Can you make money on Instagram?
Yes, you absolutely can! As one of the most dynamic social media platforms, Instagram offers various avenues for individuals and businesses alike to generate income. The amount of money you can make on Instagram varies widely, depending on several factors, like your niche, target audience size, engagement rate, and the monetization strategies you employ.
Instagram influencers are typically divided into tiers from nano-influencers (up to 1K followers) and micro-influencers (1K to 10K followers) up to mega-influencers (over 1M followers). Influencers with 5K to 10K followers charge, on average, $115 per post. And marketers love Instagram—in 2024, US marketers spent an estimated $2.21B on Instagram influencer campaigns.
However, brand partnerships and sponsored Instagram posts are not the only ways Instagram creators can make money online. If you sell products, an Instagram shop can be one of your sales channels. With 46.8M people in the US expected to make a purchase on Instagram in 2025, you can earn money through direct sales.
Now, let’s look at how you can earn money on Instagram.
How to make money on Instagram: 14 ways
From becoming a brand ambassador and affiliate marketer to launching your store, the Instagram app offers several ways to earn money.
1. Partner with brands
You don’t need a million followers to call yourself an Instagram influencer and create sponsored posts. Many companies are now looking for micro-influencers—people with accounts with anywhere from 1K to 100K followers and strong personal branding. Big influencers tend to post so much sponsored content that it loses credibility. Smaller influencers still have a close relationship with their followers and post plenty of authentic content.
Source: HypeAuditor
Think about yourself: would you trust a product review of a vacuum cleaner more if it comes from a friend you know and trust or a celebrity who probably never cleans their own house?
Plus, bigger influencers are often out of reach for most brands. Many charge a lot for a sponsored post, and collaboration might require lengthy contracts, complex conditions, and multiple steps. Micro-influencers offer more flexibility and quicker content turnaround times, so brands are often interested in working with them.
So, how can you earn money as a micro-influencer? You can offer Instagram marketing services to brands and create sponsored content through Instagram reels, posts, stories, or a combination of these things.
Companies typically pay Instagram influencers per piece of content, but they’ll need to know your Instagram account statistics for recent posts before sealing the deal. They’ll want to make sure that your followers are real, that the audience you reach matches their target customer demographics, and that your content is engaging.
Receiving products in exchange for Instagram marketing services like promotional posts is still considered sponsored, so many influencers start by accepting products instead of making money.
However, don’t fall into the trap of only working for products. If skincare is your niche, you could end up with a cabinet full of creams and serums but no money to spend. As your audience and influence grow, don’t hesitate to negotiate a payment on top of the products, even if a brand doesn’t offer it at first.
Source: Morgan Riddle’s Instagram
Here are 3 ways to get sponsored if you don’t have a high follower count:
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Learn about and sign up for influencer marketplaces (in select locations, Instagram offers its own Creator Marketplace)
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Tag brands in your posts and hope you get noticed
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Pitch companies by sending them emails, DMs on Instagram, or even reaching out to specific employees on LinkedIn
Either way, start small. When you don’t have a proven track record, you have better odds of scoring a deal with the local kombucha brewery than with Coca-Cola.
Read more:
2. Get paid by Instagram as a Creator
Instagram offers several monetization tools to help influencers earn income from their Instagram content. For example, fans can support their favorite creators by giving them gifts on Instagram reels.
Source: Instagram
Instagram is also testing a bonus program, which rewards users for the performance of their reels and photos. This is an invitation-only program, and it’s available for users only in the US and South Korea. To be eligible for the program, you need an Instagram business account or creator account and meet Instagram’s Partner Monetization Policies.
If you get invited to participate in the program, Instagram will count up to 150 content pieces you share until the end of the bonus opportunity. Your earnings depend on how often your posts are viewed.
3. Become an affiliate
Affiliate marketing is a low-cost way for businesses to promote their products, as there’s hardly any upfront investment they need to make. It’s also a great way for you to earn extra cash.
While both influencers and affiliates promote products or services on their Instagram accounts, how they earn money sets them apart. As an influencer creating sponsored posts, you and the brand will agree on a sum of money, usually per piece of content posted. Brands often ask to approve the content before you’ve published it and may request to make changes.
As an affiliate, however, you’ll get a unique affiliate link or promo code and a commission for sales from Instagram users clicking the link or using the code to make a purchase. If it takes you a single story or 2 weeks of constantly posting about the same product, it doesn’t matter—whether or not you get paid depends on the end sale. Since it’s a more flexible process, brands are less likely to micro-manage your posts, so affiliate relationships often offer more creative freedom.
There are 3 common ways to become an affiliate:
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Reach out to your favorite brands. Most bigger companies will already have info about affiliate programs on their website. In some cases, they might set requirements for having a certain number of followers or a specific activity level in the past months. Usually, though, like with Printful’s affiliate program, an interest is all you need. Smaller brands might not have shared the information but will likely be willing to work with you if you reach out to them directly.
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Join one or several affiliate networks that act as the middleman between you (the affiliate) and the brands. Apart from making it easier to filter and narrow down programs you’d be interested in, the main benefit of making money through affiliate networks is that they’ll handle the financial transactions and guarantee payment of commissions. Check out this list of The Best Affiliate Networks & Programs.
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Lastly, if you’re growing your brand and have an engaged audience, take advantage of it to get noticed by businesses. Once you’ve picked a specific niche and used relevant hashtags, those niche brands are more likely to come knocking on your door. Don’t forget to develop an effective marketing strategy to help build your profile and get noticed.
How much can you make as an affiliate? According to the Affiliate Marketing Benchmark Report 2023 by Influencer Marketing Hub, most affiliates make below $10K a year, but some stars make more than $150K annually. That’s a wide margin to make good money from affiliate deals.
Learn More: 10 Tips for Affiliate Marketers to Make More Money
Lauren and Penny is a great example of an influencer doing it right. Lauren posts adorable photos of her dog wearing different accessories and puts her affiliate code in the captions for almost every post. She also has conveniently organized highlights by brands that she collaborates with and uses Linktree in her Instagram bio to share promo codes. This way, followers can easily find her affiliate links when needed.
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