Grow Your Business with Instagram Paid Partnerships

You might’ve noticed that some of your favorite Instagram influencers are now including the "paid partnership" tag on sponsored posts. This tag is deployed to increase transparency and make it easier for followers to tell which posts are paid endorsements.

It can be used all through the app, in a bid to keep the Federal Trade Commission off your back. The FTC has been trying to crack down on businesses that don’t clarify their paid relationship with other creators/brands.

So, paid partnership tags not only provide you access to insights but also protects your business from any risks associated with sponsored posts. It helps increase transparency with the audience.

This piece has been put together to help you reap the benefits that come with using this extra; you would learn how you can use the Instagram paid partnership feature to your advantage.

Using influencers on Instagram

A paid partnership is when a business or influencer shares a sponsored post with the appropriate tag and identifies the sponsor as such. When this feature is used as it should, the partnership tag will show atop the post (where we usually have the location).

Followers will always know the posts are sponsored. They’re shown as such with a small badge alongside the partner’s profile name. Your business page can be found by clicking the hyperlink that’s shown directly underneath the username - great for business referrals.

Businesses are catching on to the fact that Instagram is a great platform for referrals. And with increased transparency and trust, they can feel more confident hiring influencers and promoters on the app.

Taking advantage of the paid partnership feature on Instagram can aid business growth. How?

Benefits of paid partnerships for business growth

• 1. Your business looks credible

  The whole essence of launching this feature was to give both businesses and influencers marketing transparency. Since the new tagging option will make sponsored content evident to the viewers, you eliminate trickery from your business.

  Your brand can always give this clarity. Well, most businesses have always wanted to notify their followers when they’re in a partnership, so you can now use this new feature to your advantage.

• 2. Access to new insights

  You should take advantage of getting insights into how the content is doing on your partner’s account. When you use this option, you and your partner will have access to insights. The metrics on your insights will be the same as your business partners.

  So with this access, you’ll have data that gives clear pointers into the effect of your influencer marketing efforts. This way, you can take rational actions and make informed decisions on how to keep growing your business through wide coverage and reach.

• 3. Adding influencers to your marketing plan

  Using this feature is going the way of adding influence to your brand marketing mix. The truth is that anyone can be influential about a thing or two; i.e., every business can benefit from using influencers for their growth.

  To get this right, you need to first consider your target audience, industry, budget, business objectives, and then the types of influencers you want to work with. When you put all these into consideration, you can have a paid partnership that will work positively for you. It will, in turn, impact your business immensely.

How to employ the paid partnership feature on Instagram

Your business needs to be given access to use this feature.

• Step 1: Turn on ‘partner approval’

  This is the first step you need to take. Go to the app settings and under Business Settings, click on Branded Content Approvals.

  Require Approval is off by default, so just toggle on for brand partners (with a business/creator account) to request approval for paid partnership.

• Step 2: Approve brand partners’ accounts

  Now, the influencer tags the business as they post the branded content. They appear in your Approved Accounts tab, which is right under Require Approval and is where you can approve or deny accounts that have requested to create sponsored content for you.

• Step 3: You can create the content (optional)

  If your business wants to provide the ad content, forward it to the creator and double-check that they have shared the story, reel, or post. You can go ahead to tag your business, enabling you to further publicize your branded content.

• Step 4: Measure content performance

  You can measure the performance of main-feed posts and stories. While main-feed insights are permanent, you have a two-week window to track story insights. So, you can use this period to measure the taps-forward, reach, replies, exits, and taps-backward.

Summary

If you need a collaboration anytime soon, you can start with this feature. It’s here to help businesses and influencers grow if used properly. Plus, it offers businesses the transparency and trust that the audience deserves.

Consumers need only credible businesses and by using this feature, that aim can be achieved. This is such an amazing way to increase insights and flexibility to your business page.

The good thing is that Instagram is always updating and adapting the paid partnership feature. So, this practice will not only be prominent amongst Instagram features, it should be even more user-friendly in the future.