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How Many Instagram Followers You Need to Start Getting Paid

How Many Instagram Followers You Need to Start Getting Paid Search iconA magnifying glass. It indicates, "Click to perform a search". Insider logoThe word "Insider".
  • Brand deals
  • Meta Platforms bonuses
  • Affiliate links
Tomi Obebe is a micro influencer on Instagram. Tomi Obebe

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2022-06-27T15:33:45Z

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  • Brand deals
  • Meta Platforms bonuses
  • Affiliate links
  • A couple thousand followers on Instagram qualifies some users as "influencers."
  • But at what point — and with how many followers — can an influencer start making money?
  • Insider has talked with dozens of influencers about when they started making money, how, and how much.

With a few thousand followers on Instagram these days, it's easy to ask yourself: When can I start making money doing this?

The good news is, there's no strict minimum.  

Three influencers Insider interviewed — all with under 3,000 Instagram followers — said they got paid by brands to post to their small audiences.

For instance, Kayla Compton became a brand ambassador for jewelry company PuraVida with less than 2,000 followers, she told Insider last year. She said her starting sponsored-content package at the time was $250, and that she also got paid by sharing affiliate links or codes with her followers and earning a small commission.

And now, it's easier than ever to share affiliate links on Instagram stories since the company rolled out access to link stickers to all accounts in October. 

Instagram is also directly paying some influencers through incentive programs like "Bonuses" for Reels, which requires at least 1,000 views on Reels (rather than a follower minimum). On the other hand, other Instagram monetization features like "Badges," Instagram's tipping tool for IG Live, require that creators have at least 10,000 followers. Many of these programs also are limited to certain countries, have an age minimum of 18, and require accounts to be registered as business or creator accounts on the app. 

While the doors have opened for many more creators on Instagram to start making a living, often they don't start making full-time incomes immediately (although a fair number of micro influencers with under 100,000 followers work full-time as influencers). 

Read more: 19 content creators share how they turned their social-media side hustles into full-time jobs

Today, influencers no longer need hundreds of thousands of followers to start earning cash.

Here are a few reasons why:

  1. "Nano" and "micro" influencers (typically accounts with fewer than 100,000 followers) are being hired by many brands across industries. These smaller influencers have demonstrated the power of niche and engaged communities on Instagram, where fake followers and disproportional engagement have flooded the platform. Influencers can earn hundreds to thousands of dollars from these deals. 
  2. Meta-owned Instagram is opening its multi-billion-dollar wallet and paying some influencers, which it announced last year with a flashy $1 billion investment into content creators through 2022.
  3. Affiliate links are easier to share now than ever. Some affiliate programs do have their own requirements, however, such as LTK or ShopStyle. Instagram also is testing its own affiliate marketing program, which is available to a select number of creators at the moment. Influencers can get paid a commission on sales driven directly through Instagram. Bethany Everett-Ratcliffe, who's already enrolled and had 16,000 followers when Insider first interviewed her, earned more than $500 in one month. 

Check out: Leaked commission rates from September 2021 reveal how much brands in Instagram's affiliate marketing test like Sephora were paying influencers

So, how much money are these influencers making on Instagram?

Insider interviewed over two dozen Instagrammers about how much money they make, with follower counts between 2,000 and just over 100,000.

Here's a full breakdown of our coverage:

From brand deals:
  • Natasha Greene, a food and lifestyle creator with 137,000 Instagram followers
  • Macy Mariano, a travel and fashion influencer with 102,000 followers
  • Jehava Brown, a travel and lifestyle influencer with 70,000 followers
  • Nick Cutsumpas, a plant influencer with 63,700 followers
  • Ashley Jones, a fashion and lifestyle influencer with 45,000 followers
  • Tomi Obebe, a lifestyle influencer with 40,000 followers
  • Emma Cortes, a lifestyle influencer and podcast host with 47,000 followers
  • Britney Turner, a lifestyle influencer with 27,000 followers
  • Caitlin Patton, a lifestyle influencer with 22,000 followers
  • Mary Margaret Boudreaux, a fashion and lifestyle influencer with 20,000 followers
  • Gigi Kovach, a part-time lifestyle blogger and mom of two with 13,500 followers
  • Tyler Chanel, a sustainability influencer with 12,000 followers
  • Khadijah Lacey-Taylor, a fashion and lifestyle influencer with 9,800 followers
  • Tess Barclay, a lifestyle blogger with 5,600 followers
  • Laur DeMartino, a nano influencer and full-time college student with 5,200 followers
  • Jalyn Baiden, a skincare influencer with 4,000 followers
  • Jen Lauren, a part-time lifestyle influencer with 2,900 followers
  • Amber Broder, a part-time skincare influencer and full-time college student with 2,300 followers
  • Kayla Compton, a lifestyle nano influencer with about 2,000 Instagram followers

From Meta Platforms, including Instagram:

  • Kelly Anne Smith, a personal finance influencer with 12,000 Instagram followers shares how much she earned from Bonuses in March
  • Jackson Weimer, a meme creator who got paid more than $6,000 for views on his Reels with 114,000 followers
  • Several influencers reveal the different 'bonus' payments Instagram is offering, with some stretching up to $35,000

From affiliate links:

  • Bethany Everett-Ratcliffe, a lifestyle micro influencer with 16,000 followers, makes money using Instagram's native affiliate program
  • Vi Lai, a skincare influencer, uses Instagram and TikTok to make thousands of dollars per month using affiliate marketing
  • 4 Instagram influencers reveal what the platform's exclusive affiliate marketing beta test is like — and how much they're earning

Read more: Instagram is abruptly shutting down its affiliate marketing bonuses, which used to pay up to $400 a month

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How Many Instagram Followers You'll Need to Make Money in 2022?

It is frustrating to see influencers making thousands of dollars per post on Instagram while we struggle just to see our follower count rise daily. We all want to be the next influencer to land big sponsored deals that pay for us to travel the world and eat the best-looking food, but it’s hard to know exactly when your account is ready to start making money.

One of the first metrics that users and brands look at to determine account influence is your follower count, mostly because it is front and center for everyone to see. Even so, there is no set Instagram follower number to make money in 2018 that works for every influencer in every niche. In today’s post, I am going to go over how to approach your follower count and when should you monetize them.

How much money can you make on Instagram?

This is the first question anyone who is trying to monetize their Instagram has, but there is no hard and fast answer. There are a lot of variables that factor into the amount of money a user can make by posting on Instagram such as account niche, the way of monetization, quality of posts, follower count, and engagement rates, just to name a few.

One of the most popular ways (if not THE most popular way) that influencers make money on Instagram is through sponsored posts. Influencers are responsible for setting their own rate for working with brands, so the income potential varies even more here.

For instance, an account just branching out into influencer marketing and sponsored posts may start by charging $25-$50 a post, and accounts that are already established as influencers with 30-80k followers can charge hundreds of dollars per post. Once influencers reach over 100k followers, they tend to start charging at least $1,000 for just one post such as Sam Ushiro who has 283k followers and charges $1,500 a post. Not to mention, celebrities like Kim Kardashian West with 107 million followers can rake in over $500,000 for a sponsored Instagram post.

Couple influencers’ wide variety of rates with the varying amount of brands they work with and the number of sponsored posts received, and it becomes completely possible to make a full-time living just by posting on Instagram!

How many followers do you need to make money on Instagram?

The answer is… it depends! If you feel like this answer is a letdown, hear me out.

When brands are looking to work with influencers, they want to know that their marketing budget is well-used. What brands really look at is how well your audience is engaged, no matter the follower count because that means more product awareness, and potential sales, for them. Brands also look at how your follower count and engagement rate fit in with your niche and the quality of your posts.

Engagement rate is gold

While the number of followers you have can be anywhere from 1,000 to 1 million to make money from Instagram, one constant thing is high engagement rates. There’s no point in posting content on Instagram if your followers aren’t seeing or interacting with it.

For instance, imagine you had $100 and wanted to make more money with it. You could invest it with a person who had hundreds of thousands of potential buyers at their fingertips, but you noticed that only a hundred or so were actually paying attention to what they said. Your best bet would be investing that $100 with someone who only had a couple thousand potential buyers, but they are all constantly paying attention to what they say.

The key to making money on Instagram is not a follower count. It is having good a engagement rate. Your engagement rate is the total number of likes and comments on a certain number of posts, divided by the number of posts, divided by followers, multiplied by 100. (There are plenty of online tools available if you don’t feel like doing the math yourself!)

Later, an Instagram marketing and scheduling platform, states that engagement rates between 2-3% are average and rates between 4-6% are considered high. An engagement rate that breaches double digits is considered to be “viral.”

When your engagement rate is high, that tells brands that your followers are hearing what you are saying and, better yet, listening! They will invest their money with you because it will, in turn, result in your followers buying their products.

Your niche matters a lot

Did you know that 7 out of 10 people rely on social media to make purchase decisions AND almost half of them rely on the opinion of influencers? Whether you know it or not, people out there are looking for recommendations to follow and yours is one of them! If you are passionate and knowledgeable in a particular niche, you could be earning money just by promoting brands and products you already love!

Some of the most profitable niches on Instagram are Health/Wellness/Fitness, Travel, Fashion, Beauty, Business, Wealth/Finance, Luxury, and Lifestyle. Users in these niches work with a variety of brands, create a wide range of content, and have great success in monetizing their Instagram accounts.

Take Zara, for instance. A woman of many talents, Zara is a professional violinist and composer based in Nigeria. Now, with the help of Sellfy, she sells natural hair care resources and digital information products to 105K+ followers on Instagram and 171K+ subscribers on YouTube.

Some niches are so specific, that you don’t have to have a lot of followers to start landing sponsored posts, such as “hamburgers” instead of “food” or “acne skin care” instead of “beauty.”  

More and more brands are working with micro-influencers in these specific niches to promote their products because they have a more engaged, targeted following.

While the definition of a micro-influencer varies from professional to professional, they are generally defined as a user who has more than 1,000 and less than 100,000 highly engaged followers. That’s great news for accounts that are still growing but are ready to start landing sponsored posts!

Don’t limit yourself to sponsored posts

Earn extra as an affiliate

Partnering with brands isn’t the only way to monetize your Instagram account. On top of working directly with brands in sponsored posts, you could also use affiliate marketing to make an income on Instagram. Affiliate marketing is when a brand pays you a commission after someone buys a product that you recommend. Usually, with a promo code or affiliate link, the affiliate marketing networks you are a part of will track the number of sales your recommendation garnishes and will pay you a percentage of the profit when it’s all said and done.

Selling affiliate products is as simple as recommending a product as long as you always remember to include your tracking link or code. The best place to start is with products you already use and recommend and research if those brands are already a part of affiliate marketing networks.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of affiliate programs available for you to join and in every niche imaginable. Some of the top affiliate marketing networks to join when just getting started include Amazon Associates, Linkshare, Shareasale, and Commission Junction.

Earn even more with your own products

By far the best way of monetizing your Instagram account is by selling your own digital products. That’s exactly what Ron Jones does. He’s a personal trainer and a Sellfy creator that’s managed to combine personal fitness training with mental health techniques to offer a truly unique experience to his customers. This way he has successfully brought his personal training online by selling a 5-week program in his Sellfy store.

Selling on Instagram isn’t as difficult as it may sound. It can be as simple as writing an ebook in your niche and marketing it to your followers!

Even though there is no numerical threshold you have to cross to consider yourself an influencer and start making money on Instagram, that doesn’t mean you should give up on growing your audience. Growth is always a good indicator of a successful, thriving account and once you have 1,000 followers, a lot of monetization opens up for you.

All in all, as long as you are seeing great engagement and creating quality content, you are on the right track to making money on Instagram.

How to monetize an Instagram account in 2022

Almost every one of us has an Instagram account, but not everyone knows how to benefit from this for themselves and their wallet. The most common mistake is that people think they only pay bloggers with millions of followers. In fact, everyone can monetize Instagram. And this guide will tell you how to do it.

Is it possible to monetize an Instagram account


Yes! Instagram has long been no longer solely a platform for entertainment and photo sharing.

Millions of people around the world cannot imagine their day without Instagram, and it is natural that access to such a huge audience opens up tremendous opportunities for business and earnings of any format.

In recent years, Instagram has become a huge platform through which you can promote everything from your expertise to your own products. The most common way to monetize Instagram is through advertising. But this is far from the only way to make a profit from your account. Rest assured that there is a suitable monetization option for everyone.

Who it's for

Of course, it's not so simple - the money will not fall on you immediately after creating an account. You will have to work hard before you can get the first profit. A lot of time will need to be spent on learning the features of Instagram. But in the end, you have the opportunity to get a remote job that brings not only a good income, but also pleasure.

To successfully monetize an account, it must match three basic requirements :

  • have popularity;
  • be of high quality and thematically designed;
  • have at least 1000 subscribers.

Compliance with these requirements is possible only with certain knowledge and skills . In particular, those who want to make money on Instagram will need:

  • to learn how to create professional pictures and videos;
  • be able to generate interesting and useful content;
  • learn the basics of SMM in order to successfully promote your profile;
  • be able to write engaging texts;
  • feel your audience.

In addition, the platform is constantly being upgraded and improved. Only those who can adapt quickly will be able to stay afloat here. Earnings on Instagram are also not suitable for those who hope to make a quick profit, are ready to manipulate the number of followers and attract cheats.

Try trendHERO for free

Monetization options

Instagram's standard monetization option is to collect an audience and place ads on the page. But you can make money on Instagram in many other ways. And many of them can be successfully combined with each other.

1. Collaboration with advertisers

Instagram influencers are not only trendsetters and role models, but an advertising engine for many brands. Native advertising from bloggers has already been adopted by both small private business owners and large corporations. Which is not surprising, because 70% of people admit that they take into account the recommendations of influential people when buying a particular product.

Moreover, if earlier only bloggers with an audience of many thousands and even millions could make money on advertising, today advertisers are showing more and more interest in nano-, micro- and macro-influencers who have closer contact with their audience.

This is an "old school" account monetization option, which is as follows:

  1. The blogger actively maintains his page on Instagram;
  2. Gathers an audience of followers who trust his opinion;
  3. Looking for brands to collaborate with and advertise their products/services to their subscribers.

This monetization option can be called simple. After all, advertising in an account can go out several times a week, and advertisers themselves often contact influencers and offer them cooperation. The minimum bid per ad post is $10, but according to surveys of influencers, they average $200-$400 per post.

Naturally, in this case, everything depends on the number of the audience and its quality, which is determined by quite clear metrics, such as the rate of growth of subscribers and a set of likes, account activity and many other factors. The trendHERO analytics service allows you to check this data. It even shows you the followers you have, which you will never find in the built-in Instagram statistics.

Try trendHERO for free

2. Become a Brand Ambassador

A brand ambassador is an affiliated representative of a company who promotes its products and services. This is an unofficial representative of the brand, a person who actively uses the services of the company and promotes it to the masses.

Ambassadorship differs from the previous version in that the influencer does not place direct ads with calls to buy a specific product. He simply demonstrates his love for the brand by frequently posting content on the company's various products and even attending company events.

Just having a promoted account is no longer enough in this case. Ambassadors are people who profess the same values ​​as the brand, and are really its active supporters. Therefore, if you have a favorite brand, you can send a direct message to company representatives, explaining why you can be its ambassador and offering your services.

Conditions for brand ambassadors are individual. In many ways, they depend on the scale of the brand and the popularity of the influencer. It can be a contract with an agreed payment, a personal discount, or an affiliate discount that allows you to receive a percentage of sales.

3. Earnings on affiliate programs

Many companies and online stores have affiliate programs that allow you to earn certain percentages for the purchases of attracted users. Usually, to participate in an affiliate program, you need to apply on the official website of the company or join an affiliate network such as Admitad and get your referral link or personal promo code.

Instagram account in this case acts as a platform for placing a link. Here you can review various partner products, inform customers about discounts and promotional offers, demonstrate products in action, showing your purchases, and thus motivate them to buy. For each purchase made through an affiliate link or promotional code, you will receive the reward provided for by the program.

Success depends on how well the affiliate program was chosen. It is important that the audience of your account is really interested in the company's products.

Carefully study the conditions of the programs. Real money is not always offered as a reward, which, for example, can be withdrawn to a card. Sometimes affiliate programs offer bonuses that can only be spent within the framework of the service.

4. Sale of own goods

Instagram makes it easy for everyone to start their own e-commerce business. You can easily turn your account into a small online store for selling anything - soaps, candles and handmade jewelry, gift boxes, cups and T-shirts with your own prints. Any of your hobbies and passions can be monetized with an Instagram account. There are no restrictions.

5. Creating a community

You can create not a personal account on Instagram, but a thematic community or an interest group. Promotion of such an account is a laborious process, but if everything works out, you will be able to receive a stable income by using many ways of monetization at once - advertising posts, affiliate programs, selling webinars, master classes, goods.

6. Monetization through dropshipping

Dropshipping is a form of sales in which you do not need to purchase goods, store or ship them. The seller only collects orders and payments, and the manufacturing company independently ships the goods to customers. Dropshippers earn on the difference between the cost of the goods that the supplier offers them and the selling price.

You will be surprised, but not only clothes, cosmetics and any hand-made, but also business goods, tours, cars are successfully sold through Instagram today. Therefore, many dropshippers use Instagram accounts as their main source of sales.

The functionality of the platform makes it easy to turn a page into a colorful catalog. In addition, here you can establish a close connection with the audience, which also contributes to sales. But you can’t do without high-quality pictures here, because there is nothing worse than poor-quality pictures in an account designed to sell.

7. Selling your knowledge

In today's world, useful information costs the most. If you are an expert in any field, have valuable knowledge and skills, you can teach others how to make money on it by turning your Instagram account into a powerful marketing tool.

This could be anything from a Skype math lesson to a webinar on paying taxes or choosing a handbag. Given the huge audience of Instagram, you can be sure that a person with certain competencies and skills will be able to find someone who needs them here. Some even manage to submit checklists.

Monetization is possible through the sale of books, access to webinars, consulting, coaching, tutoring, and more. In this case, the Instagram page can serve not only as a platform for sales, but as a tool for building the reputation of an expert.

8. Earnings on services

Every year, thousands of new commercial accounts are registered on Instagram. And many of these companies are in search of an intelligent specialist who can help them properly draw up and promote their profile.

If you have been blogging for a long time, you know well how Instagram algorithms work, and what you need to do to become successful, you can turn your profile into a business card and sell your promotion services.

Typically, companies want to find a SMM specialist who provides a full range of services:

  • page design;
  • drawing up a content plan;
  • SEO optimization;
  • creating quality content;
  • attracting subscribers.

But there is also demand for specific services. For example, creating templates for Instagram, profile design, creating AR masks and much more.

9. Facebook and Instagram monetization

You probably know that Meta, formerly Facebook, owns the social networks Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. This allows you to use the same tools to manage your advertising campaigns.

This is exactly where Instagram can pay you. But there is a nuance.

The following monetization options are currently available:

  • Paid Online Events
  • Branded content
  • In-stream Ads for On Demand Content
  • Fan Subscriptions
  • InStream Ads
    • for live broadcasts.

The caveat is that most of these monetization methods are not available in countries other than the US. And most likely you will receive an inscription: “Your account does not meet the requirements for monetization.”

You can check which monetization methods are available to you in Creation Studio, in the Monetization menu:

And also in Instagram: Settings - Business or Author - Branded content.

This way you can check what type of monetization from the social platform itself is available to you and its status.

How to monetize Instagram

Instagram monetization is available in many ways, and each of them has its own characteristics. But the strategy for reaching the first profit is the same for everyone.

Step 1: create an account

Create an account on the most popular social network and get it right. Choose a nickname that will reflect the theme of your page, choose a bright and memorable avatar, fill out a biography.

It is important that the first time users see your profile, they understand what value it brings. If you wish, you can transfer your page to a business account. This will unlock several additional features.

Step 2: Choose Your Niche

Choose a topic for your account according to your knowledge and passions. For example, if you often travel, you can become a travel blogger, and if you are well versed in the intricacies of personal care or applying makeup, you can become a beauty blogger. There are many options:

  • beauty and health;
  • fashion;
  • cooking;
  • art;
  • sport;
  • lifestyle;
  • business and entrepreneurship;
  • family and children;
  • humor.

To decide on a niche, think about what you can do well, what you can tell useful and what people will be willing to pay you for.

Step 3: Create Quality Content

A blank page cannot be monetized. Create high-quality, unique and useful content for your target audience. Regular posting plays a crucial role in promoting Instagram, so be sure to make a content plan for a few weeks / months in advance.

Post 1-2 times a day. Use various content formats - posts in the feed, stories, live broadcasts. Experiment with content until you figure out what your audience likes the most.

Step 4: Promote your account

To quickly build an audience, you need to use various promotion methods. Among the most common are:

  • mass liking and mass following;
  • mutual PR;
  • holding contests and lotteries;
  • advertising with influencers.

Coming to the Instagram business, you must understand that account promotion will become your constant need. Ultimately, how many subscribers you have and how they interact with your audience will determine how much you will earn.

Prepare your account for monetization with trendHERO!

When to activate monetization


It all depends on which monetization option you have chosen. Some methods imply that you can start monetization right away. For example, if you are planning to sell your products or do dropshipping. But in most cases, you first need to collect a loyal audience on your page and build a trusting relationship with it.

You can move on to making money on affiliate programs, selling goods and services when you are sure that among your subscribers there are users who trust your opinion and are ready to follow you. Advertisers are primarily interested in bloggers with over 1,000 subscribers. For some, the minimum threshold for advertising is 10-100 thousand followers.

Before you offer someone advertising cooperation, be sure to check your account statistics. Today, one of the main criteria when choosing an influencer is the percentage of engagement.

How much you can earn

The amount of income directly depends on the chosen direction and the success of its implementation. For example, the cost of placing advertisements directly depends on the popularity of the blogger, the number of subscribers and the activity of the audience. On average, an account with 10-15 thousand followers is able to bring in about $ 200 per month for advertising.

But there may be more. For example, brands are willing to pay more for a clearly segmented active audience or long-term collaboration. It is also important what volume of services the blogger provides. Can he come up with and create high-quality content on his own? Will there be only an advertising post or also stories?

As for making money on sales, everything here decides how successful the actions of the account owner will be and what persuasion skills he has.

Instagram monetization is not easy. Before you can get the first profit, you will have to go through the thorny path of promoting your profile, thoroughly study the algorithms and basics of SMM, discover the makings of a photographer and editor in yourself. But this is a good option for creative individuals, for those who do not want to vegetate in the office and want to earn money with only a smartphone at hand.

Try trendHERO for free

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.

43,796 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 subject 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.

Examples of 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 get 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 set for promotion:

  • Thematic, which relate to your field, and localized, 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 with approximately the same number of subscribers.
  • We exchange content, for example, we 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's 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

They 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.

The most promising free way to promote Instagram is to shoot Reels. Combine it with other methods: commenting, cross-promotion with accounts of similar subjects, use user-generated content and advertise your Instagram on other platforms.

Put thematic hashtags under publications and geolocations if the account is tied to a territory - these are additional free promotion methods.

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