It’s easy to waste a lot of money on social media partnerships that don’t do anything for your business. If your business is centered around a product or service that photographs well, you’ll probably be looking at Instagram as a potential marketing option. What do you need to know about Instagram paid partnerships before you start investing?

What is an Instagram paid partnership?

First, what are Instagram paid partnerships? If the average user sees a post tagged with “Paid Partnership With…” and a brand name, that means that the person who shared it has some sort of commercial relationship with the brand. It also means that they received compensation for their post, though depending on the relationship this could be money, product, discounts or other forms of payment. Initially, these partnerships were limited to the audience that the poster had on their account, or what they could manage with hashtags but Instagram’s new paid partnerships tool gives creators and brands the option to allow brand accounts to promote an individual creator’s posts on an account with a larger following. Not only does this make it easier for brands to showcase product-forward content created by their brand ambassadors, but it also helps to support the platform’s dedication to transparency and clarity when it comes to sponsored posts. This is due to the change in FTC guidelines when it comes to sponsored advertisements. Before the change, more than 90% of influencer and celebrity endorsements were in violation of those guidelines.

Why are these partnerships important?

If you’re setting up a partnership program, this gives your brand more exposure — both through your brand’s page and your partners — than you would normally receive through regular traffic and hashtag navigation. These posts can also be added to your brand’s stories, for more exposure.For the average user, these partnership programs help them tell the difference between authentic posts and paid advertisements. It’s useful for people who don’t want their feed peppered with ads — users can just unfollow the influencer that’s making the posts if necessary. As an added incentive, using the partnership program gives both the brand and the influencer the tools to see exactly how well their content is performing. Both parties have the option to analyse those metrics, so they can work together to see what’s working and what’s not. Influencer marketing is expensive, costing anywhere from $1,000 to $1 million per post, so it’s important to keep track of those metrics so you’re not wasting money on things that don’t work. 

Setting up your Instagram paid partnerships

Setting up an Instagram paid partnership is fairly simple and straightforward for business owners. First, you need to be approved by Instagram as a partner. Once you’ve been given that feature, start by accessing Business Settings and scroll down to Branded Content Approvals.Toggle on the “Require Approvals” switch, and from there you’ll be able to approve influencers as business partners. Once they’ve been approved, you’ll receive a notification any time they create a post or a story and tag you in it. From there, you can either decide to remove yourself from the tag or approve it as a sponsored post. 

Mistakes to avoid with IPP

Setting up an influencer marketing campaign is easy, but it’s also easy to waste a lot of money on posts that don’t bring you any traffic. What mistakes should you avoid when you set up an Instagram paid partnership?Firstly, don’t go into any sort of influencer program without a plan, objective and goal in mind. Ask yourself what you want from and what you expect to achieve with this marketing investment. Setting up a plan and having an objective in mind will keep you from making simple but costly mistakes. Be smart about who you choose to partner with. Using random influencers that don’t align with your brand will just end up costing you money. Working with micro-influencers that hang out in your niche rather than macro-influencers and celebrities that might not really know or like your brand will help you create more effective advertisements and more authentic engagement. Instagram is a great platform to use if you can find great influencers to partner with. Getting started with the Instagram paid partnership program can help you whether you’re trying to build a media empire or just bring some new organic trafficto your website.
Share this post