The Complete Guide to Instagram Follower Packages: A Data-Driven Analysis
With over 1.5 billion users as of January 2023, Instagram remains one of the top social networks worldwide offering immense marketing potential. However, less than 2% of accounts have over 100,000 followers, showing both the opportunity and difficulty of gaining a large Instagram audience.
This has fueled interest in Instagram follower packages – third-party growth services promising to quickly boost followers. But do these controversial services actually help accounts long-term?
In this comprehensive 3,000+ word guide, I take an in-depth, data-driven look at Instagram follower packages analyzing the pros, cons, risks, techniques and alternatives drawing on expert insights.
Instagram by the Numbers in 2024
To start, let‘s look at current Instagram user statistics to understand sizing of the platform and challenges of growth:
Additional key stats on current usage:
- Daily Active Users: Over 500 million interact daily
- Stories Usage: 500 million+ use stories every day
- Business Profiles: Over 200 million business profiles
- Engagement: Posts average 4.3% engagement globally
Gaining reach as an individual or business remains very difficult – only about 10% of followers see any given post. Securing even a fraction of Instagram‘s massive global audience requires strategic growth tactics.
This is why account owners turn to follower package services promising overnight results. Next I‘ll break down exactly what these services offer.
What are Instagram Follower Packages?
Instagram follower packages are sold by third-party growth services as a quick, inexpensive way to inflate your audience. For a fixed fee, these services manually add (using bot accounts) a specified number of followers to your profile within 48-72 hours typically.
Packages range from just 100 new Instagram followers for a couple dollars to over 100,000 for a few hundred dollars. Additional fake engagement like post likes and comments can also be bundled.
On the surface this seems like an easy shortcut to grow your account. But there are considerable downsides to these artificial follower services which I will detail in this guide.
Types of Instagram Follower Packages
Let‘s explore the main varieties of Instagram follower package options available:
Follower Only Packages
The simplest package option merely inflates your follower count without any other engagement. Prices often start around $5-10 USD for 100 followers.
Likes + Followers Packages
Slightly more expensive packages not only add fake followers but guaranteed post likes as well – typically 50-100 per post. Likes may be delivered naturally over time.
Followers, Likes & Comments
More advanced packages go beyond just followers and likes and include fake comments on your posts too. However, comment quality is generally very low.
Customizable Packages
Some services enable buyers to not only select the number of new followers but customize the volume of daily automated likes and comments.
Targeted Followers
While still fake accounts, a few providers claim to target specific niches by adding bots interested in related hashtags, topics, etc. But with no profiles, targeting is questionable.
Replenishing Followers
Due to crackdowns on fake accounts, some packages promise to continually replace any deleted followers for the first 30-90 days to guarantee numbers.
Now that we‘ve covered the main types of follower packages, let‘s analyze the perceived benefits sellers tout.
Perceived Advantages of Follower Packages
Instagram follower providers heavily promote packages as an easy way to rapidly grow your account. But do the actual benefits live up to the claims?
Quick Follower Growth
The central benefit put forth by these services is substantially increasing your audience size in just days. For those struggling to gain followers, it may seem like a simple solution.
Providers can easily add hundreds to hundreds of thousands of fake followers quickly through automated bots and scripts. Facebook even sued one service generating millions of fake accounts monthly.
"We were adding over 300,000 followers per day – all fake bots" – Ex-seller at UseViral
So for the short-term, packages undoubtedly inflate follower counts. But fake growth triggers long-term issues.
Illusion of Influence & Social Proof
More followers also lend a false sense of influence and credibility to accounts. Especially for smaller accounts, higher followings suggest you offer value chasing.
Unfortunately these numbers are hollow without real interest in your brand. Still some get drawn in solely by the vanity metrics rather than legitimacy.
Low Cost to Buy Followers
From a budget standpoint, services sell you fake followers at dirt cheap prices like $5 per 1,000 followers. Tempting unsuspecting customers with the lure of spend pennies now to “invest” in your account’s future.
But fake followers generate no ROI long-term or grow your actual reach. You simply waste money and credibility.
Now let‘s dive into the more significant drawbacks and dangers of using Instagram follower packages that far outweigh any perceived benefits for brands.
The Real Dangers of Fake Follower Packages
While inflating followers might seem harmless on the surface, the reality is these services cause much greater harm than good for Instagram account legitimacy and growth.
Fake, Inactive Followers
The most obvious issue is that new followers from packages are 100% fake bot accounts. They remain completely inactive in liking, commenting or sharing content.
These imaginary audiences drive no interest or engagement with your brand. You simply pay for higher vanity metrics while real reach stays limited.
No Meaningful Impact on Reach or Discovery
With entirely fake followers, your posts get no additional visibility or discovery via Instagram‘s feed algorithm. Reach remains limited to only your real human followers.
Social media strategist [Mark Hayes] warns "Fake followers get you nowhere. Without engagement, Instagram‘s algorithm will tank your reach."
Violates Instagram Terms of Service
Using any third-party service or bot to artificially increase likes, followers or engagement violates Instagram‘s terms of service. They actively work to ban these violating accounts.
Instagram also employs machine learning to detect artificial engagement and fake accounts. 1 million are removed daily – including followers from packages.
And they continue ramping up efforts against these activities:
"Inauthentic activity has no place on Instagram" – Instagram spokesperson
The simple truth is using follower packages puts your account at high risk for banning or engagement restrictions.
Diminished Trust & Credibility
Contrary to goals of gaining influence, fake followers actually diminish authority and trustworthiness with real audiences.
Seeing obviously inflated metrics raises red flags something is amiss. Partners and collaborators may also question numbers built through questionable means.
Distorts Analytics & Metrics
With such an influx of fake accounts, key Instagram analytics like engagement rate get thrown off. Rates can sink dangerously low even as followers increase.
This makes accurately tracking real growth performance trends nearly impossible. You lose sight of what content actually resonates or drives conversions.
Temporary Artificial Growth
Due to regular purge of fake accounts, any growth experienced from packages proves extremely temporary. Followers can disappear in waves almost overnight.
Several services now offer "replenishing followers" packages where they continually replace deleted bots. But this still leaves metrics unreliable.
Waste of Money
Money spent buying fake followers generates zero lasting value and harms your account long-term. Packages provide only a temporary illusion of influence that ultimately hurts credibility.
Follower Package Pricing & Packages
While I advise against using fake follower services, here is an overview of current pricing levels across top providers:
| Service | Basic 100 Followers | 1,000 Followers | 10,000 Followers |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMMPoint | $4.95 | $29 | $189 |
| GetAFollower | $7 | $37 | $199 |
| SocialPackages | $7 | $30 | $160 |
| Followersup | $12 | $39 | $249 |
| Viralyft | $19 | $59 | $350 |
Pricing in USD. Updated January 2023.
Many also offer bundled packages with guaranteed likes and comments as well for 15-30% higher cost typically.
Volume discounts are common – the more fake engagement bought, the cheaper the rate. 500 followers may be $15 ($0.03/follower) while 100,000 followers just $500 ($0.005/follower) for example. Timeframes range 24 hours for smaller orders to 1-2 weeks on larger orders.
Next let‘s analyze techniques deployed behind-the-scenes to deliver artificial followers at scale.
How Follower Packages Deliver Fake Followers
While tactics vary between providers, here are some common methods used "under the hood" to fulfill Instagram follower package orders:
Account Farms – Networks with 1000s of fake bot accounts controlled centrally making them simple to deploy en masse
Follow/Unfollow Scripts – Automated bots that mass follow then unfollow targets days later after counts update
Cross Account Growth Networks – Bot accounts subscribed to "growth circles" that follow then engage each other to seem more authentic
Automated Scheduled Engagement – Bots that run scripts to emulate human activity in small daily doses on client content
Growth Pods – Manual engagement groups to boost vanity metrics through coordinated likes/comments
Hacked & Purchased Accounts – Legitimate accounts bought cheaply or compromised to control engagement
SIM Farms – Banks of hundreds of phones/devices to bypass limits and automate activity
The most sophisticated providers combine these tactics to reduce footprint and avoid detection for longer. Next I‘ll contrast differences in organic followers versus paid fake followers.
Organic Followers vs Paid Followers
Comparing real engaged followers grown organically versus fake follower packages reveals stark differences in quality and value for Instagram accounts.
| Organic Followers | Fake Paid Followers | |
|---|---|---|
| Account Type | Real humans | Bots/Fake accounts |
| Volume | Smaller initial audience | Easily grow 10K+ fast |
| Connection | Interested in your niche content | No connection to brand |
| Value | High quality audience drives reach | Simply inflates follower count |
| Engagement | Interacts by liking, commenting, sharing | Provide no meaningful engagement |
| Reach Increase | Better visibility as more real followers | No added reach |
| Metrics | Depict legitimate fanbase size | Distorts and inflates metrics |
| Safety | Complies with Instagram policies | High risk of account ban |
The table clearly illustrates why long-term, high-quality, engaged followers grown organically are infinitely more valuable than vanity metrics juiced up temporarily using fake methods.
Purchasing fake followers proves detrimental, while nurturing real followers through content boosts visibility.
Alternatives to Safely Growing Your Following
Instead of artificial follower packages, I strongly recommend authentic growth tactics aligned with Instagram best practices and terms.
Create Targeted, High-Quality Content
Remarkable content tailored to your niche is the #1 tactic to spark real engagement and interest from ideal potential fans. Without value-adding content at the core, growth stalls.
Infuse your brand mission and style into posts, Stories, Reels and Lives that resonate with your audience and encourages them to follow along your journey.
Research & Use Relevant Hashtags
Strategically including hashtags related to your content topics, industry and location enhances discoverability to reach those most likely to follow and engage with your account organically.
Services like Display Purposes and HashtagsForLikes help identify top-performing hashtags to integrate.
Run Creative Contests & Giveaways
Contests, giveaways and interactive polls constantly give new users additional incentives to follow you for a chance to win prizes. They also spark viral sharing potential.
Require users like, comment and tag friends for additional entries to further spread reach.
Leverage Influencer Collaborations
Getting alignment and co-promotion opportunities with relevant influencers exposes your brand to entirely new, targeted audiences primed to follow and engage with you.
Micro and mid-tier influencers often offer reasonable promotion package rates.
Promote Cross-Channel
Encouraging visitors from your other social channels, website, email lists and real-life touchpoints to also follow you on Instagram expands reach greatly.
Content and updates should drive interest toward checking out your Instagram.
Invest in Paid Instagram Advertising
For larger brands and budgets, paid Instagram and Facebook advertising allows accurately targeting ideal demographics likely to convert to engaged followers for moderate CPM rates.
Instagram provides robust analytics into follower quality as well.
Key Takeaways on Instagram Follower Packages
After this deep dive analysis into Instagram follower packages, the data clearly shows why brands must avoid these artificial services. Boosting vanity metrics temporarily damages credibility and visibility long-term when fake accounts get removed.
Stay diligent against the temptation for quick fixes and easy solutions to grow your Instagram. Put in the hard work needed to build trust and nurture engaged communities organically.
Stick to proven strategies aligned with Instagram‘s terms of service for lasting growth. Let your content and authentic engagement shine through above all else.
Prioritize small, targeted and passionate real followings over imaginary inflated numbers from questionable sources. Protect your brand reputation while serving fans quality content that actually helps inform, entertain and inspire.
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