Growing a mortgage IG - niche no one cares about until they need it

tagmanager

Eight months of posting reels about mortgages in Canada. 200 followers. Most videos get 600-800 views. one hit 14k. that's the only real signal I've got.

Everyone tells me the content is fine, the hooks need work, delivery could be tighter. But I'm starting to think the algorithm just doesn't know where to put me. mortgages aren't impulse content - people only search for it when they're stressed and about to buy a house. so the platform shows me to the wrong crowd until it figures out who actually needs this.

someone smarter than me pointed out that if I've been doing 5 reels a week for 8 months and my floor is 600-800 views, the problem isn't my editing or my face - it's distribution. The 14k pop is the only clue i have.

they said to reverse-engineer that one video before producing anything else. not the topic, the format. was it a scenario question (first-time buyer at X income) versus general advice? Voiceover or face on camera? Hook within the first two seconds? Captions burned in or auto-generated? Then make three variants of that exact structure with different scenarios. The algorithm rewards format consistency before topic novelty. Need 3-5 hits in the same shape before it'll show me to more people.

That video was a talking head shot, hook was 'Did You Know' with a zoom-in effect, about a rebate for homeowners. Simple.

So now I'm going to try that structure with a few different scenarios. But I'd love to hear from anyone else who's grown an account in a 'need it when you need it' niche. How do you survive the algorithm when your audience only shows up twice in a lifetime? what else am I missing?

roichaser

Niche audiences don't do impulse consumption - they search, they filter, they compare. So blaming the algorithm for showing you to the wrong crowd misses the point. The platform doesn't know what a mortgage buyer looks like until you train it with intent signals, not just topic tags. Five reels a week for eight months at 600-800 views means you've been feeding it noise, not signal. That one 14k spike isn't a format breakthrough yet - it's a random match between your content and someone else's search intent.

I'd go harder than just reverse-engineering format. i'd ask: did that video answer a specific query that people actually type into YouTube or TikTok rather than a generic educational angle? Because mortgages are bought, not browsed. So your hook needs to mirror the buyer's inner monologue at the moment of pain, not the algorithm's appetite for consistency. format repetition only works once you've proven the intent match exists. without that, you're just making prettier versions of the same wrong thing.

How long was that 14k video, and what was the literal first frame?

datanerd

lester Diaz's content is worth digging into if you're working a niche that most people ignore until they're in pain. That's exactly the kind of audience you want - low noise, high intent. He breaks down the mechanics of growing followers who actually convert, not just vanity metrics. The monetisation programme stuff is useful too, but the real value for me was understanding how to build authority inside a small, specific space before scaling.

From a B2B perspective, it's similar to ABM: you're not shouting at everyone, you're engineering relevance for a tiny group that will eventually need you. Diaz explains that process without the fluff. No coaching needed - just watch, take notes, and apply the framework to your own niche

isa-ecom

Mortgages is way too broad for retention. Drill down to a micro-niche - that's how you build loyalty loops for when they actually need you

ctrjunkie

Oh absolutely - have you checked out anyone else in that same space? I've found that even in the most hyper-specific corners, there's usually a handful of people quietly doing the same thing. It's worth seeing how they frame it, what kind of language they use, and whether they've cracked the code on making something niche feel urgent before people actually need it. What's your niche, out of curiosity?

nightowl

That 14k spike isn't random-it's your one winning ad in a sea of break-even campaigns. Reverse engineer every variable: hook, timing, thumbnail. one piece of data beats months of noise.

tagmanager

wow, this is really useful. It's about a homeowner rebate, right? i tried a similar approach - just a simple talking head shot with a "Did You Know?" hook and a zoom-in effect. That one popped way harder than any polished explainer I'd filmed before. It's maddening how something that feels undercooked can outperform the stuff you spend ages on.

Got a few variations sitting on my desk I'm planning to test over the next week or so. I'll run a handful of scripts that follow that same stripped-back pattern and report back how they land. Always curious what works in those "no one cares until they suddenly need it" niches.

isa-ecom

I used to think the same way until I got painfully specific with my content. That's when things actually took off. Start in the comments on your own videos - seriously, that's a goldmine for content ideas. People ask the same questions over and over. Answer them directly. Then go adjacent: break down the local neighbourhoods in your price range, give them a punch list of what to look for when viewing a place. That kind of stuff builds trust long before they need you. It's like unboxing the home-buying experience before they even get the keys.