Meta released a new Reels Performance Playbook—and while some of the information you already know—it gives insights into how to better captivate your audience using reels.
Let’s start with some basics: what Meta calls the “language of Reels,” describing great Reels with three indispensable qualifiers:
- Entertaining—mixing audio and visual effects, plus storytelling to provoke emotion
- Digestible—combining value, pace, and clear communication to captivate their audience
- Relatable—telling stories the audience recognizes, with a familiar visual tone, set of codes, and people whose vibe resonates with their own
After the language of Reels come the “Creative Elements,” many of which are already familiar to content creators:
- Voice-over, music and sound effects
- Editing techniques (zooms, transitions, fast edits)
- Green screen filter and text (to “signpost” topics and key messages)
- Using a hook in the first two seconds (Meta recommends a question as the hook)
- Syncing music or sound effects (e.g., music with strong beats to match video clips)
- Human presence
- Lo-fi or less “polished” content
Chelsea Peitz, social media marketing post, expanded on the last two in a green screen, with “human presence” as her favorite:
Based on a sample of 1.2 million Reels Ads, those with a human presence had a 27% higher click-through rate (CTR) than posts without. But a human presence doesn’t just mean Reels have actual humans in them (a face, a person, a child) are getting more traction.
A human presence can include:
- Real people—like creators, customers, employees, or innocent bystanders
- Lo-fi content—like sitting on your floor in your loft
B-roll content of you doing what you do on a daily basis—during and outside of work hours—is a great way to vary the human presence in your Reels and other content.
Another creative element worth leveraging in ads and other marketing content is user-generated content (UGC), which includes customer reviews as well as testimonials in the form of social media posts, photos, videos, and blog posts relating to your brand.
Your audience wants to see real people behind your marketing—specifically someone they can relate to, someone they can respect, and someone they can see themselves working with.
“If I want to build trust with you, I need to experience the person, the personality, and the perspective.”
Story Types for Real Estate Content Inspo
Meta’s playbook ends with an overview of five story types to provide content inspiration for creators who want to create Reels but don’t know where to start:
- The Listicle: Guide your audience through a list of the services you provide or facts they need to know. Use analogies or examples to tell stories, and add text overlays to break down the Reel into digestible chunks.
- The Transition Sequence: Highlight different stages of the buying/selling process using smooth transition techniques, like jump or swipe cuts, to stitch together a series of video edits.
- The Product Demo: While you don’t have products to sell, you could showcase resources you make available to your clients—like moving trucks, party supplies, and a guide to vetted local businesses—blending demonstrations with relatable storytelling.
- The Before & After: Illustrate the impact of the services you provide by contrasting life before and after, using storytelling to engage the audience you want to reach.
- The Q&A: Present the benefits of working with you, framing it as a conversation between two people, using persuasion through dialogue to tell a compelling story.
Chelsea Peitz’s overview gets right to the heart of what she values most from the Meta playbook, and when she calls something out, we pay attention.
Also worth keeping in mind: Peitz will be one of the speakers at BAM Mania in October. If you haven’t yet signed up to join us October 17-18 at the Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, don’t miss our best in-person event yet.
If you’ve ever joined us for a BAM event—either in-person or virtual—you know we do real estate events differently. We’re in this to make every event unforgettable, with content you can immediately apply to your business.
This is a BAM event, after all, and that means—
- High-level value for your business—with proven tactics and strategies designed to make you the front-and-center voice in your community, helping you create lifetime relationships with clients who trust you with their closest connections.
- High-level entertainment—BAM naturally attracts the funniest people in real estate. This is not a somber affair. In this business, humor is every bit as essential as knowledge, and with BAM, you get extra large helpings of both.
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