Most Instagram Carousels Are a Waste of Time (Here’s How to Fix That)
Let’s be honest—most instagram carousels you see are either painfully bland, take way too long to make, or both. You open Canva with the best intentions, stare at a blank slide, and suddenly an hour’s gone and you’ve got one mediocre post to show for it. And that’s assuming you didn’t rage-quit halfway through.
Here’s the good news: you don’t have to be a designer, a copywriter, or some “content guru” to make carousels that actually get swiped through. If you’ve got a blog post, a video transcript, or even a LinkedIn rant you’re proud of, you’re already sitting on carousel gold. You just need a simple way to turn it into something visual—without spending your whole night fiddling with fonts.
In this post, I’ll show you how I take long-form content and use chatGPT and Canva to crank out instagram carousels in minutes. No guesswork. No templates from 2020 that still say “link in bio.” Just a repeatable system that helps you show up on social media consistently without losing your mind.
Ready to stop overthinking and actually post? Cool. Let’s get into it.
Repurpose Content Into Instagram Carousels (Instead of Starting from Scratch)
If you’re staring at a blank page trying to write content for instagram carousels, you’re already making it harder than it needs to be.
The trick? Start with something you’ve already said.
A blog post. A long LinkedIn rant. A video transcript. Doesn’t matter. If it was good enough for someone to read or watch once, it’s good enough to show up again—just in a new format.
Here’s how I do it:
I use a tool I call the “social media carousel helper.” Fancy name, dead simple function. You copy the original content—let’s say a transcript from a video you recorded last week—and paste it into the tool. That’s it.
There’s no need to write a prompt. No need to explain what you want. You literally just paste your words into the box. And in seconds, it spits out your text, slide-by-slide, formatted for an instagram carousel.
The output gives you the bones of the carousel: one thought per slide, clear flow, and a snappy opening line that hooks people in. Is it perfect? Not always. But it’s more than good enough to get you out of your head and into momentum.
The biggest mistake people make with instagram carousels is thinking they need to start from a blank screen every time. You don’t. The content is already in your world—you just need a faster way to repackage it.
This is that way.
Use chatGPT to Build Instagram Carousel Text That Actually Makes Sense
Let’s talk about the part that stops most people: turning raw content into something someone actually wants to swipe through.
Once you’ve pasted your long-form content into the helper tool, the next step is letting AI break it down into slides. This is where the magic happens—because instead of you trying to figure out how to chunk your message into tiny bites, it does it for you.
The first slide usually grabs attention. Something punchy. A hook that makes someone stop scrolling. Then the tool splits the rest of your content into one key point per slide, leading people from the first tap all the way to the final CTA.
Now, full transparency: not every line it gives you will be gold. Sometimes the text feels a little robotic. Sometimes the flow could be stronger. But what you get is a solid first draft—a full sequence for your instagram carousel that you can tweak in seconds instead of starting from zero.
The real win here? You spend less time formatting and more time refining.
Most people get stuck because they try to write for visuals and copy at the same time. This separates the two. Get your message clear first, then worry about making it look good (we’ll get to that in the next step).
And if you’re wondering whether it can actually create something scroll-worthy? Yes. I’ve used this method to build instagram carousels that look sharp, read well, and feel like they came from a real human—not a robot.
All from an article I almost forgot I wrote months ago.
Use Canva’s Bulk Create to Generate Instagram Carousels in One Go
Alright, now that you’ve got the text for your instagram carousel, it’s time to turn that content into visuals—fast.
If you’re dreading opening Canva and dragging text boxes around for an hour, I get it. But this is where Canva’s “Bulk Create” feature becomes a total lifesaver.
Here’s how it works:
Take the carousel text you just generated—each slide’s headline and subtext—and drop it into a simple spreadsheet. Google Sheets is fine. You’ll want one column for the headline, one for the supporting text, and maybe a third for slide number just to keep things clean.
Once that’s done, open up Canva and start with a carousel template. Then hit Bulk Create, upload your spreadsheet, and tell Canva which text blocks to connect to which columns.
That’s it. You hit “Generate,” and Canva creates a full instagram carousel in seconds—each slide filled out with your words.
Now, is it going to be pretty right out of the gate? Probably not. But you’ll have a complete set of slides to work with, which is 90% of the battle. Instead of building from scratch, you’re simply editing what’s already there.
And if you want to speed this up even more, create a reusable template that reflects your brand’s style—same fonts, same layout, consistent colors. Once it’s set, every carousel you bulk-generate will already look like you spent way more time on it than you actually did.
No more fiddling with text alignment. No more second-guessing slide order. Just upload, click, and you’re looking at a full set of instagram carousels you can post today.
Edit Your Instagram Carousels in Canva Without Rebuilding Everything
Once Canva spits out your carousel slides, the hard part is over. But now comes the part that gives your content its real edge—making it look and feel like you.
You don’t need to be a designer to pull this off. You just need to understand what actually matters.
Start by adjusting the basics: fonts, colors, layout. Canva lets you swap these in seconds. If your brand uses bold headlines with muted colors, make that your default. If your voice is punchy and casual, choose a font that matches the energy. This part doesn’t need to be complicated—it just needs to feel aligned with your agency’s personality.
And here’s a smart move: don’t wait until the end to “brand” everything. Set your style inside the template before you bulk generate your instagram carousel. That way, your posts come out looking polished from the start—without slapping your logo on every corner like it’s 2013.
Want to tweak just one slide? Easy. You can drag things around, swap out the background image, or even duplicate a layout you like and reuse it across multiple carousels. Canva makes that part frictionless.
The goal isn’t to make it perfect. It’s to make it clear, consistent, and scrollable. That’s what keeps people tapping through. Clean headlines. Easy-to-read text. Visuals that add to the message instead of distracting from it.
And the best part? Once you’ve got your first few carousels dialed in, you’ve basically built a system. New content goes in, custom-styled carousels come out. Rinse and repeat.
This is how you make instagram carousels that feel professional—without spending all day chasing “the perfect design.”
You Don’t Need More Ideas—You Need a System
You’ve got the content. You’ve got the tools. And now you’ve got a simple way to turn that backlog of blog posts, videos, or long-winded rants into instagram carousels that actually get seen. No more blank screens. No more wasting hours in Canva. Just a clean, repeatable process that gets your message out faster—without sacrificing quality.
If you want a shortcut to this kind of content momentum every week, check out Content Catalyst. It’s the system I use to help busy founders, advisors, and agency owners turn their raw thoughts into consistent, scroll-stopping content—without needing a marketing team to do it.
You don’t need to hustle harder. You just need a smarter way to repurpose what you’re already saying.
Let’s make your next instagram carousel the easiest one yet.