The ultimate Instagram Reels cover guide (+ free templates)

Want to create an Instagram Reels cover that really pops? We’ve got you *covered.* (Get it?)

Crafting the perfect cover for your Reel video is essential to draw viewers in and keep them engaged with your content. Not only will a great cover design help your content stand out, but it will also give your followers an idea of what to expect from your videos.

The best part? You don’t need to be a professional designer to create an amazing Instagram Reels cover. Let’s explore how to change your Instagram Reel covers, some templates to get you started, and how to make sure your covers look great on your feed.

What are Instagram Reels covers?

Instagram Reels covers are still images that appear as thumbnails of your Instagram Reels video. Choosing a compelling Instagram Reels cover can help boost views and make your page more visually appealing.

Here’s an example from soda brand Poppi. The brand recently launched a new flavor and have created Instagram Reels covers to match the new flavor’s color scheme, helping pull its page into a cohesive design while simultaneously grabbing attention and promoting its new product.

You can choose an Instagram Reels cover from your video footage or upload a graphic or still image to set as the video thumbnail.

5 free Instagram Reels cover templates

One great way to make your brand’s Instagram Reels recognizable and appealing to your audience is to use a set of templates for each video cover. By using a similar design for each Reel, you’re able to create a cohesive feed and help your content stand out.

Check out these five completely free Instagram Reels cover templates to help you get started.

How to add an Instagram Reels cover

To help your Instagram Reels fit better in your feed, you’ll want to add an Instagram Reels cover as you create and publish your video. Follow along with this step-by-step guide to add the perfect cover for your video.

Step 1: Create your Instagram Reel video

First, open up your Instagram app and tap the plus sign in the bottom middle of your screen to start creating a new post.

Tap Reel from the four content types, then search for your video in your camera roll or select the camera option to start recording in-app.

Once you’ve uploaded or recorded your video, tap Next to move onto the next step.

Step 2: Make your in-app changes

On the next screen, you’ll be able to make any in-app edits or changes, like cropping the video, adding audio, changing the speed, adding text or stickers, and more.

Perfect your Instagram Reel and get it ready to publish. Then tap Next.

Step 3: Click Edit cover

The next screen is where you can add things like tags, hashtags, polls, location geotags, your caption, and more. It’s also where you can edit your Instagram Reels cover.

At the bottom of your video thumbnail, tap Edit cover to pick a good cover photo or still for your video.

Step 4: Select or upload your Instagram Reel cover

You can scroll through your video sequence to find a perfect still from your footage by holding the window at the bottom of the screen and swiping it side to side until you find the perfect clip to use as your cover image.

Or, you can tap Add from camera roll to upload a photo or graphic you made specifically to use as a cover photo.

You can also tap the Aa icon in the corner of your thumbnail to add custom text atop your Instagram Reels cover. This can help you provide context on what viewers can expect to see in your videos as they scroll through your feed.

Step 5: Adjust your grid view

In this section, you can also tap the Profile grid tab to see what your cover image will look like in your Instagram grid.

Tap and hold the cover image to drag it around until it fits exactly how you want it to look within your feed. Using this feature is helpful if you’re using a still from the video so you can easily adjust it so the most important parts of the image are front and center.

Once you’ve adjusted it to look exactly how you want it to, tap Done.

Step 6: Publish your Instagram Reel

You’ll be taken back to the area where you can add your caption and other elements. Make sure you fully fill out all of the most important sections, then click Share to publish your Reel.

#1 Instagram Reels scheduling

Plan, manage, and schedule your Instagram Reels for maximum engagement and minimal effort. It’s so easy. Start free 30-day trial

How to edit/change an Instagram Reels cover

If you’ve previously published Instagram Reels videos without customizing your cover photo, you can always go back and update them with eye-catching Reel cover designs. Follow along with this tutorial to get started.

Step 1: Open the Instagram Reel you want to add a cover to

First things first, scroll through your Instagram feed to find any videos that need a custom or updated cover photo. Tap the video to open it to full size on your phone screen.

Step 2: Edit the Instagram post

Tap the three dots in the top right corner of your post to access your post settings. Tap Edit down towards the bottom of the options.

Step 3: Click Cover

You can edit multiple elements after you publish your Instagram Reel, including your caption, tags, and location. But you can also tap Cover on your video thumbnail to make changes here.

Step 4: Select or upload your custom Instagram Reel cover

You’ll be brought to the same interface as when you upload an Instagram Reel for the first time.

You can either scroll through your video footage until you find a still you like, or tap Add from camera roll to upload a custom Instagram Reel thumbnail to your video.

Step 5: Adjust your grid thumbnail

Tap over to the Profile grid area to, again, drag or crop your thumbnail until it sits perfectly centered. You want all of the videos in your Reels tab to feel cohesive, so adjusting your cover photo is a step you don’t want to miss.

Step 6: Update your video

Finally, once you’ve finished making your changes, tap Done in the top right corner to save them. You can now head back to your Instagram profile to see your new Reels cover in action.

How to create an Instagram Reels cover photo

Help your Instagram Reels stand out on your feed by creating custom cover photos that grab attention and let viewers know what to expect from your content.

This is especially useful if you’ve created a series or a multi-part video thread so someone who has viewed your content can easily find more of what they’re looking for. Plus, a good Reels cover can boost engagement and views by letting your audience know exactly what types of content you share.

Let’s dig into our guide to designing Instagram Reels cover photos that will help you increase your views and engagement.

1. Take advantage of graphic design software

Using a graphic design tool specifically designed to help small businesses create social media graphics can be a great hack for creating visually appealing Reels covers.

Some easy-to-use tools to choose from include:

• Canva
• Visme
• Adobe Express

Check out each one to see which tool best suits your needs, then get started designing.

Keep in mind, though, that you can also use some of Instagram’s built-in editing tools to add text, stickers, or drawings to your video cover.

2. Start with a Reel cover template

Next, it’s a good idea to start with a template for your first few cover photos, rather than designing from scratch. You can find tons of Canva templates you can seamlessly customize to fit your video content.

Plus, starting with a template helps you make sure your cover photo is the right size. An Instagram Reels cover photo should be 1080 x 1920 pixels, or an aspect ratio of 9:16.

Although your Instagram page will crop the cover photo to a portion of that, you still need to make sure it’s the full size. Just put the most important elements front and center — which a template can easily help you do.

3. Make it branded

Add your brand fonts, colors, logo, patterns, and more to your Instagram Reels cover photos. This helps make sure your content is easily recognizable while also creating a cohesive look and feel on your Instagram feed.

If you plan to use text in your cover photo, match it to your brand fonts. Add color elements with your brand colors or use photos with your branding in them as the basis for your design.

4. Showcase your Reel focus

What is your Reel about? Make it clear in your design what your Reel’s focus is so your viewer immediately knows whether they’re interested in watching it or not.

You can do this by:

• Using a still from your video that includes the video’s main elements
• Adding a text overlay with a title or description of your video
• Zooming in on an element from your video
• Incorporating shapes or other elements that draw attention to an image from your video

5. Incorporate into your content creation process

Don’t push your cover design creation off to the wayside as a nearly-forgotten step in your Reel publication process. Instead, make your cover design a key step.

This can help make sure all of your covers match in some way while also telling a story through your content. Plus, it can make sure they don’t look hastily thrown together, and instead feel like a solid part of your strategy.

5 tried-and-true Reels cover tips from the experts

Get even more out of your Instagram Reel cover design with these five expert tips for creating cover photos that will make your audience want to click and watch your videos.

1. Design with clarity and intention

“Your cover should immediately communicate what the viewer will get from your Reel,” says lifestyle expert Ciara Strickland of The New Mixx. “Whether it’s a tip, tutorial, transformation, or story. Use bold, easy-to-read text paired with a clean background or compelling image that visually supports the theme.”

What she’s saying is this: make it immediately known what each of your videos is about. Especially as users scroll through your feed to see your content, you don’t want to leave them guessing what you post about. (Or force them to watch your videos to find out for themselves — because believe us, they won’t.)

In her content, Strickland talks mostly about clothing, as her main focus is on ungendering clothing norms and helping people find affordable style. So it makes sense that she would simply use high-quality, stunning images of her outfits as her Reels covers:

2. Consider the crop

When choosing your Reels cover photo, you can move it around to make sure the most important parts are showing. This is what we mean when we say “consider the crop.” Even though your video and your cover photo need to be 1080 x 1920 pixels in size, your feed only shows a 4:5 section of that cover.

So you need to make sure you highlight the most important part of your cover photo in that central area.

This is Sam Speller, Founder of Kenko Tea’s big tip: “My number one rule when designing a stand-out Instagram Reels cover is to optimize for a thumbnail view with your big elements in the middle and bold.”

Instagram crops Reels covers in various ways depending on whether they appear in the feed, in your profile grid, or on the Explore page, so a cover that looks perfect in one place may get cut off somewhere else.

Speller shares, “We found this out the hard way when our first Reels cover — with copy in the top third — wasn’t even shown at all in profile view. Now we try to make all covers have a strong focal point — something like our best-selling matcha tin or a colorful green smoothie bowl, surrounded by a clean amount of negative space.”

You can see what Speller means when you take a look at Kenko Tea’s Instagram page:

Make sure you’re considering how your video cover could be cropped so that, no matter what, your main content sits perfectly framed in the center.

3. Use fonts strategically

“Text placement is crucial,” Jasmine Charbonier of YourTampaBestie tells us. The travel influencer explains that where you put your text and the style of font you use can both have a major impact on reach and engagement.

People scroll quickly, so your copy needs to grab them immediately.

Charbonier says, “Through tons of testing, I discovered that putting the main text in the center top third of the cover works best. I try to keep text super short — 3-4 words max. Any more than that, and engagement drops off.”

We can see that Charbonier practices what she preaches in her own Instagram Reel covers:

Notice how she also only uses bold, sans-serif fonts in her copy. Charbonier explains, “I made the mistake early on of using fancy fonts that looked great but were hard to read. Now I stick to clean, bold sans-serif fonts.”

She continues, “My go-to is Helvetica — basic but it works. The text has to be instantly readable while someone’s thumb is flying up their feed.”

4. Keep it simple

Ah, the age-old rule of “KISS.” Keep it simple, stupid (or, if you prefer to be a bit nicer, keep it simple, sweetie)!

Katie Breaker, Sales Director at Birdieball, explains to us, “When it comes to Instagram Reels covers, simplicity is your best friend. You only have a couple of seconds to grab someone’s attention, so the cover should be easy to understand at a glance.”

Don’t bother adding in a million stickers, text overlays, drawing, elements, etc. Simplicity is what helps your audience understand what your content is about.

Breaker says, “At BirdieBall, we’ve learned that using a clear, high-quality image that highlights the product or action works best.

Think of it like a snapshot of what’s coming next in the video. For us, that often means showing the training aid in use or a golfer in the middle of a swing.”

Other tips Breaker shares about her team’s Instagram Reel covers include:

• Keep the text really simple. Something like “Perfect Your Swing” works really well. It’s clear, direct, and gives people just enough of a reason to click and watch.
• Don’t overdo it with too many words. The idea is to make someone curious about what happens next and want to dive into the video.
• Make sure your style is consistent across all your Reels covers. That way, your followers recognize your content when they scroll. They start associating that style with your brand, and it helps increase engagement over time.

You can take a look at Birdieball’s Instagram Reels covers below:

5. Create custom, branded covers

Mimi Nguyen, Founder of Cafely, says one of her biggest tips is to create custom covers over using a random frame from your video.

Nguyen explains, “I used to do that early on, and it never performed well. Now, I design custom covers in Canva or Photoshop that match our brand but still pop enough to stop the scroll. Great covers don’t just look good — they set expectations and boost click-through. A little extra design effort up front really pays off in engagement.”

As you can see, their covers are simple, but beautiful and effective:

Test out both options to see what works best for you, but keep in mind that most experts find success in using a high-quality image or graphic with extra design elements.

Save time managing Instagram for business using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can create, schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.

The post The ultimate Instagram Reels cover guide (+ free templates) appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.