Let’s talk about something you might not be thinking about: how to use Instagram for traffic. Instagram is a great targeted traffic source if you know how to tap it. In the past I’ve talked about Instagram marketing, 10 ways to use Instagram for your business, and even how to use hashtags on Instagram. Instagram is incredibly popular among people of all backgrounds, and there are limitless accounts dedicated to any niche you can think of, including yours. Niche accounts which have thousands or even millions of followers.

Today I’m going to give you a great quick tip on how to use Instagram for traffic from those relevant accounts and thousands and thousands of followers to point back to your website, offer, or business.

Note that this method is paid, but because most people (both account owners and advertisers) don’t know that this is an option, you can get huge masses of targeted traffic on the very cheap, arguably cheaper than any other comparable traffic source.

How to Use Instagram for Traffic

One of the best ways of how to use Instagram for traffic is paying the owner of a relevant and popular account on Instagram to feature a URL of your choice either in a photo or on their profile. Some channels are created by companies to honor and promote their products and services, but most of the accounts on Instagram are made by everyday people who just want to share their hobbies and interests with other people in image form. They didn’t get into Instagram to make money or to any selfish ends, but can quickly find themselves sitting on a massive account with millions of followers who see every image/post they send out.

These are the account owners you want to target with your offers. Specifically you want to find owners who are laser focused in terms of relevance to your niche. The amount of followers an ideal account owner has will vary as there are arguments to be made for accounts small and large.

Larger Vs. Smaller Accounts:

Smaller accounts are less likely to have been solicited in the past by other advertisers, so you are more likely to get a better rate with them. The trade off of course is that your ad is seen by less people.

Larger accounts have a lot more followers or eyeballs to see your ads. The trade-off is that the account owner knows this and will likely charge you more to get your ad shown. The larger the account, the more likely that owner has a set rate they charge per photo or amount of time your link is shown on their profile.

Sometimes you’ll stumble on an account where the owner has 10,000+ followers but no sponsors. You’ll typically find these account owners in less popular niches from a marketing point of view, but if you can make it work for you then you arguably have found a hidden gem where you can keep your advertisement on their profile indefinitely without spending too much.

It will save you time to create a nice and polite form letter where you inquire about advertising on their profile via a link. Tweak the letter to each account you reach out to. A nice way to do this is by singling out a particular image of theirs which brought you to their account in the first place. Make it personal and not sound like you’ve done this a dozen times today alone.

Figuring out how much you’re willing to pay is also key. Like with any kind of paid advertising, sometimes you need to send a lot of traffic at your offer just to find out how well it’s going to convert through that particular medium. While $100 for a day or even an hour worth of exposure on an account which has 1 million+ followers may sound expensive, if your offer and call to action are compelling enough, you’ll get a nice chunk of their entire follower base to click through and sign up for your offer.

Therefore it goes without saying that once you have come to an agreement with the owner of the account, make sure that your landing page is ready otherwise that traffic is wasted. Ideally you’ll be sending them to a squeeze page or some kind of landing page which you have split tested well in advance so that you’ve implemented things which you know work.

Remember that while this is relevant traffic, it may not be targeted in the sense that these people are ready to take whatever action you wish of them. Therefore you’ve got to be ready to give something away for free.

An autoresponder packed full of freebies is the best way to increase sign ups and promote your products in time with subtlety. Offering “3 free tips on” whatever your niche is works as great copy to slip into the accounts profile if they’ll let you along with your link and is one of the most tried and true methods for boosting your sign up rate. After that you can let your list do the work for you. But in the meantime, don’t dismiss Instagram as one of the most explosive outside the box ways to drive a lot of relevant targeted traffic to your offers.