How to gain subscribers on Instagram: services and step-by-step instructions

Followers on Instagram are a source of your income. You can sell advertisements on your account, independently promote offers by posting links, or redirect users to Telegram or other messengers to go through a sales funnel. The more followers you have, the higher your earnings. Therefore, it is essential to understand how to attract followers on Instagram, what influences account promotion, and how services can assist with this.

There are both paid and free methods of gaining followers. And it's not just limited to using follower-boosting services or setting up targeted advertisements. It all depends on how much time and effort you are willing to invest in promoting your account on your own: free methods will require significantly more of these resources.

To begin with, you need to prepare your account. For this, you should take care of:

• Beautiful design.
• Memorable username.
• Clear profile description.
• Content plan for posts.
• Several initial publications.

All of this is necessary to show potential followers that you are a real person with interesting content.

Free methods will allow you to attract a small audience but will require effort and time. You will have to learn how to use hashtags, find other bloggers for mutual promotion, engage in mass following, etc. Of course, most methods have both positive and negative aspects.

Such a method may not necessarily attract many new followers to your account. However, it allows you to find out what content they like, what to pay attention to in its preparation, and so on. Additionally, the engagement of followers in polls improves your account's reputation in the eyes of Instagram, meaning that your other posts will appear more frequently in the recommended feed of users who are not yet following you.

Hashtags are one of the options for targeting your posts. With their help, you can group posts by topics, and Instagram's algorithms will display them to users who enter a search query with that hashtag. As a result, hashtags allow you to attract followers and help promote your account over an extended period. They also make your posts visible to those who are not yet following you.

Here are some recommendations:

• Check which hashtags your competitors are using.
• Avoid using the most popular hashtags as your post may get lost among others.
• Avoid overloading your posts with hashtags (4-6 are sufficient).

Geotags are similar to hashtags, but they attach a post to a specific location where you shot your video or photo. To use them, you need to allow Instagram to publish your geotags. Geotags help promote posts within a particular region.

Influencer marketing is one of the most common and effective methods of gaining followers on Instagram. You need to find relevant bloggers with an engaged audience and propose to collaborate with them. For instance, you can create a promotional post with a link to another account, and in return, the other blogger will make a post with a link to your account. As a result, you'll attract interested followers. The advantage of this promotion method is that bloggers often agree to it, especially if you have a similar number of followers.

However, there are some pitfalls: before offering a collaboration, it's essential to check the other blogger's profile. Services like trendHERO or LiveDune can help you identify bot followers, evaluate the audience's engagement level, and more.

Publish a post on Instagram and tag other users in it (up to 20 accounts simultaneously). However, follow this rule: tag users whose content aligns with the theme of your post. For example, if you have uploaded a photo related to a specific brand, tag them. As a result, your post will be visible to followers who are searching for that brand through the search function.

Overall, this method is not the most effective, but it can help you gain a couple of dozen followers on Instagram in the early stages.

No one has canceled the well-known practice of manually mass following, commenting, and liking. You will need to constantly follow, like other people's posts, and leave comments to attract attention to your account. As a result, there is always a chance that other bloggers (especially small or starting ones) will follow you back in response.

However, it's essential to be aware that there is a limit on the number of likes and follows from one account: no more than 20 per hour. If you mindlessly spam and exceed this limit, Instagram may send your account to a shadowban or permanent ban due to suspicious activity. Another drawback is the significant time investment as you'll have to constantly open your account and follow other people. Therefore, it's better to use automation services (we will talk about them a little later).

If you have popular social media pages, good website traffic, etc., you can promote your Instagram account with their help. Place a link to your Instagram in your posts to attract the attention of your followers. As a result, you can gain an active and engaged audience that is already familiar with you and ready to respond to promotional posts. Essentially, this method is one of the most effective free ways to gain followers. However, there is a downside: its effectiveness directly depends on the amount of traffic on the source platforms.

If you want to quickly build an audience for your account, be prepared to spend money. Therefore, before starting paid promotion, make sure to calculate your available budget and consider the options for its use.

To start targeting, you can use the Instagram interface (if setting up from a mobile phone) or the Ads Manager in Facebook. Note that the options for customization will be somewhat limited within Instagram, and post promotion will be available for accounts with 24 to 36 posts (the exact number depends on their content).

Using the Instagram interface, you can set targeting based on GEO, gender, age, and interests. You can promote your account, website, or Direct messages. However, it's important to be aware that when using this method of targeted advertising, Instagram algorithms will focus on your existing followers and find similar users. If you have engaged in bot followers or artificial inflation, it's best not to use this method.

Ads Manager in Facebook allows for more precise targeting, reaching unique users who match the settings of your ad campaign. However, there is a slight risk that the platform may block your account, even if you strictly adhere to the guidelines. Therefore, be prepared to either purchase or farm a new account. Also, note that it's advisable to run ads for at least 3-5 days. This duration allows Facebook algorithms to optimize and find the right audience for you.

One of the most effective methods of paid promotion. You will need to select a pool of bloggers with an active audience that would be interested in your content. It is essential to thoroughly research their followers using services like trendHERO or similar tools to understand how often they post, the number of likes and comments they receive, the user engagement, etc.

The cost of advertising with a blogger will depend on the size and activity of their audience. We recommend paying attention to micro-accounts. Such bloggers often have more engagement with their audience, and their followers remain active. Additionally, the cost of advertising with micro-influencers is relatively lower.

Giveaways are contests in which users are encouraged to follow one or several Instagram accounts to have a chance to win a prize. On one hand, you can gain many followers in a short period. On the other hand, it's essential to consider that most participants are often just looking for freebies. They may not engage actively until the next giveaway or even unfollow you after the current one ends. Therefore, it's crucial to carefully select the theme of the account where you plan to conduct the giveaway. If it aligns with your account's theme, there is a chance that the acquired followers will stay with you.

This is an overtly "black" method of promoting on Instagram. The social network constantly fights against cheating and introduces stricter rules. If you are suspected of such behavior, your account will be banned in no time. Therefore, it's crucial to plan your cheating strategy carefully: the growth of followers should be gradual, and the number of new users should vary from day to day. Additionally, the artificially inflated followers must show some activity, such as commenting and liking posts, to reduce suspicion from Instagram moderators.

There are two types of services for cheating:

• Task exchanges: Here, you can post tasks like "follow an account, comment on a post, visit the next day, and leave another comment."
• Cheating services: With these services, you can get both bots and real followers. It all depends on the price for each user. However, none of them will engage actively.

Let's note that even if Instagram doesn't detect the cheating, you will end up with not the most engaged audience. Users from task exchanges may unfollow in the near future, and those obtained through cheating services might simply not react to your posts.

Promoting on Instagram is a challenging task that requires a lot of effort, time, and money, regardless of whether you use free or paid promotion methods. However, the results - attracted followers - will allow you to recoup your efforts through advertising or redirecting traffic to other platforms for further funneling.