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There are so many ways to make money on Instagram in 2024, and with the social media game changing often, it’s important to take the right steps.
As we all know, the world of social media has drastically changed how people interact and do business over the past decade.
Many businesses are now leveraging platforms such as Instagram to promote their products and services, drive engagement from potential customers, and more importantly increase sales.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for many entrepreneurs to use Instagram as a primary source of income these days.
From influencers to e-commerce store owners – people are making money on Instagram every day by simply creating content that resonates with their target audience.
But what exactly does it take to be successful on this platform? Is making money with Instagram really possible or just a myth?
In this blog post, we will answer all these questions and teach you how you can use your own account(s) to start generating some serious cash flow in 2024!
I’ll cover the following topics (among others):
- how much an average user could expect to make based on follower count,
- tips and tricks that experienced users swear by when it comes to monetizing their accounts,
- as well as helpful tools and services that can help jumpstart your journey toward becoming a top earner on Instagram.
Is It Still Possible to Make Money on Instagram in 2024?
First, I want to address the rumors about whether making money on Instagram is “dead” or not. After all, the platform has been around for quite some time now.
The truth is, making money on Instagram in 2024 is very much still alive and well.
As long as you have the right tools and strategies for success, there’s no reason why you can’t achieve great levels of financial success on this platform.
Some of the top earners on Instagram today include bloggers, social media influencers, and even established brands who are taking advantage of new marketing strategies to reach their target audiences.
In fact, according to this article where they surveyed 1,865 Instagram influencers, 48.49% reported they DO earn money from their accounts.
So if you’re looking to start generating income from Instagram this year, don’t be discouraged by all the stories about how it’s becoming harder or less profitable than ever before.
Instead, focus on learning the tips, tricks, and strategies on Instagram marketing that we’re including in this article to accelerate your own earning potential.
How Much Money Can Someone Expect to Make on Instagram?
According to the same survey I referenced earlier:
“On average, influencers earn $2,970 per month with their Instagram account (micro-influencers 1K-10K earn $1,420 per month, mega influencers over 1M earn $15,356 per month).”
But be aware that this number also varies heavily depending on your niche.
Some niches, like business, fitness, and beauty, can be much easier to make money on Instagram than some other niches like travel.
It’s also important to remember that Instagram followers, engagement, and other factors matter as well.
But it’s clear that with the right strategies, you can absolutely learn how to make money on Instagram in 2024.
How Much Do the Top Influencers on Instagram Make?
So, I’ve already told you what some of the average numbers are. But you’re also probably wondering:
“What’s the limit? How much can you expect to make as a top earner on Instagram?”
According to this article, some of the highest earners on Instagram include
- Cristiano Ronaldo: $880,259 – $1M per post
- Kylie Jenner: $673,528 – $1M per post
- Leo Messi: $651,957 – $1M per post
- Selena Gomez: $636,320 – $1M per post
- Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson: $628,429 – $1M per post
While these are some of – if not THE – biggest influencers in the world, with millions of Instagram followers — it is still interesting to see what the upper limits are when it comes to how much you can earn on a platform like Instagram.
But enough about these folks, let’s talk about how you, an average joe as an influencer or with a business can start making some money with Instagram.
The Difference Between Making Money on Instagram as a Brand/Business vs. Influencer/Creator
The ways you can earn money on Instagram depend on whether you are a brand or an influencer.
While both brands and influencers have access to many of the same tools, such as sponsored posts, ads, and setting up an Instagram shop, there are some key differences between them when it comes to earning money from their account.
Brands typically earn more revenue through direct sales while influencers often make more money through partnerships with companies or sponsorships for their content.
Additionally, brands may need additional resources like professional photographers or videographers whereas influencers usually rely solely on themselves for creating content.
For example, this post from Laura Beverlin (@laurabeverlin) features Target [affiliate] products:
Knowing how each type of user makes money on Instagram can help ensure that you’re using the right strategies for your business goals.
One of the best things that you can do is to find someone who has an account and uses Instagram marketing in a way that you would want to and see what they are promoting and how they might be making money.
How to Grow a Following on Instagram
Before we can talk about how to make money monetizing your Instagram, let’s first talk about some tips and tricks for how you can grow your audience to your first 1,000 followers and beyond.
How many Instagram followers you have does matter, but it’s also so much more about how you connect and engage with the followers that you do have.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, there are a few strategies you can use to build your following and boost engagement over time.
One of the most important things to remember when growing your following is consistency.
Consistency
Posting regularly and staying active on Instagram will help you build trust with your followers and set yourself apart as an expert in your niche.
For instance, you can try to focus on a specific type of content that resonates well with your audience, like reels or stories, which tend to get better engagement than photo posts.
Example: this reel from @healthyambitions.co
Instagram stories, in particular, also give you a unique opportunity to get deeper with your audience and show them what’s going on in real time.
You may also want to experiment with different posting times throughout the day so that you reach more people at different times.
Engagement and Collaboration
Be sure to engage with others in your niche (especially those who have larger followings) by liking their posts and leaving comments. This can help boost both your engagement and organic follower growth.
One of the most effective and proven methods for quick growth is influencer marketing.
By partnering with influencers in your niche, you can tap into their larger networks and get your content in front of a much larger audience.
This strategy has been proven time and time again to be one of the most successful ways to rapidly increase followers on Instagram.
Giveaways and Contests
Another great way to boost your follower count is by running giveaways or contests on your page.
Not only will this help drive engagement, but it also encourages people to follow you and share your content with others – both of which are great for boosting organic growth.
Many giveaways and contests are done in partnership with other, similar accounts (or even friends) and require Instagram users to follow all accounts to participate. This is a great way to increase your audience and get exposure from other accounts in your niche.
Your Identity and Strategy
It’s also important to create a clear identity on Instagram that reflects who you are as an individual, business, or personal brand. People tend to be more likely to follow someone who has a recognizable and consistent aesthetic that speaks directly to them.
You’ll want to develop a content strategy that resonates with your target audience and helps automate your posting process.
And once you’ve done all of these things, you’ll be well-positioned to start making money on Instagram in a number of different ways.
Whether you’re an influencer or a brand, knowing how to monetize your account and grow your following is essential for success on this popular social media platform. By following the tips above, you can quickly and effectively build a large, engaged following that will help you monetize your account with ease.
How to Make Money on Instagram as a Business or Brand
Before ever thinking about making money on Instagram as a business, you should first build out a foundation for your Instagram marketing strategy.
Make sure you fill out your Instagram bio and profile in its entirety and make sure to use a consistent style and look. This will make you more recognizable, so when people find your profile, they’ll know who it is that’s posting.
At the start, make sure to put in effort to network with other similar businesses or influencers on the platform. Follow their profiles and engage with them (make sure your comments are meaningful and not “spammy” – nobody likes that), so that you can both help one another out as well as gain followers from doing so.
Once you start posting and have some consistency in your branding, it’s time to build an engaged follower base on your account. This means:
- posting consistently,
- sharing high-quality content that resonates with your target audience,
- and working on building relationships with other relevant accounts.
This is what we just talked about in the previous section.
As you start working on your strategy, you can start monitoring your analytics to find out what really resonates with your followers and what doesn’t.
Remember that in order to access any kind of analytics, you will need an Instagram business account (you can switch to a business account at any time).
Now let’s talk about some of the specific ways you can take this information and turn it into more money for your business.
Giveaways
One of the most common ways business accounts will make money on Instagram is through giveaways.
For example, this apparel giveaway from @thatshredlife:
This might seem counterintuitive at first, but by offering followers an incentive to share your products or services, you can actually generate more interest in a way that feels organic and genuine.
For example, if your business sells beauty or skincare products, you could offer free samples to your followers along with a contest where they have to post a picture of their results (using your hashtags) to be entered into the giveaway.
Giveaways help build brand awareness and excitement around what you’re selling while also helping you earn more exposure for your business on Instagram.
Promotions
Another way you can generate more revenue from your Instagram account is through promotions and discounts.
This works a lot like a giveaway except you aren’t usually giving something away entirely for free, but more at a discounted rate.
For example, if you’re a restaurant or food business, you could offer followers a discount code for their next order after they’ve spent a certain amount.
This helps increase sales by giving customers an incentive to come back and spend more with your brand, which means making more money for your business in the long run.
Product Videos
Another way you can earn money on Instagram as a business is through product videos. This works especially well if you sell physical products like clothing or cosmetics.
By creating short, fun videos that show your audience the benefits of your products and how they work, you can increase sales simply by showing them what they’re missing out on.
Like this reel from @honest (The Honest Company):
This can be done using tools like Canva or through the native Reels editor on Instagram, which makes it easy to create professional-looking imagery and video content quickly and easily.
You could also try partnering with influencers to share your products or even hiring a professional Instagrammer or videographer to take care of it for you.
Either way, this is a great way to make more money for your business and help generate more buzz around the products you’re selling.
Sponsored Posts
Another incredible way you can make money on Instagram is through sponsored posts and creating advertisements for other companies.
This works in a similar way to how many other social media platforms monetize their accounts, by partnering with brands who want to earn more exposure for their products and services.
By showing your audience the types of products or services they can expect from a certain brand, you can help increase visibility and awareness for their products.
This is especially effective if you’ve already built up your own engaged follower base, as this often means that the audience you have access to is more likely to be interested in the types of products or services you’re promoting.
Your earning potential with this method drastically increases with:
- the more knowledgeable you become about your audience,
- what exactly converts well with them,
- and how much experience you have with the product.
Set Up an Instagram Shop
You could also consider setting up an Instagram shop to earn money directly from your account. This works by linking to a dedicated online store that sells products directly from your Instagram account.
With an Instagram shop, your products will show up directly in the feeds of followers along with regular posts. (Talk about an impulse shopper’s dream).
This allows you to increase exposure for your products and earn more revenue in the process. Plus, it also gives your followers an easy way to access and purchase what you’re selling (win-win).
You can read more about setting up an Instagram shop here.
Running ads
Last but certainly not least, we have the tried and true (and sometimes very expensive) process of running ads.
This is traditionally a very common way to make money not just on Instagram, but across all social media accounts that have a somewhat mature algorithm.
It’s popular and expensive because it works. Running ads can be very effective at generating more revenue for your business by helping you reach a larger audience.
Social media platforms make the most of their money by charging companies to run ads on the platform that target a specific audience. So they are incentivized to make sure that when you spend money on ads, you convert well and make enough money to keep coming back.
Ads can take some work to learn, but once you’ve done it a few times, it becomes fairly easy to navigate. And the ability to earn more money by reaching more people on Instagram is definitely worth the effort, in our opinion.
The key to running successful ads is paying close attention to the analytics and learning how people are interacting with your ads, how and where they are converting, and what you can do to improve your ROI (return on investment).
A positive ROI simply means that you’re earning more money than you’re spending. Breaking even isn’t the worst thing because it means that you’re usually growing your Instagram followers and exposure in the process and for free.
But a negative ROI means that your ads aren’t profitable and it’s usually time to try something new to see if you can increase that ROI.
So that’s how to make money on Instagram as a business or brand. Now, let’s talk about how to do this as a creator or influencer.
How to Make Money on Instagram as a Creator or Influencer
As a creator, having an engaged audience on Instagram is one of the best ways to make money.
Whether you’re selling products or services, promoting affiliate links, or partnering with sponsors, connecting with your followers is the key to unlocking new revenue streams and growing your business.
Building a large following takes time and effort, and it’s not just about creating high-quality Instagram posts with the right hashtags and engaging captions.
It’s also about creating content that really resonates with your target audience — content that connects and that is relatable.
The key to making money on Instagram is to continue providing value for your followers so that they see you as an expert in whatever niche you’re working in but also in a way that makes them want to come back to YOU.
Instagram stories are a great way to accomplish both of these things and are a great way to continue to stay on the minds of your followers on a daily or weekly basis.
So, let’s talk about how you can monetize as an influencer.
Partner with Brands
One of the best ways to make money on Instagram as an influencer is by partnering with relevant brands for sponsored posts.
Here is an example post from Josh Kramer (@joshkrameryoga) with a partnership for @baseblocks (including his own personal coupon code):
Many brands are eager to partner with influencers who already have a large and engaged audience, as it allows them to reach new customers in a more targeted way.
To find brands that are a good fit for your account, look for companies in the same industry or with a similar target demographic.
Once you’ve found a few potential partners, reach out to them and let them know what you can offer as an influencer. For example, you might offer to post a photo on your feed that features one of their products.
With the right strategy and approach, you can make a good living as an influencer on Instagram – just be sure to stay true to your own brand and values, and don’t rush into any partnerships that don’t feel right.
One of the best ways to find these partnerships is to look for other influencers who have a similar number of followers as you and see who they are working with.
You’ll be more likely to find brands and companies willing to partner with you if you know that they are already doing it with others.
Short-Term Ads
Another way to make money on Instagram as an influencer is by running short-term ads, or “ads” for short.
Typically, these ads last just a few days or up to a week at the most, and may be used to promote exclusive deals or early access to new products.
To find paid Instagram ad opportunities, search for hashtags like “#sponsoredads” or “advertisements” in the Instagram app. You can also browse popular accounts and explore companies that are working with influencers to find relevant ads and opportunities.
You can also just run ads to affiliate programs or other products you are associated with to supplement your income. Just be sure you aren’t breaking any rules in place with the affiliate program you are in.
Keep in mind that running short-term ads can be a great way to boost your revenue quickly, but they can also be time-intensive and require regular engagement with your followers.
So if you’re looking for a more passive way to monetize on Instagram, there are other options available as well.
Create Your Own Product
One of the most lucrative ways to make money on Instagram as an influencer is by creating and selling your own products.
Whether you’re offering digital downloads like ebooks or online courses, physical products like t-shirts or jewelry, or even coaching services and membership programs, there are plenty of options for creators looking to expand their revenue streams.
Like Natalie, who sells her coaching services and membership program through her Instagram account: @nataliebaconcoaching.
To get started, you’ll need to build up a following and an engaged audience. Once you have that, set up your own online shop or partner with an eCommerce platform (like Kajabi or Clickfunnels) to start selling your products.
This is a great way to boost your earning potential because if you create your own product you get to keep 100% of the profits. And with tools like Shopify or other eCommerce platforms, it’s easier than ever to set up and manage your own online shop.
So if you’re looking for a rewarding and profitable way to make money on Instagram as an influencer, consider creating and selling your own product.
Collaborate with Other Users
You can also explore influencer marketing opportunities by leveraging contacts in related industries who may be interested in collaborating on sponsored posts.
This might involve working with other influencers, brands, or even individuals to create a variety of sponsored posts.
To find potential collaborations, start by searching for relevant hashtags and accounts in your niche. You can also browse popular accounts and explore companies that are working with influencers to find relevant products or opportunities.
And when it comes to setting up collaborations, be sure to get clear on all the details and terms before you start posting.
Consider factors such as how long the campaign will run, what kind of content is involved, who else will be promoting it, and what the compensation will be.
Something like this can work especially well if you know of other creators with their own products and you can both promote each other’s products in order to make more affiliate income.
Final Thoughts on How to Make Money on Instagram in 2024
Making money on Instagram is a great way to take your influence and turn it into a profitable business. Whether you’re creating ads, selling products, or collaborating with other users, there are plenty of ways to make money as an influencer.
The key is to find the strategies that work best for you and your audience and then put in the effort to build up your following and create content that resonates with them.
With hard work and dedication, you can become a successful influencer who earns good money from your Instagram account!
So don’t be afraid to reach out for help when needed – there are plenty of resources available online that can help guide you through the process of monetizing your influence on social media.