At a glancePage 1 of 3
Swipe-Through Posts People Actually Swipe
People swipe through a multi-slide post even when they do not mean to. It is human nature to see what is behind the dots. Here is how to make one that earns the swipe and ends with a next step.
The whole play, at a glance
- Pick the shapeQuestion and answer, or highlights.
- Slide one is the hookThe reason to swipe.
- Slides two to four pay it offOne idea per slide.
- The last slide is the next stepWhere to go, what to do.
- Post it from your phoneCanva cannot schedule these.
- You walk away withA post that gets swiped to the end, and a reader who knows what to do next.
You walk away withA three-to-five slide post with a hook, a payoff and a next step, ready to post from your phone.
What you need
- One idea that splits into a few parts: a question and its answer, three things to know, the best five photos of a listing.
- Canva on a computer to build it, and your phone to post it.
- A timer. Twenty minutes, then post it.
The stepsPage 2 of 3
The steps
One step open at a time. Click "Done, next" to move on. The grey boxes show what the screen looks like; they are pictures, not buttons.
- Question, then answer. Slide one asks. Slide two answers. Swipe to reveal. Two or three slides is plenty.
- Three to five things. One idea per slide, the same layout each time.
- Listing highlights. The best three or four photos, one feature each, and a last slide that says where the rest are.
- What the headlines said, what is actually true. A weekly series a past student runs. Two or three headline-and-truth pairs per post.
Three to five slides is the sweet spot. Twenty photos of one house is how people leave.
On the Canva home page, search for "Instagram post" and pick a template you like, or a blank one. Each slide of your post is one page of the design. Add pages with the plus button under the page.
Use the same layout on every page. Change the words, not the design.
+ Add pageOne page per slide. Four pages here.
Slide one is the only slide most people see. It has one job: make them want slide two. A question. A surprising number. "The one thing nobody tells first-time buyers." Big words, your colors, nothing else.
Brand tab, Shuffle, until it is in your colors.
Slides two to four each carry one idea in one sentence. If you need a paragraph, it is two slides. Keep the words big enough to read on a phone at arm's length.
For a listing: one photo and one line per slide. "The kitchen you will actually cook in." Not the address, not the price. Let them ask.
The last slide tells them what to do: "Text me GUIDE for the free seller guide." "Save this for your next showing." "Full tour in my bio." A post without a next step is a post that ends.
Want the full tour? Message me.Canva cannot schedule swipe-through posts, so you post this one yourself. Click Share, then Download, choose PNG, select all the pages, and send them to your phone. In the Instagram app, start a post, pick the pages in order, and post.
Where to clickShare › Download › PNG › select all pages › Download
PNGJPGPDF- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
Before you goPage 3 of 3
Watch out for
Three to five slides.
The exception is a question with a swipe-to-reveal answer, which can be two.
Same layout on every slide.
Change the words and the photo. Leave the design alone. That is what makes it read as one post.
Canva cannot schedule these.
Single pictures and videos can be scheduled from Canva. Swipe-through posts, Reels and Stories you post yourself.
Set the timer.
Twenty minutes, then post it. A swipe-through post that never gets posted has zero swipes.
Canva is a trademark of Canva Pty Ltd. CNAT Title is not affiliated with Canva. This page borrows the look of the Canva editor so the steps are easier to follow. Click paths were checked against Canva's help pages in September 2026. Canva moves buttons from time to time, so yours may look a little different.