Instagram monetization is one of the prominent methods of earning cash online. The Instagram platform has grown tremendously over the years to create diverse means of earning money on it. Thankfully, there is never a wrong time to monetize your Instagram account and if you haven’t, now’s the time for you to do so.
With the platform’s large and diverse global audience, it’s only fair to say that there is a niche market out there for just about anyone. Irrespective of the content you create, you are bound to attract a sizeable amount of audience for yourself.
Although it is a platform designed to share photos and videos, with the right approach, you can monetize Instagram. But before we talk about the different ways you can monetize Instagram, let’s look at what you’ll need to achieve that.
In this article, I will be discussing the prospects that Instagram monetization offers and how it works. We will also discuss how creators on the platform can leverage different Instagram monetization techniques to make money.
Instagram Monetization
The term Instagram monetization is simply the process creators take in making money out of their Instagram account. Content creators often make money by engaging their loyal fan-following to promote brands as well as sell their own products.
Just like every other online business model, there is nothing simple or easy about earning on Instagram. It requires more than the fancy Instagram handle, quirky descriptions as well as posting photos to earn money through the platform. It borders more on hard work, dedication, patience, and the ability to convince your followers enough to sway their purchasing decision.
Keep in mind that the Instagram platform does not pay its users, but in 2020, Instagram announced that they would start sharing revenue with creators on IGTV ads. Other than this, creators earn through various means which we will highlight later. To give an insight, brands regularly reach out to worthy creators to partner with, and many creators often actively hunt for such partnerships.
Requirements for Instagram Monetization
It’s possible to earn money on Instagram with as few as 1000 followers which is why brands rarely use that as a metric for partnership. Oftentimes, they rely on much more detailed metrics to measure creators worth to their business. These metrics include:
Fan-Base and Influence
For a creator on Instagram to have successful monetization returns, you need to understand why brands will pay you and what exactly they are paying you for. The basis of any partnership on Instagram is for a brand or business to gain exposure and access to your audience. The aim of these is simply to sell their products to your audience.
This means as much as the number of followers isn’t top on the criteria list, it still plays an important role. A business looking to sell its products will have to know that it is getting a sizeable chunk of the target market by partnering with you. Low followers could translate to the inability of the creator to drive sales for a brand’s products. As such, content creators that wish to monetize their Instagram accounts will have to grow their reach. And this should be done organically, to at least a few thousand to be able to have an impact.
Next up is influence. This is simply the amount of control a creator on Instagram has over his or her followers. Since you need the influence to generate sales, creators must be able to design and share compelling content. The contents shared must be powerful enough to sway the decision-making process involved in the purchase. Hence a large portion of your followers should be able to make decisions based on your product recommendations.
It’s important to measure the performance of your Instagram account using a third-party analytics tool. Such tools can help creators improve on their growth process as well as provide information on best practices. Content creators can easily identify top-performing content and use that information to develop future content. In the end, they are able to further increase their followers, reach as well as influence.
Dedicated and Engaged Followers
Creating an appreciable fan base gives content creators an increased chance of appearing in the feeds of more audiences. But that becomes seemingly useless if such an audience doesn’t engage with your content. Therefore asides from an increase in followers, content creators must strive to increase engagement. And the fastest way is to create valuable contents that solve certain needs for the audience.
Thankfully, engagement is easy to measure. A quick glance at the statistics of audience liking, commenting, and sharing posts will be sufficient. Businesses are always on the lookout for creators that engage their audience regularly as this means audiences are active. And an active audience means one that is more likely to purchase or perform a conversion.
When Should I Monetize My Instagram?
Content creators on Instagram can monetize their accounts as soon as they attain the minimum requirement of 1000 followers. The most important factor is to have an impressive high engagement rate.
Accounts with at least a thousand followers are often effective in partnering with localized businesses or start-ups. Such account owners are referred to as Nano-influencers and often command lesser fees. As your followers and engagement increase, you become more valuable and attractive to bigger brands that can pay you the big buck you so desire.
One best practice is to apply Instagram monetization as soon as engagement rate and follower count fit in with your posts and niche’s quality. This is because brands now focus more on how engaged their audience is and how much influence they have over their purchasing decisions.
Simply prove to them that as an expert in their niche or a related one, you can help create brand awareness and boost conversions.
How to Monetize Videos on Instagram?
Now that we’ve learned all about Instagram monetization, it’s time to see some of the few ways it can be achieved. Thankfully, the platform provides a wide array of opportunities for content creators to earn from.
Here is a list of some of the best means of monetization on Instagram for both pictures and videos:
- Sponsored Posts or Shout-outs
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Advertising
- Product Placement Videos
- Integrate Instagram shop to your online store
- Earn with IGTV ads
- Earn tips with Live Badges on Instagram
- Sell on Instagram Live Shopping
- Reviewing products or services in the videos
- Creating how-to videos about products or services
- Running video ads to drive traffic to your website to generate sales
How It Works
We’ve mentioned some of the few ways monetization works on Instagram. Irrespective of the method adopted, your aim is to promote products and services so as to increase sales either for others or for yourself.
The platform provides several avenues to perform these promotions. Content creators can use posts, Stories, Reels, or IGTV videos for promotional purposes.
If you decide to promote brands and businesses other than yourself, the terms of the agreement have to be agreed upon mutually. Most content creators prefer to be rewarded in outright agreement fees while others favor commission-based payments.
After an agreement is reached, creators produce contents that are promotional for the said brands. These contents are geared towards driving sales by recommending such brands or their products to followers.
Tips on How to Make Money with Instagram Monetization
Here are a few tips to help you make the most of any monetization method you decide to utilize:
Create Concise Bio
A profile bio is a valuable and powerful section that content creators can use to leverage new visitors. Irrespective of whether you’re a business or an individual trying to monetize Instagram, keeping your bio as precise as possible is crucial.
Bios are more or less a brief, catchy, and visually appealing description of you. When writing a bio, it’s important to apply creativity and include the values you intend to add to potential partners. Another thing is to state clearly what exactly you do so as to remove confusion.
Remember, when it comes to a bio, keep it simple, crisp, and brief. Also don’t include unnecessary details that can clog up your bio.
Create Quality Content
This is one of the most important decisions you can take as a content creator with monetization on Instagram. As with other social media platforms, you are most likely not the only content creator in your niche. This means competition is high and everyone is jostling for the attention of the same target audience.
One way to edge out this competition is to create quality, useful and unique content. Ensure to always use high-quality images and never repeat product pitches. Originality and authenticity are two attributes that can help your content quality greatly.
Simply offer much more genuine and actual experience-based promotional content. This way audience can relate to your content more and drive up engagements. Most recently, video content in the form of Stories and IGTV can help you stand out. They have also proven useful in attracting an audience and increasing engagement.
Find Suitable and Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to improve the discoverability and reach of your promotional content. Thankfully, the platform allows content creators to use a maximum of 30 hashtags; I will recommend a number around 10. Asides from the numbers, it’s important on using concise and relevant hashtags with your content for maximum effect.
If your worry is about getting the right hashtags, you can leverage third-party tools to help you get started. These tools will sift through the platform and based on your niche, provide you a list of popular hashtags relevant to your niche. A popular example is the HashtagsForLikes tool.
Keep in mind to never make use of any random hashtags as your content might get drowned or lost. Content creators should try as much as possible to match hashtags to each post. This in turn will help generate the right audience for conversion by maximizing reach. Feel free to get creative and witty with your hashtags, as well.
Be Consistent
As with all social media earnings, consistency is an important attribute for success. If you intend to make enough money through Instagram monetization, then you have to be regular. Irregularities in posting or interacting with your followers will most likely kill your business before it even starts off.
Studies by Tailwind have shown that there is a positive correlation between the frequency of posting and engagements rates. Not only that, the more fresh content you have on your page, the more likely you are to grow your audience a faster.
One way content creators can keep up consistency is to create a fixed posting schedule. Preferable a schedule in synch with the times your audiences are most likely to be online.
Also, it makes little progress for you if you don’t interact with your audience. Take time to respond to comments, questions, and even like audience comments. That helps to build up engagement as well as trust.
It’s a simple process of logic; to nurture any relationship, you need to interact with one another on a regular basis. The same principle applies to your monetization process on Instagram.
Network with Other Content Creators
Many will consider this as being too close to potential competitors. In actuality, you stand to gain immensely from building relationships with other creators in your niche. Every other method listed above will get you as far as possible but learning directly from your competition gets your farther.
Building such relations could translate to extra exposure for you via tagging or shout-outs. You can also concisely interact and engage with them as well as their audience. Building relationships such as this also exposes you to other tactics they might be using. You can as well reach out to them for collaboration on creating content.
Simply put, the benefits are enormous and we at danielshustle strongly suggest incorporating this into increasing your earnings.
How Long Does it Take to Monetize an Instagram Account?
In actuality, there is no time constraint on when a creator can monetize his or her Instagram account. Many have done this for months while some have taken years. A common factor though is that you must:
- Build a loyal fan-following on the platform.
- Develop steady engagement with your followers.
- Consistently post content.
Conclusion
When it comes to Instagram monetization, just about anyone can benefit from it. As easy as that sounds, the process involved is not for the faint at heart. It takes time, dedication, and hard work to build a decent following as well as appreciable engagements.
But if you have an eye for creating quality and unique content, as well as being creative with words, then you can be sure of earning on the platform. The platform provides many opportunities for its creators to earn from.
