Instagram is a massive social media platform that has grown from sharing pretty pictures to being a platform for many successful businesses. But you probably already know that, which is why you’re here—to learn how to make money from Instagram.
You’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll discuss 6 different ways you can make money from Instagram.
Here are 6 ways to make money from Instagram.
One of the most common ways to make money on Instagram is with a brand partnership or sponsored posts. We put these in the same category because a few successful sponsored posts can become a brand partnership.
How do sponsored posts or brand partnerships work?
Sponsored Posts: A sponsored post is when you create an Instagram post about a product and tag the company. There are usually specific hashtags they’ll ask you to use. In the post, you’ll give your (positive) thoughts on the product. This is called a sponsored post because the company pays you to make this post—it's a form of marketing for the company.
For successful sponsored posts, you must accept products relevant to your brand and audience. For example, if you’re a beauty influencer, talking about food or dog toys won’t succeed like a new lipstick or lotion.
An important note is that while some companies will contact you, you can also be proactive and reach out to companies you’d love to work with. The worst they can say is “no.”
Brand Partnerships: Brand partnerships are continuous collaborations. They could involve creating a series of posts, using your image for ads, or even creating a new product with your name attached. Like with sponsored posts, these partnerships should be relevant to your brand.
Brand partnerships are excellent for creating a consistent income flow. However, they come with more responsibilities than a one-off sponsored post. Ensure you research the brand you’re considering partnering with and carefully examine their contract.
Affiliate marketing may seem similar to a brand partnership, but it’s different. While you may work with one company consistently, you get paid on commission—not per post. Being an affiliate marketer on Instagram can be lucrative if your audience trusts your judgment and is willing to buy your recommended products.
You’ll earn a commission each time someone buys a product using your link or a promo code. The commission is some percentage of the product’s sale, and your influence will affect your commission rate.
If you have a dedicated audience, you can sell merch! The merch you sell should be relevant to your brand and eye-catching enough that people will want to buy it. The easiest type of merch is putting your logo onto some t-shirts.
If you’re worried about tracking inventory, try the dropshipping method to sell your merch. Dropshipping is when you work with a print-on-demand company that will print your image on various products like shirts, mugs, and pillows. They’ll only print and ship something when ordered, so you don’t have to worry about inventory.
Once you’ve created some merch, you can enable Instagram Shopping to sell these products directly to your audience through Instagram.
Another way to make money from Instagram is through badges, also known as Live Badges. These badges appear as a heart icon next to a user’s name during a creator’s livestream. If you livestream, your audience can pay you directly through these badges.
Badges can come in amounts of $0.99 to $4.99. People can spend up to $250 on Badges during a single livestream.
You can encourage your audience to buy badges by shouting out those who buy them during your stream. Everyone likes hearing their name get called out by their favorite creator. Also, if an audience member buys a badge and asks you a question, their question will be highlighted to you. So, during Q&As, tell people that if they want their question answered, they should buy a badge.
To use these badges, you must go to your profile and then to the Professional Dashboard. There, you should see Grow Your Business, and then you can click Badges. When you go Live, tap the Badges icon on the left side of the screen to turn them on.
To be eligible for badges in the US, you need:
To be compliant with Instagram’s Partner Monetization Policies and Community Guidelines
To be 18 or older
Have over 10,000 followers
Currently, creators from other countries can only use Live Badges on an invite-only basis.
Did you know Instagram offers subscriptions? It’s true; you can set up an audience subscription service if you are eligible. Eligible users must have over 10,000 followers and be over 18. They must also follow the Partner Monetization Policies, Community Guidelines, and Content Monetization Policies.
You can enable subscriptions in your Professional Dashboard by clicking Set Up Subscriptions. From there, you can set a monthly price—Instagram offers monthly price settings of $0.99, $1.99, $2.99, $4.99, $9.99, $19.99, $49.99, and $99.99.
It’s time to make your audience’s subscription purchase worthwhile. To do this, you can offer exclusive content like livestreams, videos, and chats.
You can also highlight the perks of being a subscriber, like getting a special purple badge next to the subscriber’s name—making them stand out from the crowd. They’ll also get closer to you through exclusive content.
If your Instagram account doesn’t have over 10,000 followers, don’t worry. You can still offer subscriptions—just not through Instagram. Instead, you can try a third-party tool like Patreon. Then you can then advertise your subscription service on your Instagram account to encourage people to join.
If you’ve had much success with Instagram Reels, you’ll probably want to know how to make money using Instagram Reels. You can make money by enabling ads on them. This is a win-win for advertisers and creators because people can be paid to have ads play on their Reels, and advertisers can reach more people.
Your income depends on how many plays your reels get, so you must have a successful track record of reel engagement. However, there are exceptions; according to Instagram, your reel isn’t eligible for monetization if your reel:
Includes licensed music
Is branded content
Is in a language that the bonus program does not support
Is boosted
Is shared in collaboration with another creator
Is watermarked with a third-party platform’s mark, name, or logo
Is permanently deleted
Is not advertiser-friendly
To be eligible for ads, you must comply with the following:
Be 18 or older
Be compliant with Instagram’s Partner Monetization Policies
Be in the United States, Japan, South Korea or Canada
Have a professional account on Instagram
To set up ads on Reels, go to your Business Info page. If you don’t already have a profile, you must create one. If you have a profile, click Existing Account and then Next.
From there, follow the instructions to set up or choose a paying account and click Monetize with Ads On Reels.
If you ever want to stop ads, follow these steps and click the monetization off instead of on.
There’s no real answer for when you can start making money from Instagram. On one hand, many of Instagram’s creator initiatives require 10,000 followers, which can take a long time to build, of course you can also buy real instagram followers. On the other hand, plenty of micro-influencers with fewer followers do fine without Instagram initiatives
It honestly depends on the dedication of the audience you build and how you grow from that dedication.
To make money with Instagram, you must focus on growing your audience. This can mean creating a posting schedule, focusing on a specific niche, or showing off your creativity through different types of content.
As you build your audience, you want to encourage engagement and loyalty. This can be done through audience interaction. The more you engage with your audience, the more your audience will engage with you.
With more account engagement, your account is more likely to get views from outside your audience, increasing your chance of getting new followers.
Once you’ve established your audience, you can try one of the methods we discussed above.
If you need more tips for growing your Instagram account, we have a blog full of helpful information.
Need help building your audience? Superviral is here for you! Partnering with us can boost your comments, Increase Instagram likes, and add followers. You can then focus on how to make money on Instagram regularly.
Partner with Superviral today to learn how we can help grow your account!