Buy Insta Follows: How Far Can Appearances Take You?

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Karen Lin

Instagram 101 | May 24, 2024

Want More Real Instagram Followers?

Everybody wants to look good on Instagram. Take a selfie when the lighting is perfect, or just use a ring light. Post a “woke up like this” or sweaty workout photo, but don’t forget to edit it with filters first. Learn the art of food plating and tablescaping for perfect #foodporn photos. Buy Insta follows so you can show off an impressive follower count. Everybody wants to look good on Instagram; but everybody also knows that “real” is a rarity on the social media platform. Yes, people can also tell when you buy Insta followers. Let’s take a look at how far false appearances can take you on the road to Instagram growth.

Hundred dollar bills to buy Insta followers.

Insta Followers for Sale: Why the Trend Continues

“Buy Insta follow,” “buying Instagram followers,” and other iterations of the phrase produce tons of results on Google. The majority of results are for companies that offer a quick solution to grow numbers through a followers trial. The trend of buying Instagram followers has persisted for so many years that Instagram growth services have become an industry all its own.

Insta followers for sale go against Instagram’s policies. And yet a lot of users, particularly businesses and influencers, continue the practice of buying followers. Why? Because people are still easily dazzled by impressive outward appearances. Social media is mostly a fake-it-til-you-make-it world. Profiles with a massive follower base are considered successful, trustworthy, and highly recognized as an authority within their niche or industry. So many brands are tempted into faking their way to legitimate Instagram popularity by faking popularity through falsely inflated follower numbers.

Does this mean that when you buy an Insta follow, it will eventually lead to real success on Instagram? If you manage to escape the discerning eyes of real users and the always vigilant Instagram algorithm, you can successfully create the illusion of popularity. But your apparent popularity begins and ends with your fake follower count. And sooner or later, the deception will still be revealed.

For many brands who are struggling to grow on Instagram’s fiercely competitive landscape, buying IG followers is worth a try. It’s just one of the many paths to growth that they choose to explore because it leads to hordes of “followers” that are easy pickings.

Person using a laptop to manage their Instagram business.

Can You Buy Real Followers for Insta?

Most followers for sale are bots and/or fake Instagram accounts. But, yes, you may be able to buy real followers for Insta. There’s a catch, of course. They are random accounts, or followers who are not interested in your brand and what you have to offer. In other words, they’re not your target audience. They’re just an embellishment to your follower count; they’re there to falsely inflate your numbers.

With some vendors, you may also be able to buy Insta follow plans that come with “active followers.” The followers engage with your content through likes and comments. They’re still random accounts and, as such, they can only be expected to randomly like your posts. They often do this mindlessly and too quickly that the activity is often flagged as spammy.

When they comment on Instagram posts, the comments may be vague, generic, or so over-enthusiastic that they’re obviously a sham. More often than not, the same comments are just copied and pasted. This production-line method of commenting also alerts Instagram’s algorithm to possible spam activity and the possible presence of bots or fake accounts.

More often than not, these accounts are created for the sole purpose of boosting numbers. They’re considered “real” accounts because they are active and there are real people behind them. Multiple accounts are typically managed by a single person, and a vendor may have a team of these account managers.

Keep in mind that if you buy Insta follow bundles of one, two, five, ten thousand so-called active followers or more, it would be unrealistic to expect all of these followers to actually engage with your page. The activity you’ll get will be generated by a few dozen accounts from your purchased plan.

Phone screen displaying an Instagram account’s follower numbers.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Buying Followers

Let’s examine more closely the advantages and disadvantages of buying Insta followers.

Advantages of Buying Instafollowers

Do you gain anything aside from a boosted follower count when you buy an Insta follow? You may experience a limited and short-term forward momentum in your growth at a relatively affordable cost. Instagram users who are persuaded to check you out because of your high follower numbers may also be convinced to give you a follow if:

  • You’re already creating amazing content that appeals to their interests or needs.
  • You’re offering quality products and/or services according to the comments of your real followers.
  • If you strategically time buying Insta followers with a contest or promo designed to give potential new followers an irresistible incentive.
  • If you’re also utilizing other growth strategies, such as ads, to generate more buzz around your brand.
  • If you already have a highly engaged community of real followers keeping your page busy with likes and comments.

Take note that reaping the advantages of your buy-Insta-follow strategy hinges on all these other factors. You need to have all your other ducks in a row to maximize your chances of getting meaningful results.

Disadvantages of Buying Followers

Remember that when you buy Insta follows, you’re taking many, big risks. Are these risks worth taking considering the aforementioned advantages you may gain? Take a look at the disadvantages of buying followers below and decide for yourself.

  • When you buy an Insta follow, you will most likely get bots, fake accounts, or inactive accounts. 
  • These fake followers will give you impressive follower numbers and nothing else. Your account will not get a corresponding increase in engagement. 
  • Your engagement rate will suffer, which will skew your overall performance metrics. With a drastic drop in engagement rate, your content’s relevance and visibility will also decrease. This means your real followers will see less of you on their feeds, which will further reduce your engagement. 
  • When you buy Insta follows with “active followers,” their spammy activities will dispel the illusion of your popularity. How they word their comments is often a dead giveaway.
  • Some of your real followers may get curious about the sudden increase in your follower numbers. They might look into the profiles of your “active followers.” Brands who may be interested in collaborating with you will definitely do their research, which will include verifying the legitimacy of your follower count. 
  • Your account and even your followers’ accounts will have a high risk of getting spammed. 
  • You’ll be risking having your account suspended by Instagram when you’re caught buying followers. 
  • You’ll lose your credibility. Your real followers will unfollow you. You’ll lose opportunities for brand collaboration, which can actually help you reach a wider audience. And it will become many times harder for you to rebuild your brand’s name. 
Two people shaking hands to close the deal on buying Insta followers.

Cheapest Insta Followers: You Get What You Pay For

If you’re willing to take the risks, you may feel more comfortable spending as little money as possible. Opting for the cheapest Insta followers, however, is not the smartest move. The cliche, “You get what you pay for,” is very true in this case.

Services that offer to buy Insta follows at the cheapest plans are often a scam. You’ll either get zero followers after completing your purchase, or a throng of bots and fake accounts. You may even get tricked into providing access to your Instagram or financial account. If a plan for buying Instafollowers looks too good to be true, it most likely is.

Insta Followers Price

Still want to give it a go and buy an Insta follow? Insta followers price plans range from as little as $10 to hundreds of dollars. The price per plan depends on the vendor, how many followers you want to get, the quality of followers, and whether or not you want add-ons, such as likes and comments.

There are plans that are a one-time purchase. You choose a plan, pay for it, and you get your followers delivered instantly or gradually over a specified period. Some plans are monthly subscriptions. You pay a monthly fee for a certain number of followers. The company typically guarantees an estimated number of followers to be delivered per month.

So if cheaper follower plans mean bots and fake accounts, do more expensive plans mean high quality and real followers?

It’s true that if a company’s follower packages cost more, it’s more likely that they’re legit. Take note, however, that this is not always the case. Make sure you do your due diligence and find out as much as you can about the company before making a purchase.

Read customer reviews on their website and off it. Find out how their process works, especially if they claim to deliver organic growth and real followers. Check out their FAQs section. See if they explain how they target real followers, and whether or not they do organic content promotion and follower engagement and how they accomplish these.

A marketing team discussing Instagram growth strategies.

Where to Get Legit Insta Followers

If you’re willing to spend money and buy Insta follows, you should consider better alternatives. Your money will be well spent on influencer marketing or a trustworthy growth service.

If you opt for influencer marketing, make sure to choose an influencer within your niche or industry. Ideally the influencer must have a considerably bigger follower base than you. Influencer marketing is a great way to ensure precise audience targeting. With the right influencer, you can ensure that your brand and products or services will be shown to your target audience. You’ll get legit Insta followers who are genuinely interested and will most likely deliver consistent and quality engagement. The only downside of influencer marketing is that the service is limited to a specified timeframe. Beyond it, you’ll be back on your own again.

A growth service, on the other hand, typically provides ongoing service or, at least, for as long as you want to subscribe to it. Again, make sure to choose a growth service company with an established reputation in the industry, a company like Path Social.

Path Social takes the time to find out who your ideal audience is. The company utilizes proprietary AI technology for advanced audience targeting. This is how they’re able to track down real users whose interests are aligned with your brand. Finally, their in-house team of social media specialists and their vast network of Instagram influencers perform the tedious work of putting your content in front of your target audience.

You can be sure that the followers you’ll get are real users who are already interested in what you have to offer. This means they’ll engage with you and stick with you for as long as you’re giving them what they need. Start growing and gaining Instagram followers today!