How a Small Pet Brand Used Instagram Reels to Drive 70% of Ecommerce Sales in 6 Months

A small pet brand competing in a $157 billion industry managed to generate 70% of its ecommerce sales from Instagram Reels in just six months.

The company didn’t rely on massive ad budgets or celebrity partnerships—it built a community around authentic pet content, trending sounds, and behind-the-scenes videos that resonated with pet owners scrolling through their feeds.

This case demonstrates how short-form video content can level the playing field for small businesses, especially when traditional marketing channels fail to deliver results. The brand’s success hinged on one thing: understanding that Instagram’s algorithm rewards genuine engagement over polished, promotional content.

The Initial Challenge

The pet brand faced a problem familiar to most small ecommerce businesses—low brand awareness in a saturated market. Competing against established names with deep pockets meant limited visibility, and traditional digital ads delivered underwhelming returns.

The team needed a cost-effective, scalable solution that could reach pet owners without draining their budget. They turned to Instagram Reels after noticing that pet content consistently outperformed other categories on the platform.

Key observations included:

• Pet influencers average 5% engagement rates, far exceeding the 1–3% norm for most creators.
• They also outperform the 2.4% average engagement for human influencers.
• 63% of pet owners already follow at least one pet influencer account, creating a built-in audience hungry for relatable, entertaining pet videos.

The brand recognized that Reels offered a unique opportunity to capitalize on this trend and reach an audience already primed to engage with pet-related content.

Operational and Backend Challenges

The company also struggled with the operational side of ecommerce. Manually tracking customer interactions, managing orders across platforms, and analyzing performance data consumed time the small team didn’t have.

They needed software that could handle these backend processes while they focused on content creation. That’s where ecommerce CMS platforms became critical.

These systems:

• Centralize product listings and descriptions.
• Streamline inventory management.
• Unify customer data in one place.
• Eliminate the need to switch between spreadsheets and multiple dashboards.

The brand chose a platform that integrated directly with Instagram Shopping, allowing them to:

• Tag products in Reels.
• Track which videos drove sales.
• Avoid manual data entry when attributing sales to content.

The Instagram Reels Strategy

The brand’s content approach prioritized entertainment and education over direct selling.

They created a mix of:

• Behind-the-scenes clips of product development.
• Customer pets using their products in everyday scenarios.
• Educational videos about pet care, training, and product benefits.

One standout video featured a dog demonstrating how to use a new toy. It:

• Racked up 2.3 million views.
• Drove a 40% spike in product page clicks.

The team posted three to five Reels per week, using analytics software to identify optimal posting times when their audience was most active. These analytics tools tracked:

• Engagement patterns.
• Follower demographics.
• Video completion rates.

This provided actionable data that removed the guesswork from content scheduling.

Leveraging Trending Sounds and Hashtags

Trending sounds played a crucial role in discoverability. The brand:

• Monitored Instagram’s trending audio library regularly.
• Paired popular songs with their pet videos.
• Added text overlays so content remained accessible without sound.

They implemented a layered hashtag strategy that combined:

• Broad tags like #petsofinstagram to reach general pet lovers.
• Niche tags like #dogtraining and #catsupplies to target specific buyer segments.

Micro-Influencer Collaborations

Collaborations with micro-influencers—pet accounts with 10,000 to 100,000 followers—delivered better ROI than traditional ads.

• These influencers charged $500 to $2,000 per post, compared to $10,000+ for top-tier accounts.
• Their audiences trusted their recommendations more than polished branded content.
authentic and relatable to everyday pet owners.

Using Social Media Management Software

The brand also relied on social media management software to maintain consistency. These platforms helped them:

• Schedule posts in advance.
• Monitor and respond to comment threads quickly.
• Track performance across multiple accounts from one dashboard.

This eliminated the daily scramble to post manually and ensured the team could respond to customer questions quickly, building trust and driving conversions.

Key Results and Metrics

Within six months, Instagram Reels became the brand’s primary sales engine.

• 70% of total ecommerce sales came from Instagram Reels.
• Average click-through rate (CTR) from video views to product pages reached 8%—double the industry standard for social media ads.
• Follower count grew from 12,000 to 85,000.
• Engagement rate held steady at 6.2%, well above the platform average.
• Average video completion rate hit 68%, showing viewers watched most of each Reel instead of scrolling past.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) dropped to $12 per new customer, compared to $45 through paid search ads.
• Return on investment (ROI) reached 4:1 for influencer collaborations.

Viral Content Example

One Reel featuring a customer’s cat knocking over the brand’s treat jar went viral. The results:

• 4.7 million views in a short period.
• $32,000 in sales over two weeks directly attributed to the video.

The brand tracked these metrics using ecommerce analytics software, which:

• Connected Instagram traffic to specific product purchases.
• Calculated lifetime customer value (LTV).
• Showed which Reels contributed most to revenue.

This visibility allowed the team to double down on content formats that worked—such as user-generated clips and trending audio—while phasing out underperforming styles.

Lessons and Actionable Takeaways

The brand’s experience highlights several practical lessons for pet brands and other small ecommerce businesses.

1. Prioritize Authentic, Relatable Content

• Authenticity beats production value. The most successful Reels came from customer submissions and casual smartphone videos, not professional shoots.
• Leveraging user-generated content (UGC) builds trust and reduces the content creation workload.

Note: Viewers respond more to real pets in real homes than to overly polished studio footage.

2. Focus on Consistency, Not Perfection

The brand’s analytics showed that:

• Three weekly Reels outperformed one highly polished video per week.
• Regular posting helped “train” the algorithm and build audience expectations.

Consistency compounds reach and engagement over time.

3. Sell Indirectly Through Value

Instead of hard selling in every Reel, the brand:

• Used Reels to entertain or educate first.
• Built trust and familiarity with the audience.
• Funnelled interested viewers to product pages via:
  • Links in the bio.
  • Instagram Shopping tags.
  • Clear but subtle calls-to-action (CTAs) in captions.

4. Use Micro-Influencers for Better ROI

For many small businesses, micro-influencers outperform paid ads because:

• Their audiences have a stronger sense of relationship and trust.
• Costs per post are significantly lower than top-tier influencers.
• Traffic and sales from their recommendations are easier to attribute.

5. Test, Analyze, and Scale What Works

To optimize their strategy, the brand:

• Tested different content formats (educational tips, funny clips, product demos, UGC).
• Measured which formats drove the most:
  • Engagement.
  • Clicks.
  • Sales and repeat orders.
• Scaled up the content types and influencer partnerships that consistently delivered results.

Build a community, not just followers. Engaged audiences convert at higher rates than passive viewers.

Why This Matters for Pet Ecommerce

Pet ecommerce grew 9% in 2024, with online sales now comprising 39% of total pet care purchases, according to Pet Product News. This shift toward digital purchasing makes Instagram Reels an increasingly valuable sales channel for pet brands.

Small businesses can study examples like:

• Nala the cat’s “Love, Nala” pet food line, which secured a Walmart shelf deal by building a 4.5 million follower base through engaging video content.
• @itsdougthepug on Instagram, with 3.63 million followers and a 0.84% engagement rate, demonstrating how pet personalities can drive superior traffic and sales attribution—even when engagement percentages are lower than those of micro-influencers.

Important: These examples underline that story-driven, personality-centered content can unlock retail opportunities and omnichannel growth beyond social platforms alone.

Conclusion

Instagram Reels became this pet brand’s primary sales driver by focusing on authentic content, consistent posting, and community engagement.

The broader insight for small businesses is clear: the right platform combined with a smart, data-informed strategy can level the playing field against larger competitors.

Now is the time to invest in short-form video content, especially as ecommerce becomes increasingly video-driven. Pet brands and other small businesses should:

• Evaluate their current Instagram Reels strategy.
• Identify which content formats resonate most with their audience.
• Use analytics software to track which Reels drive real revenue.

The future belongs to businesses that build genuine connections with their customers—one 15-second video at a time.