How to Create A Seamless Instagram Carousel in Canva for Free (& get 5 FREE Carousel Templates!)
The Instagram game feels harder than ever… Do you want to up your Instagram engagement? Seamless Instagram carousels are the answer. You have seen these before.... Super professionally looking Instagram carousels that flow seamlessly from page to page. How is it done??? Here easy step-by-step video tutorials for you to achieve a stunning Instagram carousel in Canva for free!! And I have a special something for you: 5 free Instagram carousel templates in Canva, specially designed for you, with 5 different brand vibes!
The format you need for your seamless Instagram carousel in Canva
The 4 steps to drive action with your Instagram carousel content
The easy and free way to split your design for your Instagram carousel
Your BONUS tip: How to achieve an animated carousel like a pro
This post may contain affiliate links that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission from.
Use Instagram carousels for high Instagram engagement rates
Have you got the feeling that Instagram is becoming more and more difficult? Fewer comments or likes, slower followers growth, limited reach… Sounds familiar?
Do you want Instagram to work for you, increasing your reach to get more eyes on your valuable content?
Do you want to drive your Instagram engagement rates up? The more people interact with your content and stay in your page, the more Instagram will reward you with reach.
That’s where Instagram carousels come into place!
Carousels are multiple visuals (images, videos or a combinations of video and images) uploaded in one post. They trigger people’s curiosity to swipe right and left to see the additional content in your post. That is seen as user engagement by Instagram… and that’s what you want!
So if you were “saving” your content, only posting one image per post, in order to have content ready to post daily, don’t. Yes, you still need to post daily in Instagram, but…
Carousels will help level up your Instagram game faster! Nothing better that user engagement in your feed for better Instagram results. Posting one image per day won’t get the best results. Carousels do.
Ok, you could post multiple images and you are done for your carousel…
Or… you can look super pro and create seamless Instagram carousels that flow from image to image. Creating these effects gets you noticed and people love it.
You can achieve this effect easily and for free in Canva! I am showing you how, step-by-step, with easy video tutorials here.
Plus you can access 5 free seamless Instagram carousel templates for Canva to save time to spend in whatever you prefer.
1. Define the right format for your seamless Instagram carousel in Canva.
First of all, let’s start looking at how to design the right format for your carousel. I have based these tutorials on a 4-vertical-image carousel.
The reason to use vertical images is that you maximise the real state you use in the Instagram feed… What do I mean? It means that your content uses a maximum of the screen in people devices, hence maximising your exposure before people continue scrolling. Neat!
If you want to create a seamless Instagram carousel in Canva with a different number of visuals, here are the dimensions you need for a vertical post:
2 visuals per carousel: Width: 2160 px x height 1350 px
3 visuals per carousel: Width: 3240 px x height 1350 px
4 visuals per carousel: Width: 4320 px x height 1350 px
5 visuals per carousel: Width: 5400 px x height 1350 px
6 visuals per carousel: Width: 6480 px x height 1350 px
7 visuals per carousel: Width: 7560 px x height 1350 px
8 visuals per carousel: Width: 8640 px x height 1350 px
If you’d rather post square visuals, just change the height to 1080 px.
Brill! You have step 1 done.
2. Achieve the Instagram carousel effect
Now that you have the format done, let’s look at what is the secret sauce to get that seamless flow in the carousel.
Easy, isn’t it?!
Now your turn!
3. Create the design in Canva for your Instagram carousel
Step 3 is the simplest of them all. Just create the content of your design.
If you are creating content to drive your audience to buy your product, register to your email list, or attend your webinar, here is a very effective 4-step approach for your seamless Instagram carousel:
Image 1: THEIR STRUGGLES: Talk to the struggles your audience has.
Image 2: THEIR DREAMS: Cover their dreams, not just their goals. The ultimate dreams they would like to achieve is what is best to target.
Image 3: YOUR PROMISE: Time to make your promise: how your product, service, webinar or lead magnet can make their struggle go away t0 achieve their dreams.
Image 4: YOUR CTA: Always finish with your Call to Action (CTA). Ask for what you want your audience to do next. Don’t be shy.
You have an example in the video below:
You are almost there!
4. Split your Instagram carousel design, ready to post
This is the moment when you divide your seamless Instagram carousel into individual images, ready to upload to Instagram! All for free.
Perfect. Next is Instagram!
5. Upload and post your Instagram carousel
In case you’ve never uploaded an Instagram carousel, here is how it is easily done:
Watch how super slick the seamless Instagram carousel looks once uploaded. Cool, isn’t it?
Here is how to get your FREE Instagram carousel templates in Canva:
Your BONUS tip: Achieve an animated Instagram carousel
Now, wouldn’t it be fantaaaaaastic to create a seamless Instagram carousel with animations in Canva for free?
The video tutorial below shows you how to do it. It uses the techniques you have learned before in this blog, in a particular sequence, to get animations in your carousel.
This just brings your seamless Instagram carousel in Canva to the next level!! And it is still very easy to achieve.
Here is how it looks once posted:
Have you accessed your FREE templates yet? Here is where to get the access:
If you only have 5min, read this!
Nothing better than watching the step-by step video tutorials above to see how to create your seamless Instagram carousel in Canva for free. However, if you have little time, here is a short list of what you do to achieve it.
Steps to create a seamless Instagram carousel in Canva for free
This a high level view of what you need to create an impactful seamless carousel:
STEP 1: For a 4-images vertical Instagram carousel, create in Canva a custom size design as follows:
Width: 4320 px
Height: 1350 px
STEP 2: Use the guides in Canva to visualise the 4 pages in your design and position your content in the optimum place for the square feed.
Position strategically graphics across two pages (the vertical guides help you achieve this), so that when you will split the Canva design into 4 files, part of the graphic will be in one page and the rest on the following page.
That creates the seamless effect.
STEP 3: Add your content. If you are a blogger or a course creator and want to grow your email list, get webinar registrations, or promote your product or course, structure your carousel to cover:
your audience struggles
your audience dreams
your promise
your call to action
STEP 4: Split the Instagram carousel you have created in Canva into 4 files, for free, using the Split Image tool in Pinetool.com.
STEP 5: Upload your carousel to Instagram. Don’t forget your hashtags and a caption that provides value to your audience.
Your BONUS tip: Achieve an animated Instagram carousel with seamless transitions
Achieve a stunning animated Instagram carousel easily as follows:
STEPS 1-4 as above. You have now 4 images, after you split the original carousel design.
STEP 5: Create a new design in Canva with the following dimensions:
Width: 1080 x height: 1350
STEP 6: Create a page for each of the 4 image files you have.
STEP 7: Add animations to each of the pages. You can search for animated graphics in the Elements section of Canva.
STEP 8: Download each page separately as an MPG (video file). You will have 4 video files to upload to create your animated seamless Instagram carousel.
You are done!!!! Quick, simple and super impactful!!!! It is very easy to follow in the video tutorial.
Excited? I am for you!!!! Just try it out using these FREE templates:
What next?
Now you have a new tool in your Instagram toolbox to kill your social media game!!
Don’t forget to tell me:
It’s fab to have you here my friend.
It is an absolute privilege to know that you read and find value in my blog!
And if you have not got your FREE seamless Instagram carousels, get them now:
Hi! I’m Isabel
Visual content creation is my passion
The sea is my happy place!
For years and years I have created and produced content, in particular visual content. You can find me very often with my cameras and tripod out and about!
My passion: to help you with your online presence and drive business growth through my blog and visuals collections (marketing templates, styled photos & video).
Ah, I have also worked for 24+ in the corporate world, leading quite a mix: transformation, marketing, coaching, sales, productivity, programme management, investments and product management.
I love sharing all these skills with you in my blog.
I am also founder of Agavea Properties, our family holiday rental business. My husband and I lead it with the passion with one goal in mind: serving our customers to create a memorable holiday experience for them.
So there you have it, that’s me! Ah... I almost forgot, my happy place is by the sea.
Thanks for being here with me!
