Instagram has become a critical component of many organizations’ social presence, directing profitable traffic to land pages, increasing conversions, and cultivating an engaged community.
The amount of followers on Instagram means nothing unless it represents an engaged fan base that makes purchases, sees your landing sites, and advocates for your companies with friends and followers. With these Instagram follower growth tips, you can start developing your presence the right way.
Do you want to swiftly expand your Instagram following? Are you looking for a plan that will attract the proper type of connections?
In this post, you’ll learn how to get Instagram followers and a growth plan in conjunction with an ad sequence to convert followers into buyers.
How does Instagram’s growth strategy work?
Every day, Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users who share millions of photographs and videos. That’s a lot of noise for Instagram marketers to get through in order to get their message in front of potential customers.
Simply focusing on the same old Instagram growth strategies that you’ve heard over and again won’t help you stand out. You’ll just be contributing to the platform’s noise rather than creating valuable assets for your company.
The $1.80 Instagram method for personalized audience growth is a better way. Gary Vaynerchuk’s $1.80 Instagram growth plan is all about making micro-connections that gradually build into an active and engaged community on the site.
Despite its name, the $1.80 technique is absolutely free to apply. The only resources you must pay for are your time and attention. You will: once a day-
- Begin by searching up ten relevant hashtags.
- Find the top nine posts for each hashtag.
- Leave an insightful comment (your two cents [$0.02]).
The $1.80 Instagram growth technique is as simple as this: 10 hashtags multiplied by 9 posts in which you put your $0.02 Equals $1.80 in the community-building effort.
Getting 2x, 5x, or 10x growth results with this method, on the other hand, does not happen overnight. It necessitates consistency and makes community-building a regular activity for your brand.
“The quantity of Instagram followers you have means nothing if you can’t develop a community of like-minded people that care and engage,” Gary says. These are the people who will become consumers, brand ambassadors, and significantly propel your business’s aims ahead. Finding this group of folks is as simple as joining the chat.
At The Ad Strategist, we used this method to more than double the amount of our Instagram following. More importantly, by adopting the $1.80 Instagram growth plan, our Instagram engagement custom audience increased to over three times the size of our follower count.
Importance:
What is the significance of this? The amount of users who have had a meaningful interaction with your company is represented by the size of your warm custom audiences. This includes anyone who liked, commented on, sent, or saved your post, as well as anyone who DM’ed you or clicked the link in your bio. Of course, simply because someone interacts with you does not imply that they follow you on Instagram. And if people aren’t following you, they’re unlikely to see your organic material and posts in the future.
That doesn’t imply the users are gone for good. You may develop a dynamic Instagram ad sequence that converts non-followers into followers and then consumers by targeting your Instagram engagement custom audience.
In a $45,000 ad spend analysis with 349 ad set variations, running advertisements to this engagement bespoke audience resulted in 50% – 100% lower lead costs. As a result, targeting an Instagram engagement bespoke audience results in much cheaper costs per result than targeting cold traffic.
Here’s how you can begin adopting this Instagram development plan in your own business.
-
Create a Custom Audience for Instagram Engagement
Navigate to the Audiences dashboard in Ads Manager to establish an Instagram engagement custom audience.
Then, select Custom Audience, click Create Audience.
Choose Instagram Account as your source audience in the Create a Custom Audience window.
Choose a name for this audience that you will remember in the future, and then click Create Audience. Keep in mind that revealing the amount of your existing Instagram engagement audience can take up to 24 hours.
Now, to decide your beginning point, write down the current size of this audience. To analyze your measurable progress, we propose tracking the growth of your bespoke audience on a weekly basis as you follow the rest of the $1.80 approach.
-
Research and Incorporate Relevant Instagram Hashtags
Now that you’re measuring your retargetable engagement, the next step is to locate Instagram hashtags that are relevant to your brand.
Navigate to the Explore tab on Instagram. Begin by looking for a related hashtag, such as #facebookads.
You most likely already have a set of hashtags that you use in your own postings. Because it’s best to search and participate on a daily basis, we recommend creating a spreadsheet to keep track of all the relevant hashtags you’re using, as the list will quickly increase.
The most surprising aspect of putting this method into action is fully comprehending the quality of a hashtag. As a Facebook advertising strategist, we’d guess that #facebookads is a good hashtag for postings. However, following deeper examination, the type of content being labeled with this specific hashtag is:
- Extremely promotional (often forget-rich-quick schemes)
- Nothing to do with digital strategy
- Completely deceptive
- Frequently incredibly spammy
This leads us to believe that we will no longer use #facebookads in our own Instagram efforts in the future.
Make a note of the highest-quality hashtags you find while you research hashtags and carry out your daily $1.80 growth approach. Then, include those in the written captions of your organic content to maximize your presence on the Explore page of your ideal clients.
-
Identify and engage to 9 Relevant Instagram Posts
After you’ve discovered your Instagram hashtags, it’s time to sift through the content to see if it’s relevant and important enough for you to add your two cents. Not all posts are made equal, especially in this day and age of spambots and automation.
Take a few moments to consider each Instagram post that you come across. We recommend reading the entire post to:
- Check out the caption.
- Quickly calculate the rate of engagement (likes and comments vs. total followers).
- To view their bio and the rest of their profile, click the account profile image.
Remember, this method works in any vertical: B2B, B2C, SMB, and so on. It is the process of sifting through the noise to uncover the gems that most of your rivals are not devoting enough time to.
Here are some things to check for while analyzing accounts.
How Much Effort Is Invested in Writing an Informative Caption?
A lot of low-quality accounts tend to ‘phone in’ the caption description and stuff as many hashtags as they can into the caption in the hopes of ranking higher on the Explore tab.
Captions that are well-written and thoughtful are difficult to come by. Instagram users who take the time and effort to develop their own story-driven captions are more likely to be active community members outside of their own profiles. They’re invested in their own Instagram success, and your $0.02 participation informs the algorithm that their material is likewise relevant.
What Is the Rate of Engagement?
Engagement is king in my algorithmic experience. What does it indicate about the quality of a community if an account has 200,000 followers but only receives 500 likes and comments on a post (0.2 percent engagement)?
On the other hand, never dismiss an account because it has a low follower count. If they have 200 followers and yet receive 30 likes and comments on every post (a 15% engagement rate! ), it demonstrates that they are establishing a tiny but powerful group. Engage at your leisure!
Is this a profile with which you would naturally engage?
Yes, you will use this method to boost your social media presence. However, it is critical to ensure that the comments you leave have the potential to generate strategic and long-term value for your business and prospective future community. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your time and getting lost in the weeds, as with anything else.
Now for the exciting part! This one is straightforward: Be social on social media. At this point in your efforts, all that remains is for you to leave your $0.02 on these newly discovered bits of material.
Let’s leave your $0.02 aside for a moment. There is a distinction between making a meaningful comment that demonstrates your want to participate in the wider topic and leaving a comment with three emoji hearts and then bouncing.
Don’t use the $1.80 strategy if all you do is leave emojis. Spend your attention on activities/tasks that will move the needle in your marketing.
Here are some examples of how to be a human on social media:
Share your personal experiences: Is there anything in your life (or behind the scenes in your business) that corresponds to the original caption? Please spread the word!
Pose open-ended inquiries: The idea here is to attract people to return to your Instagram page and interact with it. You have a lower probability of having a meaningful conversation with the other person if you only talk about yourself and your own experiences.
Don’t be an arrogant know-it-all: Allow others to convey their point of view and worldview. As humans, we frequently exchange information about ourselves. Keep in mind that this exercise is not about YOU. It’s all about the wonderful people you serve through your marketing.
-
Using Instagram Ads Sequence, you can monetize your efforts.
After completing these steps, you will have begun to create two significant marketing assets:
A captive client base of existing and prospective consumers that generate real money.
A highly engaged bespoke audience that can be retargeted with sponsored advertising
The first of these two assets, a captive group, will continually drive your organic Instagram efforts. These fans will be eager for your new content the next time you publish a piece. Because you’ve already conversed with these users, they’re more willing to interact and respond than total strangers.
The second asset is an engaged custom audience that can be retargeted with a $5 per day Instagram ad campaign.
When you combine a $5/day Instagram ad sequence with a $1.80 Instagram growth plan, every image you publish, DM you send, and heart you hit leads individuals to become your customers instantly and effortlessly. A low-cost Instagram ad sequence that runs in the background is a simple approach to convert followers into ardent (read: paying!) consumers.
Some additional pointers shall be focused on as well:
-
Use the Instagram Collab feature to collaborate on posts and reels
Instagram Collab is a new tool that was just added to the post and reel builder. You can use this tool to invite someone to be a collaborator on the content you’ve generated together.
There were previously two ways to mention two accounts on a post: using the Branded Content tool or tagging the other account in a post. However, if you tag someone in a post, their audience will very certainly never see the information until that account posts it on their stories. Anyone who views the original post would have to tap it to find any accounts that were tagged in it.
When co-creating content on Instagram, both sides gain in a variety of ways.
First, the post’s additional author is highlighted at the top. Anyone who sees the message may see their name right away, which gives social proof and indicates a professional link between the creators.
When the collaborator accepts the invitation, your post will appear on their grid rather than being tucked away in the Tagged Content tab, as is normally the case when a profile is tagged in a post.
Second, collaborative posts can save time and money that would otherwise be spent on traditional partnerships. There is only one post or reel shared between the two accounts, so there is no need to share materials or write numerous captions.
When generating single-image posts, videos, carousels, and reels, the Instagram Collabor tool is available. Here’s how to make use of this functionality.
Suggestions for a Successful Collaboration:
When co-creating posts, it’s critical that all participants agree to have the content displayed on their Instagram grid. If a brand has a defined aesthetic, the post should adhere to that.
Collaborative posts should have all of the essential components of a successful Instagram post, such as hashtags, an engaging caption, and a strong call to action (CTA).
-
Inviting Guests to an Instagram Live Room
You may go live with up to three guests using the Instagram Live Rooms feature. You may reach a very specific audience by carefully picking who you collaborate with within a room.
It may be tempting to choose potential guests only based on their audience size; but, you should examine if they will give the kind of content your audience expects from you. They must add value or give fun to keep your present audience interested.
When you go live with other people, Instagram will alert the audiences of both the host and the guests, and any followers will see the live stream at the top of their Stories feed throughout the live broadcast.
Live broadcasts are a simple method to generate compelling material that helps viewers form relationships. Going live with three guests maximizes your chances of meeting new people and making new relationships.
-
Suggestions for a Successful Live Room
Promoting your Instagram live room is critical to its success, and ideally, all contributors will take part in the buildup to ensure that their audiences are ready to tune in.
Before beginning the live broadcast, make sure that each guest has updated their Instagram app and understands how to participate. I recommend that you choose a host for the broadcast. The host does not have to be the organizer, but he or she will introduce people, keep the conversation on track, and ensure that you do not go over time.
Introductions are essential for a successful live room since they allow all viewers to become acquainted with each speaker. Remember that the purpose of presenting this type of broadcast is to create relationships with new audiences who are unfamiliar with you.
The host should urge viewers to use the question sticker during the program to ensure that their questions are answered. To avoid guests chatting over one another and creating an awkward viewing experience, direct inquiries to one guest at a time.
-
Include a variety of contributors in Instagram guides
Instagram guides are curated collections of consecutive posts to which the curator can add commentary, resulting in an in-app magazine. Each guide article links back to an existing Instagram post, reel, or product website where readers can buy things.
Instagram Guides is a feature that is underutilized yet has the potential to deliver exceptional value to artists, collaborators, and their fans. Guides are an excellent approach to provide information such as how-tos, tips, and recommendations.
Because instructions are offered in a long-form, scrollable manner, the reader does not have to click away to discover additional information, which results in longer reading times.
Guides are excellent shareable content since they can be shared to Stories or via direct message, and because they are evergreen, they can even be linked in blogs and emails to lure people back to your profile. And the more important your guide is, the more likely it will be saved for future reference.
Summary:
Set aside time every day to carry out this strategy. It’s only 15 minutes a day for us when being in an Uber or waiting for a meeting to start. It may be 3–4 PM every day for you.
Instagram growth will not occur until you put in the time and effort on a daily basis, track your outcomes, tweak what isn’t working, and constantly and ruthlessly improve your efforts. Imagine your account growing 2x, 10x, or 100x in a year and what it would mean for your business goals.
You can fast build your Instagram account with followers that convert into customers by combining a basic $1.80 Instagram growth plan with a $5/day Facebook advertising strategy. For more informative blogs, stay tuned to adsthrive.
