However, keep in mind that buying followers is against Instagram's terms of service, so the price you pay could be more than monetary. Buying followers could cost you your Instagram account, at worst, and a decrease in engagement and reach, at best.
Instagram actively discourages people buying followers. Not only will they purge the fake followers, but they also reserve the right to suspend accounts that become involved in this practice. It definitely will be poor for the credibility of your account if you are suspended for engaging in dodgy practices.
4 reasons NOT to buy Instagram followers
That means they regularly purge fake accounts, and crack down on users who purchase them. If they notice suspicious account activity, they could suspend your account or even delete it permanently.
If you buy fake likes but have no comments or other follower activity, the algorithm can easily detect the mismatch in metrics. Over time, buying fake likes can backfire and work against the algorithm, making your content less visible to relevant audiences.
Third, consider the long-term effects of buying followers. It's important to remember that fake accounts can be deleted at any time, which means that you could lose all of your followers overnight. In addition, buying followers can boost your business in the short term, but it's not a sustainable marketing strategy.
If you're very hands-off with your account, you might not notice for quite a while. When it comes to buying fake followers, it's generally the fake accounts you're most likely to see. They might look fine at a glance, but they're generally easy to spot.
Automation Services or Buying Followers
Using an automation service or purchasing followers not only violates Instagram's Terms of Use but also may exceed the engagement limits. Instagram will likely shadowban you if they suspect you are using one of these services or violating their engagement limits.
Micro-influencers (accounts with one thousand to ten thousand followers earn on average $1,420 per month, and mega-influencers (accounts with over one million followers) earn about $15,356 per month.
Fake Followers will Harm your Influencer Credibility
If your followers start to notice that your account looks unusual in a number of different ways, they'll naturally start questioning your authenticity and your worth as an influencer. The same issue also applies to brand accounts.
Twitter removes about 10 bot accounts per second, or more than 310 million per year. Instagram has an estimated 95 million fake accounts. With a total user base of around 1 billion, that means roughly 1 in 10 Instagram accounts are fake.
They make regular posts about that topic on their preferred social media channels and generate large followings of enthusiastic, engaged people who pay close attention to their views. Brands love social media influencers because they can create trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote.
For instance, less famous influencers with up to 10k followers may set their rates at $25-$50 per post, an established one with 30-80k followers may charge $ 150 or $350 a post, while a celebrity with over 100k followers can charge between $1000 and $500,000 a post. They use other factors when setting these figures.
How much money does 1 million Instagram followers make? An influencer with 1 million Instagram followers will make $10,000 per post. If you are an influencer with more than 1 million followers, you can charge anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 per post or campaign.
According to Instagram Community guidelines, buying fake followers is officially banned and is considered fraudulent. The platform can punish your account permanently without the possibility of recovery.
One of the most prevalent issues that have arisen with influencers is the trend of follower fraud. Data collected by Statista concluded that in 2021, approximately 49% of Instagram influencers participated in follower fraud.
How Often Should You Post on Instagram. It's recommended to post 3 stories a day evenly spaced out around popular viewing times for your target audience.
Brands can identify fake followers by looking out for: extreme engagement rates (very high or very low), spam comments and an uneven number of follower to following ratio. They can also use free tools to analyze influencer profiles and reveal the level of audience authenticity – but more on that later.
10,000–50,000 followers = Micro-influencer. 50,000–500,000 followers = Mid-tier influencer. 500,000–1,000,000 followers = Macro-influencer. 1,000,000+ followers = Mega-influencers.
Like-to-Comment Ratio
Brands have gotten better at spotting fake followers, usually by calculating a celebrity's engagement rates. So some celebrities have adjusted: not only are they buying followers, they're also buying likes to make sure their engagement rate looks high at first glance.