How To Grow An Instagram Account From 0 To 10k (without spending money) *beginner guide*

@jayskays Thanks for the amazing guide! Couldn’t find followers+ but did find Ins Master which has decent reviews. Two quick questions:

  1. Is it safe to use the app to unfollow or are u just using it to give u the handles which u then search in insta? I can see either way potentially looking weird so I’m wondering what u feel looks least suspicious.

  2. I would love your opinion on what niche to target as I’m having difficulty figuring out what makes the most sense. This is for a very young band (5 -13 yr old kids) so the demo is super YOUNG. I’m afraid if I just go with a general music niche that we’ll end up with a very old following who dont want to hear anything from kids. Not to mention it would make any sense to be posting other musicians viral content on their page. Suggestions from you (or anyone else) GREATLY appreciated. Right now we just do follow/unf with about 20 new followers per day but I’d love to find a way to ramp things up.

yes, just scroll through the posts.

This don’t really matter but doesn’t use posts that are posted only 2 days ago because they could still get on the explore page.
I’d say to choose posts between 2-30 days.

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I likes the post really helpfull infos on how to easily do the first steps. Thanks for sharing!

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This is a great share, altough I have to say that you should more focus on posting viral content rather than f/uf. Nowadays viral content is what makes your account grow. Good luck guys

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Yes of course! But when you start with 0 followers your content won’t get viral by just posting viral content. f/uf is just for the beginning to get a head start.

Sorry for my late response :mask:

  1. I’d use the Instagram app to unfollow so use the handles u see in the app. Had a lot of problems with using third-party apps for unfollowing.

  2. The fact that Instagram isn’t allowed for kids under the age of 13 makes it a bit hard for you… So I think you just need to test different posts and look at the insights to figure out which exact niche and age you should focus on.
    20 new followers per day aren’t bad when you think in long term. And as soon as you get a decent amount of followers your content will get on the explore page so this will get you 100+ followers a day.

F/UF won’t hurt your account if it’s done right! Your account won’t get on a blacklist or something forever.
So after a few thousand followers, you can stop using f/uf because you’ll grow more and more organically through the explore page.

Started today, will watch closely to see what happens :slight_smile:

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Go for it! Text me when you need some help and share your results here :slight_smile:

Would be nice to see a “how to grow” guide but for one with spending money

I guess it depends how much money you have :money_mouth_face:

I remember seeing a good thread here on increasing trust score and general engagement rate.

What stood out was the low-cost promos that would be very good for a business just starting out. For example, in-app boosts of around £2/€2 a day to keep overall ER high.

With bigger budgets (£50-£300/month), you could pay a VA or agency to do F/UF. You’re also getting into M/S territory, but that depends on whether you want to set it up yourself or pay someone else to do it.

The problem with paid growth, is you need a fully costed method to get that money back. Without that, you’re gambling.

It would seem a little unprofessional for a business to do follow unfollow or mother slave method, don’t you think? Imagine a luxury car company trying this method, maybe it will not work. Do you think ads can still help growth and can £1.5k per month do impact? Thanks for your reply

Ads definitely help grow the account! Made some really good experiences last year. Even though it’s getting more and more expensive I think it’s still worth it and if you really gonna use 1.5k a month it’s gonna make a huge impact.

Important things when running ads are:

  • Having the right creative in terms of how your ad looks.

  • Choosing the right audience.

  • TEST, TEST, TEST

  • And don’t spend all of your budget on just one ad

Hope this helps a bit

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It would seem a little unprofessional for a business to do follow unfollow

Most people follow and unfollow, it is how humans use Instagram.

Businesses are not humans, so they may seem unprofessional when acting as humans. Especially larger businesses and more professional occupations would not follow/unfollow for growth. Small businesses definitely would follow/unfollow, this is how they can connect with customers, associate, colleagues, suppliers, influencers, etc.

Would be nice to see a “how to grow” guide but for one with spending money

A business with a professional image would be spending money on building and maintaining their image, not looking for unprofessional methods to grow without money.

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I can see both sides of the argument here. Done right, I don’t think it hurts a small business, but I don’t think big businesses shouldn’t go near it.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Set up properly for a business with a real product, an initial ad budget of £1.5k might make a small loss at first.

However, it should start making money after the initial testing phase! This is because sales coming from the ads will outpace the ad spend. @jayskays hits on it above with those tips.

Once this happens, you’ll scale the ads up, make money, create followers through the ads and your sales, and hopefully have a great lead/customer nurturing system that makes them into real followers of the business.

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Do you think it’s possible to make 3-4k followers per month in men’s fashion luxury niche for 1.5k monthly ad budget? Thank you for your help, appreciate it a lot. I will take your advice completely

Honestly, it depends on what your page is.

If it is a ‘proper’ business, aim to hit Explore with viral content, as it’s easier to grow followers from there and it’s free. However, it might be harder because you have to create your own content and hope it performs well enough.

With regards to ads, I just checked a very quick in-app boost on IG: If I set it to £50/day, it predicts 20,000-50,000 reach. If your ad is good, and converts well, that could quite easily hit a high follower rate from that, although your mileage may vary as to how many it is.

However, and I must stress this, your goal for that level of ad spend should not be followers - you want sales totalling more than £50/day. The followers will be a bonus.

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is there any trick to grow a personal account? no niche. @jayskays

Follow/unfollow but would be slow growth. Outside of that everything will cost money.

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that’s awesome man , thank you lead me to make a new idea!!