You’ve probably got a perfect Instagram feed with high-quality photos and unique captions. Your IG reels and IG live are probably on point, giving you a wider reach and better engagement.
So now what?
The next step is to monetise your Instagram and get all your efforts paid off (literally). Fortunately, Instagram has committed to investing over US$1 billion by the end of 2022 to support creators who are just starting. Indeed, Instagram has opened up a wide range of opportunities for brands and influencers alike.
Whether you’re a photographer, a beauty or fashion influencer or a content creator, there are a variety of Instagram monetisation options for you to choose from.
What is Instagram Monetisation
Unlike social commerce which involves selling products to earn, monetising your Instagram to earn is different. For creators and influencers, monetising means earning money for the content you can create. It can be in a form of a post, a story or an IG reel.
Monetising your Instagram account can be made using different methods such as working with brands, getting ad revenue on videos, receiving tips and even using Instagram’s newest Subscriptions.
Instagram monetisation isn’t only for popular celebrities. According to Statista, Instagram influencers with 5,000 to 20,000 followers accounted for 47.3% of influencer accounts worldwide while influencers with 20,000 to 100,000 subscribers accounted for 26.8 percent. Macro-influencers with 100,000 to one million followers represented 6.5 percent of the total. On the other hand, mega-influencers and celebrities with more than one million subscribers accounted for 0.5 percent.
Most Effective Ways to Monetise Your Instagram in 2022
Let’s talk about the 5 most effective ways to monetise your Instagram in 2022.
1. Work with brands
Working with brands is one of the easiest and the most popular ways to monetise your Instagram account. This involves collaborating with brands to create sponsored content either to advertise a product, a service or a campaign. Influencer marketing focuses on direct product placement through tutorials, giveaways and unboxings.
Back then, influencer marketing only involved creators and influencers posting a product, writing about how great the product is and then tagging the brand. Fortunately, today’s new Instagram tools such as reels and stories make branded content more authentic and entertaining at the same time.
2. Badges in live streams
Instagram Live Badges is one of the latest features of Instagram that aims to help content creators and influencers make money on the app. During a live video, viewers can purchase badges to support creators.
Badges are available for:
- One heart – $.99
- Two hearts – $1.99
- Three hearts – $4.99
To use badges, go to your Profile and click on your Professional Dashboard. Select the Badges tab then turn it on. Set up a direct deposit payment account either via your bank or PayPal. Then, go live!
Badges in Live is available to all eligible creators in the US. Access to badges for eligible creators in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, Australia, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico is currently invite-only.
3. Video product placements
Video product placement involves creating a video that features a product and then generating money from advertising it. You can opt to use Instagram stories, reels, Instagram Live and IGTV.
- Instagram Stories: temporary videos that only last for 24 hours. It can be live or saved videos.
- Instagram Reels: short-form videos between 15 to 30 seconds.
- IG Live: suitable for content longer than 15 minutes. A live video where you can interact with the audience and save it on your IG page.
- IGTV: long-form videos up to 15 minutes long.
While all four types of video content aim to help you interact with your audience better, each type may work differently.
For example, Instagram Stories are a great way if you want to show authenticity by showing your viewers how you use the product on a daily basis. Reels, on the other hand, are an excellent choice if you’re planning to create an easy to consume content. If you want to create long-form content, you can use IGTV or IG Live.
4. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is another easy yet effective way to monetise Instagram in 2022. You share a trackable link to a product, a customer buys with your link then you receive a percentage of every purchase made.
You can use Instagram Stories for adding affiliate links as long as you disclose to your viewers that it is an affiliate link. You can also include an affiliate link on your feed by putting it in your caption.
5. Enable Instagram subscriptions
Another new feature in 2022 is Instagram Subscriptions. Available on Facebook since 2020, Instagram Subscriptions will help creators develop deeper connections with their followers while growing their recurring monthly income by giving subscribers access to exclusive content and benefits directly on Instagram.
During initial testing, this feature will only be available to a limited number of U.S. creators. The creators will set a monthly price of their choice, unlock a “subscribe” button on their profile and offer a list of benefits to their subscribers:
Subscriber Lives: creators can broadcast exclusive IG Lives to their subscribers.
Subscriber Stories: creators can create exclusive Instagram Stories just for their subscribers.
Subscriber Badges: creators will see a subscriber badge next to comments and messages so they can easily identify their subscribers.
Ready to Monetize Your Instagram Account?
With Instagram investing heavily in e-Commerce and influencer marketing, we can expect them to release more features that will help content creators earn money on the platform itself. Until then, these methods above should provide you with everything you will need to monetise your Instagram account.
Chris Anne
Smmile is a Digital Marketing Agency in Singapore with over 10 years of experience in the industry.