Sponsored Instagram Posts: Everything You Need to Know

Instagram has emerged as a perfect channel to promote products and companies from any industry. Of the 1 billion monthly active users, 500 million users engage on the platform daily with not just their friends but also different brands. And that has led to many marketers and brands leveraging sponsored Instagram posts to boost their reach.

In fact, Instagram has become a huge revenue channel for influencers. However, that does not mean that the sponsored posts would cost you a heavy sum of money.

Here we will discuss everything one needs to understand about an Instagram sponsored post and how you can use it to market your brand and products. 

What are Sponsored Instagram Posts?

The Instagram sponsored post is the content that an influencer develops and publishes on their Instagram handle in return for compensation. That is where the ‘Instagram influencers’ enter the marketing scenario, and this is how they get the opportunity to leverage their handle for a successful career.

With influencer marketing gaining popularity with time, there were a few concerns related to transparency. Hence, as a precautionary measure, Instagram released the branded content feature that allows an Instagram influencer to make branded collaborations with companies on its platform and then tag the company name in the post they sponsored. 

Meanwhile, brands can even pay for promoting organic content that already exists to increase a post’s engagement and reach. These promoted Instagram posts also fall under sponsored posts and look similar to the Instagram ads. 

However, the only difference here is that you are paying to market existing organic content instead of developing new content, particularly for Instagram marketing purposes. 

How does Sponsored Instagram Posts look like?

An Instagram sponsored post can be identified due to the tag ‘paid partnership with (brand name)’ that appears under the username, making them highly visible. 

That tagged partnership also lets the business partner gain access to the organic insights of posts where they are tagged. For example, they can view the content’s publishing date, whether it is a video or image or an Instagram Story, and both engagement and reach metrics as well. 

These insights help them understand which collaborations are most beneficial and lucrative to them.

If you are making Instagram Sponsored Posts, you must definitely use this feature. It helps keep you in Instagram’s good book, and as it’s crucial to disclose sponsored content to the FTC clearly, it saves the two parties from possible fines or liabilities.

How can you Sponsor an Instagram Post?

Thinking of sponsoring an Instagram post as a company that’ll partner with a famous influencer?

To get started, you’ll first have to list down the details privately with the influencer. You could contact them via private Instagram messages or their official website to discuss a potential sponsored opportunity.

A few influencers will ask for an upfront payment, while others might make sponsored Instagram posts in return for free samples of the product.

When you are work out the details and payment, it depends on you as a company to create the branded Instagram sponsorship. For doing this, you will have to go to the ‘Settings’ option in your Instagram account and then look for the ‘Business’ section. 

Next, tap on ‘Brand Content’ and head over to the ‘Approved Business Partners’ option to add creator or public business accounts as an official partner. 

You could even opt to approve all the tags manually, which lets you accept the Instagram-sponsored tag right before it is displayed. That allows you to track the content and ensure that it is how you want it, which is essential for business safety purposes. 

You will receive a notification after a branded partner has tagged you in their content, with a choice to approve the tag. Once approved, the post would show up under your Insights. 

On the other hand, if you want to delete any sponsored Instagram post later, you can certainly do so by deleting the tag any time while viewing the post. 

How can you create an Instagram Sponsored Post?

We will be discussing how to make an Instagram sponsored post from both the brand and influencer sides. First, let’s see how an online influencer can make an Instagram-sponsored post.

An influencer is required to create one branded sponsorship along with a company. The company will have to include you in the ‘Approved Business Partners’ option following the detailed steps above. 

Next, you can make the post. While making the content, it is significant to remember all brand guidelines your partner might have briefed you about.

It won’t hurt to publish the Instagram post by using the business name first in both the copy and visual to ensure that they are happy with your content, even if the contract doesn’t include any such clause.

Once you are ready to publish an Instagram sponsored post, start by publishing the Story or post as you would normally do.

For the in-feed content, head over to the ‘Advanced Settings’ option and choose ‘Tag Business Partner.’ Next, you can tag the respective brand upon their approval if that’s required.

In the case of Instagram Stories, you will have to do precisely the same, just tap on the URL under the icon toolbar which lets you tag the brand. 

How to get an Instagram Sponsored Post?

Being important enough in any industry or an online platform to attract sponsors is an aim that most of us have, given how lucrative and profitable this can be. So, if you are looking for ways to get a sponsored post on Instagram by a brand, understand that you aren’t alone.

You will have to consider the below-listed steps before searching for sponsors:

Make a large, engaged Instagram following

You do not need millions of Instagram followers to get started. What you do need is a strong follower count (in some thousands) to grab the attention of a potential sponsor. 

Don’t make the mistake of buying likes or followers; you are required to have a genuine following that actively likes and comments on the content you post. 

Make your Instagram handle public

Ensure that your Instagram handle is public and that it’s either a creator or business account. That enables you to make branded collaborations later on and also helps you access the analytics. You could use these insights to pitch potential brands later. 

Niche down

While a few popular influencers, like those from a reality TV show, attract an array of distinct sponsors, several individuals get the most success when they become a known personality for a specific talent or skill. You could concentrate on fitness, for instance, or become known for possessing incredible cooking tips.

If you are an expert, you can boost your chances of attracting sponsors because your followers or fans are likely to trust your words more. 

How to grab attention for Instagram Sponsored Posts?

After creating a well-optimized Instagram account, you can follow the below-listed tips to enhance your chances of attracting potential sponsors.

Contact them directly

Let the potential sponsors know that you’ve got a strong following with a reasonable engagement rate.

Mention why you love their products and would love to know if there’s room for collaboration. Ensure that you let them know about your audience base and how it can benefit their business. 

Use hashtags to boost your reach

Companies won’t sponsor you unless they discover you. So, look at the hashtags that brands you wish to attract are using, and then add a few of them in your posts. 

Tag them in your posts

Do not spam the brands; however, give specific brands a shoutout in your posts by featuring their products to make them notice you, especially if there’s a decent engagement on the post.

Remain available for communication

It’s essential to remain responsive, especially in direct messages. Moreover, make sure that you mention your contact details clearly in your Instagram profile, be it your email address, or phone number. 

Tips for creating an effective Instagram Sponsored Post

No matter what kind of sponsored posts you use on Instagram, you can follow some universal tips to ensure that the money and time you invest in them don’t go wasted.

Know what your audience likes

Understanding what your audience likes will help decide what kind of content they’d love to see more often. Instagram Insights offers you a better look at the audience demographics as well as what content they engage with the most.  A sponsored post similar to content that has already performed well previously is likely to offer better results.  

Understand which posts to promote

All posts aren’t worthy enough to become promoted posts on Instagram. You must reserve the promotions for those posts that are doing well with your target audience already and, therefore, have a better chance to catch more people’s attention. 

Besides, when you decide to promote any post on Instagram, you will have the extra benefit of including a distinct call-to-action, which might help get conversions from an all-new audience.

Follow a consistent posting schedule

Source

The Instagram algorithm emphasizes those handles that post content consistently (at least once per day). Having a consistent posting schedule enhances your chances to gain organic reach on the post, which, in turn, also helps in making your sponsored post a success. 

Use Instagram Insights for understanding which is the best time to post on Instagram by checking when your target audience is most active on the platform. 

Test our different kinds of sponsored posts to know what works

Promoting different kinds of posts on Instagram and then evaluating their engagement statistics can help decide what sponsored posts may work for your brand. For instance, you may promote posts with distinct aesthetics or add a quote post against a picture post to check what gets the most engagement.

Set up targeting

It is necessary to target the correct audience to make sure that your Instagram posts reach the audience you have in mind. You could target by age, location, gender, and other metrics to discover people who wish to reach out. 

Winding-up

It is essential to reckon with influencer marketing in the world of social media marketing. If your company has the budget, you can consider contacting a famous influencer who could connect well with your audience.

Sponsoring an influencer’s Instagram post boosts your chances of getting increased ROIs, even more than the promoted Instagram ads or posts. 

However, if you don’t have sufficient funds, you could search for micro-influencers having a low follower count (a few thousand) but still are well-trusted and reliable in your respective field. These influencers could be a good start as even a few impressions could significantly impact the correct audience.