Instagram can be an incredibly lucrative platform.
From brand partnerships to the platform’s monetization tools, there have never been more ways for creators and brands to grow on Instagram.
But making an income on Instagram means understanding the monetization opportunities available, knowing what you can offer sponsors or partners, and consistently growing your following.
Table of Contents
7 Ways To Make Money On Instagram
There are many paths to monetizing your Instagram; here’s what you need to know.
#1: Instagram Creator Monetization Tools
Instagram’s official monetization program provides multiple ways creators and small businesses can make money, similar to YouTube’s Partner Program.
Instagram Shop
This is Instagram’s social commerce platform where you can sell products directly through Posts, Reels, and Stories.
Subscriptions
Instagram subscriptions allow your followers to pay for a premium subscription to access exclusive content.
Receive Gifts On Reels
Fans can give you gifts as a thank-you for making Reels they love.
Receive Badges On Instagram Live
Viewers can buy badges from you as appreciation when you go Live on the platform—it’s similar to Gifts but for Lives rather than Reels.
#2: Brand Collaborations
As you build up your audience on Instagram, collaborating with brands can be a great source of income.
Here's an example of how realistic lifestyle influencer Rosie Piper incorporates brand collabs onto her feed:
Depending on the deal, you might:
Share a feed post or Reel of you using a product;
Create user-generated content that is posted on the brand’s page; or
Do a brand takeover, where you post from the brand’s account.
One key part of getting brand collabs is sourcing potential partners. We’ll get into that more later in this blog, but one key tip is joining an influencer database.
For example, the Later Influencer Index makes it easy to find meaningful partnerships with the thousands of brands already using Later’s influencer marketing platform.
Sign up for the influencer index and start getting brand collabs today.
3. Let Followers Become Patrons Or Contributors
If your followers want more, you can monetize through premium content.
This is exclusively for your subscribers and patrons, offering them content other followers can’t get.
You may also add other benefits, such as in-real-life (IRL) meetups, exclusive merch or shoutouts in your content.
4. Create Courses
If you’ve achieved success, either directly on Instagram or in another skill, teach others your secret!
Look for the intersection between your passion, your skills, and what your followers want from you.
If your followers are always asking for insights on your niche, it's a sign that courses could be the right choice for you.
Creator and business coach Caley Dimmock has built her career in running courses and masterclasses, sharing her marketing expertise with like-minded people.
5. Sell Freelance Services
If you provide a service that can be delivered online, you can sell it through Instagram.
The key is regularly producing and posting high-quality educational content on your Instagram page. This is where a tool like Later Social is crucial; you can automate scheduling and use Later’s visual planner to ensure your aesthetic is top-notch.
6. Paid Media
Another way to monetize influencer marketing and brand partnerships is by letting brands use your content in paid media advertising.
You benefit in two key ways:
You can charge a fee for letting the brand post ads, which means more direct revenue.
The brand pays for the ad costs, but your account reaps the benefits of impressions, reach, and engagement.
This is usually in conjunction with a sponsored post, so consider this part of influencer marketing rather than a solo revenue stream.
7. Affiliate Marketing
Rather than a one-on-one partnership with a brand, you can promote any product through affiliate marketing.
You post content with a custom link or coupon code; if someone buys that product from your link, you get a commission.
Creators can sign up for a ton of different affiliate networks, such as:
Mavely (one of our favorites!)
Just like influencer marketing, you want to ensure content-product fit and only recommend products that make sense for your content and your audience.
Can You Monetize Your Instagram With A Small Following?
Think you need millions of followers to monetize your Instagram? Think again!
Creators with smaller followings are growing successful businesses—here are the stats to back it up.
47% Of Marketers Had Success Working With Micro Influencers
Source: Hubspot
There is a huge business opportunity for creators with smaller followings!
Here's a brand promo that travel vloggers and micro influencers Mark and Asya did on Instagram:
Brands often found that micro influencer campaigns resulted in more authentic audience connections and helped achieve more cost-effective uses of their influencer marketing budgets.
85% of Gen Z Likes Learning About Brands On Instagram
Source: RetailDive
If you have a following on Instagram that includes Gen Z, you can help brand partners connect with that audience.
Gen Z controls hundreds of millions of dollars in annual spending, so even a small audience can deliver big returns for brands.
60% Of Businesses Use Influencers To Promote Content
Source: Marketing Charts
The majority of businesses are looking to influencers to help them get the word out through brand partnerships.
You have a big opportunity here—it’s not about convincing brands that you can help them, it’s about finding the right fit.
This is where joining the Later Influencer Index can be valuable since it’s a database that helps you directly find brands looking to work with influencers.
How To Source Instagram Brand Partnerships
Here are our top tips on sourcing great brand partnerships.
Understand Your Audience
Brands partner with influencers to access their audience. So make sure you know:
Who they are - where do they live? What demographics do they fall under?
What they care about and why they follow you; and
The kind of content they engage the best with.
You likely know some of this information already, just from engaging with your followers. But if you want referenceable data that can help you close brand partnerships, you need Instagram analytics.
Instagram analytics will not only help you present data to potential partners, it will help you understand the things you can do to boost your following, such as posting at the best time for your audience.
Create An Influencer Media Kit
When a brand reaches out to you (or you connect with them), you can send your influencer media kit to introduce them to your brand and show the results of previous brand collaborations.
Make It Easy for Brands to Find You
Engage with brands if you want to find sponsored deals.
You can do this the manual way, by following, liking, and commenting on brand posts.
A more scalable way to be visible to brands is through influencer marketing platforms. For example, signing up for Later’s Influencer Index can help connect you with thousands of potential brand partners.
How To Sell Products And Services On Instagram
If you want to sell your products or services through Instagram, here are the key things that set you up for success.
Set Up Your Link In Bio
A high-quality link in bio means you can direct Instagram followers to landing pages, websites, or checkout pages for your products and services from each post.
This can directly increase sales by making it easy for people to find (and buy) your offerings.
Ensure Content-Product-Audience Match
As you are thinking of what to create and sell, be conscious of content-product-audience match.
For example, if you built your following by giving makeup advice for everyday outings, a potential product to sell is your own makeup line.
Digital creator Brady Lockerby's book-focused merch collection speaks to her audience - readers who also enjoy her fashionable aesthetic.
Leverage A Social Selling Approach
Social selling is a method of sales where you use social media platforms and networks to build relationships and understand prospective buyers before making a sales pitch.
Consider different tactics like social listening, direct engagement, and posting informational content about how your product can help people.
Our Top Tips To Grow Your Instagram Following And Engagement
A big part of monetizing your Instagram is growing your follower count; here are some tips to increase followers and engagement.
Find Your Voice And Aesthetic
On top of your visual aesthetic, make sure you know your voice—how you write comments or speak when you go live.
This creates an overall persona that can attract more people to your brand (and help potential sponsors think about how they’d work with you).
Creator Corporate Natalie strikes this balance, promoting brands while keeping her sassy, humorous voice.
Optimize Your Bio, Captions, And Hashtags
Your Instagram bio, captions, and hashtags are like your calling card—it’s how people find you and get in touch with you. Make sure they’re optimized for discovery and growth.
Find Your Best Time To Post
Sometimes a great post isn’t seen by anyone because you posted at the wrong time.
Using a best time to post tool can help you find the optimal posting schedule for maximum potential engagement.
Post Consistently
Consistency is helpful because you show up for your audience, provide more opportunities for engagement, and increase your chances of going viral if you use the right hashtags.
The key, though, is to automate scheduling as much as possible to save time.
Post Different Content Types
Don’t forget to post different types of content, as they are discovered and engaged with differently on the platform. Consider:
Reels
Feed posts
Instagram stories
Lives
Experimenting with post type is also a way for you to figure out what content your audience likes, which can inform influencer sponsorship packages.
Repurpose Your Content
Growing on Instagram doesn’t mean you can’t grow elsewhere! You can repurpose your content into posts for different social platforms for maximum impact.
For example, a Reel can easily become a YouTube Short or TikTok video. And with automated scheduling, you don’t even have to lift a finger.
Engage With Followers, Creators, And Brands
Instagram is a community, so treat it like one!
As you gain followers, make sure to engage with them—respond to their comments or direct messages, like and comment on their pages, and follow them if you like their content.
Oat milk brand Oatly even features customer comments on their Instagram profile.
But don’t forget to engage with other creators and aligned brands as well; a well-timed comment on a post could mean hundreds of new followers for you.
Build Your Income With Instagram
Instagram is a powerful platform with over two billion users.
As you think about your goals, whether content creation or growing your business through social media, you can use Instagram to boost your income.
The key is to not only find the monetization paths that make sense for you but to use the right tools.
Later Social can help you grow your following, automate tasks to save time, and find influencer partnerships.
Sign up for a free trial with Later Social to get all the benefits today.
