How many bots are on instagram

9 Best Instagram Bots for More Follows, Likes & Replies

Do you remember what you did the last time someone liked 20 of your photos on Instagram out of nowhere?

A quick guess—

You saw the notifications. You became curious about who the person responsible for the likes was. You visited their profile. There is a high probability that you liked some of their posts to return the favor.

That was exactly their end goal from the start—you fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

And what’s more, they may not have been real people at all. They might have been Instagram bots!

Care to learn more about them?

In this article:

• What an Instagram bot is and how it works
• Why there are so many of them on social media
• Examples of Instagram bot platforms and tools
• How to create your very own Instagram bot

If you are interested in chat-bots specifically, you can also read our separate guides:

• What Are Instagram Chatbots and How to Use Them?
• Chatbots Explained: How Does a Chatbot Work? 
• Best Chatbot Apps for Android and iOS

What are bots on Instagram?

Instagram bots are computer programs that automatically post content or send messages on behalf of users. They can be used for a variety of purposes, such as increasing follower count, driving traffic to websites, or promoting products. Some bots are also designed to engage with other users, by liking and commenting on their Instagram posts.

In some cases, bots mean fake users or trolls. That’s why some Instagram bots, for example the ones spreading fake news and misinformation, are perceived as harmful.

But—

There are also good Instagram bots that can help you with marketing automation or sending automatic replies through Instagram direct messages.

So, are Instagram bots allowed?

Bots as such are not prohibited, but some of the ways they are used violate Instagram’s policy on spam. You are not allowed to: post, share, engage with content or create accounts, Groups, Pages, Events or other assets, either manually or automatically, at very high frequencies.

As a general rule, you should also not use bots that involve creating fake accounts. In theory, you might get banned and lose all the popularity you have earned.

Why does Instagram have so many bots?

According to some estimates, about 10% of Instagram accounts are bots. With about 1 billion user base this translates into 100 million fake IG accounts.

There are a few reasons why Instagram and other social media are infested with bots.

First of all, bots can be used to boost engagement and increase visibility among real users. Many profiles are trying to outsmart the algorithms and make their posts and accounts more popular. With automated comments and likes, your content can gain some initial momentum.

Secondly, Insta bots are relatively easy to create. There are many tools and platforms that you can use to build custom bots or manage your bot accounts. No advanced technical knowledge or coding skills are needed. Pretty much anyone can get their own Instagram bot or use a platform to buy “robot” followers.

Last but not least, fake bot accounts on Instagram are difficult to eliminate. While using bots is, obviously, frowned upon, most social media still have problems with enforcing their policies regarding fake accounts. You can report profiles and Instagram won’t take them down unless they violate other serious policies.

To sum up, Instagram bots are:

• Believed to be an effective technique to boost engagement
• Easy to set up and customize without specialist knowledge
• Difficult to get under control or delete by the platform itself

These three aspects contribute to their massive popularity.

What is the purpose of Instagram bots?

Some Instagram bots are designed to get you more followers, while others can help you automate your posts and schedule them in advance.

How do Instagram bots work exactly?

The most common type of Instagram bots is the one designed for promoting your profile. These bots usually work by following a bunch of people in your target niche and interacting with their posts. This helps to get your name out there and get more people interested in checking out your profile.

Instagram bots can:

• Follow other influencers and users
• Like and comment on posts with specific hashtags
• View Instagram stories and send messages
• Send automatic replies in DM channels
• Schedule and publish your content for you
• Send notifications and manage your interactions

In fact, the term bot is very broad and can mean a lot of different things. The matter is also complicated by the fact that some of the solutions deliberately refrain from calling themselves instagram bots.

For example, “social media marketing agencies” such as Social Sensei explicitly say that they don’t use bots or Instagram scripts.

But they accomplish the same thing and use similar strategies, even if there are real people operating behind the scenes. But for some reason, if you try to Google Instagram bots, you can expect those “agencies” to pop up more than once. A rose by any other name…

The burning question is—

Are Instagram bots and automation services effective, or are they a scam?

Well, you shouldn’t expect more than 1% of bot interactions resulting in getting a new follower. A recent experiment shows that about 1,200 story views, comments, and likes can bring you… 8 new Instagram followers. This means that the conversion rate was slightly below 0.7%, which isn’t particularly impressive.

However, one metric that you can max out with automation is your customer satisfaction score (CSAT). Replying to messages with IG bots improves your average response speed and improves customer experience. 

Now—

Let’s take a look at some of the Instagram automation software that you may want to check out.

Best Instagram bots you can try in 2022

There are a lot of Instagram bot providers on the market. So, how do you know which one is the best for you? And, more importantly, how do you avoid getting scammed by a bot that doesn’t deliver on its promises?

Here is a rundown of the top Instagram bots on the market, as well as their pros and cons.

Instagram growth service	What it is best for	Free trial	TrustPilot score
Tidio	Message automation	Yes	2.9/5 ⭐
Hyper IBF	Automatic following	No	N/A
Kicksta	Getting upvotes	No	3.5/5 ⭐
Instamber	Detailed niche targeting	No	2.4/5 ⭐
Nitreo	Follow and unfollow cycles	No	2. 0/5 ⭐
Jarvee	Boosting IG overall presence	Yes	4.1/5 ⭐
Inflact	Selling via Instagram	No	4.6/5 ⭐
Kenji	Instagram Story views	No	1.9/5 ⭐
Growth Beast	Automatic comments and views	Yes	N/A

Let’s go through the more in-depth descriptions of each platform to find the right choice for you.

1. Tidio Instagram Bot for DM Automation

Tidio is a complete sales and marketing automation solution. It allows you to create all kinds of bots, including website chatbots, Instagram bots, and Facebook chatbots. Tidio also offers a wide range of integrations with all the popular marketing and ecommerce platforms. If you want to use your Instagram DM for conversational marketing and product recommendations, it is a perfect tool.

Main features:

• Automatic replies to IG comments and messages
• Easy integration with Instagram Business accounts
• AI chatbots with intent recognition features
• A visual bot editor and free chatbot templates
• Integrations with other social media platforms
• JavaScript API for additional functionalities

Pricing:

• Free. Up to 100 interactions available in the freemium plan
• Starter ($32.5/month). Typing preview and multichannel support
• Team ($65.83/month). Quick responses and additional panels
• Scale ($332.50/month). Custom roles, 1 on 1 onboarding, dedicated chatbot consultants

Tidio is easy to use and offers a free trial, so you can try it out before you commit to a paid plan.

Read more: Learn How to Use Tidio Instagram Bot Panel

2. Hyper Instagram Bot Follower

Hyper Instagram Bot Follower is an automated tool that can help you increase your followers on Instagram. The bot follows users based on certain hashtags that you choose, and then unfollows them after a period of time. This allows you to get more followers without having to put in any extra effort. Additionally, the bot can help you like and comment on photos, as well as follow and unfollow other users.

Pros:

• Profile scraping tools for targeting new profiles
• Searching through account followers, hashtags and places
• Built-in iOS and Android device emulation

Cons:

• It might be difficult to connect with their customer support team
• There is a small chance that Instagram might detect that you are using a bot and ban your account

Pricing:

• Mini ($9. 99/month). 1 Instagram account and a limited number of upvotes
• Midi ($24.99/month). 3 accounts, additional automations, and DM management
• Maxi ($49.99/month). 10 accounts, profile scraper, and prioritized customer support
• Agency ($99.00/month). 20 accounts and additional integration with Instagram’s API

3. Kicksta

Kicksta is a social media marketing platform that helps brands and businesses to grow their Instagram following organically. Kicksta provides its users with access to a database of real, active Instagram users, who they can then interact with through the platform’s automated features. The tool helps you get more followers on Instagram by liking photos from similar accounts.

Pros:

• It’s easy to search for users you can connect and interact with
• The tool provides its own dashboard with Instagram analytics
• You can automatically exclude NSFW accounts with the Profanity Filter

Cons:

• You cannot set up your target audience manually
• The customer support team is hard to reach with the Standard plan

Pricing:

• Standard ($49/month). Up to 10 AI Instagram Targets for creating your audience profile 
• Premium ($99/month). Dedicated VIP email customer support team
• Boost ($218/month). Automatic audience diversification from global influencers

4. Instamber

Instamber is an Instagram management tool that helps you get more real followers, likes, and comments on your posts. It also provides detailed insights into your Instagram account, so you can better understand your audience and improve your content strategy. Overall, Instamber is a great tool to use if you want to take your Instagram account to the next level.

Pros:

• You can use location tags to select target profiles for your Instagram engagement
• The bot’s targeting algorithm has received many positive reviews
• The bot interface design is clean and easy to use

Cons:

• Their app has quite a few crashes and at times the tool is offline
• You need to buy separate modules to activate specific features

Pricing:

• Instagram Bot ($10. 00/month). IG bots for auto-following and unfollowing
• Direct Message ($10.00/month). Auto-reply and DM automations
• Comment Manager ($10.00/month). A module for comment management
• Post Manager ($10.00/month). Tools for content scheduling

5. Nitreo

Nitreo uses a variety of methods to get real, active followers on your account. First, it finds and follows relevant users in your target niche. These users are then notified of your follows, and some of them will follow you back. These followers are more likely to engage with your content and help you grow your account. After a while, the bot will also automatically unfollow some of the users, to keep the flow steady without raising suspicion.

Pros:

• Detailed impression and interaction analytics
• You can create both whitelists and blacklists to set up your target follower profile
• Agencies and non-profit initiatives can get personalized pricing options

Cons:

• Some users may not see results as quickly as they would like
• If you don’t set up the app correctly, many of your new followers may come from random niches such as cryptocurrencies and NFT tech

Pricing:

• Essential ($49/month). Hashtag targeting and custom audience lists
• Speed (79$/month). Additional targeting features, story viewing, prioritized support

6. Jarvee

Jarvee is a social media automation tool that can help you save time and grow your social media accounts by automating tasks like posting, following, unfollowing, liking and commenting.

You can also use Jarvee to find and connect with potential customers and followers who are interested in your products or services. Jarvee can help you improve your social media presence and reach your business goals. With Jarvee, you can focus on your content and let the tool do the rest.

Pros:

• It is very advanced and offers a lot of tools and parameters to work with
• You can integrate it with other social media such as YouTube and Facebook too
• Useful resources such as blog articles, videos, and tutorials explaining how to use the tool

Cons:

• Although functional and detailed, the user interface looks a little bit outdated
• Sometimes you have to experiment with different parameters before you get the best results

Pricing:

• Free trial. You can use a 5-day free trial without a credit card
• Starter ($29.95/month). 10 social media accounts, all features unlocked
• Regular ($49.95/month). Up to 30 accounts on all social media platforms
• Professional ($69.95 /month). You can connect up to 70 accounts

7. Inflact

Inflact’s Instagram bot helps you get more likes and followers on your Instagram account. It does this by following and liking other users’ posts, as well as commenting on them. Once you have signed up for an account, you just need to connect your Instagram account and start following other users. Inflact will then like and comment on their posts on your behalf.

Pros:

• Extra tools such as Hashtag Generator, Instagram Downloader, and Profile Analyzer
• Comes with a dedicated app for iOS and Android
• Many resources and Instagram bot tutorials

Cons:

• Some users claim that the AI system targets too many fake profiles, and it is hard to generate engagement from real users
• The monthly price of some plans can be expensive for small businesses

Pricing: 

• Paid trial. 7 days trial available for $3
• Basic Pack ($64/month). 1 account, automatic follow/unfollow, and likes
• Advanced Pack ($114/month). 2 accounts, bulk messages to your audience
• Pro Pack ($148/month). 3 accounts, Stories Saver, Instagram search features

8. Kenji

Kenji is a platform that enables you to get more reactions and story views on your Instagram account. The platform works by allowing users to connect their Instagram account to the Kenji growth service. Once connected, the server will then start mass following and liking other users’ stories in order to generate more views for your own stories.

Pros:

• The setup is easy and takes only a few minutes
• Additional functionalities for reacting to Instagram Live transmissions
• It shouldn’t get you shadow-banned on Instagram because the number of automatic interactions is limited

Cons:

• Some users claim that getting new followers with this app takes too much time
• It may require ongoing maintenance and updates

Pricing:

• Simple ($49/month). Basic hashtag and user targeting features
• Pro ($79/month). Advanced segmentation settings and skip-the-queue support

9. Growth Beast

Growth Beast is an Instagram marketing service that helps businesses grow their reach. They offer a variety of tools and services, such as automated engagement, targeted follower growth, and hashtag optimization. Growth Beast is one of the best Instagram bot solutions and a great way to get more followers on Instagram. Their services are affordable, and they use randomized delays for increased security and avoiding spam detection.

Pros:

• It comes with Chrome and Firefox extensions that are easy to use
• Real-time dashboards for account management and monitoring what’s going on
• The pricing is lower than the majority of other Instagram bot apps

Cons:

• You need to make sure your computer is not going to sleep mode while the bot is running
• It is a relatively new app, so it is hard to say if it is going to be maintained on a regular basis

Pricing:

• Free trial. There is a free 3-day trial option for testing this bot
• Premium ($5/month). It unlocks all Instagram automation features

How to get bots on Instagram?

If you want to buy bots, there are a few places you can go. You can choose one of Instagram bot services like the ones mentioned above. But you can also buy Instagram followers from sites like Fiverr. It is easy to find people who will follow you or who will like and comment on your photos if you pay for them.

However, just because you can do it doesn’t really mean that you should do it.

Should I use Instagram bots?

No, you should not. Unless by “bots” you mean some content management and Instagram automation tools. However, you should never buy fake followers on Instagram.

Instagram’s algorithms can detect which interactions come from spammy bots and which from genuine Instagram followers.

Source: Wild Eye

Some new research suggests that Instagram bot followers have a negative impact on your profile’s performance. For example, one experiment shows that removing bots from Instagram (about 20% of all followers) had a positive impact on real engagement and reach. It translated into a 92% increase in the number of total post impressions.

Still, you can use Instagram integrations that will help you send automatic replies and messages.

Here is the right and legitimate way to connect Instagram and bots.

How to create an Instagram bot that doesn’t violate Instagram’s terms of service

Here is how to make your own Insta bot with one of the best Instagram bot services.

Step 1: Create your free Tidio account

Go to the signup page. Provide your email or sign in with your Facebook account.

Step 2: Complete the registration tour

Follow the instructions and set up your live chat widget. Don’t worry about it if you intend to use chatbots only on your Instagram account. However, it is a good idea to add a live chat widget on your website and connect it with Tidio.

Step 3: Connect your Instagram account

Go to Settings > Channels > Instagram and connect your Instagram Business account. If you are still using a personal profile, it is a great opportunity to upgrade your account. Just like Facebook Business pages and WhatsApp Business, Instagram Business is completely free.

Step 4: Set up your chatbot triggers and actions

You can use a drag-n-drop visual editor to specify the sequence of messages that the bot will write. You can also add elements such as multimedia or buttons for better user experience. 

Step 5: Test your new Instagram bot

The last thing left is to test your bot. Click the test button to see a preview of the conversation design. While it seems simple enough, designing your own bots is quite an interesting and intricate process.

You can check out more tutorials about creating bots here:

• How to Make a Chatbot From Scratch [No Coding]
• Chatbot Design: Best Practices & Insider Tips
• Good Chatbot Interface Examples to Inspire Your Own

How to promote my Instagram profile without using IG bots?

Many of the popular methods for getting followers on autopilot, such as using bots, are against the platform’s terms of service. So, how can you boost your visibility without buying followers or resorting to other prohibited methods?

If you’re looking to promote your profile without bots, there are a few things you can do.

And you know what? Most of these methods will help you get better results, even if you still decide to use bots for automating some of your activities.

1. Focus on creating high-quality content to boost organic growth

It sounds quite obvious, but there is really no way around it. If you want to be successful, interesting Instagram content is more important than whether you use a social media manager for post scheduling or not. Make sure that your videos and photos are visually appealing, and your posts are engaging.

2. Use the right hashtags and analyze their popularity

You can use Instagram hashtags to make your content more discoverable, and connect with other users who share similar interests. Consider using third-party apps to monitor Instagram trends and increase your visibility and reach. For example, social listening tools such as Brand24 are very good at tracking hashtags.

3. Take advantage of Instagram Stories, Live, and other features

Instagram Stories are an incredibly effective way to connect with your audience and share your brand’s story. According to a report by Business Insider, 70% of Gen Z users watch Instagram Stories on a daily basis. They are perfect pieces of content for people with a short attention span.

Unlike a long blog post or even a short video, Instagram Stories can be quickly viewed and digested. If you think about it, the whole TikTok platform is based on the same principle—and it is extremely popular.

4. Interact with other users to build relationships and grow your following

Yes. It is exactly the sort of thing that you would want to automate with bots and scripts. But don’t. People hate spammy bots, and they can usually recognize them from miles away. If you are serious about building a connection with your audience, nothing beats real interactions.

Conclusion

Using social media automation tools and Instagram bots can help you save time and grow your social media accounts. They can automate tasks like posting, following, unfollowing, liking, and commenting. They can also help you find and connect with potential customers and followers who are interested in your products or services.

The best automation tools and bots for Instagram are:

1. Tidio
2. Hyper IBF
3. Kicksta
4. Instamber
5. Nitreo
6. Jarvee
7. Inflact
8. Kenji
9. Growth Beast

However, you should never use bots to generate fake likes or comments on your posts. It can lead to your account being banned by Instagram. Additionally, it also creates a negative impression of your brand, as people will know that you are using prohibited engagement tricks.

There is no easy way to grow your Instagram following without putting in the work. If you want to be successful, you need to create high-quality content and interact meaningfully with other users. Automation might help you save time, but it will not get you followers who are genuinely interested in your brand. You can learn more about your potential audience by starting direct conversations instead.

One in Ten Instagram Accounts Is Fake

A trained eye can quickly tell whether an Instagram account is operated by a human or a bot. Nevertheless, the image network has failed to get its bot problem under control. A new study mentions the existence of 95 million bot accounts on Instagram.

As soon as a social network or digital platform gains in importance, they appear in ever larger numbers: bots and fake accounts. Programmers use them to automatically interact with other accounts or to spread spam, viruses and advertising on the networks.

So this phenomenon is anything but new. Nevertheless, social networks have not succeeded in identifying and deleting fake profiles at an early stage. Rather, Facebook, Twitter and Co. discover a gap, fix it and delete millions of fake profiles, only to deal with a new vulnerability a few days later.

A fake Instagram account rarely comes alone

The networks handle the bots and fake accounts differently. While Twitter keeps announcing big waves of deletion, Facebook is rather quiet.

If you want to find out how many fake profiles exist on the world’s largest social network, you have to take a close look at the quarterly report. There is talk of 13 percent, or the equivalent of almost 270 million fake accounts.

On Twitter, the balance is not much better. According to a survey, between 8.8 and 14.6 percent of all Twitter profiles are fake. This corresponds to between 29 and 48 million profiles.

And the market researchers at Ghost Data have now also conducted a survey for Instagram. The average results are 95 million bots and fake accounts.

Economic effects of fake profiles

Although Instagram does not have more fake profiles in percentage than other networks, the message is not very positive.

If one in ten Instagram accounts is not operated by a human being, it becomes clear how great the risk is of wasting advertising budgets. After all, an influencer’s reach of millions is only of value if they are real people being reached.

Instagram itself explains in a statement that it takes spam and abusive behavior very seriously.

Accounts that sell automated likes or followers are clearly considered spam by us and will be removed from the platform. We continuously review suspicious activities and work to understand how to prevent such activities in the future. Our internal estimates show that spam accounts are only a small fraction of Instagram’s monthly active accounts.

According to current estimates, the cost of ad fraud at Instagram is approximately $500 million.

This makes it all the more important for advertisers, agencies and companies to refrain from just looking at the number of followers. If an Instagram account has 100 real fans who interact passionately, it’s more valuable than a profile with 100,000 fans where nothing happens.

You may also like

How to recognize bots in your Instagram account and remove them - Travelpayouts Blog

Why is it important to regularly clean your profile from bots and spammers among subscribers?

Many novice Instagram users do not pay attention to bots in their followers, or even promote their account by attracting bots.
It would seem, but what is it? After all, with a large number of subscribers, the account looks more solid. And who would guess that most of them are bots and spammers, no one will rummage through thousands of subscribers, checking everyone. nine0006

This is an erroneous opinion, which very often ruins accounts that begin their lives.

With the current Instagram algorithms, the number of followers is not directly proportional to how actively the account will be promoted by the platform. Only the percentage of active people from the total is important. That is, if you have 1,000 followers, and only 50-60 of them are active, Instagram will rarely recommend you to people, and your posts will be at the bottom of the feed.

The activity indicator on Instagram is called ER (Engagement Rate), or engagement rate. It is considered very simple - the sum of likes and comments on the last publication is divided by the number of subscribers and multiplied by 100%. If you want a more extensive analysis, then take the arithmetic average of the last 10-15 posts. nine0006

The more inactive subscribers you have, the worse the ER. And bots are definitely not active subscribers.

Look at the screenshots below: after cleaning from bots, the percentage of accounts that saw publications increases.

Also, cleaning from bots has a positive effect on actions with posts. The more live audience sees your post, the more actions are performed in relation to it.

How to detect the presence of bots

You need to carefully monitor your statistics. You can do this using special services, or you can switch to business account mode and open statistics on Instagram itself. nine0006

Pay special attention to reach and subscription growth. If it happens in sharp jerks, then most likely someone winds up bots on your account. This is what some unscrupulous competitors do when they want to lower someone's ER and thereby lower him in the top.

If you actively use mass following as a means of promotion, then keep track of which subscribers come to you. It is better to sort out all suspicious ones in a timely manner so that they do not accumulate and do not have time to seriously affect the statistics. It is better to use not mass following, but mass liking and mass looking. The result will not be so noticeable, but there will be more live subscribers. nine0006

How can you recognize a bot?

1. No avatar, non-original nickname, empty or closed profile. Individually, this may not mean anything, but if the three points match, then you probably have a bot.
2. Comments with advertising. If someone writes newsletters under your posts, then you can be sure that this is done by a spam bot. The stories of such commentators about how they started earning millions by clicking on the link are nonsense. Clean these up as soon as possible. nine0031
3. Some business accounts use mass following to build an audience. These are not bots, but they bring no more benefits. The best solution would be to unsubscribe them from yourself, ridding the profile of the "dead weight".

Below is an example of a suspicious account. So many subscribers and subscriptions, but the profile is empty. Isn't it strange?

Analysis and purification

Analysis can be carried out manually or using services that clean the account automatically. Let's consider both options. nine0006

Manual account cleaning

If there are few subscribers and the activity is not bad, then you can analyze the account yourself. Based on the criteria above, you can check each account. This is a very tedious process that takes a lot of time.

Services for cleaning Instagram account from bots

There are services that automate all the shenanigans that you do.

SpamGuard

It will check and clean up your account in a few minutes:

1. Analyze the audience.
2. Adjusts the list of accounts based on your preferences.
3. Will clear the account.

It also provides protection against bot attacks and spam comments. Test analysis can be done for 1 ruble. Verification must be made within three days after payment. After three days, the full price subscription will be automatically activated. The subscription can be canceled at any time.

Try SpamGuard →

nine0004 Nofak.es

An English-language service, also focused exclusively on clearing an account. You can try for free. For regular use, you can buy a monthly subscription or pay once and use the service for an unlimited time.

Try nofak.es →

Zeus

This is a service for comprehensive account promotion. It can collect and filter the audience, provide detailed analytics and account reporting, and block bots. nine0006

You can use only the whole range of services, you can not pay separately and use only cleaning bots. You can try the Zeus service for free.

Try Zeus →

How to avoid bot and spam attacks

It's not enough just to clean the bots, because they will come again if certain worlds are not taken. How to avoid it?

• Mass following more carefully. After each call, check the newly arrived subscribers. If you don’t have the opportunity to look at Instagram so often, or if you just don’t want to take risks, then use mass liking and mass looking instead of mass following. nine0031
• Do not click on suspicious links. Even such a seemingly harmless action can turn into not only an invasion of bots and spam, but also an account hacking.
• Do not use #followback, #like4like and similar hashtags : they are often used by commercial accounts, bots and spam. Also, do not use millionaire tags, as there will be no live subscribers from them.
• Respond quickly. Others come for some bots. Spammers often duplicate comments, and if you simply delete them, new ones will appear. nine0031
• Do not wind up bots yourself. Seriously, don't.

How to promote your Instagram account

After all the warnings, a logical question arises - how then to promote your Instagram account?

It all depends on how much free time you have. You can promote your account for free, but it will take a lot of time and effort.

A faster solution is to promote your account for a fee. Allocate a certain amount for a month, not necessarily a large amount, which you will definitely invest in promotion. Money can be spent on advertising (from other bloggers or on Instagram itself), on special services for promoting and cleaning your account, or on the work of an SMM specialist. nine0006

The main thing is to approach the matter with love. An Instagram account is not something that can be completely shifted to other people, and even more so services. Colorful photos, pleasant posts, communication with readers - all this is exclusively under your control.

Create an interesting image for yourself, enter your own unique rubric or other feature, interact with other bloggers. Be interesting, and subscribers will find you!

Checking Instagram for cheating so as not to waste the budget on bots

If you are going to buy advertising from a blogger, you should not trust only the statistics that he will show. The author can be dishonest and tweak his performance, so it is important to check him for cheating.

What kind of cheating is and why is it needed

Cheating is an artificial increase in page performance. On Instagram*, the price of posting depends on the statistics of the blog: the larger and more active the audience, the higher the price. Therefore, unscrupulous authors increase the number of likes, comments, reach and subscribers in order to sell ads more expensively. nine0006

Because of this, instead of real people who could become buyers or future subscribers, most of the ads are "viewed" by bots. The advertiser does not get the promised results, advertising does not work well, the budget goes nowhere.

To avoid this situation, you need to check the blog statistics. There are simple and cheap ways to cheat, which can be seen when you carefully view your account, but there are more complex and tricky ones, which will require special services to find. nine0006

In this article, we will analyze simple and complex methods of cheating, and also show you how to analyze a page in order to find a would-be blogger. Let's start with simple and free ways, and then move on to more complex ones.

Look at the likes and comments of subscribers

The easiest way to identify unscrupulous bloggers is by analyzing reactions. Often, for this, it is enough to carefully look at the account and evaluate the quality and number of reactions, their relationship with each other and with the number of subscribers. nine0006

How to check the number of likes on Instagram*

Open any post, click on the list of likes and view accounts. If among them there are many profiles with strange nicknames, without an avatar and publications, these are bots. So, the likes are screwed up, and in the cheapest way.

Typical bot accounts: random nicknames and empty profiles

There are also premium bots that have posts, a description and an avatar. But they are also easy to calculate, because all posts are loaded in 1-2 days, and there are much more subscriptions than subscribers. nine0006 A classic example of a premium bot: a random set of pictures in posts, no current one, more than 7 thousand followers

Bot creators often copy personal photos of Instagram users* to make the bot look as natural as possible, or simply hack profiles using them as bots. Such pages look real because there are real photos of people and activity on the page, but they are almost always given out by hundreds and thousands of outgoing subscriptions.

How to find comments from bots

Bots are not able to meaningfully write texts that fit the topic of the post, so their comments are immediately noticeable: neutral emoji or abstract words: beautiful, good shot, great, interesting thought.

An example of a post from a fake blog: emoji instead of text, the authors of such comments have thousands of subscriptions and half-empty profiles

How to identify comments from activity chats publications. We wrote more about this in the guide to activity chats. Usually in such chats, you need to be active on someone's page in order to get reactions on your own. nine0006

Participation rules for one of the activity chats

And everything seems to be fine, the author gets reactions from live users, but there is a problem - this is an uninterested audience. Users are not subscribed to the blogger, they are not interested in the content, they are not involved and do not trust him. So advertising in such blogs is unlikely to be successful.

It is difficult to calculate the cheat rate from chats, but it is possible. Usually such comments are written for show, as if for decency. You know how children respond to granny's cards on Whatsapp, or how some employees comment on the boss's post. The text is impersonal, without details, there is no real interest and involvement. nine0006

Below is an example from a post that was dropped into the activity chat. Rate the text of the comments.

The texts are almost the same, they seem to be on the topic of the post, but they are written more for show, without real interest. For example: where to buy such a suit? oh what a suit! I want the same suit! Yes, real subscribers can write like this. Therefore, look through the comments on different posts, look for suspicious similarities and impersonalities. nine0006

Here is another example from the chat: the comment text is very abstract and would fit almost any topic. It is clear that the author does not even bother with the text, if you see something like this under the posts, immediately beware.

It’s not even immediately clear whether the commentator is mocking or really enthusiastic

Compare the number of reactions

It often happens that a blogger winds up one indicator and forgets about another. In this case, you can simply look at the post statistics to check Instagram* for cheating for free. nine0006

There are a lot more likes than comments

Look at the number of reactions on average. It is believed that there are about 2-3 times more likes than comments, and for large pages, the result is quite normal - 1 comment per 100 likes.

If there is nothing in the content that could cause a flurry of likes, but there are 4-5 times more likes than comments, this may be cheating. However, if you're analyzing impersonal ideation pages, this can be the case - they usually have a lot of likes and saves, but almost no comments. nine0006

The same number of reactions on different posts

It does not happen that the audience reacts to all posts in the same way. The number of reactions depends on many factors: the format of the post, the type of content, the length of the text, and so on. So scroll through the feed and look at the number of reactions on average. If plus or minus is the same everywhere, most likely, the blogger winds them up to the required amount.

Below is an example of the author, whose statistics show how reactions to posts can vary: a successful rils scored 74 thousand likes, not soaring - 1,600 and 800 each, a post with a cake about important events received 4.5 thousand reactions. nine0006 Lina Terentieva's blog statistics

Evaluate the engagement of subscribers

The level of engagement shows how actively subscribers react to the content: they click on the "Like" button, write comments, bookmark posts, click on stickers, put reactions in stories.

How to calculate the engagement rate: ER coefficient

You can estimate the level manually by viewing the post statistics. For example, if an influencer has 10 thousand subscribers and, on average, posts get 50 reactions, then the fraud is obvious - there are only bots and only a few real users in the subscribers. nine0006

You can more accurately assess engagement through services that analyze the Engagement Rate or ER. This ratio shows how many reactions per post, on average, in relation to the total number of subscribers.

ER calculation formula: average number of reactions per post / number of followers × 100

You can view ER in special social network analysis services, for example, in DataFan. The service allows you to receive dynamic reports and analyze your own accounts on Instagram*, VKontakte, Facebook*, Odnoklassniki, as well as VK, myTarget, Facebook* Ads campaigns. nine0006

Read more about DataFan and other Instagram* account analysis services in the article “How to analyze an Instagram* account”.

What should be the ER

ER depends on the size of the audience: the more subscribers, the lower the ratio. A small profile that is followed by friends and acquaintances will have a much higher number of reactions in relation to the number of subscribers than a millionaire blogger.

There are no exact criteria for ER, because a lot depends on the niche and content. Let's compare two accounts with the same number of subscribers: one has short and funny videos, and the other has expert content for learning English. Statistics will show that funny videos have more reactions than useful videos about English. Accordingly, ER will be different even with the same audience size. nine0006

Blogger analysts from trendHERO recommend focusing on the following indicators:

• ER less than 1% - very poor engagement, it is better not to consider buying ads;
• ER from 1 to 3.5% - the average level of engagement, especially if the audience is very large;
• ER from 3. 6 to 6% - a high rate, more common among large and medium-sized bloggers;
• ER over 6% - a very high level, usually for medium and small accounts. nine0031

To clarify that these figures refer to the analysis of blogs, commercial accounts often have ER below 1%. A store or a dental clinic sometimes does not even have the task of engaging subscribers and increasing ER.

We have already found out that all content cannot be equally interesting to the audience. This means that ER cannot always be the same either. Typically, the engagement rate for good authors ranges from 1 to 2%. If the ER schedule does not change or grows steadily, it looks like cheating. nine0006 Data from the DataFan service: statistics of a normal account - the ER indicator fluctuates within 2%

Also, ER can vary depending on the frequency of publications. For example, if earlier there were 2-3 posts per week, and then it became 7, then in comparison with the previous period, ER will decrease. This happens because the indicator directly depends on the number of publications.

In addition, big drops can be due to the lack of content these days, and if ER has fallen and is not increasing, most likely a shadowban. Outbursts occur when a hype topic is discussed or reactions are added. nine0006

View account statistics in dynamics

Now let's see how to check a blogger for promotion on Instagram* using analytics services. Services are needed because the social network does not show account statistics as openly as the number of likes and comments.

Reach and views

For active influencers who consistently keep stories and publish posts, reach and views stay at about the same level with little fluctuation. You can learn more about social media reach in our article What Makes Up Social Media Reach. nine0006 Data from the DataFan service: coverage and profile views are about the same level, there are slight fluctuations

But if there are sharp jumps and dips on the chart, this is suspicious. You need to check the content that was released these days. High jumps can mean:

• advertising promotion;
• hit in recommendations;
• announcement and results of giveaways, promotions and sweepstakes;
• artificially increased indicators.

DataFan data: Suspicious spikes in reach

To understand whether there was a promotion, you need to look at the content that was released during the burst days: maybe there was a topic that was hype or important for the audience. Check the posts: what they wrote, who liked it, it looks like real involvement or cheating bots. You can also ask the blogger for story statistics.

Also look at the ratio of reactions and reach/views. If there are hundreds of thousands of views, and only tens of reactions, this can be a winding up of indicators. This is how novice scammers often pierce: they increase coverage, but forget about reactions. nine0006

It happens that a blogger announces a giveaway or a giveaway, so the post gets wild coverage and a lot of reactions. After the giveaway ends, the author removes the description text, and the post looks unremarkable. However, if you go into the comments, you can find a lot of interesting things.

Sergey launched the draw and deleted the text of the description after completion, but the comments remained

Subscriptions and subscribers

When analyzing subscriptions, you need to look at the chart: if it grows smoothly upwards without sharp surges and falls, everything is in order. The blogger grows organically thanks to interesting content and engagement of subscribers. nine0006 Data from the DataFan service: an example of smooth growth, new people subscribe every day, there are no sharp changes cheating through pay-per-action services - the subscriber receives a reward for subscribing and immediately unsubscribes. Either hype or deceived expectations - the blogger spins ads on a hot topic, which he rarely writes about. People subscribe, and after a while they unsubscribe disappointedly. nine0031

On the chart of wave : first, the number of subscribers grows, and then decreases. Most likely, there was a giveaway or a raffle - they were attracted by subscription prizes, users subscribed, and after the giveaway they unsubscribed. There may also be hype or incorrectly chosen advertising.

Chart with sharp rises with almost no fall - this is almost always a cheat. Within a few days they buy bots, which then do not unsubscribe. It is also possible that a VERY successful advertisement or getting into recommendations - users subscribed and stayed. But this happens extremely rarely, usually in this case the growth is smooth. nine0031 Data from the trendHERO service: the chart shows that bots have been purchased in the last few months

Also worth looking at outgoing subscriptions . If there are more of them than subscribers, the blogger uses mass following: he subscribes to the accounts of the target audience in the hope that users will notice him, go to the page and subscribe.

This process can be automated for little money, which is why many people are still doing it this way. However, it is dangerous to mass follow because Instagram* bans for such promotion methods. nine0006 Classic mass follower: there are many more subscriptions than subscribers

When mass following is not visible, you can look at the statistics of outgoing subscriptions in the trendHERO service. If the schedule is uneven and there are constant ups and downs, this is mass following. The account automatically subscribes to 50-100 users and unsubscribes after a while.

Audience data

If the page is in Russian, and the subscribers have accounts from Arab or Far Eastern countries, these are bots. But if you analyze the profile of a model or celebrity that is popular in these countries, then everything can be. nine0006

It's normal if a Russian-speaking author has a lot of subscribers from the CIS, but it's strange when most of the audience is from countries where they don't speak much Russian. However, if you are analyzing the profile of a polyglot who blogs in several languages, then the statistics should be just that.

Data from the DataFan service: statistics of a Russian-speaking author who has a suspiciously large number of subscribers from Asia

You can also compare the statistics of the audience that puts reactions with the statistics of subscribers. If the subscribers are mainly from Russia, but the likes are from the Arab countries, the likes are boosted. nine0006

The speed of collecting likes

Usually, likes are gradually gained in the first three days: the first 6–8 hours is a smooth and basic set of reactions, and the rest of the time the speed decreases. If in the first few hours the post gains 10 thousand likes, and then 500-1000 likes - cheating.

If a post after a day begins to sharply gain reactions - cheating. Even if the post was recommended, reposted by a very large account, or had an ad, the set of reactions should be gradual.

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