Do you want to grow your Instagram account?
Some users buy Instagram followers and likes. But what are the risks and is it worth the potential payoff?
In this post, we’ll look at the pros and cons of buying Instagram followers and likes.
What Does Instagram Say About Buying Followers and Likes?
Before we talk about the reasons why people buy Instagram followers and likes, let’s look at what Instagram has to say about it.
In their Community Guidelines, Instagram states:
“Foster meaningful and genuine interactions. Help us stay spam-free by not artificially collecting likes, followers, or shares, posting repetitive comments or content, or repeatedly contacting people for commercial purposes without their consent.
Don’t offer money or giveaways of money in exchange for likes, followers, comments or other engagement.
Don’t post content that engages in, promotes, encourages, facilitates, or admits to the offering, solicitation or trade of fake and misleading user reviews or ratings.”
What can happen if you violate Instagram’s Community Guidelines?
In short, Instagram can remove you and your content from Instagram and Facebook, according to their Terms.
“We can remove any content or information you share on the Service if we believe that it violates these Terms of Use, our policies (including our Instagram Community Guidelines), or we are permitted or required to do so by law.
We can refuse to provide or stop providing all or part of the Service to you (including terminating or disabling your access to the Facebook Products and Facebook Company Products) immediately to protect our community or services, or if you create risk or legal exposure for us, violate these Terms of Use or our policies (including our Instagram Community Guidelines), if you repeatedly infringe other people’s intellectual property rights, or where we are permitted or required to do so by law.”
What Happens When You Buy Followers [Experiments]
The results of buying Instagram followers and likes is about as you would expect.
In the first experiment, a marketing agency named Mediakix created two “influencer” accounts using a photoshoot with a model and stock photos.
They proceeded to buy followers for both accounts, but the paid followers did not engage with the accounts. So the agency had to buy engagement (likes and comments) as well.
The result? Two “active and engaged” influencer accounts.
In the second experiment, AdEspresso created an Instagram account with a store. They proceeded to grow their followers the natural way – by posting engaging content using relevant hashtags.
Next, they stopped their organic Instagram activities and switched to buying followers.
After the experiment concluded, they compared follower count, engagement, and sales from their organic Instagram activity and their paid followers. Both methods helped boost the follower count of the Instagram account.
When looking at engagement, the organic activity produced twice as many likes and comments as their paid followers. The organic activity also drove sales through the store, something the paid followers did not.
Between these experiments, we can conclude that numbers can be inflated. But real engagement and conversions can’t.
Pros of Buying Instagram Followers and Likes
On a surface level, numbers are impressive.
Let’s say that someone looks up a comedian on Instagram and sees two accounts. One comedian has a little over 200 followers, and the other has over 200,000 followers.
Without further investigation, one could assume the latter comedian attracted a larger audience because they are funnier than the former.
The same goes for engagement. If you’d scroll past an infographic with hundreds of likes and dozens of comments, you may stop to see why it’s so popular.
There are other good reasons to buy followers and likes on Instagram.
Buying engagement (likes and comments) for a new post may help it show up in the Explore tab for relevant Instagram users.
It could also boost your post’s chances of being the top post for a hashtag that lots of people are following.
Both would help you get your Instagram content in front of new audiences. The Explore tab will even put a follow link next to your profile so that new people can follow you.
Hence, buying engagement for a great post with the right hashtags could also lead to a boost in organic followers.
The Swipe Up feature in Stories that allows you to add links used to be a benefit. It was only available to Instagram users that were verified or had 10,000 followers for their business account.
However, now everyone can share links in Stories.
Cons of Buying Instagram Followers and Likes
The number one reason not to buy followers and likes on Instagram is they reserve the right to disable your account, causing you to lose your content and the entire audience.
If that doesn’t concern you, here are a few other cons to paid engagement.
For starters, people can tell the difference between a popular Instagram account with real engagement and an account with inflated followers.
The latter may have the audience numbers, but they typically don’t have any meaningful discussion happening in the post comments.
If your goal is to attract advertisers and sponsors, then you may be out of luck, as well. Tools like HypeAuditor can analyze an Instagram account to determine the number of real followers and the amount of engagement it has.
In addition, Instagram will regularly remove what they deem to be inauthentic accounts on their network.
While your account may not be removed, the “followers” you have purchased may be. Paid-for likes and comments may disappear as well during a purge for inauthentic activity.
This means you will have to monitor your followers and replace them if you are trying to maintain access to features for accounts with larger followings.
Where to Buy Instagram Followers and Likes
The following are examples of sites where you can buy Instagram followers and likes. Please note we do not encourage or endorse these sites; they are just a sample of what you’ll find when you search for paid Instagram followers and likes.
If you are interested in experimenting for yourself, here are some places to compare.
Important: Keep your account safe. If you are purchasing followers and likes, purchase from companies that do not need your login information or password. You should be able to supply your profile username or a link to your post, and the service should be able to send the followers and likes accordingly.
Goread.io
Goread.io offers followers from two types of accounts:
- High-quality accounts that follow you have photos, but no new updates.
- Active accounts that follow you have photos and post regularly.
The latter would be less likely to drop from your follower count during an Instagram purge. Pricing starts at under $1 for 50 followers.
Likes.io
Likes.io offers both high-quality and premium followers for your Instagram account starting at $2.97 for 100 followers.
They also have high-quality and premium likes for your posts starting at $1.47 for 50 likes.
Buzzoid
Buzzoid offers high-quality followers, premium followers, and a managed growth service for a more engaged audience.
Pricing starts at $2.97 for 100 followers. High-quality and premium likes for content start at $1.48 for 50 likes.
Twicsy
Twicsy offers high-quality and premium followers for your Instagram account starting at $2.97 for 100 followers. They also have high-quality and premium likes for your posts starting at $1.47 for 50 likes.
How to Grow Followers and Engagement Organically
If you would rather grow your followers, likes, and comments the natural way, here are some tips that should help you achieve your goals for free.
- Create strong visual content. Post high-resolution photos or professional graphics created with tools like Adobe Illustrator or Canva.
- Write compelling captions. Think of the first sentence in your post caption as the hook that determines whether they click more to keep reading.
- Include up to 30 relevant hashtags at the end of your caption or in the first comment of your post. In addition to using hashtag research tools, visit the hashtag on Instagram to see how many people are following it and what type of content appears in the top posts.
- Like and comment on the top posts for hashtags you use most often. As you engage with the Instagram community, you’ll attract followers that are actually engaged with your content.
- Promote posts and reels you publish to your profile in your stories as well.
- Cross-promote your Instagram account on your other social media accounts to get fans from other networks engaged with your Instagram content.
- Post a link to your Instagram content on your other social networks to boost engagement for every new post.
- Share your Instagram username on business cards, email newsletters, interviews, and podcasts.
- Add a link to your Instagram profile to your website where you promote your other social profiles. This may be your site’s header, footer, about page, or contact us page.
Sure, it’s possible to grow your Instagram following by buying likes.
As with all aspects of digital marketing, though, there is great benefit in authenticity.
Investing the time in building an organic following can pay great dividends for years to come.
More resources:
Featured image: Shutterstock/Aleksandr Ozerov
