Generate Leads on Instagram: Everything You Need to Know and 12 Tactics Shared

Did you know that Instagram is one of the best platforms for social media lead generation? Most marketers don’t consider it when brainstorming strategies. But if used correctly, Instagram can be very effective in generating more customers for your business.

But, like any social media platform, converting followers into loyal customers takes more than just a few posts, witty captions, and random hashtags. You need an all-around marketing strategy to nurture leads and drive sales on Instagram.

So let’s look at a few ways you can harness Instagram for lead generation purposes and how to measure your success.

What is Instagram lead generation?

People mainly post pretty pictures on Instagram, after all. So why should you use it to grow your business?

You’re wrong in assuming that your brand has no place on this visual platform. Instagram has more than one billion active monthly users, of which 90% follow at least one or more brands. Meaning there’s a lot of potential for attracting new leads and building a community of engaged customers.

Instagram enables people and brands to interact with each other in an unfiltered manner. As a brand, you can share behind-the-scenes content, educational content about your offering, or generate hype for an upcoming launch. And people can react to your content, easily share your posts, and even message your company.

And with 80% of people using Instagram to help them make a purchase decision, dismissing the platform's influence would be a mistake.

Requirements before you can generate leads on Instagram

If you’re looking of ways to grow your social media marketing agency, there are two prerequisites you need in place before you can get started generating leads from Instagram.

If you want to implement paid ads or lead forms, you’ll need to have an Instagram business account. Easily implement this via your settings on Instagram and it’s completely free.

Apart from enabling companies to create ads, an Instagram business account enables brands to track their engagement and interactions. You’ll have more analytical tools at your disposal which can help you better understand your customer and improve your business’ reach.

In addition, you’ll need to connect your Instagram profile to a Facebook page to access Meta’s Ads Manager. Doing so gives you much more customization options when it comes to who you want to target.

12 Instagram lead generation tactics

You can acquire new leads via Instagram in multiple different ways; I’m going to cover twelve tactics that you can easily implement in your company. Not all of these strategies might be a good fit for your brand. So pick and choose what’s easiest to implement while keeping your marketing and business goals in mind.

1. Create a powerful Instagram bio

Your Instagram bio is similar to an elevator pitch. It needs to make the right first impression on your audience. Why? Because every potential client who considers your company will use your profile bio to judge your authority and credibility.

Here are some tips to get started:

• Use your brand name as your account name.

• Pick a relevant category that highlights your offering.

• Use your 150 characters to write a short but powerful description that highlights your brand essence.

• If possible, incorporate hashtags into your description which can direct users toward reviews or user-generated content.

• Include a call to action above your link that highlights the benefit of your offering.

• Insert a link in your bio that directs people toward your website. Change this at any moment to direct users to the right source.

2. Make use of the call-to-action button on your profile

Make taking the next step effortless by including a call-to-action button on your Instagram profile. Include clickable links to your email address, phone number, and address so people can easily get in touch with you.

In addition to this, use Instagram’s action buttons to enable users to directly book, reserve or get tickets from your profile. Meaning, once ready, your audience can quickly convert into paying customers with few hurdles or even clicks.

3. Incorporate Instagram lead forms

One of Instagram’s latest features is lead forms which enable leads to fill out a form directly on a brand’s profile page.

Much like a lead gen form on a website that asks for a person’s phone number and email, Instagram lead forms allow users to sign up for your newsletter, ask to be contacted, receive more information, or sign up for a free trial via your company profile.

Making it easier for you to obtain contact information, build an email list, and generate leads.

4. Use hashtags when you post

To keep your brand visibility high, you need to post on Instagram. And when posting high-quality Instagram content, leverage hashtags to reach a larger audience.

Although you can use up to 30 hashtags per post, the industry consensus is that using around eleven is good to start with.

Another best practice is to incorporate very popular hashtags with more niche ones that your audience uses.

Lastly, create your own branded hashtag and encourage customers to use it too when sharing reviews or posting photos of your offering. This way, Instagram users can find these reviews by simply searching for it. And if you included it in your bio, people can see these posts from your profile.

5. Share user-generated content

Sharing user-generated content has two advantages. It acts as social proof highlighting happy customers. And it helps you build a relationship with your audience by showing that you listen and care about them.

So don’t hesitate to put the spotlight on your audience from time to time via Stories or Instagram posts. Creating positive experiences like this for your followers will resonate across your entire community.

6. Engage with your target audience

Engaging with your followers is, arguably, the most effective way of growing your Instagram account and generating leads. If you’re not social, you won’t experience success when it comes to social media marketing.

So take some time every week to engage with your audience. Respond to all comments and Instagram messages, interact with posts that mention your brand, and show your followers some love by interacting with their posts. This further nurtures potential customers while demonstrating that your brand cares about its audience.

7. Interact with your audience in the DMs

Have you noticed a user continuously watching your stories or engaging with your posts? Send them a DM thanking them for their support. This makes people feel appreciated and further strengthens your relationship.

If possible, take this further and keep conversing with them in the DMs. Ask open-ended questions, enabling you to gather market research while nurturing a potential client.

Now, this strategy works best for smaller businesses and agencies, as it might be difficult for bigger brands to keep track of all of their engagement. But if you’re just starting, this strategy is a powerful way of forging strong connections with your target audience.

8. Leverage Instagram stories and live videos

Thousands of people log into Instagram daily to check stories posted by their friends and their favorite brands. Therefore, stories can be highly effective for generating leads.

However, steer clear of posting overly promotional content. Instead, focus on adding a human touch. For example, use stories or live videos to share how your product works, share fun behind-the-scenes footage of an upcoming event, introduce your team, or highlight client testimonials.

Videos and faces humanize your brand and help further build up trust with your audience. Leading to a loyal community of followers who are more likely to buy from you.

9. Add links to your Instagram Story

One-third of the most viewed Instagram Stories are from brands. So use this powerful opportunity to your advantage and add links to direct interested viewers towards the next step in their journey and generate more traffic to your website.

For example, when sharing employee-related content and link to your career page. Or when announcing a new product launch, link to the product page or a lead form landing page. Links in stories are an easy way to entice people to impulsively click the link and learn more about your offering.

If your account has less than 10,000 followers, links can be added as stickers to an Instagram Story. If your account has more than 10,000 followers, use the “Swipe Up” feature.

10. Run an Instagram contest or giveaway

Contests are a time-proven method for attracting followers and creating new leads. They trigger people to follow your Instagram profile for a chance to win, thus rewarding your investment in a contest with immediate results.

So, for example, invite followers to repost a story, comment on a post, or tag a friend for a chance to win a prize. All of which boost your brand awareness and the number of leads you get.

Alternatively, run an exclusive sale or deal for your Instagram followers. Thus creating a sense of urgency and prompting people to buy now.

11. Partner with Instagram influencers

Whether it’s to promote a contest, new product, or upcoming event, partnering with Instagram celebrities through an influencer platform will increase your brand reach and exposure. Meaning more potential customers will get to see your brand, your offering, and the benefits that come with using your product or service.

Research and pick an influencer who carries a lot of authority in your field. Don’t solely look at the number of followers they have. Instead, focus on whether their followers match your target audience. If so, that’s most likely the right influencer for your brand. And once you’ve found the perfect influencer, maximize your campaign’s impact by utilizing the best QR code generators to create scannable codes that lead directly to your brand’s landing page or promotional offers.

12. Make use of Instagram ads

The last way of generating leads via Instagram is to invest in paid ads. Doing so will increase your brand awareness, further help you build your community, and boost leads and sales.

Instagram ads are posts, stories, and explore pages shown to a specific target audience which will be shown organically to users on their Instagram feed or explore tab.

To kickstart your efforts, use the Instagram app to boost an existing post. And to create ads from scratch, use Meta’s Ads Manager to select the objective of your ads, the specifics of your audience, and create lookalike audiences.

How much do Instagram leads cost?

If you’re thinking of investing in paid ads, you might be wondering about the cost involved. Well, another advantage of using Instagram for lead generation is its affordable advertising prices. Here’s a breakdown:

• The average ad varies between $0.20 to $2.50 per click.

• Cost-per-impression is about $6.70 per 1,000 impressions.

• Cost-per-engagement hovers between $0.01 to $0.05 per engagement.

Metrics to measure your lead generation efforts on Instagram

Once you’ve decided on your preferred Instagram lead generation strategies, it’s vital to measure success so you can tweak, optimize or stop unsuccessful tactics.

Here are a few metrics you can use to analyze progress:

• Follower growth rate,

• Engagement per follower,

• Story engagement,

• Click-through rate per story or post,

• Number of reposts,

• Reach,

• Comments.

These are just a few examples of metrics you can use to track and measure the progress of your Instagram lead-generation strategy. Choose a few metrics that you can easily track and which reflect your marketing strategy.

Instagram lead generation FAQ

Get more leads on Instagram

Generating high-quality leads via Instagram will take some time. But investing time and energy into your Instagram presence will help you take your business to the next level.

And if you’re just starting off, don’t aim to implement twelve new strategies at once. Pick and choose what would work best for you.

Combine organic and paid tactics to grow and nurture your audience, direct traffic toward your website, and close more sales.