Instagram Promotion

Effective date: 16/10/2023 10:53:29

All About Growing on Instagram from Scratch

In this section, we tell you how to run your Instagram promotion.
We open up about all the steps and vital strategies and the best free and paid tools known to man.

Instagram Promotion

What tools are described?

These are the basic support tools that help you promote
your account more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Bot for Instagram

Automated likes and
Stories views for
your target audience.

Hashtag Generator

Easy search for relevant hashtags by photo, URL, and keywords.

Widgets for Websites

Engagement links on your website that drive traffic to your Social Media accounts.

Hashtag Trends

The free
selection of top
Instagram hashtags.

Hot Clients

Facilitated search for target audience by hashtags and locations.

Hashtag Analyzer

Instant analysis of any hashtag for efficiency: difficulty, time in feed, average likes.

Search for Influencers for Instagram

Fast search for Creators by name, phone number, email, bio, etc.

Profile Analyzer for Instagram

Precise analysis of any Instagram account: engagement, publication times, etc.

How to Get Your First Followers from Personal
Contacts and Other Social Media

[Free Instagram Promotion]

If you’ve just only started your account, your first question must be, “Where do I find my first followers?”
We gathered 3 good methods to promote on Instagram.

Your Contacts list

Your Contacts list

When you create an account, go to settings (the “hamburger” icon in the upper right), then the “Settings” gear at the very bottom.

Find Follow and Invite Friends. There, you can either follow all or some contacts or invite friends by email, SMS, or through other means available on your device.

To follow your Contacts, you need to connect your Instagram to the phone’s contact list if you hadn’t done it during the registration.

You need to click on Follow near every suggested contact. There, you will find both users from your phone contacts and Instagram users that follow you or people you follow.

Follow and Invite Friends

Facebook friends

There, you also can follow friends from Facebook. For that, you also need to connect your Facebook page if you haven’t done it yet.

Once you connect your FB account, all your friends will be listed in your Discover People section.

P.S. Facebook owns Instagram, so don’t be surprised that it’s your FB account that is suggested to connect.

Facebook friends

Followers from Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, etc.

Leave a link to your Instagram profile wherever there is contact with the audience.

In most social media, there is a Bio section where you can add the link to your Instagram. Don’t forget about a catchy Call to Action.

Example from one YouTube blogger:

Followers from Twitter
personal contacts and followers c

Note: The key role in this technique is played by the audience from your contacts and social networks. If you know that among your acquaintances there are not many who fit your target audience, it is better to follow selectively.

But the “jungle telegraph” still works! So why not attract as many contacts as possible? Ask friends to recommend your profile to their friends.

We estimate that personal contacts and followers could bring you up to 1,000 followers in a couple of weeks of such networking.

How following other users helps get new followers

Here, the law of return works. Once a user sees a familiar person/friend follows him, he will follow this user back.

Mutual following is almost 100% when it comes to acquaintances.

Drive a Wow-effect

How to ask friends to share my profile with their friends

Send them a DM. Ask friends to notify their friends that you offer something very special – for example a 5% discount on your new collection – for followers.

Or you can offer a gift for recommending your profile to 10 users, for example.

How to motivate users to share my profile?

There are a couple of methods:

  • Run a contest/giveaway. See question #6.
  • Drive a Wow-effect. Come up with some cool features or unexpected pleasantness for your followers, so that people themselves want to talk about it. For example, you can add a gift to each order or add a greeting card to your parcel with handwritten wishes.
  • User-generated Content (UGC). For example, a client sent you a photo — he likes the bag he received and thanked you for the delivery. You post this photo (ask for permission first) and tag the user. What does the user do? He likes your attention, reposts, or duplicates the photo, tagging your profile.
User-generated Content

How to Get More Followers from Website Traffic

If you have a more or less successful website, you can easily direct your website traffic to your social media accounts, as well as do the reverse — drive traffic to your website.

Let’s look at how to promote your Instagram effectively.

drive traffic to Instagram

That’s why even users who do not want to shell out for your product today, are eager to follow you. But how do you direct website visitors to your Instagram account?

You have probably noticed those engagement links like “Follow us on Instagram” on almost every respectable website. They look like this:

insider information

1. Can my website drive traffic to Instagram?

Your website is a storehouse of loyal followers. Even users that do not buy right at the time still prefer to follow this or that brand on Instagram to stay tuned in to:

  • brand updates
  • sales notifications
  • insider information
brand updates

Usually, these are pretty simple social media buttons that are located at the very bottom of the landing pages. However, such an option is good only for large brands like Coursera, Hollister, H&M, and others.

If your brand is not so huge yet, these buttons should be more eye-catching.

2. How to add attractive Social Media buttons to the website

Widgets is the most rational choice for small brands. They offer one free and stylish widget for young websites (up to 1K impressions).

  1. You need to sign up for your account and create your campaign;
  2. Configure all the settings — titles, URLs, pictures, texts, position.
  3. Copy the code lines and paste them to your developer console.

It takes a couple of minutes to do. You don’t have to be a tech-savvy person or hire a specialist. All business owners can do it by themselves.

Thanks to wide range of customization options, each user can create a widget that will match their brand concept and style.

attractive Social Media buttons
social media widget

3. How does a social media widget promote your Instagram?

  1. The first and prime way is the constant flow of new followers to your Instagram and other media accounts.
  2. This traffic is the target audience: People who come to your Instagram from the website are already interested in what you offer.
  3. An increased conversion rate on your website.People tend to click the Social Media Buttons to get to know a brand better before making a purchase decision
  4. Due to increased interaction on pages, your website will be ranked higher in Google search. That will bring more traffic to your website and, consequently, more traffic to the Instagram profile.

Of course, that is not an instant process and not so straightforward in terms of performance. However, not using this means to grow your audience would be a huge mistake.

How to design your own widget and where to put it?

Customize your widget to your website style. Stick to the same colors, border sizes, etc. If your website has a dark, intriguing atmosphere, adding pink buttons will be a little ridiculous!

The best choice of position for your widget will be a floating sidebar or popup on the blog page.

Can I install the social media widget for free?

Yes, if you use Widgets service, you can run a free campaign for up to 1,000 impressions. It will be more than enough for small brands/websites..

How effective is this method?

Driving traffic from your website is an effective additional means of gaining followers on Instagram. However, you should not rely exclusively on it. There are many more ways to attract your target audience.

How to Make Use of Instagram Algorithms
and Interact with your TA Effectively

What are the algorithms, and why do they matter? What have they got to do with your behavior
and activity? We explain how you should act to get promoted to top publications and the Explore
page of more users.

1. What are Instagram algorithms, and why you need to be aware of them?

Instagram builds each user’s feed according to some of these core aspects:

  • Interest
  • Timeliness
  • Relationships
  • Consistency
  • Behavior

These algorithms are constantly changing as Instagram is based on machine learning. So today when you woke up, the algorithm had already changed from yesterday.

Therefore, your actions predetermine how actively Instagram shows your post to Instagram users.

What gets you promoted:

  • When the engagement rate is high enough — you get likes, your posts are commented on, you get shares and followers (provided that you are doing the same).
  • When you communicate with users in Direct actively.
  • When you open Instagram often and spend more time on it.
  • When you post regularly.
Instagram algorithms

2. What to put emphasis on

Put emphasis on your activity

Your actions will raise actions from others. When you actively like, follow, view Stories, and comment on posts of your TA, it raises users’ interest in you.

They are more likely to interact with you and your content when you have already done the first step.

Such mutual interaction will increase the average engagement rate of your profile. Your posts will be shown to a greater number of users. They will get to the top of the search by hashtags and appear more often on the Explore page.

Be consistent in publishing

The frequency of posting is important for Instagram users. You need to catch the eye of followers to stay in their feeds. Some marketers and bloggers recommend posting at least one post per day.

Communicate with the audience

Yes, those very questions like “How will you spend your summer vacation?” work on Instagram. Ask your audience open-ended questions. And if you run a brand account, try to engage followers in the conversation – not only about your product but also on abstract topics.

Actively communicate in Direct with the maximum number of users

Not only with close friends: respond to Stories, say that the last post was cool — don’t be afraid of socializing. Instagram will consider that you are close to many people and will promote your account.

Interact with similar content.

Browse accounts that are similar to yours, reply to friends in Direct and in comments, participate in discussions relevant to the topic of your profile.

One question left: how do you make that interaction really efficient?

3. How to automate the interaction with users

If you want to scale your account, you need to double everything — your likes and comments, Stories views, your DMs, your posts, and so on.

To accomplish those actions in bulk, use services that automate the processes.

How many hashtags can I use?

You can add up to 30 hashtags to every post.

Can I be banned for using too many hashtags?

No. You can’t add more than 30 hashtags. And if you use all 30, it’s fine.

Can I use a hashtag generator for free?

You can use Hashtag Generator for free 3 times, but part of the search results will be disguised.

It’s recommended to pay out the subscription for the full benefit.

How to automate the hashtag updating

Use Scheduled Posting. Create a post with the first hashtags set and turn on the Auto-Update Description mode. Create another 2 variants of hashtag sets, fix the time, and click Schedule.

hashtag updating

How to Run Giveaways, and How Often

Giveaways and contests are cool ways to get in touch with existing followers, attract a new
wide audience, and say thank-you for engaging. We explain how they work and how to organize
one.

1. Pros and cons of this method of promotion

Pros:

  1. This is a good opportunity to ‘recruit’ followers, especially if you offer a good prize and prepare a quality post.
  2. Recognition and brand awareness increase. When people constantly stumble upon your photo or mentions of you in their feeds, very soon they will start to recognize you.
  3. Such advertising is cost-effective. Users usually do not offer something extremely expensive but get hundred of fans and customers as a result.
Types of giveaways

Cons:

  • Possible decline in sales. This applies to the service sector or to specific products like photoshoots, dental treatment, and similar. Users won’t buy something that they can win, especially if it’s not a vital purchase.
  • Freeloaders. Many people realize that contests on Instagram are a good way to save money, and that’s why they participate in every contest they can find. In most cases, such people do not buy anything either before or after the competition. These are the least loyal followers.
  • The high price of one follower in case of unsuccessful promotion or a too-expensive prize. Any competition has its own cost. If the prize is a service, then this is the cost of your time and materials. If the prize is a product, then this is its cost, plus shipping costs (if you include that). Plus the possible costs of advertising your contest. Thus, if you give a new iPhone, and during the competition, only 3 people start to follow you, then each of them costs you about $300! This is a lot, and it means you did something wrong.
method of promotion

2. Types of giveaways

All Instagram contests can be divided into 3 types:

  • Repost. Participants post a contest photo and mention you and the necessary #tag.
  • Creative contest. Participants post their own photo taken according to the rules of the contest.
  • Likes pickup. Participants post your or their own photo and try to collect the maximum number of likes for it.
Freeloaders
giveaway: Basic rules

3. How to run a giveaway: Basic rules

3. 1. You need a great photo/post.

It’s good if the contest photo shows the prize that the winner will receive. It is always good to see and understand what you are fighting for.

If you can’t take a picture of the prize (for example, you give a certificate, a consultation or a photo session), then you can use just a beautiful photo that fits the theme.

The quality of the photo is of utmost importance. The photo should make people want your prize and participate in the contest/giveaway. It is unlikely that a blurry photo with poor light will push people to participate

Good examples:

3.2. It’s also not worth saving skimping on a the prize.

Do not offer unnecessary stuff or something that neither you nor anybody else needs. For the contest to become popular and be willingly reposted, the prize should be amazing, but not too pricey.

3.3. To attract attention, write the main information on the photo:

  • the words “contest,” “raffle” or “giveaway”
  • dates
  • contest tag
  • your account with @

In order not to overload the photo, do not try to fit everything on it. Depending on the composition of the photo and how many details are already present on it, add only the main info.

Good example:

3.4. The end date of the competition should be indicated directly on the photo.

Our experience has proven that. Otherwise, your photo will continue to be reposted after the end of the contest, and you will have to respond every time that the competition is already closed.

saving skimping on a the prize

3.5. In addition, you must clearly describe the rules of the contest.

This will save you from problems and disputes in the future. People do not always read the rules (especially freeloaders), but in case of disputes, you will have something to stand behind. Rules are a kind of user agreement.

follow the account

Standard rules often include the following:

  • Instruction for participants to follow the account
  • Instruction for participants to repost the giveaway post
  • Instruction for participants to mention the owner (with @) and the relevant tag
  • Requirement that participants’ profiles must be open so that the contest photo can be seen
  • Dates of the competition
  • Winner selection method, e.g. jury, lottery, or random winner generator
  • Be sure to come up with your own unique tag for the contest — for example, #MagicLawStory, #MoonHotelGiveaway, etc. Your tag will allow you to easily see all the participants, find out their number, and choose a winner. You can make sure that the tag is not in use by anyone using the search.

3.6. When the photo is prepared, the tag is selected up, and the rules are formulated, you can start the contest.

Be prepared for the fact that if you still have a young account and few followers, the number of new followers may be small. In this case, you can increase your reach by advertising in more popular or star accounts.

3.7. Record the video of choosing the winner to prove your objectivity.

Use special random winner generators like Commentpicker and Simpliers.

But do not post it immediately. Now you need to check whether the winner has fulfilled all the conditions of winning (e.g. he became your follower, is not a freeloader, he added a link to you, and so on). If the rules are satisfied, then post the video. If not — re-shoot and choose another winner.

3.8. Contact the winner in Direct or ask the winner to contact you.

Describe how a person can get his/her prize or how the shipping will happen. Be friendly and polite.

Take your time, think through all the details, and make this experience happy not only for your IGers but for you yourself as well!

Commentpicker and Simpliers
hold competitions or giveaways

4. How often to hold competitions or giveaways

Unfortunately, many aspiring bloggers rely on giveaways too much and abuse this method. They run giveaways every week in the hope of building a base of loyal followers. It doesn't work like that.

Marketers advise running giveaway once every month or two, or even more rarely. The reasons:

  • You attract too many freebie-hunters who represent no value to your community. They will unfollow you once the giveaway ends.
  • It is not a reasonable expenditure to run such giveaways if the follow rate is not high enough.
  • Nobody will buy your product if you offer it for free too often.

That’s why you should run contests and giveaways in moderation. They are capable of increasing sales and brand awareness if they occur no more than once a month.

Are there any legal aspects of contests we need to know?

Yes, it’s recommended to mention Instagram’s lack of endorsement by adding, “This contest/giveaway is not endorsed by Instagram.”

If the giveaway/contest is sponsored, mention that with a proper hashtag.

Make sure you do not violate any of Instagram’s Terms of Use.

What prize to choose

Choose something that your target audience would like to receive. It should be something useful but not too pricey. For brands, it’s a good idea to offer some of the brand’s services or products.

How to estimate the efficiency of this method of promotion

You can’t calculate such metrics as increased brand awareness. However, you can count:

  • Number of participants
  • Number of new followers gained
  • The reach of the post that announced the giveaway
  • Number of shares, likes, and comments

Explaining Instagram Shoutouts:
Should You Try It?

Shoutouts (SFS) is one of the promotion methods of Instagram. In brief, one user advertises
another user on his own profile. We explain what types of shoutouts exist and how to participate
and run one.

1. How to participate for free

Find a person ready for a mutual shoutout or an account specializing in the promotion of Instagram accounts through special hashtags like #shoutout, #sfs, #shoutoutforshoutout, etc.

In the first case, the account at a certain time posts an advertising post/story on its profile and marks the partner. The partner in response writes about this person on their profile.

In the second case, a specialized account will ‘ask’ you to fulfill a number of conditions before the team-up, such as like photos, follow a user, and so on. The conditions may vary, but the result is the same — your photo, marked with a tag link to your account, will appear in their feed and become visible to a large number of followers.

Examples:

certain time posts
participate for a price

2. How to participate for a price

Similarly, you can use a paid Shoutout service. To do this, you will need to agree with the owner of some popular account (with at least 5,000 followers) about the repost of your photos.

If you are looking for buyers in San Francisco, then choose an account with a large database of English-speaking users. This gives a much greater effect since, as a rule, the audience of such “entrepreneurs” is much wider, but the costs will be higher.

Usually, users add #ad to such posts.

You should not chase the accounts of ‘millionaires’ — you will lose money, and negotiations will be more difficult. Pages with a user base of 3,000-5,000 people will be enough. Plus, the audiences of such users are more responsive and engaged.

The price will be around $5-15. You can expect from 5% to 25% follower flow from such a method.

Important! You can offer not only your money but also offer your product/service in exchange.

Examples:

3. General recommendations for Instagram Shoutout

  • Check your partner for cheating. Otherwise, you risk being left without new live followers. It’s not worth cooperating with partners, even if they have thousands of followers, if those followers are bots. Check the comments for adequacy before drawing conclusions.
  • Accounts from one sphere will work better — the stylist and the hairdresser have the same TA. The same for athletes and a sports nutrition store.
  • When placing advertising posts, take care to notify the SFS partner of your desired publication time.

4. How to run SFS by yourself

Rules of SFS are quite standard and do not vary much:

  1. You publish a photo with one of the following hashtags: #SFS, #shoutouts, #instashoutout, #shoutoutforyou, #shoutoutsforfree, #shoutoutforshoutout.
  2. In the caption, you notify potential participants of the start of the SFS, the time-frame, and the date of the results announcement.
  3. Participants should post on their profile any photo from your Instagram (or make a collage), write a few words about you, and be sure to put a link with @.
  4. Having done this, the participants should write the word “done” in the comments under your SFS photo.
  5. On the day when the SFS is completed, you look at the profiles of participants, select from them those who you liked the most, and talk about them on your profile, mentioning the user via @.

Examples:

Pros and Cons of Shoutouts

5. Pros and Cons of Shoutouts

Pros:

  • Being a participant and organizer of an Instagram SFS is equally beneficial for both parties — they can receive PR absolutely free in most cases.
  • In addition to getting followers, this can be a great way to find new interesting profiles.

Cons:

  • Everyone is tired of shoutouts as this method of promotion has been popular for quite a while now. Therefore, not only are people less willing to participate in them nowadays, but some will unfollow those who hold such events or participate in them.

Imagine if a person supported you, took part in your SFS, told you about himself, and then you go to his profile and realize that it’s completely uninteresting with unattractive photos. Even if you want to talk about him out of gratitude, it is completely unclear what you can say about him.

Imagine how insulting it would be for those who did not end up in your feed, who went unnoticed or turned out to be unsuitable. Those rejected will be offended.

Advertising for Instagram: Ads and Influencers
as Ways to Promote Instagram

The most effective cost-based ways of promotion on Instagram are Instagram Ads
and Influencers. We plunge deeper into Instagram advertising: types, pros and cons,
how to set up and negotiate to get the maximum result.

There are 2 main types of advertising on Instagram — targeting and influencers/bloggers.

1. Targeted advertising

Targeted post promotion can be launched from your Instagram or from Ads Manager (Facebook). You can spend from $5 to $whatever-you-want on it. Even $50,000 is OK.

1.1. Post Ads on Instagram:

Instagram targeting can be used for all business accounts. Make sure that you have one or transfer your account from personal to business in the settings.

Promotion of posts is easier for beginners:

1. Click Promote under your post

2. Click Create Promotion and configure the following settings:

  • Destination. Your profile — people will see your post with a “Visit Instagram Profile” CTA; your website (here you need to add the URL and relevant call to action); your Direct Messages (people will see your post with a “Send Message” CTA.
  • Audience. Instagram offers either automatic targeting or manual. For beginners, the automatic variant is advised. For those who have already done research on Instagram TA, it’s possible to point out locations (regional and local), age, and gender.
  • Budget. You choose how much you are going to pay daily and for what period of time (from 1 to 30 days). Instagram immediately shows the approximate reach you can expect.
Targeted advertising
Create Promotion

3. See the preview and add a payment method (credit or debit card, or PayPal);

4. Click Create Promotion.

Setting up such a promo is simple and takes about 2-3 minutes to finish.

Note that Instagram reviews all the ad campaigns for at least 24 hours.

As for the formats of ad posts, it can be a single photo, a video, or a carousel. Choose the one that suits you more and promote your Instagram post.

1.2. Ads in Stories

Ads in Stories are created in a similar way as standard Instagram ads.

  • Create a story.
  • Click the More button at the bottom and choose Promote.
  • You will be prompted to adjust all the same settings with one modification — here you can choose Special Requirements if you are to run Credit, Employment, or Housing promotions (credit cards and loans, jobs and certification, real estate and insurance).

Requirements for Ads in Stories:

  • Max size: 4 GB for video format and 30 MB for a photo
  • Resolution: 1080×1920
  • Max length: 120 seconds
 add a payment method
Influencer Advertising

2. Influencer Advertising

As people’s trust in traditional advertising is gradually declining and more and more people are ready to listen only to the recommendations of friends and acquaintances, influencer marketing came to the rescue, and now it’s at its peak.

Adding promotion through bloggers and influencers to your marketing plan is definitely a good idea. It will help you increase brand awareness and build a meaningful follower base.

  • Over 67% of marketers consider promotion through influencers to be a good way to increase audience reach.
  • Brands using influencer marketing earned an average $6.85 for every $1 spent on influencer ads.
  • 70% of millennials listen to the opinions of friends and acquaintances when shopping.
  • 30% of users trust and buy products recommended by a non-celebrity blogger.

2.1. Who needs such advertising?

Users respect influencers’ opinions, especially if they position themselves as experts in the topic. Therefore, advertising through influencers is suitable for anyone who can find a blogger who has a strong connection with the target audience of their brand.

This works for those business areas where ‘the visual’ is vital. For example, collaboration with beauty bloggers is notable for its high performance. But in general, B2C goods and services, online stores, fashion brands, hand-made stuff, bars, and restaurants are all successfully promoted.

Blog advertising is relevant for both aspiring entrepreneurs and well-known brands. Large brands use influencer marketing to maintain or increase brand awareness and sales. Collaboration with blogs is also in demand for the promotion of a new product.

Advertising with bloggers is also suitable for promoting a personal blog. It’s important to choose an influencer whose target audience overlaps with yours. For example, if you dedicated your blog to healthy eating, you can buy an ad from a fitness trainer or nutritionist.

Who needs such advertising
types of bloggers

2.2. What influencers exist and which should you choose?

Influencers differ. There are true opinion leaders and those who pretend to be so. There are those who have no influence on their followers and those who are actively listened to. The target audience is different for everyone. The readiness of the profile for advertising and, of course, the pricing policy also differs.

There are several types of bloggers:

Micro. These bloggers are those who have at least a thousand followers. Although they do not have a huge audience, they have a close connection and listen to each other’s advice and opinions. In addition, they are often ready to publish quality content for relatively little money.

Macro. These users are generally well known. They have hundreds of thousands or even millions of readers and followers on social networks. Partnership with them allows you to capture the attention of a huge audience.

Celebrity. This category includes macro-influencers, who are not typical bloggers, but musicians, comedians, actors, athletes. Cooperation with them will cost a lot of money, but they can make your brand memorable.

There are professional bloggers, and there are amateurs. For professional Instagrammers, blogging is the main job they focus on. These blogs have a clear theme and style. They can be devoted to travel, cooking, life hacks, beauty, and health. Professional bloggers have a clear understanding of how to work with an audience and how to promote brands.

For some, blogging is a hobby with extra income. This category includes blogs that have become known due to interest in the personality of the author. Here you will not find a clear focus on a specific target audience. At the same time, there are pages that are distinguished by good audience engagement.

2.3. How to search for influencers

You have 3 ways: look for influencers on your own, use special tools, or go through an agency.

2.3.1. Searching for influencers on your own

  • You can search for influencers through hashtags and geotags. Track the most popular hashtags related to your products and relevant to your target audience. Among the publications using these tags, select the most popular, and analyze the statistics of the pages of their authors. The only thing remaining is to choose the one whose target audience is most similar to yours.
  • If you have a local business, then ordering advertising from a star blogger does not make any sense, because all your customers live in a particular city. In this case, it is recommended to track posts by the nearest locations and select the most active authors. You can choose from the city and ending with the area where your company is located.
  • You can find them among your clients. If you already have your own audience, then it will not be superfluous to examine it for the presence of an influential author. Perhaps, among your customers, there is a popular blogger who is ready to recommend your brand on special conditions.
search for influencers

2.3.2. Searching for influencers using free Instagram Search

Use a special Instagram search tool with which you can quickly find Instagram users by bio words and additional filters and analyze the audiences’ Engagement Rate (ER) and other metrics vital for decision making.

Open the Search and enter the input data and set the filters if needed. See the example below:

free Instagram Search

Get the Search result:

Get the Search result

Click Analyze near the profile’s info if you like someone and get the analyses of an account. See the example of a good profile in terms of cooperation:

Searching for influencers via agencies

This search feature saves you time searching and analyzing Instagram accounts.

2.3.3 Searching for influencers via agencies

Using the services of specialized agencies, you can start collaborating with bloggers whose number of followers exceeds 200,000. Some well-known bloggers sign exclusive contracts with such companies, and you can start working with them this way.

Choosing this method, you can count on professional help. The agency’s team will help create advertising content that will fully match the audience of the blog. Specialists will also help to coordinate all issues in cooperation with several bloggers.

But this is the most expensive way.

2.4 How to approach influencers with your offer

Even if you find a blogger that meets all your criteria, it does not mean that you will be able to advertise with them. Bloggers may refuse to cooperate without giving reasons or may not respond to DMs for months.

There is no single mechanism that works, but there are general recommendations that will help to reach agreement on cooperation:

  • Brush up your profile. From your profile, it should immediately be clear who you are, what you do, and what you offer. Otherwise, people won’t waste time on you.
  • Follow. Next, you should follow the page of a blogger with a suitable target audience and spend at least 1-2 weeks monitoring its content, quality, and the number of publications.
  • Get in touch. After you make sure that this influencer lives up to all your expectations, contact them or their agent, and discuss all the details.
  • Develop content. Pick or create the most interesting content that matches the blogger’s audience.

Good integration is the key to successful cooperation. Try to make sure that the ad does not stand out from the general style of the profile. Ask a blogger to post two posts shortly before the ad and one immediately after it. Such unobtrusive advertising does not cause a negative reaction from the audience.

cost of advertising

2.5 How much does it cost?

The cost of advertising depends on many individual factors, as well as on the format. It is believed that on Instagram the most influential person is Selena Gomez, with an audience of 176 million followers. The publication of one post by her costs around 600 thousand dollars!

There is no clear answer to how much advertising costs for bloggers. Prices vary. The average price for a post depends on both audience reach and the owner’s “appetite”:

  • For bloggers with up to 10,000 followers, an ad post can cost you a nominal fee, or you can barter.
  • Owners with 10,000-30,000 followers will ask for $10 to $30 per post.
  • An ad from a profile with 30,000 to 60,000 will cost from $40 to $60.
  • For a blogger with from 60,000 to 100,000 followers, the price tag for a post can vary from $60 to $100 per post.
  • Owners of profiles with an audience of 100,000-130m000 are asking for $100 – $250 for a shoutout.
  • Bloggers with an audience of 300,000+ followers are ready to cooperate for $250 or more.

The prices above are approximate and do not include the cost of goods that bloggers need to provide separately.

Video content can do more than just attract attention. It allows you to introduce people in detail to the advantages and features of your product, to convince and reveal new facets. All this is associated with high production costs, both for shooting and for showing.

One of the most beloved marketing tricks is advertising on Instagram Stories. It seems the easiest. The content here can be anything from a live broadcast to the publication of a post with a photo. Prices here are also very uneven: often 2-2.5 times lower than for a regular advertising post.

For example, the popular travel blogger Cristina Galbato, with more than 200,000 followers, gets $2,200 for publishing a post on Stories. That’s a lot.

Video content
the price of advertising

What determines the price of advertising?

Typically, bloggers do not name prices openly. There are no official statistics or an exact price lists. Everything is very individual and depends on many factors.

  • The number of followers. The more readers, the greater the reach of the audience and, accordingly, the higher the cost of advertising.
  • Blogger’s pricing. On Instagram, you can easily find two almost identical accounts with the same number of followers, but the owner of one will want $200 per post, and the other just $50.
  • Audience engagement. To begin with, Instagram has an average audience engagement level of 3.21% compared to 1.5% in other social networks. Naturally, the higher the ER on the page, the more expensive the advertisement on it.
  • Content. You can produce ads in almost any format: photos, live broadcasts, videos, reviews, recommendations, and so on. Some formats will cost more, others are cheaper. As a rule, publishing videos and stories is cheaper than a regular post, but each blogger may have their own opinion.
  • Production costs. If advertising requires travel, makeup, hair, a product demonstration, then these factors must be included in the total amount.
  • Duration of cooperation and number of posts. These factors have a direct impact on value formation.

2.6 How to analyze the results of your promo campaigns

The main indicator of the effectiveness of advertising is the payback of the post. The success of an ad can be determined within a week..., after which you earn 2 to 3 times more than was spent on the ad.

It is also appropriate to take into account the number of new followers, as they are future potential customers. To calculate the effectiveness of this parameter, divide the amount of money spent by the number of new followers, and compare this indicator with the cost of attracting readers through other sources.

Also, analyze how your engagement rate has increased. The higher this parameter, the more often your publications will appear at the top of your followers' feed, and the more attention will be focused on the brand.

If you cooperated with 1-2 bloggers but did not get the desired effect, then you should not conclude that the tool does not work. Maybe you just made a mistake with your choice. Work on the mistakes and repeat the experiment.

analyze the results

How to Steal Followers from Competitors

You have a common target audience. All you need is to engage with it. We explain how to mainstream
the process of dealing with your competitors’ follower base.

Steal Followers from Competitors

There are two methods of enticing followers from your competitors: a slow one and a fast one. Each of them is worth considering.

1. Method #1 — Manual, effective but slow

The scheme is find and engage.

Find your competitors on Instagram. You should know at least a couple of them in real life. Use the Instagram Search to find niche leaders or find them by hashtags and locations (see Question #1).

Like, comment and follow the followers of your competitor. Start engaging with the followers as much as you can. Usually, a single follow brings around a 15% possibility of following back. If you follow together with a like that goes up to 23%, and if you add a comment or DM it’s a 35% chance of follow back.

It is an easy scheme, but quite time-consuming to be honest. You can automate your targeting, likes, and follows with Instagram Automation Service.

To make the process even faster, head to method #2.


Instagram Analysis: Why it is vital for IG
promotions, and how to conduct it

[Analyzing your own and competitors’ accounts, publication
times and periodicity]

Analysis is an integral part of our
life. We analyze everything from products for our breakfast to business strategy for the next year.
Let’s see how Instagram analysis helps you grow.

1. Instagram Insights for promo campaigns

Every Creator or Business profile has access to Insights — Instagram statistics of your Content, Activity, and Audience for the last week.

Content — A ranking of publications by reach and engagement. The content with the most impressions is at the top. You can sort effective entries by actions: calls, comments, email messages, saves, follows, reposts, etc. You can see the statistics for a single post as well.

Activity — The number of actions that users took after viewing publications. Here you will find displayed: visits to the profile per week, the number of new followers per week, the number of clicks to the site or via the link in the description.

Audience — Where the user saw your profile, where he came from, how many users did not follow your profile after the first “meeting.” This is the best way to determine not only how attractive your content is, but also how your strategies to increase your reach are working.

Open the Menu on your homepage and tap Insights to access the statistics collected by Instagram:

View Insights

Note: to get the Insights for a separate post, click View Insights under the post.

Instagram Insights is an extremely valuable tool for any person who is concerned with quality promotion. But it shows the analysis and stats only for your own account.

To analyze the profiles of competitors and niche leaders, business owners can use Instagram Analyzer.

 Instagram Insights for promo campaigns

2. Analysis Tool for Instagram

With this free tool, you can analyze any Instagram account. It shows the number of followers and posts, the engagement rate and users’ activity, number of posts and their engagement score by days of the week, most popular post time, top hashtags and words from captions, as well as selections of the most liked and commented posts.



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