Instagram Potential for Brands in the Pet Industry

1. What are your goals?

Instagram without clear objectives is like a dog off leash – lots of motion, little direction. Increasing brand awareness, building a community, generating sales – each goal requires a different strategy and different content aligned to your offering. Define early on what role Instagram should play in your multichannel strategy.

2. Target audience and potential

Are you already using Instagram’s analytics features? This is often a blind spot. If you don’t know your followers’ demographic breakdown and don’t compare it with the reach of your Reels, you’re missing valuable insights. A practical example: Do your Reels primarily reach 25- to 35-year-old dog owners, but your followers are mostly over 45? Then either your content isn’t right, or your brand faces don’t fit the target audience. This discrepancy costs reach and potential new customers. Review your content assets: Which ones engage your followers, and which ones attract new ones?

3. Algorithm check: Match format to goal

Whether Reels, carousels, single images, or Stories – each Instagram format has its own algorithm. Reels are optimized for maximum reach and favor entertainment content. Carousels encourage longer dwell time and are perfect for product explanations or before-and-after stories. Single images shine for targeted community messaging, and Stories create closeness and direct dialogue. The key is matching format and goal: Want to reach new audiences? Reels with animal protagonists are the way to go. Want to inform existing customers in more depth? Use multi-part carousels with care tips or product details. If you pit algorithm and strategy against each other, you waste potential.

4. Competitor analysis

It’s tempting to look first at follower counts when comparing competitors. But it’s better to measure the performance of individual content pieces. Look for Reels with high view counts and also high engagement rates. Is there a pattern? Which recurring formats do you see, and how do they perform? You can never fully rule out that results were boosted by paid media. But over time you’ll get a feel for what content works well. That’s extremely helpful for your own planning.

5. Content audit: A look in the rearview mirror

Focus on metrics that match your goals: the share of reach among non-followers to increase brand awareness; likes, comments, direct messages, and subscriptions to a broadcast channel to build community; and website clicks for sales.

Create a leaderboard of your most successful posts from the past three months. What do they have in common? Which topics, formats, or posting times perform above average? Again, look for patterns. What drove the success of those posts? Did they offer information, emotion, or entertainment? These insights are the foundation of your future content planning. Because in the end, success isn’t decided by the prettiest campaign, but by systematically understanding what truly resonates with your community. Instagram marketing in the pet industry works – but only with the right mix of strategy, emotion, and data-driven optimization.

In the next issue:

The success factors of Reels and TikToks.

About the author

André Karkalis has been a communications consultant for over 20 years, the owner of an exuberant Golden Retriever, and the founder of the agency TONY. With his team, he has completed over 100 projects for industry and retail in the pet sector and has received, among others, the Digital Communications Awards, the German Prize for Online Communication, and the European Excellence Awards. In addition to social media marketing, TONY produces Europe’s largest petfluencer events and has been organizing the GERMAN PETFLUENCER AWARDS since 2019.

You can reach the author at: a.karkalis@tony.pet