How To Monetize Instagram: 5+ Best Ways To Earn Money

The popularity of Instagram as a platform opened up many possibilities for earning money by creating a successful marketing strategy.

Most digital and physical products can be shipped worldwide nowadays, making a globally available platform such as Instagram one of the best ways to reach and influence the target audience. In order to get a piece of this rather large cake, you will first need to learn how to monetize Instagram.

Here is everything you need to know about Instagram monetization tools, their use, and the benefits you can get as an individual or a representative of a business.

Instagram Monetization: Full Guide

First, let’s talk about all the various benefits you get from monetizing your Instagram account.

Beyond greatly improving your ability to make money on Instagram, the requirements for a monetized account have some secondary benefits. By its nature, a monetized Instagram account must first be verified.

Because of this, these accounts are more secure and considered to be more trustworthy, boosting your reputation with other Instagram influencers and increasing the likelihood of landing sponsored posts.

Finally, more people will be inclined to buy from your Instagram shop if you have one, as the verification serves as proof of identity of sorts, reassuring your customers that you aren’t scamming them.

What is Instagram monetization?

Instagram monetization is a program of sorts, which allows verified Instagram accounts to be paid for their activity on the platform.

This allows you to earn money directly from Instagram, participate in Instagram ad programs, and a lot more.

It also proves to others that your account contains high-quality content, making it much easier for you to become an affiliate marketer, monetize your IGTV ads, and even attract more Instagram followers, further boosting your income.

When did Instagram monetization come out?

Instagram announced the verification program back in 2014, as a way for people to know that the celebrity accounts they are following were the real deal.

Ever since then, this program got turned into a basis for the Instagram monetization program, as brands realized that verified Instagram accounts have a much higher chance of making a successful promotion.

How does Instagram monetization work?

Instagram monetization is a complex, multi-faceted process that converts your Instagram followers into a source of income.

There are several ways to make money on Instagram, all of which fall under the crown term of Instagram monetization.

The first is the so-called influencer marketing. This means that a person with a high follower count and a high engagement rate can do sponsored content for various brands, earning a commission.

The second is setting up your own Instagram shop. This shop differs from an online store connected to your Instagram account by a link, as it is located directly in the Instagram app, allowing you to reach your target audience without them having to click on a possibly suspicious link.

Finally, accounts with enough followers can get paid for their IGTV ads by various brands, as well as by earning Instagram badges on their live streams.

How Do You Become Eligible for Instagram Monetization?

There is no singular requirement that makes you able to monetize your Instagram posts.

Instead, the whole process works as a series of steps that differ based on your follower count, how many engaged followers you have, and what is your overall business plan.

Making a creator account

If you are trying to create a strong personal brand or already have one, you may want to convert your personal account into a creator account.

This can be done fairly easily through your Instagram app and will unlock some new features, such as earning commissions from your Instagram shop, sharing branded content to improve your brand recognition, and earning bonuses from exceptionally popular Instagram reels.

Before making a creator account, you should make sure that you read all the rules and regulations carefully, as Instagram has severe penalties for Instagram creators that break the terms of service.

Making a business account

If your new account is representing a brand or a company instead of you as a person, you may prefer a business account instead. These accounts offer all of the same benefits creator accounts do, but with one notable difference: third-party app support.

Since business accounts are made to represent a company, they support certain things such as Instagram analytics, often done through specialized software, the ability to automatically publish posts at a specified time, tracking the popularity of different posts and your own products, etc.

In fact, due to their support for third-party apps, Instagram business accounts are limited more by what apps you connect to them than by any regulations imposed on them by Instagram.

Getting your Instagram account verified

Finally, another way to earn more money on Instagram is to get your account verified. While it isn’t a strict requirement for paid partnerships, larger companies will usually only work with verified accounts due to their much higher trust factor.

Regardless of what you may believe, you don’t actually need a huge following to become verified on Instagram. What you do need, however, is to be well-known outside of it, though to what extent is uncertain, as the platform never released any concrete list of requirements.

That being said, it seems that you do need a decent engagement rate of 2.5 before you are considered for verification. To begin the process, you will need a well-written bio and some unique Instagram posts.

After you fulfill these basic requirements, you need to send a verification request to Instagram, whose employees will then review it.

Verified vs Non-verified Account

As we established, you don’t need a verified account to get a massive follower count nor implement Instagram shopping, or even get paid partnerships with other brands.

What is the purpose of a verified account then?

Well, for starters, verified accounts contain exclusive content, and are guaranteed by Instagram not to be scams, attracting more active users and therefore having a higher engagement rate.

Furthermore, every brand’s collab manager knows that it is much easier to sell products and services through a sponsored post on a verified account, as they are by default well known outside of the platform and therefore exert greater influence on their community.

What this means for you as someone who wants to earn money on Instagram is that you will be able to earn higher commissions from your Instagram content with a smaller number of followers, become more attractive for IGTV ad monetization, etc.

Furthermore, you can connect your Instagram profile with those on other social media platforms, share your Instagram videos and create sponsored content that encompasses all of them, further boosting your income as you get paid for views on each one.

How to Quickly Grow Your Account to Boost Your Income

While there is no real threshold on how many Instagram followers you need to start getting offers to post sponsored content, the rates do rise as your Instagram page grows.

As a result, it may be prudent to look for ways to quickly boost your follower count, for which there are several methods available.

First, you can post high-quality content, such as trendy photos and Instagram stories to attract more people to follow your account. This will result in relatively slow, but organic growth as each new Instagram photo gets more attention than the previous one.

Second, you can start creating sponsored posts of your own, paying money to Instagram to promote your account through tailored photo and video ads.

Another great way to get a lot of followers quickly is by simply purchasing them from a third-party website as a bundle. This method is the quickest, but it does carry the risk of having your account banned and your investment wasted.

Finally, you can opt to buy an entire Instagram account, then create content to post on it. While it is unlikely that you will get banned, there is a possibility that you will lose a few hundred followers as they aren’t interested in the new posts on your freshly acquired Instagram page.

Tips and Tricks on How to Make Money on Instagram

1. Keep your account active

The more active your account is, the higher your engagement rate will be, making you more attractive to individuals and brands alike and therefore increasing the number of sponsored posts you get.

2. Only post high-quality images and videos

While it’s important to post regularly, that in itself is not enough. To truly attract other Instagram users to interact with your profile, you need to keep the content fresh, interesting, and unique.

This is why many brands employ full-time social media managers to lead their Instagram pages.

3. Do proper research

Just like any other business, Instagram marketing has many intricacies that can allow you to make money more quickly once you understand them.

Because of this, you should research what kind of content pays the best. For example, it may be more lucrative to monetize videos instead of photos, or even create your own Instagram shop.

4. Be patient

Last but not least, make sure to give your Instagram account the time it needs to grow.

While Instagram monetization tools can earn you a lot of money, this money doesn’t come overnight. Expect at least six months to a year before you start seeing real revenue.

Conclusion

When trying to monetize Instagram, you need to first learn the rules of influencer marketing, and then apply them to your personal or business account.

Gather as many followers as you can, keep your content creation regular and high quality, and look to collaborate with other brands.

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