Adding clickable links to your videos

Edits lets you drop a clickable link sticker onto a video, pointing to your own account or to a specific Reel. It sits on screen as a tappable overlay, the same idea as a link sticker in Stories, just built into the editing flow instead of added after the fact. It's one of the smaller features in the app, but where and when you use it matters more than the fact that it exists at all.

What it's actually good for

Pointing viewers to a related video, a previous part of a series, a longer tutorial, a follow-up you posted, works well here because the destination is directly relevant to what someone's already watching. That relevance is what makes a viewer actually tap it instead of ignoring it as background noise. A link sticker pointing somewhere unrelated to the video's content gets treated the same way a random pop-up ad does: skipped past without a second thought.

Placement matters more than people expect

A link sticker sitting over the main subject of the frame blocks the thing people are actually watching, and gets ignored or ends up being tapped by accident instead of intentionally. Lower corners, or a moment where the frame is naturally emptier, work better than the dead center of the screen. A few placement principles worth keeping in mind:

• Avoid the center of the frame where the main subject usually sits.
• Use a naturally empty moment, a wide shot, a pause between cuts, rather than forcing it over busy footage.
• Keep it away from platform UI, the caption bar and action buttons that Instagram overlays near the bottom edge of the screen.

Timing it to the video's actual content

Placing the link at the very start of a video means people see it before they have any reason to care where it leads. Adding it right after the moment that makes someone want to know more, the payoff of a story, the result of a before-and-after, gives it context. The link means something at that point instead of just sitting there the whole time, competing for attention with everything else on screen.

Don't stack multiple links in one video

One clear link with an obvious reason to tap it outperforms several competing for attention. If you have more than one thing to point people toward, it's usually a sign the video is trying to do too much, not a reason to add more stickers. Pick the single most relevant destination and commit to it.

It's not a replacement for a strong caption

A link sticker is easy to miss on a first watch, especially with sound off or on a fast scroll. Mentioning the destination in the caption or verbally in the video itself backs up the sticker rather than relying on it alone to do the work. This is the same principle covered in more depth in the hooks guide: anything that requires a viewer's active attention needs to be reinforced in more than one place.

A note on series content

If you're posting a multi-part series, a link sticker pointing from one part to the next is one of the more genuinely useful applications of this feature, since it directly answers the question a viewer is already asking themselves after finishing a part: where's the rest of it. Keep the sticker consistent in placement and style across the whole series so viewers learn to expect it and know what it's for without having to think about it each time.