On Instagram, reels have become the hot new format. They can easily go viral and are highly appreciated by users.

However, for those who care about the appearance of their Instagram wall, they have a drawback. By default, thumbnail images have no branding. As well as being unsightly, this doesn't always make it clear what the video is about.

In this tutorial, we'll explain how to autogenerate branded cover photos for your reels on Instagram in JPEG.

Create a template on Abyssale

Before automating anything, create a template on Abyssale. This is what will reappear on each of your reels. Only the title and visual elements will change.

From your Abyssale dashboard, click on "Create a template ". Then select Static Image for the template type and 1080x1920 - Instagram Story for the format.

From there, you can imagine the template you want. In our example, we're adding static visual elements. Then, elements that will vary from one visual to the next:

  • A photo, which we'll call "photo".
  • A title, which we'll call "title ".

You can add more variable elements to suit your needs. Just be careful not to overload the cover photos.

Here's what our template looks like:

Once yours is ready too, click on "Save & Continue".

Create a Google Sheets document

To automate the creation of your cover photos, you'll first need to create a database. To do this, open a new Google Sheets document.

Then add different columns:

  • Photo - For the url of your thumbnail photo
  • Title - For the title you want to appear on your thumbnail
  • Thumbnail - You'll find the thumbnail url after autogeneration.

Here's what our Google Sheets looks like before integrating any data:

Now that everything's ready, all we need to do is set up the automation.

Create a new Make scenario

Now go to Make and create a new scenario. Name it as you wish. For our example, we'll call it "Thumbnail Instagram".

As a trigger, add a Google Sheets module "Watch new rows " and connect the Google Sheets document you created earlier.

To continue, add an iterator module. In the Array field, add the variables :

  • Row number
  • Title
  • Photo

Next, add a new Abyssale Generate Single Image module. Connect your template. Then, in the image_url field of the Photo element, add the variable Photo. In the payload field of the title element, add the Title variable.

Now add an additional module: Array aggregator. In the source module field, select iterator. Then in the Aggregated fields field, select :

  • File - from the Abyssale "Generate Single Image" module
  • Row number - from the Google Sheets "Watch New Rows" module

Finally, add a final Google Sheets module "Update a Row".

In the Row number field, add the variable Array] [: Row number from the Array aggregator module.

Then, in the Thumbnail field, add the variable Array] [: File. CDN File url from the same module.

Your script is ready. Here's what it should look like:

Now you can test it. Here's what it looks like with our example.

Once you've uploaded your cover photo to your hard drive, all you have to do is select it when you publish your reel on Instagram.

When you upload a new video to the social network, you have the option of selecting a cover photo on your computer.

To do this, click on the button below.

Select the cover photo you've just autogenerated then click Next.

Your reels are published. And when you go to your profile, this is what it looks like:

And that's it!

You're now ready to dramatically improve the look of your Instagram feed with this quick and easy automation.

For more tutorials and content around creative automation, follow us on Linkedin.

‍