Is It Bad To Buy Followers On Instagram
Buyer Beware: The Truth About Buying Instagram Followers
You might know your Instagram content is good, but imagine how much better it will seem if it looks like 10, 000 people agree.
Whether you’re trying to become a social media celebrity or simply looking to spread brand awareness on Instagram, it can be tempting to take shortcuts wherever you can in order to expand your audience, including ‘buying’ Instagram followers.
Here, we’ve gone ahead and covered all the questions you might have about buying Instagram followers to give you a better idea of how it actually works. We’ve also explored the pros and cons, so you can decide for yourself if it’s a good move for your brand.
Can you buy Instagram followers?
Yes, you can buy Instagram followers. There are plenty of cheap services available that allow you to buy 1, 000 followers for as little as $10 USD. But you’re only paying for a number. Many of those followers are either bots or inactive accounts, which means they’ll never engage with your posts.
1, 000 followers seems like a good deal for the price of a small Starbucks latte. But of course, if it really was that cheap and easy, everyone would be doing it. So what’s the catch? Is buying Instagram followers legal and safe for your business? Is it a worthwhile investment?
The main reason buying Instagram followers can prove to be a wasted investment is because the accounts you follow often aren’t real.
How to Buy Instagram Followers
The vast majority of purchasable followers are either bots or inactive accounts. Here’s how it works:
The Fake Follower Vendors
Buying fake followers on Instagram is much harder now than it was a few years ago. Why? Instagram has been cracking down on accounts that violate their terms of service. What used to be fairly above-board is now an enigma. In order to buy Instagram followers these days, you’ll need to know someone who can put you in contact with a vendor who will actually deliver the bots — I mean followers — they say they will (you’ll also want to choose someone that you trust with your credit card information).
But what happens once you’ve paid for your followers? Assuming the vendor is legitimate (as legitimate as can be for this type of service) you’ll wait anywhere from a few minutes to a few days for your followers to trickle in. The sellers roll out your followers over time so as not to alert Instagram that something fishy is going on. Once you have your brand new automated followers, don’t expect much. These followers won’t do much for your engagement metrics.
When you buy Instagram followers, you’re paying for a number alone. Engagement is not guaranteed, or even likely.
Instagram Bots
Instagram bots are everywhere — you’ve likely come across several of them today alone. There are companies out there who have automated the process of creating bots so well that they can then sell these bots as followers. In some cases, the bots may even assume the identity of a real person, using stolen images and names.
Depending on the service, these dummy accounts may even seem organic, running on automation to share and like content. Some can even be programmed to produce content. However, because they’re not real people, they will not have an organic-looking following-to-follower ratio. As a result, the engagement they do produce will have little impact.
Without real followers to engage with your content, your posts are essentially hidden from everyone except your inauthentic audience. Plus, your bot followers won’t discuss your brand in real life with friends or family, because, well … they don’t exist in real life (no offense, bots).
Inactive Accounts
However, not all fake followers are bots. There are some companies that sell followers that are genuine accounts.
In this situation, the accounts are created either because they’re managed by users whose only goal is to get followed in return or for the sole reason to offer this service. And while these followers might show early engagement, they’ll ultimately become a drain on your Instagram account’s performance metrics when their accounts go dormant.
After all, if their account was created for the sole purpose of fulfilling sponsorship requests, the real person behind the account has little reason to dwell on the newsfeed, interact with content, or purchase the goods and services being advertised.
Without that interaction, your follower numbers are inflated with none of the value that organic followers would bring.
In addition to buying followers directly, you can also pay services to strategically follow other accounts on your behalf based on your preferences (location, hashtag usage, account type, and gender). Ideally, those followed accounts will then follow you back.
With this option, your followers are more likely to be real people, but engagement is still unlikely. Since you can’t even guarantee these accounts will follow you back, it’s a risky investment. Most accounts won’t follow you back, and even if they do, they probably aren’t going to be long-term, loyal, or active followers.
Should you buy Instagram followers?
It’s not a good idea to buy Instagram followers. The purchased followers are likely bots or inactive accounts, so they won’t engage with your posts. This means your posts won’t show up on Explore Pages, or on your real audience’s newsfeeds. It will also make it hard to measure metrics.
You’ll get early engagement that tapers off over time.
Purchased Instagram followers also provide no long-term value to your profile’s content. The followers you buy might give you views, likes, and comments early into acquiring them as a follower, but the attention they throw you now won’t be there later — when you start reporting on how your Instagram account is performing.
And how helpful, really, are 10, 000 followers that don’t engage with you? Engagement is key to how Instagram’s algorithm displays posts to users. Without likes or comments, your post probably won’t show up on your audience’s newsfeeds, and it also won’t show up on any Explore Pages.
You could hurt your credibility.
Having a lot of followers could convince users to follow you organically, but it’s not a guarantee.
Remember the risks: these followers will probably never like or comment on a post, and if you’re caught with a ton of fake followers, you could ruin your credibility with your real audience.
Users might notice you don’t have a ton of engagement on your posts, which could deter them from following you. If you have 10, 000 followers but only four likes per post, it won’t take people long to realize something is up.
Think of it this way: would you keep following an account if you saw that most of their “loyal audience” were inactive accounts or bots? I’m guessing not. It could seem deceitful, and lead you to believe the brand couldn’t get authentic followers through good content alone.
Bought Instagram followers can distort your performance metrics.
It’s practically impossible to measure how well your target audience is connecting with your brand if a high percentage of that audience isn’t real. How will you measure posts that do well with your real audience if those bots and inactive accounts skew the ratio?
If you don’t know how well your posts are doing or what your real audience thinks, you’ll never convert your Instagram followers into real customers. And isn’t that the point?
Ultimately, if you pay for Instagram followers, you aren’t paying for quality, real-life followers. You’re paying for a blank number. And since Instagram’s algorithm is largely tied to engagement, not followers, buying followers isn’t a long-term solution. In fact, it isn’t really a solution at all.
Take the time, energy, and money that you would’ve dedicated to buying followers, and focus instead on building genuine relationships with a real audience. If your content is engaging and authentic, your loyal followers will spread the word and engage with your brand without needing any bribes.
Instagram identifies and purges fake followers.
Recently, Instagram has updated its terms of use to identify and remove inauthentic accounts from its platform. Instagram is removing any likes, follows, or comments from third-party apps that are designed to artificially grow accounts’ audiences. By buying followers, you violate Instagram’s community guidelines and it may trigger a reaction from Instagram moderators.
Instagram is looking to maintain genuine interactions on its site, protecting real accounts and experiences. Fake or bought activity infringes upon this mission and might result in consequences, so it’s better to grow your audience organically.
Alternatives to Buying Instagram Followers
Instagram’s new algorithm rewards engagement more than follower count, displaying content similar to posts users engaged with in the past. In order to drive engagement, there are many different actions you can try on the platform to get in front of your ideal audience.
By using good Instagram marketing practices — whether you are building your personal brand or a company account — you can better reach the nearly 800 million monthly Instagram users and build an authentic audience.
1. Make your account public.
First, make your account public so that users can see your profile and content. This way, you can grow your audience organically when your content pops up on users’ explore pages, attracting and delighting your target viewership.
2. Give users a reason to follow you by publishing quality content.
Next, publish a variety of posts to your feed: you can post images, GIFs, videos, Boomerangs, quizzes on your story, how-tos, user-generated content, and so much more. Build trust and excitement among your followers by using high-quality photos, writing catchy captions, posting consistently, and keeping up a unique style overall to differentiate yourself from other accounts. Do your research on which hashtags generate a lot of buzz and which are aligned with your brand — hashtags can be a great way to reach new audiences if done correctly.
Depending on your brand personality, it can help to be funny or witty in your content. Having an acute awareness of how your brand is perceived and the trends going around Instagram will serve you when choosing content to post and how to interact with your Instagram community.
3. Use Instagram to its fullest capability.
Lastly, utilize the many different channels on the platform, like Instagram Live, IGTV, Instagram Stories, or Shopping on Instagram. There are so many different ways to connect with users, and by driving engagement through these features, you can drive engagement and traffic organically and authentically.
4. Use Hashtags
Hashtags are like goldmines for finding new audiences. Users follow hashtags for updates about specific topics that interest them. If you use them intentionally in your captions, you have a great chance of showing up on the newsfeeds of people who’ve never seen your content before.
But don’t start adding random hashtags to all your content. You’ll need a hashtag strategy to ensure you’re targeting the right people. Moreover, the sweet spot for Instagram hashtags is 30. That might seem like a lot, but if you have a strategy for how you’ll use them, you’ll likely find more than 30 that would work for you. The key for hashtags is to be intentional with them. The reward will be well worth the effort.
5. Engage with Other Instagram Users
A good rule of thumb on Instagram is to engage with other users. Whether you like, comment, save or share their posts, every interaction counts for you and them. Instagram’s algorithm favors engagement which means the more you interact (and the more people interact with you) the more likely it will be that your content appears on more and more news feeds. That means more visibility and growth for your page.
Before you go overboard, remember that Instagram does have a limit to this “rule. ” There have been cases where the social media platform blocked users from engaging with content if they liked and commented on more than a few hundred posts in an hour.
6. Use Instagram Stories
500 million daily active Instagram users used Instagram stories in 2019. Needles to say, the audience for this feature is simply waiting and watching for the next viral video or meme to slide across their screens. What makes stories arguably even better for growth than the traditional Instagram feed is the ability for users to interact with the content in a story. Polls, quizzes, and questions are engagement magnets — the more people interact with those elements, the more people Instagram will share your story with.
There’s a Better Way to Grow on Instagram
Instagram has been one of the fastest-growing social media platforms for several years and it’s showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. The pressure to keep up and with the growth can make buying followers tempting, but don’t succumb to that pressure. Between repercussions from the platform itself, lower engagement metrics, and the risk of spamming well-meaning users with bot comments, buying Instagram followers is simply not worth the trouble. The alternatives in this article can help you navigate a path toward organic follower growth that will be worth more than 10, 000 fake followers could ever be.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Originally published Mar 19, 2021 7:00:00 AM, updated April 27 2021
Want to Buy Instagram Followers? Here’s What Happens …
We all know you can fake a lot of things on Instagram—a vacation, a ring, a brand deal, a personality—so why not fake your follower count?
All joking aside, we get why it’s tempting. Maybe you’re starting a branded Instagram account from scratch and you want to make a better first impression. Or maybe you want to leverage your Instagram skills to earn some of the $5. 8 billion dollars brands are spending on IG influencers in 2021.
On the other hand, maybe you’re reading this article because you’re on the brand side, and you want to know how to suss out which influencers have built up a valuable audience of real people who genuinely care—and which are going to take your budget without any ROI (return on investment) at all.
The question is: does buying Instagram followers really give you a head start on your Instagram strategy? And is it totally harmless? What do you risk when you do it (besides a clear conscience)?
To get a valid read on what’s up with fake Instagram followers, we decided to do an experiment. Read on to see what happened when we whipped out a credit card and bought the best Instagram followers money can buy.
Or watch this video to get a quick summary of the results:
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a lifestyle photographer used to grow from 0 to 600, 000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
How to buy Instagram followers
First, let’s take a step-by-step look at how to buy instagram followers. (After that, we’ll show you why it was a waste of time. )
Beware of phishing scams
Many fake Instagram follower suppliers have gone out of business in the last three years as Instagram continues to crack down on bots, trash accounts, and the fly-by-night operations that supply them.
Today, finding a reputable fake Instagram follower provider is like finding a trustworthy human organ salesman. It’s a black market. It’ll take some research to find a vendor that won’t a) steal your money or b) steal your identity. (Ok, I’m guessing on that second one, but it’s an educated guess. )
For this experiment, I decided to go with Famoid. (Keep reading to find out more about some of the other vendors I considered)
Decide whether you want to buy in bulk or get a daily drip of followers.
Either option will look obviously fake, but vendors offer this choice—i. e., a thousand followers at once, or 200 a day—to further the illusion that no one (including Instagram) will be able to tell that you bought your followers. Of course, anyone who looks will be able to tell in an instant, but more on that later.
For several reasons (including the fact that this article was due last week) I decided to buy mine all at once. Famoid sells 1, 000 followers for $15. 95. (In what currency? It doesn’t say! I guess it’ll be a fun surprise on my credit card bill! )
Decide if you want to buy some likes and comments while you’re at it.
Of course there’s an upsell. For an extra $9. 71 in mystery dollars, I decided to treat myself to 1, 000 likes for my most recent 5 posts.
Again, the theory is that buying engagement will make it less obvious that your followers are fake. But, as you will see later: it will not. Just like the time I tried to pass my jimjams off as luxury athleisure on Zoom, there’s truly no way to hide this maximally lazy choice I have made.
Hand over your Instagram handle and credit card information.
Now, tell your service where to send their bots. No password necessary. Of course, it may feel scuzzy to give your credit card details to a random number company or gmail address, and that’s because it is scuzzy. I did it for science, but I certainly don’t recommend you do it.
Watch the fake followers roll in.
I smashed that pay button at 3 PM, and Famoid promised me a turnaround time of 6 days, but within half an hour my followers started showing up. In an hour I had 39 followers. By 9AM the next day I had my 987 followers, as promised. (Of course, five days later that number had gone down to 933, but who am I going to complain to? )
Meanwhile, my paid likes took a while longer to show up, but by the next morning I had exactly 230 likes on each of the 5 posts I’d specified. (And 0 likes on the rest of my posts: totally normal! )
In conclusion: I got what I paid for. A boost in my vanity metrics that wouldn’t pass any nine-year-old’s sniff test. Plus, these followers have absolutely zero capacity for caring about my content, following my links, or buying stuff.
Where to buy Instagram followers
Where should you go if you, too, want to experience professional and personal shame, and possibly identity theft?
The answer to this question changes for obvious reasons: Instagram would like to keep its real users happy, so it spends time and effort getting rid of fakes. Fortunately, I poked around for those of you who are—despite all my nagging—still curious about this wretched dark-web of bot trafficking.
GetInsta: according to its own marketing, GetInsta is “pretty good in all aspects. ” However, this site creeped me out for two reasons. First, the “free trial” button is a dummy button that doesn’t work: even if you sign up for an account, paid is really the only option. And second, the PayPal form claimed my “email format is wrong” and pushed me to enter my credit card information directly into a text form on their website, instead. Reader, I did not do it.
Takeaway: It might work, but it looks way too scammy for comfort.
Source: GetInsta
Stormlikes: The last time Hootsuite did this experiment, back in October 2019, Stormlikes was one of the services I used. Alas, they only sell “exclusive and real” likes now, and not followers.
Takeaway: Doesn’t sell followers anymore. (What is an “exclusive like”? )
Stormslike: “All services work great! ” on Stormslike, including the provision of “real, high-quality” Instagram followers. ” While I didn’t buy any followers from Stormslike this year, if this site has anything in common with Stormlikes circa 2019, the followers are neither real nor high-quality.
Takeaway: Seems like it may work, though I didn’t try it. Price is standard at 1, 000 fake followers for $16. 49.
Kicksta: This service promises to deliver followers through social media automation. While I’ve tried Instagram automation with other providers like Instamber, Instagress and Instarocket, I haven’t tried Kicksta yet and can’t vouch for it.
Takeaway: This will be more work on your part than Stormslike or Famoid, and problematic for different reasons. That said, it may result in real followers IF you take the time to use it gently and respectfully. (But even then, the risk of annoying people is high. )
Mr Insta: This year I did try Mr Insta’s trial offer of 25 free “real” followers. In order to get those “real” followers, I had to follow 10 accounts of Mr Insta’s choosing, probably other clients like me. (In my case, these included: a sandwich shop, a hair salon in Dubai, a baby influencer, and a guy named @brovaper). Sure enough, my 25 followers showed up right away (43 of them, actually). However, these followers were also obvious fakes, certainly not real by any stretch of the imagination.
Takeaway: Way more effort for the same crappy fake followers. (No offense, @brovaper).
Source: Mr Insta
Famoid: offering “100% exclusive, safe and natural methods, ” I paid Famoid for 1, 000 followers because, unlike GetInsta, they’re distinguished by a legitimate payment system.
Takeaway: Delivers fake followers pretty fast for $15. 95.
Source: Famoid
Quick Fix: Not gonna lie, my favourite way to buy followers and likes is this nice Belgian vending machine. Alas, to get to it you will need to track down whatever art gallery it is currently exhibited in.
Takeaway: Cheapest deal at 3 euros! Unfortunately, this service is actually just art made to interrogate our priorities under late capitalism.
Quick Fix Buy Instagram Followers ad
Source: Dries Depoorter
How much does it cost to buy Instagram followers?
It doesn’t cost a lot to buy Instagram followers. The sham accounts we bought averaged just north of $15 USD for ~1, 000. Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a lifestyle photographer used to grow from 0 to 600, 000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Get the free guide right now!
Of course, while the cost is low in dollars, the cost to your reputation and legitimacy is nerve-wrackingly high.
Does buying Instagram followers work?
Yes, technically. Surprising no one, it turns out you can still buy fake Instagram followers in 2021. For a small sum, your phone will be flooded with notifications, and your favourite vanity metric will go up accordingly.
But if we ask a slightly different question—does buying Instagram followers work to make your account successful? —then the answer is no. Fake followers are bad for your analytics and your credibility.
Source: Three of @mrmausoleum’s very real-looking new followers.
3 reasons NOT to buy Instagram followers
1. Instagram can tell, and may suspend your account
Creating a fake account is explicitly forbidden by Instagram’s Terms of Use, so bot or ghost accounts are regularly purged. If you’ve bought followers, you may get a warning, you may have your account temporarily disabled, you may lose the followers you paid for, and—worst case scenario—Instagram might just suspend your account entirely.
2. Brands can tell, and won’t want to work with you
There are plenty of easy tools that will show any dirty secrets to potential brand partners. As a growing influencer, the absolute worst thing you can do for your career is buy followers.
Hype Auditor Audience Quality Score page
Source: HypeAuditor
In fact, rather than buying them, most influencers are trying to get rid of their fake followers, in order to increase their engagement rates and improve their attractiveness to potential brands.
3. Real people can tell, and they will cringe
A profile that has fake followers is obvious to anyone who uses Instagram regularly.
A high follower count with no engagement to back it up is just, well, desperate. That means that any potential followers—real people who will actually engage with your posts—will notice, and be turned off.
For instance, the last time I bought followers (for science!! ) the only comments I got were randos stopping by to roast me:
What to do instead of buying Instagram followers
If you want to grow your Instagram audience, there are plenty of ways to find real human beings who will actually connect with your message, and engage with your content, and perhaps even buy your product.
Post content that earns high engagement from your target audience
If you want to grow your follower count, your job is to please your current followers. Engagement shows the Instagram algorithm that it should show your amazing content to new people, too.
Your potential followers are most likely to stumble upon your posts in two different places:
the Explore page
hashtag search
The bottom line is that your posts will only show up in these locations if they’re earning likes. Fortunately, we have a full guide on getting more likes on Instagram.
Include Instagram in your other marketing activities
If the Instagram algorithm isn’t delivering the results you want, promote your Instagram page elsewhere. Even, perhaps, in real life.
Link to Instagram from your website
Ditto your newsletter
Cross-promote via your other social media accounts
Encourage customers in your store or restaurant to follow, post, and tag via a branded hashtag or a QR code on your menu.
Spend your money on ads, instead
If you’re itching to spend that $15 USD somewhere, you could run an ad campaign on Instagram to draw eyeballs to your profile. Organic content is an integral part of any Instagram marketing strategy, but ads are one of the simplest ways to find your target audience at scale.
Grow your Instagram following the right way using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage the audience, measure performance, and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.
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Why Buying Instagram Followers is a Really Bad Idea
How many times have you seen somebody pushing you to buy Instagram followers cheaply? To somebody hoping to make it as an influencer, it must be tempting; an easy way to boost your Instagram clout without having to work for it. But as with most things in life, there is a catch. Bought Instagram followers are not the same as the followers you genuinely earn through the quality of your posts. Indeed, buying Instagram followers can lead to quite a few problems, and shred your online reputation at the same time.
Why Buying Instagram Followers is a Really Bad Thing:
Why Buying Instagram Followers is a Really Bad ThingTools to Help You Find Fake Instagram Followers
Why Buying Instagram Followers is a Really Bad Thing
1. Fake Instagram Followers Don’t Engage
There are two main types of fake Instagram followers. The first is the follower who has agreed to take a small sum of money in return for going on a Fake Follower list. They let someone add them as a follower to thousands of people they don’t know and have no interest in. They will happily pocket what money they can, but they certainly won’t take any interest in the accounts that they “follow. ” They will never look at your posts or engage with you in any way.
The second type of fake follower isn’t a real person. “He” is a bot – merely a piece of code masquerading as an Instagram follower. In theory, some bots do engage – they make automated, often nonsensical, comments, on some of your posts. But these mean nothing. These followers definitely don’t engage with any thought – they may be some form of AI, but there is no deep learning involved. They are unlikely to be programmed to learn from your content. And even if they were, is that what social engagement is all about?
What is the point of a follower on Instagram, or any other social network, if he/she doesn’t engage? The whole reason that these online hubs are called social networks is that they are platforms for people to be social.
2. Your Engagement is Mismatched
Human beings are relatively predictable creatures. No matter how important you are, your genuine human followers will most likely follow a relatively typical pattern of engagement. Admittedly, larger accounts receive less engagement than smaller accounts, but there is still a general pattern:
< 1, 000 followers average about 8% engagement
1, 000 – 10, 000 followers average 4% engagement
10, 000 – 100, 000 followers average 2. 4% engagement
100, 000 – 1 million followers average 1. 8% engagement
> 1 million followers average 1. 7% engagement
Your engagement rates won’t match these numbers exactly – they are just averages – but they should be in the general vicinity of these percentages.
If you have fake followers, however, your engagement will be noticeably different from these averages. Your fake followers will generally not be engaging in any way – and this will drag your engagement rate down.
One thing you should check out, though, is any “useless comment” type of engagement. The people who sell fake followers have recognized this engagement problem, and some of them now have bots making fake, but useless, comments, to boost engagement rates. If you see that somebody just makes “nice picture” type comments you can make a safe assumption that they are a fake Instagram follower.
3. Bought Followers Bring Spam
If you buy followers, you will generally have to provide your email address at some point. By doing so, you are opening yourself to vast quantities of spam. Indeed many of the people selling followers are doing so with the sole aim of gaining access to your email address for spam reasons.
Once you accept them as a follower, you are also giving them access to your other followers. Some of your followers will accept the spammers as their followers, just because they see that they are followers of you. Once they discover what you have sent them, you may find that your genuine followers purge you at the same time they remove the fake followers.
4. You End up With Inappropriate and Useless Comments
Another way that people who peddle fake followers can boost their engagement rates is to make inappropriate or irrelevant comments. These are worse than the “nice picture” comments, which although of little value are at least probably true. In this case, your “followers” leave comments that are utterly irrelevant to your post’s content.
For instance, you might find that a follower has left a comment on your image of a beautiful sunset promoting a sex toy or some politician in a country you have never been to.
Often these followers simply use your posts as a free advertising medium. In reality, this is of no value to anyone. You are unlikely to buy the product in question, nor are your genuine followers. Indeed it is hard to imagine anybody buying a promoted product that hijacks somebody’s Instagram post.
5. Fake Followers Will Never Buy Your Product or Service
Fake followers are obviously not going to spend any money with you. Whether they are bots (who cannot spend money with anybody) or real people merely playing a game for money, makes no difference. They have zero interest in you, and no intention of spending any money on your product or service.
6. Accounts with Fake Followers Lack Credibility
It isn’t that hard to spot an account with a sizeable number of fake followers. This is particularly easy for people and brands who use platforms or agencies to assist in their influencer selection.
This means that anybody who deliberately buys followers are unlikely to remain an influencer for long. By engaging in the practice, you are at risk of destroying your credibility.
Even if businesses don’t opt to use a platform or agency, if they use any of the software we highlight below they will quickly spot if you have bought fake followers.
Ultimately, people who notice your use of fake followers will begin to doubt your credibility as an influencer or business. They will question how ethical your dealings might be.
7. Instagram Purges Fake Followers
Ove time Instagram has become skillful at spotting fake followers. They don’t want their followers having a poor user experience.
This means that the money you spend on fake followers may quickly become wasted anyhow, as your fake followers are removed from Instagram one-by-one.
8. Buying Fake Followers Breaks Instagram’s Terms of Service
Instagram has made it very clear that they do not approve of people buying fake followers. As far as they are concerned the buyer (you) is just as guilty as the seller (the fake followers). Instagram reserves the right to ban both buyers and sellers.
If you buy fake Instagram followers, Instagram may ban your account for encouraging dishonest practices.
Sure, every account has some fake followers. But if you buy fake followers, you will have higher than the typical percentage of fake followers, and Instagram will quickly notice this.
Tools to Help You Find Fake Instagram Followers
There is a range of free and paid tools you can use to either discover which of your followers are fake, or whether a particular account suffers from having an excessive number of fake followers.
Until recently one of the more comprehensive tools you could use was Deep Social. Unfortunately, Deep Social is currently permanently discontinuing their service and are commencing a winding down process of their company. A side effect of Facebook and Instagram’s recent privacy-related changes is that it is now harder to access information about accounts.
1. Influencer Marketing Hub Instagram Audit Tool [Fake Follower & Audience Credibility Checker]
Analyze any Instagram account for fake followers and likes
Over 1, 000 followers only
Powered by
Take away much of your worry about the credibility of potential influencers. You can enter any influencer’s Instagram handle into our free Instagram Bot Analytics Tool [Instagram Audit – Fake Follower & Audience Credibility Checker], and it will give you an excellent guide to the genuineness of the account.
The tool takes into account factors such as the account’s avatar, number of accounts followed vs. following ratio, following, fake followers, number of posts, number of likes received vs. number of likes ratio in an attempt to establish the audience quality score of the Instagram account.
Any real influencers who work at ensuring their audience are genuine should attain scores of 80 or above.
2. Fakecheck
FakeCheck allows you to determine whether your Instagram Account has fake followers with a Social Engagement Check.
It collects data about an account followers’ engagement levels.
It is a paid service. When you search for an account, you can unlock its report by using credits. You buy credits – the more credits you buy, the less it costs per credit.
3. HypeAuditor
HypeAuditor is a powerful tool that allows you to analyze any Instagram account for fake followers and likes. It [provides each account with an Audience Quality Score (AQS) for Instagram. This allows advertisers to check influencers before they actually work together.
The Audience Quality Score is a score out of 100. It analyzes an account’s Engagement Rate, Authentic Engagement, and Followers’ Reachability. It uses AI to detect cheating and sporadic followers who will never make a profit for your brand.
You pay for an Instagram report with tokens – 1 token = 1 Instagram report for 1 month. The more tokens you buy, the cheaper each token is. If you just want to check a single account, one token will cost you $1. 99.
4. Social Audit Pro
Social Audit Pro is a paid app that allows you to investigate any profile’s followers and determine if they are legitimate/active Instagram users. Prices range from $5 for a one-time audit of 5, 000 followers to $20 for 20, 000 followers. Larger packages are available if you have higher requirements than the standard packages.
After auditing your account, you can optionally remove those followers who have been flagged as fake or dormant by Social Audit Pro, directly from within the app.
5. IG Audit
IG Audit is a free tool to check on the validity of public Instagram accounts. If you are suspicious about an account, you just enter their username into IG Audit’s search box. It will give you an estimate of the account’s real to fake follower percentage.
It also shows the account’s average likes and comments (along with expected figures for each statistic).
It offers the @justinbieber account as an example. Bieber has a Real Follower Percentage of 74. 70%.
