How to Make a Guide on Instagram

Instagram Guides are one of the platform's most powerful, yet strangely underused, features. They give you a way to bundle your best tips, favorite places, or recommended products into an easy-to-read format that lives right on your profile. This article will show you exactly how to create Guides, break down the different types you can make, and share solid strategies for making them a valuable part of your content plan.

What Are Instagram Guides? (And Why Should You Care?)

Think of an Instagram Guide as a mini blog post or a digital magazine article built directly within Instagram. It lets you collect and organize existing posts (yours or others'), products, or locations into a single, scrollable piece of content with your own custom titles and commentary.

Unlike a fleeting Story or a single feed post that gets buried in the timeline, Guides have their own dedicated tab on your profile, right next to Reels and tagged posts. This makes them a more permanent, accessible resource for your audience.

So, why invest the time? Guides offer a few key benefits:

• Repurpose Your Best Content: You can give your best-performing posts a second life by packaging them into a helpful collection. Have a series of five posts on a single topic? Turn them into a guide.
• Deliver Immense Value: Instead of dropping one tip at a time, you can present a complete resource - like a FAQ, a step-by-step tutorial, or a city guide - all in one place. This positions you as a helpful authority in your niche.
• Drive Sales and Affiliate Revenue: Product Guides let you curate your own products or recommend others' without coming across as overly salesy. Think gift guides or "my favorite tools" lists.
• Increase Engagement and Shares: Because Guides are so packed with useful information, they're highly shareable. People can easily send a Guide to their friends via DM or share it to their own Stories, expanding your reach.

The 3 Types of Instagram Guides You Can Create

Before you jump in, it's good to know the three formats Instagram offers. Each one is designed for a different purpose, opening up creative possibilities for almost any type of account.

1. Places Guides

A Places Guide is a map-based collection designed to highlight specific physical locations. For each location you add, you can pull in photos from public posts that are geotagged there, giving your guide a rich, visual feel.

• Perfect for: Travel bloggers, local businesses, real estate agents, food critics, boutique hotels, event planners, and photographers sharing shoot locations.
• Relatable Examples:
  • "Our Favorite Hidden Coffee Shops in Chicago"
  • "A 3-Day Itinerary for Visiting Nashville"
  • "The Most Instagrammable Walls in Los Angeles"
  • "Best Venues for a Small Wedding"

2. Products Guides

This type of Guide allows you to feature products from Instagram Shops. You can curate products from your own brand's shop or pull interesting products from other public shops on the platform. Each product listing links directly back to the product details page, making for a seamless shopping experience.

• Perfect for: E-commerce brands, influencers, affiliate marketers, stylists, interior designers, and any creator who wants to monetize their recommendations.
• Relatable Examples:
  • "My Complete Morning Skincare Routine"
  • "Holiday Gift Guide for Tech Lovers"
  • "Everything You Need for a Cozy Home Office"
  • "Our Top 5 Best-Selling T-Shirts of All Time"

3. Posts Guides

This is by far the most versatile and popular option. A Posts Guide lets you curate a collection of standard feed posts - either your own past posts or posts you've saved from other accounts. This format is perfect for creating tutorials, roundups, and educational resources.

• Perfect for: Literally everyone - coaches, service providers, educators, personal brands, health and wellness experts, artists, and creators of all kinds.
• Relatable Examples:
  • "Start Here: A Beginner's Guide to Our Content" (for new followers)
  • "Our Top 5 Recipes from This Month"
  • "How to Set Up a Home Gym: A Step-by-Step Guide"
  • "Anxiety Relief Techniques You Can Try Today" (curating expert tips from multiple accounts)

Step-by-Step: How to Create Your First Instagram Guide

Ready to make one? The process is surprisingly simple. Just follow these steps.

1. Go to Your Profile: Tap the plus icon (+) at the top right of your screen (the same one you use for creating a post or Reel).
2. Select "Guide": In the "Create New" menu that appears, tap on Guide.
3. Choose Your Guide Type: Now, you'll see the three options we just covered: Places, Products, or Posts. Select the one that fits your idea.
4. Select Your Content:
   • For a Posts Guide: You’ll have two tabs: "Saved" (for posts you've bookmarked from other creators) and "Your Posts" (for your own content). Tap the posts you want to include. You can select up to 30.
   • For a Places Guide: Use the search bar to find locations. Select a location, and then choose one or more posts geotagged there to represent it in your guide.
   • For a Products Guide: Search for a specific brand or creator's Instagram Shop. From there, select the products you want to feature. Alternatively, you can browse products from your wishlist.
5. Add a Title and Cover Photo: Every Guide needs a title and a cover image. Your title should be compelling and clearly state what the Guide is about (e.g., "5 Simple Meal Prep Ideas"). For the cover, you can choose from one of the posts you included, from your own feed, or from your saved posts. Pro tip: Design a custom cover photo (1080x1920 pixels) with the title on it to make it stand out on your profile tab!
6. Write Your Introduction: Below the main title is a space for an optional introduction. This is your chance to hook the reader and explain what they'll learn or discover in the Guide.
7. Give Each Entry a Title and Commentary: This is the most important part! Each post, place, or product you added needs its own title. Underneath, there's a space for "What I like about this..." or a similar prompt. Use this text box to add your unique context, opinion, or step-by-step instructions. This is what transforms a simple collection of posts into a genuinely helpful resource. You can add more paragraphs of commentary if you need it.
8. Add or Rearrange Items: Don't like the order? Just tap the three dots (...) next to any entry to reorder them or remove one. You can also tap "Add Posts" at the bottom to include more content.
9. Review and Share: Once you're happy with your titles, commentary, and the overall flow, tap "Next." You'll see a preview of your Guide. If it looks good, tap "Share." Your new Guide will now appear on the Guides tab of your profile!

Beyond the Basics: Making Your Guides Genuinely Useful

Just knowing how to make a Guide isn't enough. You have to make one people actually want to read, save, and share. Here are a few strategies to take your Guides from good to great.

Think "Resource Library," Not Just "Content"

Approach your Guides with a different mindset. Reels are for entertainment, Stories are for connection, but Guides are for education and service. Plan your Guides around topics your audience struggles with or frequently asks about. Think of common questions you get in your DMs or comments - those are perfect starting points for a Guide.

Create Evergreen Assets

Since Guides live on your profile indefinitely, they work best for evergreen content - information that will stay relevant and useful over time. Topics like "Our Core Company Values" or "A Beginner's Guide to Sourdough" will have a much longer shelf life than "My Favorite Outfits from Summer 2024." Prioritize creating foundational guides that new followers can always turn to.

Batch-Create Your Posts and Your Guide Together

Instead of creating a Guide spontaneously, plan for it. If you know you want to make a Guide on "How to Improve Your Public Speaking," you can strategically create five short, individual posts on that topic over a couple of weeks. Once they are all published, you can quickly assemble them into a comprehensive Posts Guide. This makes both your daily content and your bigger resources feel cohesive.

Write Like You're Helping a Friend

The magic is in your commentary. Don't just C&P your original captions. Add new insight. Tell a story. Explain *why* you chose that specific post, place, or product. Your voice, personality, and expertise are what make a Guide special. Break up text with plenty of white space to make it easy to skim on a phone.

Promote Your Guides!

Don't fall into the "publish and pray" trap. Just because you made a Guide doesn't mean people will see it. You have to promote it:

• Share it to your Story: After publishing, use the "paper airplane" share icon to post your Guide directly to your Instagram Story. Use stickers, GIFs, and text to tell people why they should tap to read it.
• Mention it in Reels and Posts: When you post new content related to a Guide's topic, mention it in the caption. For example: "For more details on this, check out my complete 'DIY Home Decor' Guide, linked in my bio!"
• Send it in DMs: When someone messages you with a question that your Guide answers, you have the perfect response ready to go. Simply send them the Guide - it's incredibly helpful and saves you from typing the same answer over and over.

Final Thoughts

Instagram Guides are a fantastic way to package your knowledge, curate your best content, and provide lasting value to your audience in a way single posts and Stories can't. By treating them as permanent, evergreen resources, you can build a library of useful content that serves your community long after it's published.

Creating high-value content like Guides is a smart strategy to build authority, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Consistently planning and scheduling all the individual posts that can eventually feed into your guides is often where the real challenge lies. As we built Postbase, we focused on solving that chaos. Our visual calendar lets you map out your content weeks ahead, helping you see where a cohesive series for a future Guide could fit. Plus, you can reliably schedule your Reels, carousels, and videos knowing they'll go live on time, every time, supporting bigger, long-term assets like the awesome Guide you're about to create.