How to Monetize Instagram: Get Posting and Get Paid!

Instagram is such a great way for content creators to challenge their creativity and grow their audience base. But the trick is in staying on top of your Insta game, thinking up innovative, engaging content and posting it regularly as you wait for those sweet comments and shares to come rolling in. (And being patient when they don’t - good content will find its audience eventually, but sometimes it takes much longer than you’d like!)

Once you’re getting the Insta attention that you crave, what if you could also make money from all of the time and effort you put into your Instagram posts?

Plenty of creators are utilizing both on-board (Instagram) and external methods to monetize their posts, including sponsored content, collaborations, affiliate marketing, and selling products. Whether you’ve got 500, 1000, or 10,000 Instagram followers, think of those followers as people that you could transform from fans into customers. 

But Why Should I Use Instagram to Make Money?

Earning potential! According to SocialPilot, Instagram has over 2 billion users as of this year (2024.) Engagement rates are also pretty fire on Insta, with the average Instagram post getting around 15 comments and over 500 Likes, even amidst such a huge user base. That’s a lot of potential eyes on you, and a lot of that aforementioned earning potential - aka dollars - in your pocket.  

Whether you post edgy gaming videos, viral dances or songs, travel FOMO, or comedy skits, there’s a ready audience for whatever you’re doing on Instagram (fashion and makeup influencers are especially in luck - the most popular search category on Insta in 2024 is “Fashion Brands.”) 

Once you establish trust with your audience as an Instagram creator, plenty of those viewers would likely take your recommendations on products or services, and would be glad to support you in making more of your content - or both!

Okay! How Do I Get Started Making Money on Instagram?

It’s time to learn how to monetize IG, and we’re here to tell you all about it! Here are four of the best ways to monetize Instagram:

Memberships

Selling memberships or subscriptions to your Instagram channel are a good way to generate a recurring revenue stream that can smooth the gaps between your other methods of Instagram monetization. 

Memberships are easily set up on Instagram as long as you meet the eligibility requirements, which include having a professional IG account plus 10K followers or more, and meeting Instagram’s monetization policies. Once you’re approved, you can set a monthly membership or subscription rate, and offer exclusive content like sub-only posts, Instagram Stories, and Instagram reels; invitation-only subscriber broadcast channels; and more. 

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is pretty simple. Basically, you make a shortlist of products that you already use and are hyped about, and that you think would also work well for your niche and audience. Then, Google each product to see if they have an affiliate program, and get signed up! 

Once you’re an affiliate for a product or brand, you’ll get affiliate links, so that you can refer special deals to your audience. From there, you make posts about the product(s) for your Instagram account, including your affiliate links. When people use your affiliate link to make a purchase, you’ll get a commission, which will generally start at around 10%.

Instagram Shopping

Let’s look at how to get monetized on Instagram, aka the mother ship. First of all, you’ll need to meet the Instagram Shop commerce eligibility requirements, which as of late 2024 include complying with IG’s policies; being located in a supported country; providing accurate information; and demonstrating an authentic and established presence on Instagram with a solid follower base.

Once you’ve met the requirements, you can set up your own online store in the form of your “Instagram Shop,” select and tag your chosen roster of products, and your audience can purchase those products through you directly on Instagram!

Collaborations

For this approach, start thinking about your content creation colleagues to see who you might pair up well with! Collaborations are beneficial in several ways. They double up your audience exposure (which is a great selling point for brands!); they show that you can work well with others; and they give you another person to think up original ideas with! 

The brands that work with you in a collaborative format also get two personalities promoting their product, which adds another level of excitement to their promotional campaigns with you and your colleague.

So You Wanna Be an Instagram Influencer

Once you gain your audience’s trust and are posting content that’s successfully sending your viewers to buy the products that you suggest, your next step is to establish yourself as a bonafide full-time Instagram influencer and brand ambassador. This is one of the most sought-after ways to earn money from Instagram, and can set you up as an expert of sorts in your content creation niche. 

Being an influencer is about more than just filming videos in awkward public locations, though. It means learning about and leveraging the interests of your audience to show them products that they’ll be interested in and excited about - and that they’ll then be “influenced” to purchase because they heard about said product from a creator that they like and trust. 

So how do you make money on IG as an influencer? This is where sponsored content, sponsored posts, and brand deals come in. If your Instagram account is getting good numbers and attention, it’s probably time to put together a brand “deck,” also called a media kit or creator portfolio. This digital document will showcase key info about yourself, your target audience, your niche, your numbers/analytics, and some of the benefits of why brands should work with you. (Once you’re established, you can also include a rate card in your deck.)

Then, you’ll be set up to receive physical products (clothing, makeup, home accessories, tech gear), digital products (videogames, subscriptions, online courses) and actual cash money payments from companies and brands that choose you to enter into an agreement to promote their merchandise. 

The monetary rate you can earn as an influencer generally depends on how many followers you have and how much engagement you can generate per post (and how charming you are when chatting up brand managers.)

A Guide to Influencer Tiers (info via Influencer Marketing Hub)

• Nano-Influencer - Under 10K Followers

  • $10-$100 per Instagram post

• Micro-Influencer - 10K-50K Followers

  • $100-$500 per post

• Mid-Tier Influencer - 50K-500K Followers

  • $500-$5,000 per post

• Macro-Influencer - 500K-1M Followers

  • $5,000-$10,000 per post

• Mega-Influencer - 1M+ Followers

  • $10,000+ per post

Celebrity Influencer - If you’re already a celebrity (like actress Reese Witherspoon, below), it’s highly unlikely that you’re even reading this article. But celebs can readily command tens of thousands of dollars to even $1 million for a single social post.

Six Quick Tips for Maxing Your Insta Money!

Maximizing your earning potential on Instagram definitely takes some extra work above and beyond just tossing up some sponsored posts - but that’s why we’re all here, right?  

• Grow your target audience with consistent posting, creative approaches to your socials, and eye-catching Instagram Reels and Stories.

• Include links to your Instagram account on your other online accounts, including YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, etc. so more new people can find you.

• Utilize Instagram Insights to keep close track of trends across your posts to see how they’re performing. Make note of which posts and trending topics really resonate with your audience, and narrow in on which types of content will help make your newly sponsored posts really spring to life!

• Consider offering “casual” product placement to brands once you’re better established; for instance, an energy drink sitting in view on your desk while you’re creating a “regular” content post.

• Activate Instagram Badges if you’ve got over 10K followers and you do Instagram Live broadcasts. Badges allow your viewers to essentially “tip” you during your IG live stream.

• Launch your own merch store on a site like Fourthwall, Printify, or Etsy. You can create a fun, cohesive branded line of T-shirts, mugs, tote bags, and more and sell them to your fan base!

Go Get ‘Em, Instagrammer!

Whether you decide to use memberships, affiliate marketing, Instagram Shopping, live broadcasts and merch, or collaborations - or have decided to put yourself on the fast track to becoming an Instagram influencer! Instagram can be an excellent and rewarding source of revenue for your content. 

Now that you’ve got all the latest info on how to monetize IG, it’s time to take a good, long look at your content and how it might lend itself to different types of product promotions. 

You can do this by identifying content from your past IG posts that would’ve lent themselves well to a sponsored post or brand deal; checking out what your fellow content creators are doing with their monetization efforts; and looking for current trending topics and products that you can put your own unique spin on.

Combining your best takes of all of these components will help you get started building your Instagram income stream!