The argument
Project videos get views, not conversations
By Roberto Cerda, Founder, Digital Vibes Design ·
In 193 Instagram reels from US remodelers, kitchen and bathroom project videos earned a median comment rate of 0.00% and 0.01%, while posts with no project in them earned 0.13%.
The before-and-after is the default contractor reel, and it does its job: it shows the work. It does not start a conversation. Across 88 kitchen and bathroom reels, most viewers watched and moved on. 33% of all the reels we measured got no comments at all.
The account at the top of this index proves the point from the other side. @perfectedgeremodel holds 11 of the 20 reels in the top 10%, and most of them are not project videos. They are about running the business: setbacks, grit, a new chapter. People answer a person. They admire a kitchen.
But read who answered. The comments on those top reels came from other business owners: "keep grinding", "followed", a networking pitch. Of the 47 comments we read on the top contractor reels, one was a possible customer trying to get in touch.
The case against
The counter-argument is that contractors do not need comments. They need calls, and a beautiful project reel sends people to the website. That is fair, and nothing here measures website visits or calls.
The point is narrower: if you are judging your content by comments, stop comparing your project reels to anyone's personal posts, and do not mistake peer applause for demand. The job videos are your portfolio. The conversations come from giving homeowners something to ask about, then answering fast when one does.
Does it hold on TikTok?
TikTok tells a different story. Contractor videos there reached a median of 0.09% across 134 videos, 3 times the Instagram median, and videos over 60 seconds did best (0.23%, 16 videos). The comments were different too: of the 41 we read on the top TikTok videos, 5 came from homeowners asking for a price, a location or an estimate, against one on Instagram. The top TikTok contractor videos explained the trade, like how homeowners get overcharged or why an eighth of an inch matters in custom cabinets.
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