Instagram Growth Services. How Do They Work and Are They Worth It?

Instagram Growth Services. How Do They Work and Are They Worth It?

Small businesses, brands, influencers, individuals — everyone is lured by these services to grow their Instagram accounts which otherwise is a challenging task. It can take weeks and months to build a following on Instagram and gain consistent engagement. Many who fail to dedicate that time and effort or fail to grow followers resort to simpler ways to grow their Instagram account.

It sounds like a great deal, right? You pay a few dollars per month and you can see your Instagram followers growing and it feels magical. It feels worth every penny. Until you stop using these services and see that none of it was real. Summarized too easily, but that’s actually what happens when you put your Instagram account at the mercy of these growth services. 

Here’s how the Instagram growth services work and what impact they can make on your Instagram account.

What Are Instagram Growth Services?

Instagram growth services are third-party apps that engage from your Instagram account on your behalf. They follow other accounts, comment, and like to boost your account’s presence on the platform. The purpose is to like-follow-comment from your account so others like-follow-comment on your account. 

How Do Instagram Growth Services Work?

The majority of these services have bots that automate engagement from your account. Basically, when you pay them and share your account details with them, you leave your Instagram account at the disposal of a few bots and algorithms who decide who you follow-unfollow, what you like, and comment. 

The Results of Using Instagram Growth Services

Using these Instagram growth services can definitely get you more followers, as they promise. But the followers may not be real. They might not engage with your account. As soon as you stop using these services, you would notice that your followers have stopped growing for your new Instagram posts and your engagement is the same as before.  

We decided to conduct an experiment and tried using one of the services to promote a few posts. Then we stopped using the growth service and created a post to check if there’s an increase in engagement, and we didn’t notice any major difference. 

It could work for some accounts who use them consistently for months, but, in a nutshell, you would still be dealing with fake engagement and accounts for most of the time.

Another consequence of using these services would be your posts being less discoverable on Instagram. Instagram rules prohibit aggressive behavior on the platform. As stated by Instagram:

  • Users should not participate in any like, comment, share, or follower exchange programmes.

  • Ensure your comments are uniquely tailored on Instagram. Don’t post unauthorized commercial communications or spam on Instagram.

  • Instagram may limit or block apps that make a large number of calls to API that are not in response to direct user actions. 

Continuous usage of growth services and third-party apps may also get your Instagram account shadowbanned in the near future.

Should You Use Instagram Growth Services?

So should you be using an Instagram growth service to grow your account? 

No, you definitely should not. It’s always a no to buying Instagram followers,  gaining fake engagement, and boosting quick growth. If you truly want to reap the benefits of an Instagram account with thousands of followers, then put effort into building that account. Only when you gain real followers and real interaction, you can reap benefits out of it. 

If you don’t want to be tricked by fake follower numbers on Instagram or growth services boasting genuine followers, you can try out Hypeauditor’s Account Analytics and pick out influencers with real followers while avoiding those with fake audiences. Hypeauditor will help you run an in-depth audit of any Instagram account and make the right data-driven decisions. 

If you have any tips on building your Instagram account from scratch that you wish to share, feel free to share them in the comment section. 

Written on . Posted in Instagram Strategy & Tips.

Leo Zhavoronkov

Leo is an influencer marketing enthusiast and marketing copywriter at HypeAuditor. When she’s not searching for the perfect music and filters for her Instagram Stories, she can usually be found keeping up with the latest gaming and tech influencers on Twitch and YouTube – or drinking a latte macchiato.