on. For more on openings, see our guide to ad hooks that stop scrolling.

How do you turn a viral reel into your own?

Remix the format, not the footage. Keep the structure that works (the hook, the order of shots, the pacing) and replace the content with your own product and your own presenter. Do not copy another creator's video or audio; it can break their rights and platform rules, and it will not build your brand.

In OnPromptAds, you open a saved reel and remix it. The storyboard asks for your presenter and one product photo before a video is generated: a character sheet for your presenter when a shot needs a person, and a product sheet with the item on its own. If you are deciding between real creators and generated creative, our comparison of UGC and AI ad creatives explains where each fits.

What are the limits?

• Public posts only. Viral Spy saves what is public on the hashtags you scan.
• Hashtag grids hide view counts. That is why view numbers arrive in a later pass.
• A viral format is not a guarantee. A reel that worked for someone else may not work for your product, so test your remix against your own results.
• Instagram can change. Scanning depends on what Instagram shows publicly, so treat the library as research, not a live feed.

If you are still building your list of competitors first, Store Spy shows what a Shopify store sells best, and Ad Spy finds Shopify ads in Meta Ad Library.

Frequently asked questions

Can I find viral reels without a tool?

Yes. You can browse hashtag pages by hand and note what stands out. It is slow, because hashtag grids do not show view counts, and you have to open each reel to see its numbers. Viral Spy saves the public posts and fills in the counts for you.

Does Viral Spy like, comment or follow on my behalf?

No. Viral Spy is read only. Nothing is liked, commented, followed or posted.

What is engagement, and why sort by it?

Engagement in the library is likes plus comments, divided by views. Sorting by it shows reels that moved viewers to react, not only reels that reached many people.

How many posts can I scan at once?

Each scan returns 50 posts at a time. In version 1.2.0 a scan can include up to 6 hashtags, and the extension stays inside a daily limit of 30 hashtags.

Does a viral reel mean my version will work?

No. A viral reel shows a format that worked for its creator and audience. Remix it with your own product, then judge it by your own results.