How many followers do you need to promote on instagram
How To Make Money on Instagram in 2022 (7 Best Ways)
This guide will explore 7 quick and easy methods for how to make money on Instagram.
You’ve probably heard stories of Instagrammers cashing in on the pictures they snap and share every day. You might’ve even looked at your own sizable following and thought, “Maybe I can do that full time too.”
Together, social media reach and influence offer the opportunity for Instagram creators to explore multiple streams of potential revenue, whether they want to build an empire or just earn some extra cash and free stuff.
Shortcuts ✂️
- How to make money on Instagram
- How much do Instagram influencers make?
- How many Instagram followers do you need to make money?
- Getting paid on Instagram and beyond
- Make money on Instagram FAQ
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How to make money on Instagram
- Collaborate with brands on sponsored posts
- Become an affiliate
- Open your own ecommerce store
- Create an Instagram shop
- Sell your photos online
- Monetize your content
- Sell old stuff
The methods that may work the best for you will depend on your unique brand of Instagram content, your target audience, and your level of commitment.
The beauty here is that chasing one revenue stream doesn’t necessarily rule out another.
So let’s start with the most common approach to Instagram monetization: partnering with brands as an influencer.
1. Collaborate with brands on sponsored content
The term “Instagram influencer” gets thrown around a lot these days.
An influencer is basically anyone who’s built themselves an online reputation by doing and sharing awesome things online.
To their audiences, influencers are tastemakers, trendsetters, and trusted experts whose opinions about certain subjects are respected.
Many brands just can’t compete with that, so they partner with influencers on sponsored content like posts, Reels, and Stories that help get the word out about their products.
But it’s not just the follower count and reach of your Instagram account that brands want—it’s your audience’s trust and engagement with high-quality content.
It can be hard to balance your revenue as an influencer and your integrity as a creator, but if you’re not relying on your Instagram marketing income to stay afloat, you always have the freedom to be selective about the brands you work with, just as brands will be selective about the Instagrammers they work with.
How to decide what to charge as an influencer
Typically these influencer deals involve the creation of content—Instagram ads, a post, a video, or a Story—and will sometimes include permission for the brand to use this content on their own site or in an ad.
Most of these deals are negotiable and can involve a single post or an entire campaign in exchange for a fee, a free product, a service, a gift, the promise of exposure, or some combination of these.
Keep in mind when negotiating that you’re not just offering content but access to your audience—a potentially large reach on one of the most popular social media platforms around—and usage rights.
The average influencer who has upward of 100,000 followers charges up to $500 per post, just to give you an idea of what some brands are willing to pay and how to negotiate based on the cards you’re holding.
Finally, it's important as an influencer to also know your own audience.
What is the makeup of your audience, and what is your engagement rate (total engagement divided by your number of followers)? You can dig up numbers to back this up in your Instagram analytics report, if you’ve switched to a business account. This will help you be prepared when it comes time to negotiate.
How to find brands to work with
If you’re big enough, chances are brands will find you. But you can also look for brands to work with that are on a similar level in terms of personality and values, so your audience won’t feel like you’re “selling out.”
You can reach out to them directly to try to work out a deal, but you can also list yourself on one of the many influencer marketplaces out there to increase your chances of being discovered, including:
- Fohr. Connect your Instagram, blog, YouTube channel, and other social platforms to create an influencer “card” that shows your different profiles and total reach to brands shopping for a partnership. You can also access a list of brands and their wants, so you can take the initiative to reach out too.
- Crowdtap. Do small content creation tasks to earn rewards. This is great if you’ve got a smaller audience. Available in the US only.
- indaHash. Brands post campaigns you can participate in.
Post a picture with the specified hashtags on Instagram and get paid. You need at least 700 engaged followers to be eligible.
The rules vary when it comes to sponsored content, but to be on the safe side and respect your audience’s trust, consider adding a #sponsored hashtag to indicate sponsored posts.
You can find examples of sponsored posts and how Instagrammers integrate brands into their story or caption by searching #sponsored on Instagram, like this one from How They Asked, an account that shares wedding proposal stories and partners with a jewelry business:
Instagram also has a “Paid Partnership with” tag that prominently identifies sponsored posts, which some brands might require you to use to disclose your relationship with them.
2. Become an affiliate
Unlike an influencer, an affiliate is more invested in making sales for the partner brand—not just generating awareness—in exchange for a commission.
This is typically done with a trackable link or unique promo code to ensure clicks actually translate into sales.
Use a mix of clickable links in your Instagram bio and Instagram Stories or through stickers. Since you can’t put links in Instagram posts, you can create promo codes so you can make money from different angles.
Consider reaching out to one of the many online merchants offering affiliate programs. Or you can explore popular marketplaces like:
- ClickBank. An affiliate platform with a tier-based commission that’s open to everyone.
- LTK. An invitation-only fashion and lifestyle influencer network that offers 20% commissions.
- Amazon Associates. A popular option that pays out a 10% commission.
Though it sounds like a numbers game, affiliate marketing is also an art, and you’ll have a better chance at success if you have a plan going into it and expand your online presence to include a website and other marketing channels.
Tip: Affiliate links can be long and ugly, so I recommend a URL shortener like Bitly, especially if the links are going in your Instagram bio.
3. Open your own ecommerce store
By now it might sound like the only way for an Instagrammer to make money is to sell out and work with other brands.
But creators of all kinds are in a good position to “sell out” with their own products: physical goods, services, or digital items that can be an extension of their brand, building a business with an audience at its center.
The ability for [content creators] to sell products is just so natural because their abundance of content allows them to have those moments of plugging their products.
Chris Vaccarino, founder of Fanjoy
You need to invest some time upfront, but in today’s world, it’s almost natural for creators to make the leap to entrepreneurship. That’s becoming easier with the growing list of Instagram tools available to build an audience.
Just look at Loki the Wolfdog, one of the biggest Instagram dog-preneurs of his time.
By selling your own stuff, you don’t need to worry about integrating messages from other brands into your posting strategy.
Better yet, you can get your own brand out there on the products you sell.
Fans can show their love and support your work by buying from you—a purchase they can feel good about.
There are a few ways to sell your own merch:
- You can use a print-on-demand service to print and ship your own t-shirts, pillows, coffee mugs, wall art, and more.
- You can sell services such as photography or consulting using your bio to direct interested people to a contact email or a link to your professional website.
- You can sell digital products such as online courses, ebooks, or design templates.
- You can use your Instagram business account to launch a startup selling your own original products. You can use dropshipping fulfillment so you don’t have to deal with holding inventory or returns.
Superpowered social links
Linkpop is a tool that lets you create a customized landing page for all your brand links. It’s free, customizable, and best of all: shoppable.
4. Create an Instagram Shop
The past few years have been huge for ecommerce brands and creators who want to sell on social media. Instagram has released a ton of features under the Instagram Shopping umbrella, which allows people to easily shop your business’ videos and images on the platform.
Instagram shopping tags are so effective—and over 130 million people are tapping on shopping tags every month—because they allow people to go from product inspiration to product information in just a few taps."
Taylor Loren, in an edited excerpt from the course How to Make Money on Instagram
It all starts with an Instagram shop, a.k.a. your storefront. There, you can share your story and sell products. Instagram provides a sleek experience for shoppers to browse and buy your collections. All you need to set up Instagram Shopping is a Business or Creator account.
You can customize your shop by creating collections or curated products presented in themes.
Common themes include new arrivals, gifts, or seasonal trends.
Just like your online store, you can also create product description pages in your shop. Here you can include all relevant product information, like pricing and descriptions. You can send people to your website to complete a purchase or let them buy through the app using Instagram checkout.
It doesn’t stop there. People can also buy your products throughout Instagram via features like:
- Shoppable posts and Stories. You can use product tags to showcase items from your catalog in videos and images. People simply need to tap to learn more about an item.
- Shoppable ads. You can also add product tags to ads and extend the reach of your shoppable posts. Setup is simple inside Ads Manager, or you can boost existing Instagram posts in your feed.
- Instagram Shop tab. Instagram’s shopping tab is a destination for people looking to discover new brands that are relevant to them.
This helps you more easily reach new customers on the app. - Live shopping. Do you love livestreaming content? Then you’ll find Instagram live shopping helpful for making money. Just go live and tag products from your catalog (or Facebook shop) to feature in your broadcast. The product will show up at the bottom of the screen, where people can tap to purchase instantly.
The best part? Setting up an Instagram shop is free. You’ll only pay a commission if someone purchases through Instagram checkout.
5. Sell your photos online
Someone might get famous on Twitter by telling 140-character jokes, but Instagram is a photo-sharing app at its core. And photos are assets that can be licensed, printed, and sold in a variety of ways.
If photography is what got you into the Instagram game in the first place, you can list your photos in marketplaces like 500px or Twenty20, where brands and publishers might license them.
However, you can also sell your photos as prints and on other physical products using a similar method described in the last section.
Services like Printful and Teelaunch let you put your photos on posters, phone cases, pillows, and more, taking care of fulfilling orders and customer service, so all you really need to worry about is making sales.
Take the story of Daniel Arnold, who, according to an interview in Forbes, went from “eating toast three meals a day” to making $15,000 in 24 hours by offering to sell prints of his popular-but-controversial photos. If you've already got the demand, all you need to do is take the initiative and offer your audience the opportunity to buy your photography from you.
6. Monetize your content
Monetize your videos with ads
Another way for entrepreneurs to make money on Instagram is through in-stream video ads. With these ads, brands can promote themselves within the videos you produce.
How much you earn depends on the amount of views your video gets, or “Monetizeable Plays,” according to Instagram. You’ll get 55% of ad revenue generated from each view, paid monthly to your bank account.
Turn on In-stream Video Ads and start earning in three steps:
- Go to Account Settings. Tap Creator, then In-Stream Video Ads.
- Tap Get Started. Read and agree to the terms and conditions.
- Toggle Allow Monetization on your existing Instagram videos, then tap Continue to finish.
To earn through In-Stream Video Ads, your content must be original and you need to own the rights to any music. Your video needs to be two minutes or more to monetize. Images, polls, looping videos, slideshows, or text montages don’t qualify.
Live badges
Live badges are a newer feature, helping creators and influencers make money on Instagram. A popular concept taken from Twitch and TikTok, think of Instagram Live badges as tips you can receive during a live broadcast.
With this feature, viewers can purchase a badge during the livestream that shows in the comments and unlocks features, including a place on the creators’ badge list and access to a special heart.
People can buy:
- One heart for $0.99
- Two hearts for $1.99
- Three hearts for $4.99
7. Sell old stuff
If you’re not an influencer and just want to make some extra cash, Instagram is a great place to sell old stuff. Whether it’s furniture, clothing, collectors items or even Mason jars, you can make side income selling it on Instagram. Plus, you can declutter your home and help save the environment.
Take Lavender Loveseat, for example. Based in Chicago, the team finds older pieces of furniture, refinishes them, and sells them through Instagram. The brand shares fun, entertaining content on its page to attract buyers and earn sales.
Read More: From Likes to Dollars: Here's How to Sell Your Products on Instagram
How much do Instagram influencers make?
There are a number of factors that determine how much an Instagram influencer makes. They can earn anywhere from a few dollars to a million dollars per post.
The amount you make depends on a few factors:
- Number of followers
- Engagement rates
- Affiliate marketing tactics
The good news? There is room for any size account to make money on Instagram. There are generally five tiers of influencer marketing, broken down by follower count.
- Nano-influencer: 1,000–10,000 followers ($10–$100 per post)
- Micro-influencer: 10,000–50,000 followers ($100–$500 per post)
- Mid-tier influencer: 50,000–500,000 followers ($500–$5,000 per post)
- Macro-influencer: 500,000–1 million followers ($5,000–$10,000 per post)
- Mega-influencer: 1 million+ followers ($10,000–$1 million+ per post)
If you don’t have a lot of followers, don’t get discouraged. Earning your followers’ trust and engaging with them will help your account grow. More than the number of followers, brands look for influencers to work with that have an active following.
So even if you only have 1,000 followers, you can still make some real money. To give you a little inspiration, here are some examples of the top non-celebrity influencers who have made the most of Instagram with their accounts:
- Lele Pons: 46 million followers
- Charli D'Amelio: 44.4 million followers
- Addison Rae: 40.1 million followers
- Sommer Ray: 26.8 million followers
Related Article: It’s Your Time to Shine: How to Find and Work With Instagram Influencers
How many Instagram followers do you need to make money?
If by now you’re wondering how many followers you need to start bringing in real revenue, the short answer is: not as many as you think.
The long answer depends on factors that range from:
- What niche you’re in and how easily you can directly tie it to a product category (fashion, food, beauty, and fitness are popular niches, based on top Instagram hashtags)
- How engaged your followers are (100,000 fake followers won’t amount to much)
- Which revenue channels you explore
Naturally, the more engaged followers you have, the better.
Check out our tips on how to get more followers on Instagram.
While top Instagrammers make thousands of dollars per post, even those with small but engaged followings of 1,000 have the potential to start making money.
Getting paid on Instagram and beyond
What started as a hobby—making people laugh, doing silly photoshoots with your dog, or sharing pictures of food—can snowball into the chance to turn your Instagram page into a source of income fueled by your engaged following. But why stop there?
There’s a world of possibilities for creators to make money on the web. If you want to open up more revenue streams online, be sure to check out our tips on how to make money on YouTube. Your Instagram followers are bound to join you on other channels. You just have to open the doors for them to walk through.
Ready to create your business? Start your free trial of Shopify—no credit card required.
Make money on Instagram FAQ
Can you get paid on Instagram?
Yes.
You can get paid on Instagram in the following ways:
- Create sponsored posts for brands that want to get in front of your audience
- Become an affiliate and making a commission selling other brands’ products
- Create and selling a physical or digital product or offering a paid service
- Set up an Instagram Shop
- Sell licenses for your photography or videos
- Monetize your content
How many followers do you need to make money on Instagram?
The more followers you have on Instagram, the more money you can make. Rates are also determined by engagement, quality of content, name recognition, audience demographic, and skill set. The standard is $10 per 1,000 followers, but can vary depending on your contract and sponsor.
How much money does 10K Instagram followers bring in?
Micro-influencers, or accounts with 10,000 followers or less, can make around $88 per post on Instagram.
How to Make Money on Instagram: 5 Ways for 2022
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If you’re looking for ways to make money on Instagram, consider sharing more than just your photos and videos. Share your audience.
Companies are attracted to dedicated communities on the social networking app, even ones that number in the low thousands. If your followers fit the profile of consumers that a brand is trying to reach, you may be able to make some money. Not interested in going the influencer route? Try selling your own products.
There are five main ways to make money on Instagram:
Get sponsored
Promote your business
Sell your items
Earn badges
Monetize your videos with ads
Here’s what to expect when it comes to getting paid on Instagram, plus tips for success.
How much do Instagram influencers make?
The top five Instagram influencers as of April 2021 have over 200 million followers each and include Cristiano Ronaldo, Ariana Grande, Dwayne Johnson, Kylie Jenner and Selena Gomez, according to Search Engine Journal. While the money these Instagram superstars can make is astronomical, the income people who aren’t celebrities can make is not necessarily chump change.
Influencers with a million followers can earn somewhere around $670 per post, the search marketing website says. A content creator on Instagram with 100,000 followers can earn about $200 per post, while someone with 10,000 followers can make about $88 per post.
So, the formula is: more followers + more posts = more money.
How many Instagram followers do you need to make money?
With just 1,000 or so followers, you can make money on Instagram. Neil Patel, a widely known digital marketing specialist, says the key is engagement — followers who like, share and comment on your posts.
"Even if you have 1,000 followers who are engaged, the potential to make money is there," he writes on his blog.
With an enthusiastic fan base, no matter how small, "brands are willing to invest in you because of the profitable actions you’ll drive through your account," Patel adds.
5 ways to make money on Instagram
1. Get sponsored
Creating sponsored posts or stories is the primary way Instagram users can cash in on their account. For example, if your feed is focused on images of your dog on hikes, an outdoor gear company may want to pay you to post a photo that includes its product in the picture.
How to get sponsored on Instagram
So how do you find a sponsor? In some cases, potential partners will reach out to you. But if you don’t want to wait to be approached, check out companies that can help you find and work with brands.
Seek out a service
Which business you use depends on your needs.
There are agencies you work with directly, like The Mobile Media Lab, and marketplaces that connect you with partners, like Influicity. Other services can help you manage all your partner relationships, like Aspire.
Be authentic
When searching for partners or deciding between different offers, aim for stuff you and those you influence would actually use. Followers of your pet are more likely to trust your opinion about a trail backpack for dogs than gourmet cat food. Don’t bother with products you don’t like. If your dog would tear apart an “indestructible” toy in an instant or bites off every sweater you’ve put on her, there’s no reason to recommend these things to others.
Find brands that fit as specific a niche as possible. Fans of your outdoorsy dog may look for many opinions on dog stuff in general but will really trust you to know which protective booties work best for the winter.
Keep in mind that sponsored posts and stories on Instagram are held to the same standard of truth in advertising as any other form of marketing.
Make sure to include a disclosure in each paid post and story. You’ll do this by setting up branded content in your account settings then tagging your business partner.
2. Promote your business
There are other ways to use Instagram to make money. You can set up a business account to grow your business. For example, if you have an Etsy shop where you sell your crafts or a food blog that generates advertising revenue, a professional-looking Instagram account could provide a promotional boost. (This is also a common way to make money on TikTok.)
You can link to your Etsy or website in your profile or highlight one specific product in your bio section to direct more people to it. If your account is approved for Instagram Shopping features, you can tag products to promote your stuff directly.
Set yourself up for success
Take well-lit photos of products you’re trying to sell or projects you’re promoting and make them findable.
Create your own hashtag and check out which ones competitors are using. Encourage your clients to post pictures with your stuff and tag you in them.
You can also use Instagram’s insights feature to learn about your audience. You can see how many eyes are on your post, as well as statistics about people's age range and gender.
The app’s resources also help you find and connect with new customers. Pay some money to promote posts that you want more people to see. You can also add a button to your profile that links to an email address or phone number so interested parties can contact you easily
3. Sell your castoffs
Maybe you don’t have a business to promote, but you often sell your old clothes and accessories on websites like Poshmark. Instagram can boost your pool of buyers.
Present and photograph your clothes and other things in an appealing way and include as much detail as possible in the caption. Brand, size, condition and age of each item are all good things to note.
If you’re looking to sell one item in particular, link to it in your Instagram bio. If not, just link to your Poshmark or other seller profile. Many Instagram sellers use #shopmycloset to hawk their wares.
4. Earn badges through Live videos
You can earn money directly from your audience when you share real-time videos with Instagram’s Live feature. As you showcase your talents, products and so on, viewers can buy badges, which are essentially tips, to show support. Badges cost $0.99, $1.99 or $4.99. You’ll see heart symbols next to comments from people who’ve purchased them.
Promote your upcoming Live video sessions through posts or stories to get the word out beforehand. Then, try using the Q&A feature or give shoutouts to commenters while you’re broadcasting to boost engagement — and hopefully, badges.
5. Monetize your videos with ads
Another way to get paid: Allow brands to run ads during your videos.
To set it up, head to your creator account settings and enable the monetization option for in-stream video ads. Then, post videos as usual.
The amount you earn depends on how many views your video gets in the feed. You’ll receive 55% of the revenue generated per view, according to the Instagram for Business website. Payments are issued monthly.
However, you won’t get paid if your videos don’t meet the requirements. For example, videos need to be at least 2 minutes long to earn money. Instagram recommends aiming for 2 to 4 minutes in length.
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About the authors: Max Ramirez is a former consumer-finance writer for NerdWallet. Their work has also appeared in USA Today and MarketWatch. Read more
Hal Bundrick is a personal finance writer and a NerdWallet authority in money matters. He is a certified financial planner and former financial advisor.
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On a similar note...
How many Instagram followers do you need to earn? - Articles of partners
12/16/2020
Modern Instagram is not just a social network for sharing photos, but a working tool for making money. And the money here is found very, very decent. Popular influencers earn tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars a month here. We will talk about how to become a blogger on Insta and make money, as well as the most popular Insta-professions in this material.
How to start making money on Instagram from scratch on your own?
Unfortunately, bloggers don't get paid just for beautiful eyes. Therefore, if you have thought about whether Instagram pays for followers and content views, the answer is “definitely not!”. You can monetize your blog in the following ways.
Likes, comments, saves and subscriptions
Engagement rate is the most expensive currency of Instagram.
It should be noted right away that this particular way of earning is rarely used by well-known bloggers with a multi-million audience. But small accounts often resort to it.
The essence of earning is to register on third-party services, where for a small amount you need to perform various tasks: like, comment, subscribe to pages. For the implementation of such tasks they pay from 50 kopecks to 3 hryvnias. Of course, you won’t earn much on this, but this is the easiest and most affordable option for how to make money on Instagram without investing money for a beginner.
Advertising in posts and stories
Integrating ads into account content is the most profitable way to monetize Instagram. Popular and in-demand bloggers usually have their ad calendar scheduled several weeks in advance. Advertisers send bloggers clear terms of reference to follow during the “ad break” process.
It is very convenient to provide mediation services in the field of advertising through special exchanges, such as BloggerMall.
From a large number of proposals, you can choose exactly those that are best "embedded" in the concept and theme of the blog. In addition, with exchanges, you don’t need to puzzle over how many subscribers you can earn on Instagram. Each site clearly defines how much audience is required to get started. In the case of BloggerMall, it is enough to have 3000 followers to get the first advertising offers.
Instagram modeling
Bloggers with model looks often become the “faces” of Instagram stores. Participation in the filming of various brands allows you to kill two birds with one stone: get additional earnings for the model and additional media coverage for the brand.
Promotion of their own brand of goods
Almost 90% of popular bloggers have their own clothing brands, Instagram stores with cosmetics or home decor. And it doesn’t matter at all whether the blogger sews things on his own or rents a workshop with hired staff.
The personal brand of a blogger and the presence of a loyal audience allows you to sell goods to "warm customers" and thus very quickly get promoted in the field of sales.
Brand Ambassador
Ambassador is a representative of the brand, its “face”, with which it is associated with customers. This type of income is many times more profitable than regular blog postings. However, there will be much more requirements on how to blog on Instagram and get paid as an ambassador. Often bloggers even have to give up their usual household appliances or smartphones in favor of the products of the brand they represent.
Subscribers should not feel cheated. People need to see and believe that the influencer really enjoys all the things that he promotes on his blog. In other words: you won't be able to be a XiaoMi smartphone ambassador if you use an iPhone.
Who can work on Instagram?
There is a fairly large percentage of Instagram users who want to make money on this social network, but are not ready to join the ranks of bloggers.
For them, there is a proven instruction “How to make money on Instagram from scratch”, without investing huge funds in promoting your own blog.
Insta photographer
Everyone needs a good visual on Instagram, both bloggers and commercial pages. High-quality photo content for a social network allows you to increase sales, attract new subscribers and customers, and therefore they are ready to pay good money for the services of professional content makers. On average, the cost of one content shoot for a brand or influencer ranges from $300-$500.
Insta-copywriter
The ability to write posts is another cool way to start making money on Instagram from scratch on your own. Advanced copywriters who are able to express the idea of the author of the blog in such a way that subscribers do not guess anything, but at the same time they were interested in reading, commenting, reposting these posts. The average price of Insta-text is 200-400 hryvnias.
Instagram account administrator
Today, a lot of digital agencies are launching courses "How to become an Instagram blogger manager from scratch." This is not at all surprising, because the number of media faces on the social network is growing, and therefore the demand for administrative assistants is multiplying. Such a specialist is required to timely lay out posts and photos, and, if necessary, process the latter. Administrators communicate with subscribers in comments and Direct, monitor the integrity of the feed and maintain the page as a whole.
SMM manager
This specialist knows exactly how to start blogging on Instagram from scratch and earn money. SMM specialists promote other people's pages by improving their ranking indicators.
More subscribers = more money?
Almost all novice bloggers are concerned about the question of how many Instagram followers do you need to earn and not know grief? Unfortunately, only one number in the account is not enough for a comfortable existence.
In order for advertisers to line up with a request to recommend their product, you need to make sure that the blog audience is lively, active and solvent.
The degree of involvement of account subscribers must be at least 30-40%. If your followers are “dead souls” from giveaways and cheat services, there can be no talk of any worthy promotional offers.
Therefore, when wondering how to develop your Instagram and earn money from it, immediately give up “easy followers”. Doubtful giveaways, buying bots and endless participation in draws is a road to nowhere. It is much more reasonable to concentrate on the quality of content and invest in a competent SMM specialist.
Promoting Instagram in 2022 - Marketing on vc.ru
Good afternoon! Lyudmila is in touch, a marketer at Altcraft. Instagram already has 1.3 billion users, photo and video content service is one of the top social networks in the world and continues to grow. Instagram brings money to brands and bloggers - it is the most effective platform for influencer marketing in 2020-2021.
Bloggers earn up to $10,000 from one advertising post. Brands increase the audience, increase loyalty and sales - 90% of Instagram users are subscribed to commercial accounts.
54 142 views
Instagram is a rapidly changing social network with unpredictable algorithms. There is huge competition here, but the question of how to promote Instagram for brands and bloggers remains relevant. We tell you what will work and what will not work in 2022: how to promote a blog on Instagram using free and paid promotion methods.
Before the start of promotion
It is useless to start development without strategy and account preparation. Therefore, first:
- Set up an Instagram profile so that the user immediately understands what your account is about and what you offer.
What's important:
- A name that matches the theme of the account.
- Description in the profile header: USP, benefits, name (if the account is an individual).
- Location if you run an offline business or work in a specific area.
- Link to the site or your other materials.
- Page navigation in live stories: prices, location, FAQs and other information.
- Clean your account from inactive subscribers if the profile has been maintained for a long time. Subscribers who do not respond to your content in any way are bad for promotion.
Example. Instagram sees: only 10 out of 1000 subscribers watch your content. The social network understands that the content is uninteresting and stops showing it. Subscribers by themselves are not an indicator of the success of an account, it is important to involve the audience.
- Switch to a business account to get statistics and analyze audience reactions to content.
- Prepare a development strategy. Any promotion is a plan and regularity.
One-time actions will not bring results. Define goals - why do you need promotion on Instagram, what do you want to get: subscribers, sales, advertisers, or something else. Prepare a content plan with regular posts, stories and Reels.
Free promotion methods
Reels
Reels is a short video format (15-30 seconds) that Instagram launched worldwide in the summer of 2021. The social network also promised to promote the video format. Therefore, now Reels is the most effective way to promote your account for free. Social media gives Reels an outside reach. If stories and posts work for an existing audience (although posts also sometimes get into recommendations), then Reels has more opportunities. Getting a million views for an account with a couple of thousand subscribers is real.
Another advantage of Reels for promotion is the lifetime. Stories disappear after 24 hours, the post is shown for a couple of days, and Reels “spins” even after a while.
Also, one video in Reels can “pull” others along with it: the social network sees that a particular video is interesting to the audience and shows the previously created ones.
Sample Reels
Commenting
Don't confuse this method with spam comments for everyone. Popular, but meaningless, remains automatic commenting. With this method, there are situations when the inscription “what a beautiful photo” appears under the mourning post with a candle, or there are off-topic comments. You shouldn't do that.
Unsuccessful automatic commenting
How to gain followers on Instagram through comments:
- Comment thoughtfully and to the point. Communicate in a friendly and honest way - try to make friends, and not advertise yourself.
- Chat in the comments under the posts of personal accounts of ordinary users, bloggers and brands. A user with a small number of followers is more likely to notice you and visit your page.
Major bloggers and brands are unlikely to subscribe, but other subscribers will see an interesting comment.
Hashtags
Promotion with the help of hashtags is a legal method of promotion that is unlikely to give huge coverage, but it will still attract some part of the audience. Instagram has a separate search for hashtags and a subscription to them.
Which hashtags to put for promotion:
- Thematic ones that relate to your field, and localized ones if you are tied to some territory.
- The topic of the hashtag should match the topic of the post and photo, then Instagram better understands what your post is about and shows it to the right audience.
- Do not choose high-frequency hashtags from 500 thousand. The more often a hashtag is used, the less likely your post will be seen.
- Check the relevance of hashtags. If they were last used two years ago, they don't work.
An example of thematic hashtags
How many hashtags should I put? There is no single answer. Instagram allows you to add up to 30. But such a “canvas” does not always work. Irrelevant hashtags will reduce reach and minimize the effect of relevant ones. Therefore, experiment and do not copy the same hashtags from post to post - this is inefficient. Another social network may think that you are a robot and block your account.
Cross promo
This method will not fit the query "How to promote instagram from scratch". An account for cross-promotion or mutual PR should already have an audience.
What we do next:
- We are looking for an account with a similar or related theme and about the same number of subscribers.
- We exchange content, for example, make guest posts, live broadcasts or joint marathons.
An example of a successful cross-promotion is a sportswear brand account launching a marathon of fast workouts with a fitness trainer.
Promotion on other platforms
If you are actively running another channel (Youtube, Yandex.Zen and others), invite the audience to subscribe to your Instagram.
Important! Users should understand why they need another account of yours. It is unlikely that subscribers are interested in watching the same content. Work with different formats and themes.
An example of such a promotion method from a blogger with a promoted Youtube channel with expert information. The girl offers to subscribe to her Instagram, where she shares her personal.
Instagram promotion on the blogger's Youtube channel
User Content
Works for brands and individuals who want to promote their account.
An option for a brand is to invite users to post a photo with their product and a special hashtag. Then the brand reposts these publications to its page.
For personal accounts, tag brands.
Then there is a chance that the Instagram page will be reposted to the brand account. It turns out win-win - the user gets more coverage, and the brand gets more content.
Location
Adding locations to the account description and posts to Instagram promotion is an additional way. This is especially true for local businesses and events. Just put a location and wait for thousands of subscribers will not work.
Paid promotion methods
Targeted advertising
Instagram official advertising is an opportunity to reach an audience with specific interests. If the algorithms themselves decide who to show your Reels or post to, then in advertising you set the audience yourself. Instagram offers to advertise in the feed, stories and Reels.
Examples of targeted advertising on Instagram: in the feed and in stories
Advertising is set up on Instagram itself or through the Facebook advertising account (if the account is linked to the page).
For advertising on Instagram, goals are available: visiting an account, a website and increasing engagement - more messages. The audience can be selected automatically or configured, but the criteria are limited.
Setting up an advertising campaign on Instagram
There are more opportunities to designate an audience in the Facebook advertising account.
Possible goals of an advertising campaign in the Facebook advertising account
The downside of advertising on the social network is an impressive list of restrictions that are constantly changing. For violation of the rules, advertising is stopped, and sometimes the account is blocked without explanation.
Advertising with influencers
Influence marketing remains trending in 2022 as the blogging market grows. Therefore, Instagram promotion through opinion leaders is still relevant. Advertising among bloggers, famous personalities and experts is more trustworthy and is perceived as a recommendation of a familiar person.
Advertising options for influencers: native (does not look like advertising) or direct.
Advertising with bloggers
How not to promote on Instagram
If to the question: “How to promote an account on Instagram”, someone offers cheating and giveaways, then run. Gray methods of promotion will not only not be useful, but will also destroy your account. Read about them and forget.
Giveaway
Giveaways are influencer contests in which you need to subscribe to the page and to all giveaway sponsors in order to participate in the prize draw. Subscription is a prerequisite for the draw. This is how sponsors gain a new audience, but after the draw:
- users unsubscribe because their interest is a prize, not a sponsor's page;
- Instagram algorithms see a large number of unsubscribes and reduce profile coverage;
- it is difficult to save such an account.
Even during a giveaway, the gathered audience is ballast. Prize users are not involved in the content. For Instagram algorithms, this is a sign of irrelevant content.
Cheat bots and comments
Instead of live subscribers, you get fake accounts - bots that create the appearance, but in fact "drown" the account. For algorithms, the more subscribers, the more engagement should be. If the subscribers are bots, there is no activity from them. Instagram sees an uninteresting account and does not show it not only in recommendations, but also to subscribers. The social network also fights against bots and suspicious activity, bans accounts that are engaged in cheating.
Activity chats
Create the illusion of involvement, show social networks and other subscribers interest in the account. These are groups where users gather who like, comment on posts and watch each other's stories. The main disadvantage of the method is an irrelevant audience.
If this method is still possible in an account from scratch, then after growth it will most likely harm - you will not see real involvement and interest in the content, so you will not understand how to improve it.
Mass following and mass liking
The essence of the methods is subscribing to multiple accounts that can be the target audience or/and likes to posts by different people. The goal is to draw attention to your account: the user will replace your activity and subscribe in response. But the methods are no longer relevant: users do not respond, but Instagram punishes for such promotion. The social network has a limit of subscriptions, unsubscribes, likes, comments, marks, and even the number of publications. For suspicious activity, the user receives a ban. If you resort to the help of automated third-party services, the risks of losing your account forever increase.
Summary
Start promoting your Instagram account by creating a strategy and profile packaging: a clear description and location designation.
