How to
Make Money on Instagram in 2022 (14 Proven Strategies)
Can you make money on Instagram?
Hell yeah. In
fact, helping creators make a living on the platform is a top priority for
Instagram, especially as competition heats up from TikTok, Snapchat, and
YouTube.
“Our
goal is to be the best platform for creators like you to make a living,” said
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the company’s first-ever Creator Week in June 2021.
In
2021, Instagram was the second-most downloaded
app in the world. It’s the 7th most-visited
website globally, the 4th most-used social
media platform, and has 1.22 billion users every
month. All of which is to say: that’s a massive potential audience. With an
enormous and diverse pool of people who could potentially be exposed to your
content, there are plenty of opportunities to earn money.
Want
more proof? Grab the popcorn from Hootsuite Labs.
How much money can you make on Instagram?
Numbers
are tricky, because creators and brands are notoriously private about how much
money they’re making. On top of that, calculating income from Instagram is
complicated—if you sing a song on a Reel, the sound goes viral and you get a
record deal from that internet fame, then tens of thousands of people buy
tickets to your concert, does that count as making money on Instagram? What if
you post food videos, then provide a link to your recipe blog, and host ads on
your blog that make you money?
It
sounds bizarre, but that’s the way most successful creators’ journeys go. How
much money you can make on Instagram depends on your credentials, audience
size, engagement, strategy, hustle, and a dash of dumb luck.
Here’s
how much some creators and celebs have reportedly cashed in:
$901: The
average amount of money an Instagram influencer with 1,000 to 10,000 followers
can make per post, according to Business
Insider
$100 to $1,500: How much a
creator can be paid for a swipe-up advertisement on their
Instagram stories according to Brian Hanly, CEO of Bullish Studio (a talent
agency for influencers)
$983,100: The
amount Kylie Jenner reportedly
makes per ad or sponsored content post
$1,604,000: The
amount Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly
makes per post
In
2021, Hype
Auditor surveyed almost 2 thousand influencers (most based in
the U.S.) about how much money they make. Here’s what they found:
·
The average influencer
makes $2,970
per month. “Average” numbers aren’t the best to go by, since
there’s so much differentiation between the highs and lows—as is referenced in
the next stat!
·
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.
Top 5 Instagram Earners in 2022
Obviously,
celebrities have a leg up in notoriety, and when they sign up for Instagram
they automatically get thousands of followers. Although that is not the same
for all of us, it’s inspiring to see just how much someone can
make through being an influencer on a social media platform. Here are the top 5
earners on Instagram today:
1.
Cristiano Ronaldo –
475 million followers with an estimated average price per post of $1,604,000
2.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’
Johnson – 334 million followers with an estimated average price
per post of $1,523,000
3.
Ariana Grande –
328 million followers with an estimated average price per post of $1,510,000
4.
Kylie Jenner –
365 million followers with an estimated average price per post of $1,494,000
5.
Selena Gomez –
341 million followers with an estimated average price per post of $1,468,000
How to make money on Instagram as
a business
Being
present, active, and engaging on Instagram (and keeping up with trends)
is one of the best
ways to find business success on the platform in 2022. Here’s how to
do it.
1. Promote special offers
The
online audience is a sucker for a good deal (and Instagram users love to buy
stuff: 44% of
Instagrammers say they use the app to shop weekly).
Use
Instagram to showcase all the great things about your company—specifically,
anytime you’re having a sale. Not only does posting your sale, promo code, or
special offer on Instagram advertise a sale to your followers, but it also
makes the information easily shareable.
This
holiday sale post from clothing brand @smashtess has lots of comments that are
just people tagging their friends. It’s an awesome way to promote the sale and
also have the sale shared organically.
2. Set up countdowns to new launches
You
can use Instagram to give your followers a sneak peek of new releases,
launches, or product lines—and using the “Countdown” or “Reminder”
functions, you can provide potential customers with a simple way to flag when
those new products will be available for sale. This creates some hype around
your offer, and once the release happens, users get a notification reminding
them to check out the goods (and, hopefully, check out the goods).
3. Set up an Instagram Shop
Instagram
Shops are a direct method of making money off of the app. Users
can buy products using the platform’s native e-commerce tools, and it’s easy to set up a shop.
Instagram
shops are an impulse buyer’s best friend (or worst nightmare, depending on how
you look at it). Your shoppable products or services will show up in your
followers’ news feeds, along with regular posts.
Hosting
an Instagram shop is also a great way to provide quick customer service to
folks who use social media (basically everyone—75% of
the global population over the age of 13). Customers can DM you or
comment on posts to learn more about your brand. (Hint: if you’re feeling
overwhelmed in your DMs, consider using a chatbot to
support your customer service team.)
When
you post something with a buyable item, the little shop icon will appear on the
post, letting viewers know that it’s available for purchase.
Home
goods store @the.modern.shop uses
shoppable tags in many of their posts.
4. Schedule shoppable Instagram posts with Hootsuite
You
can create and schedule or auto-publish shoppable Instagram photos, videos, and
carousel posts alongside all your other social media content using Hootsuite.
To
tag a product in an Instagram post in Hootsuite, follow these steps:
1.
Open your Hootsuite dashboard and go to Composer.
2.
Under Publish
to, select an Instagram Business profile.
3.
Upload your media (up to 10 images or videos) and type out your caption.
4.
In the preview on the right, select Tag products. The
tagging process is slightly different for videos and images:
·
Images: Select a spot in
the image, and then search for and select an item in your product catalog.
Repeat for up to 5 tags in the same image. Select Done when you’re finished tagging.
·
Videos: A catalog search
appears right away. Search for and select all the products you want to tag in
the video.
5.
Select Post
now or Schedule for later.
If you decide to schedule your post, you will see suggestions for the best
times to publish your content for maximum engagement.
And
that’s it! Your shoppable post will show up in the Hootsuite Planner, alongside
all of your other scheduled content.
You
can also boost your existing shoppable posts directly from Hootsuite to help
more people discover your products.
Note: You’ll
need an Instagram Business account and an Instagram shop to take advantage of
product tagging in Hootsuite.
5. Set up a chatbot
An
easy way to provide excellent customer service and make sales through
direct messages is to set up an Instagram chatbot.
A chatbot is integrated directly into your Instagram account and website and
can answer any frequently asked questions from your followers. If the question
is too complicated for the conversational AI chatbot, then it will
automatically pass the inquiry to a real live member of your team.
And
how can a chatbot help you earn on Instagram? Simple!
An
Instagram chatbot can recommend products in your shop, directly to your
customers within the chat, leading to faster and more streamlined sales.
If
a customer inquires about what color foundation you have in stock, the chatbot
can serve up three different options that the user can quickly add to their
cart without ever leaving the platform.
Source: Heyday
6. Partner with creators
Influencer marketing allows
you to share your company with the creator’s audience (and the creator also
gets a spotlight for your audience—it’s a win-win).
When
you’re researching folks to collaborate with, make sure you pay attention to
their content and values: you want to pick someone who has goals that align
with your own, so the partnership makes sense to customers and doesn’t seem
like some oddball marketing scheme.
For
example, it makes sense for a plant-based bakery to partner with a vegan
influencer (more sense than Bill
Nye partnering with Coca-Cola, that’s for sure).
Try
to collaborate with creators who would be likely to try and/or like your
products, anyway—for example, dancer @maddieziegler has
long had a partnership with activewear brand @fabletics. You can offer the creator money,
goods, or an affiliate deal (more info on that in the “Join an affiliate
program” section of this post, just above!) in exchange for posting about your
company.
7. Partner with other businesses
Like
partnering with creators, partnerships with other businesses give folks on both
sides of the deal an opportunity to interact with a wider consumer base. Try
contacting other businesses like yours and hosting a contest or giveaway—it’s
an excellent way to gain followers and tap into a new audience.
This
giveaway from @chosenfoods and @barebonesbroth requires
entrants to like and save the post, follow both companies, and tag a friend in
the comments. Both brands are building their audience—followers just waiting to
be converted into consumers.
8. Straight-up advertise
Hey,
the basics still work. Advertising
on Instagram is one of the ways you can make money on the
platform and actually track your progress. You can turn any post into an ad by boosting it,
and your Instagram
analytics will tell you how much of a difference the boost
made.
How to make money on Instagram as a creator
Even
if you don’t have a “business” in the conventional sense, there are lots of
ways you can use Instagram to make money as an individual. With a solid
following and clear niche, you have influence—and can be an
influencer.
1. Partner with brands
Partnering
with brands is likely the most well-known way that creators can make money on
Instagram. Find a small or big brand that aligns with your values (that part is
important—partnering with a brand that has nothing to do with your regular
content, or even directly contradicts your regular content, will make you seem
inauthentic).
Partnerships
with brands can take many forms: you might be paid to make an Instagram post
that features a specific product or be offered free products in exchange for
content. To get started, try making a few posts that feature some of your
favorite things—restaurants, skincare, whatever feels true to you—for free. You
can then point to those posts as examples when you’re reaching out to brands.
Lots
of makeup and beauty influencers participate in these kinds of brand deals.
Here’s an example of a paid partnership post from creator @mexicanbutjapanese for
Nordstrom.
Hint:
when you’re participating in a paid partnership or sponsored post, be
transparent. Use hashtags, mark the post as sponsored, and be clear about the
partnership in your captions. Not following Instagram’s branded content
guidelines can result in posts being removed—plus, it’s
sketchy.
2. Join an affiliate program
This
is related to brand partnerships, as joining an affiliate program still
requires you to connect yourself to a business that sells specific products or
experiences. Affiliate programs essentially pay you to market other people’s
products (so again, you want to make sure that the products you’re highlighting
align with your values). If your followers buy something from the brand through
you—usually using a specific link or discount code—you get paid.
This
nail artist is an affiliate marketer for a nail polish
brand—when followers use her discount code to buy the nail polish, the creator
makes money.
3. Enable Live Badges
For
creators in the U.S., Instagram’s Live Badges is
a method of making money directly through the app. During a live video, viewers
can purchase the badges (which cost between $0.99 and $4.99) to show their
support.
To
turn on Live Badges, go to your Profile and tap Professional Dashboard.
Then, enable monetization. Once you’ve been approved, you’ll see a button
called Set
Up Badges. Tap that, and you’re good to go!
If
you’ve enabled Live Badges, make sure to mention it when you go live (remind
your followers that if they’d like to show their support with money, it’s easy
to do so!) and express gratitude when someone purchases a badge. Saying thank
you goes a long way, and will likely encourage other people to pitch in.
4. Sell your merch
Using
Instagram as a marketing tool for your other revenue streams is a great
strategy for moneymaking. If you’ve curated your personal brand enough to have
a certain look, logo, catchphrase, or anything else that’s recognizably you,
consider selling merch that’s splashed with that extra sparkle (you’re brand).
You can make money from sales—plus score some free advertising when your
followers start walking around with your name on their sweatpants.
Drag
queen extraordinaire Trixie Mattel sells branded merch and uses Instagram as a
platform to advertise.
5. Link to your blog or vlog
Selling
advertising space on your own website—or making money from Youtube—can be super
lucrative, and you can use Instagram to direct your followers to that external
site (hint: use a link tree to
make the most of that link in your Instagram bio).
Here
are some quick examples:
·
Foodies who post pictures
of food they’ve made and also have a blog where they post full recipes
·
YouTubers who post
highlights of their vlog on Reels, then provide a link to their Youtube channel
for the full video
·
Fashion influencers who
post their outfits on Instagram and link to their website, where they share
where the clothes came from
·
Outdoor adventurers who
post gorgeous landscapes and link to their blog where they detail the best road
trip routes
Food blogger @shahid___bugti posts videos of her making food on her blog, and links to
in-depth recipes in her bio. The recipes live on her blog, which also hosts posts that contain
affiliate links.
6. Offer paid tutorials or
masterclasses
This
is similar to linking to a blog or vlog, but instead of making income
indirectly (through businesses advertising on your page or Youtube ads), your
followers are directly paying you for a service you’re providing.
If
you have a particular area of expertise, you could offer an online masterclass
that requires a paid ticket. This method of moneymaking is common for fitness
influencers, who may post short workouts for free and then link to a full
training routine that you need to pay to access.
Film
colorist @theqazman offers
quick tips on Instagram, but also hosts ticketed
masterclasses. This way, his content still appeals to a wide
(non-paying) audience, but folks who are serious about learning the ropes will
pay him for a full lesson.
You can also offer tutorials or masterclasses for free and simply ask followers
to tip you if they have the means—that’s the method athlete @iamlshauntay uses.
Her link in bio directs followers to ways they can pay her for her work if
they’re able to. This is a good technique to use if you’re looking for maximum
accessibility: there’s no financial barrier to your content, but there’s still
a clear way for your audience to pay you if they want to.
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