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December 9, 2024
“How can you make money from Instagram?” That is the question people have been asking themselves since the beginnings of the network over a decade ago. Until now, there was no direct way for someone with a popular Instagram account to monetize their popularity. It had to be done indirectly by promoting products for companies or creating original products. That led to the emergence of the influencer industry, which bridged the gap and allowed translating Instagram likes into IRL money.
At the same time, other networks, such as YouTube, TikTok, and the gaming platform Twitch developed advanced monetization systems that allow users to earn directly from their content. It’s not a secret that popular YouTubers make money every time someone plays their video. They can also partner with YouTube to place ads in the videos and earn from the number of times users watched the ads. Not everyone who will upload a video will become rich, but it’s a lucrative income for the top percent of successful YouTubers.
The Facebook company, on the other hand, did not provide any way for their users to make money. Facebook recognized only two types of profiles: regular users and businesses who are given access to advertising tools. Many of us log in to social networks to enjoy texts, memes, videos, and lives by content creators. But Facebook has ignored their importance and in many ways assumed that its unchallenged claim in the market will be enough to attract us to post more content.
In the past months, we are witnessing a shift in this trend. Like many changes in Instagram lately, this can be attributed to the rise of Tiktok, as it allows users with over 10K followers to make money for each view.
The first sign of the change in Instagram’s approach came in 2018 with the introduction of creator accounts. This third type of Instagram accounts was a first step to acknowledging the value of content creators as a group with specific needs.
What are the differences between a creator and a business account?
There are not many of them so far. From what we’ve seen, the two types still essentially have the same options. The differences in the interfaces are minute and include more audience analytics and more tools to manage incoming requests.
For now, it seems that the monetization options we discuss here will be available on creator and business accounts. But we can assume with some certainty that the future trend will be to differentiate the two, with only creator accounts having access to monetization features.
Instagram has unveiled two main ways to monetize on the app:
1. Placing ads in IGTV videos
Creator and Business account owners will be able to set up a payout account and ask to include ads in their IGTV videos. For this aim, the videos need to:
-Be over a minute long
-Be in English, French, Spanish of German
-Comply with Instagram policies (nothing offensive, sexual or violent)
-Not infringe copyright.
As part of their push to get more people to do live videos, Instagram now allows transferring money directly to the content creator while watching their lives. While you watch the video, the words “Buy a badge to support @accountX” will appear on your screen. Viewers can choose to give $0.99, $1.99 or $4.99. Several hearts will then appear near their name in the video. There’s a maximum of 250$ per user at this point. Instagram will not charge for this transaction, and 100% of the money will go to the content creator.
In middle July, Mark Zuckerberg officially announced that Facebook is committed to supporting content creators and pledged a billion dollars to support them. Part of this support is a bonus program for Content Creators who frequently go live. These are the bonus milestones listed on the Instagram website:
Like many other Instagram features, monetization is rolled out gradually, so it may not be available for you yet. However, it’s already clear that we are witnessing a significant shift in Facebook’s attitude towards a key aspect in the success of social networks – the creative individuals who upload content that resonates with other users. If you have an Instagram account with thousands of followers, and you often go live, you will definitely want to follow Instagram’s official site and Social Media blogs (like this one) to find out when your cheque from Mark Zuckerberg is due.
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