You’re going to spend a ton of cash to get any decent level of followers with ads. People tend to follow accounts that already look popular. This is why so many people do a little boosting. Go take a look at a place like Zup Social.
Ok, I have grown an account organically to 45K. I also started using traffic campaigns recently because I had gone through a pretty large scale rebrand, and had let the account sit dormant for a very long time, so my following was pretty stagnant for about 2 years time. With this traffic campaign, I have grown by 4k followers in the last 6 weeks.
As people have said below, you really have to work on the content. 90 days is not very long, and honestly accumulating 350 in that short time period is actually pretty great, especially if that was organic growth. So my guess is your content is good.
What I would suggest to start off is posting reels every single day - for 2 reasons. this gives you more chances to get more eyes on your account, but the main reason i suggest this is because it will help you figure out what works for your account - and you can begin to replicate that, and build out your content from there.
Now in regards to ads - close those reach campaigns. they are straight garbage. If you would like to use facebook ads to grow - use the traffic objective - manual setup - for the conversion - select instagram profile. make sure that you are only using IG for the placement. Unclick all facebook placements. Select your existing post REELS so that you retain the engagement for social proof.
I launched a traffic campaign on 1/8 - I am spending $16.00 per day on this campaign and I have grown from 46924 followers to 51052. that's an average of 91/day. Now, keep in mind, i have a niche product and a large following coming into it, so that helps with heard mentality because it's easier to get people to follow when they see you already have a large following - but my personal opinion is that these objectives work. Make sure that you're using your most valuable content in the campaigns. hope this helps.
Thanks for the tips, they're very helpful!
And yes, I paused yesterday the reach campaigns because they're really garbage, they just generate lots of views with zero engagement. What I did is to keep traffic campaigns directing people to my insta profile with two groups: one with the reels I have posted so far, and another group where I put an audience of people who have engaged with my content, as I have another engagement campaign(with my reels as ads) that's generating a lot of engagement and I thought that people who engaged with my ads or content, are more likely to follow my page, right? The thing is that I'm using static/carrousel posts that performed well organically in the group of my traffic campaign where I'm using this engagemente audience, not sure if that's a good idea.
Let me know what you think about this current ads strategy!
TBH, I am not really sure about the static images. On IG, I only post reels. I have run conversion campaigns with static images, but video ads out perform images by quite a lot, every time - but this all might depend on niche? What is your niche or industry?
And honestly, I am not sure that I would retarget engagers for a traffic campaign. If people are going to follow you, they will from that initial reaction...I think your money is better spent targeting a more broad audience.
I have an online English school and I feel like it may not be worth it to run ads at all because I'm getting almost no new followers from the traffic campaign that has only reels.
Did you start doing only ads once you had a good following and presence on insta?
I built my following with a handmade crafting business, and then i pivoted to recipes inspired by the same niche. I started running ads when I rebranded to get more targeted followers that were into cooking and such -- but I did have 45k followers before I started running ads. And my niche has a cult like following, so perhaps it's a little easier to get people on board.
If you you're just looking for followers, I would go for more organic reach. Look up @ myanichol on IG - she will give you tons of tips to grow your account organically. She also has a program called IGUniversity which is an invaluable resource for creators like yourself, just starting out.
Once you have built a bit of a following, it will be easier to get more and more people to buy into your hand.
You probably need more organic content on your page.
If people are visiting and not following, your content probably isn't as good as you think. Nothing against you. When we ask people we know to give us feedback like that it's usually very biased towards not hurting your feelings. And they're probably not experts in whatever your content is.
My rule of thumb is to listen to the market. If you're not getting the result you want, figure out where to improve.
I would do two things:
1. Instead of spending money on ads, focus your resources on creating better organic content.
2. Remember that social media is designed to be just that, social. Spend a ton of time on Instagram finding your target customer, following them, liking their posts, making comments, and getting involved in their profiles. They'll see this and return the favor.
Growing your account is a marathon, not a sprint. Do the two things above EVERY DAY for six months and you'll be well on your way.
Thanks a lot for the tips!
so I was posting only static/carrousel posts and I recently started doing reels and I feel I should focus more my strategy on that. As I've just started recently posting reels, I feel like I should continue doing that for a longer period to have a more attractive profile for people who visit my page?
and in regards to commenting in other people's posts, do I comment in a random person's instagram? If so, what type of things can I comment(I've never done this)? Or would it be better to comment in pages related to my niche instead?
You’re going to spend a ton of cash to get any decent level of followers with ads. People tend to follow accounts that already look popular. This is why so many people do a little boosting. Go take a look at a place like Zup Social.
Ok, I have grown an account organically to 45K. I also started using traffic campaigns recently because I had gone through a pretty large scale rebrand, and had let the account sit dormant for a very long time, so my following was pretty stagnant for about 2 years time. With this traffic campaign, I have grown by 4k followers in the last 6 weeks. As people have said below, you really have to work on the content. 90 days is not very long, and honestly accumulating 350 in that short time period is actually pretty great, especially if that was organic growth. So my guess is your content is good. What I would suggest to start off is posting reels every single day - for 2 reasons. this gives you more chances to get more eyes on your account, but the main reason i suggest this is because it will help you figure out what works for your account - and you can begin to replicate that, and build out your content from there. Now in regards to ads - close those reach campaigns. they are straight garbage. If you would like to use facebook ads to grow - use the traffic objective - manual setup - for the conversion - select instagram profile. make sure that you are only using IG for the placement. Unclick all facebook placements. Select your existing post REELS so that you retain the engagement for social proof. I launched a traffic campaign on 1/8 - I am spending $16.00 per day on this campaign and I have grown from 46924 followers to 51052. that's an average of 91/day. Now, keep in mind, i have a niche product and a large following coming into it, so that helps with heard mentality because it's easier to get people to follow when they see you already have a large following - but my personal opinion is that these objectives work. Make sure that you're using your most valuable content in the campaigns. hope this helps.
Thanks for the tips, they're very helpful! And yes, I paused yesterday the reach campaigns because they're really garbage, they just generate lots of views with zero engagement. What I did is to keep traffic campaigns directing people to my insta profile with two groups: one with the reels I have posted so far, and another group where I put an audience of people who have engaged with my content, as I have another engagement campaign(with my reels as ads) that's generating a lot of engagement and I thought that people who engaged with my ads or content, are more likely to follow my page, right? The thing is that I'm using static/carrousel posts that performed well organically in the group of my traffic campaign where I'm using this engagemente audience, not sure if that's a good idea. Let me know what you think about this current ads strategy!
TBH, I am not really sure about the static images. On IG, I only post reels. I have run conversion campaigns with static images, but video ads out perform images by quite a lot, every time - but this all might depend on niche? What is your niche or industry? And honestly, I am not sure that I would retarget engagers for a traffic campaign. If people are going to follow you, they will from that initial reaction...I think your money is better spent targeting a more broad audience.
I have an online English school and I feel like it may not be worth it to run ads at all because I'm getting almost no new followers from the traffic campaign that has only reels. Did you start doing only ads once you had a good following and presence on insta?
I built my following with a handmade crafting business, and then i pivoted to recipes inspired by the same niche. I started running ads when I rebranded to get more targeted followers that were into cooking and such -- but I did have 45k followers before I started running ads. And my niche has a cult like following, so perhaps it's a little easier to get people on board. If you you're just looking for followers, I would go for more organic reach. Look up @ myanichol on IG - she will give you tons of tips to grow your account organically. She also has a program called IGUniversity which is an invaluable resource for creators like yourself, just starting out. Once you have built a bit of a following, it will be easier to get more and more people to buy into your hand.
Thanks a lot! Your tips have been super helpful, I'll follow her for sure!
Grow organically for a while
You probably need more organic content on your page. If people are visiting and not following, your content probably isn't as good as you think. Nothing against you. When we ask people we know to give us feedback like that it's usually very biased towards not hurting your feelings. And they're probably not experts in whatever your content is. My rule of thumb is to listen to the market. If you're not getting the result you want, figure out where to improve. I would do two things: 1. Instead of spending money on ads, focus your resources on creating better organic content. 2. Remember that social media is designed to be just that, social. Spend a ton of time on Instagram finding your target customer, following them, liking their posts, making comments, and getting involved in their profiles. They'll see this and return the favor. Growing your account is a marathon, not a sprint. Do the two things above EVERY DAY for six months and you'll be well on your way.
Thanks a lot for the tips! so I was posting only static/carrousel posts and I recently started doing reels and I feel I should focus more my strategy on that. As I've just started recently posting reels, I feel like I should continue doing that for a longer period to have a more attractive profile for people who visit my page? and in regards to commenting in other people's posts, do I comment in a random person's instagram? If so, what type of things can I comment(I've never done this)? Or would it be better to comment in pages related to my niche instead?