How to Increase Instagram Followers Through Facebook Ads

You can absolutely use Facebook Ads to grow your Instagram following, but it’s not as straightforward as just pushing a “get more followers” button. It’s a strategic play that, when done right, brings highly-engaged people into your world who are genuinely excited about what you do. This guide breaks down the entire process, showing you exactly how to set up effective campaigns that attract real followers - not just numbers - and build a stronger community around your brand.

Setting the Stage: Quality Matters More Than Quantity

First, let’s get something straight: this is not about buying followers. That’s a fast track to a dead account with zero engagement. Instead, we’re using the powerful targeting capabilities of Facebook Ads Manager to earn followers by getting your best content in front of the right people. The goal isn't just to bump up a number on your profile. It’s to attract an audience that will comment, share, and eventually become loyal customers or fans.

Think of ads as an accelerator for your organic efforts. They put your content on the fast track, helping people who would love your brand discover you much faster than waiting for the algorithm to do its thing.

One of the biggest points of confusion is that Meta removed the direct “get more followers” campaign objective. Many marketers were left scratching their heads, but the strategy has simply shifted. Now, the focus is on driving targeted traffic to your profile and giving people a compelling reason to hit that follow button. And we'll show you how.

Prep Work: Getting Your Profile Ready for New Followers

Before you even think about opening Ads Manager and spending a dime, you need to treat your Instagram profile like a landing page. When a potential follower clicks your ad, what do they see? If your profile is a mess, you're just throwing money away. A few tweaks can make a massive difference in your conversion rate from visitor to follower.

Your Profile is Your Landing Page

Your profile is the first impression - make it count. It needs to instantly tell people who you are, what you do, and why they should care. Run through this quick checklist:

• High-Quality Profile Photo: It should be a clear headshot if you’re a personal brand, or a crisp, legible logo if you’re a business. Make sure it's recognizable even as a tiny circle.
• SEO-Friendly Name and Bio: Your “Name” field is searchable! Include keywords people might use to find you (e.g., “Jenna | Austin Fitness Coach”). Your bio should quickly explain the value you provide. Who do you help? How do you help them?
• A Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Tell visitors what you want them to do next. "Shop our new collection," "Grab your free guide," or "Book a consultation" are all good examples. A 'Link in bio' tool can help you maximize that one clickable link.
• Polished Highlights: Highlights act as a menu for your profile. Create clean-looking covers and organize them into useful categories like "About Us," "Reviews," "Shop," or "FAQs" to give new visitors a quick tour of your brand.

Your Content Grid is Your Portfolio

Once your profile convinces someone to scroll down, your grid has to seal the deal. A sparse or inconsistent grid signals that you're not very active, and people will hesitate to follow. Before running ads, make sure you have at least 9–12 recent posts that showcase the very best of your brand. This should be a mix of high-value content:

• Video Content: Reels that teach, entertain, or inspire.
• Carousels: Step-by-step guides, helpful tips, or client testimonials.
• High-Quality Images: Beautiful photos that capture your brand’s aesthetic.

Your ad will bring people to the doorstep, but your content is what invites them inside and gives them a reason to stay.

Building Your Follower Growth Campaign: A Step-by-Step Guide

With your profile primed for visitors, it's time to build the campaign. Open up Meta Ads Manager and let’s get started. We’re going to use a campaign objective that’s designed to accomplish our specific goal: sending people to our profile.

Step 1: Start with a "Traffic" Campaign Objective

Since there's no direct "follower" objective, the best way to move forward is to create a campaign that drives clicks to your Instagram profile. The Traffic objective is perfect for this.

1. In Ads Manager, click the green "Create" button.
2. A window will pop up asking for your campaign objective. Select Traffic.
3. Give your campaign a clear name, like "IG Follower Growth - [Date]", and click continue.

This tells Meta that your primary goal is to send users to a specific destination online, which, in our case, is your Instagram profile URL.

Step 2: Defining Your Audience at the Ad Set Level

The ad set level is where you define who will see your ads, where they’ll see them, and how much you'll spend. This is the most important part of the setup.

Set Your Destination

First, find the "Conversion" section. Under "Conversion location," select Website. Why? Because your Instagram profile has a unique URL, and we’re going to treat it just like any other URL-based landing page. Don't worry about the Performance goal for now ("Maximize number of landing page views" is a good default).

Craft a High-Quality Audience

Next, scroll down to the "Audience" section. Skip the "Advantage+ audience" suggestion for now, we want more control. Click "Switch to original audience options" if you must. This is where you pinpoint your ideal follower.

• Demographics: Set the basics like Location, Age, and Gender to match your ideal customer profile. Be specific but not so narrow that your audience is too small.
• Detailed Targeting: This is where you can really hone in.
  • Interests: Target people who follow your competitors, read industry-specific magazines, use complementary products, or follow major influencers in your niche. For example, if you sell handmade ceramic mugs, you could target people interested in "Starbucks," "specialty coffee," and influencers like James Hoffmann.
  • Lookalike Audiences: This is your most powerful tool. A 'Lookalike' Audience tells Meta to find new people who are statistically similar to a 'source' audience you already have. You can create Lookalikes from:
    • Your existing Instagram followers
    • People who’ve engaged with your profile
    • A list of your past customers
    • Your website traffic
    Start with a Lookalike based on your Instagram account interactions. This is the fastest way to find more people just like the ones who are already interested in you. As you do that, remember to exclude the original source audience. For instance, if you build a Lookalike of current followers, make sure you exclude your current followers to avoid spending money on people who can already see your content.

Step 3: Choosing Your Placements

Placements decide where your ad will physically show up. By default, Meta often pushes “Advantage+ Placements” (once called Automatic Placements), which shows your ad everywhere. For a campaign like this, we want to be more deliberate. Select Manual Placements.

Since your goal is to gain an Instagram follower, you want to show your ad to people who are already on Instagram. Forcing them to switch from Facebook to Instagram adds friction and lowers your conversion rate.

Uncheck Facebook, Audience Network, and Messenger. Under Instagram, select Feeds, Instagram Explore, Instagram Stories, and In-Stream Reels. These are all native placements where a potential follower is just a quick tap away from your profile.

Step 4: Designing an Ad They Can't Ignore

Your ad creative does the heavy lifting. All the targeting in the world won’t work if the ad itself is boring. The trick is to promote a piece of content, not your profile directly. You're not running a banner that says "Follow Me!" You're running your best-performing video or carousel post and adding a subtle call to action at the end.

The Format: Always Lead with Video

Video is a must. A Story or Reels-format video is the best kind of creative for this campaign because it looks and feels completely native to where it’s being shown. It stops the scroll without screaming "ADVERTISEMENT!" Use a piece of content that performs well organically. Pick a Reel that got a lot of saves, shares, and comments - that's your proof that the content resonates.

The Content: Give Value, Don't Beg For Likes

Your ad should provide instant value. Here are some examples:

• A how-to tip: For a personal stylist, it could be a Reel showing “three ways to tie a scarf.”
• A mini-tutorial: For a graphic designer, it could be a carousel breaking down “five signs of a bad logo.”
• An inspiring transformation: For a fitness coach, a quick video of a client's amazing progress with an inspirational voiceover.
• Entertaining content: An artisan baker could run a highly satisfying video of icing a cake to perfection.

The content itself proves why your profile is worth following.

The Copy and CTA

The ad text should be an extension of the content itself. You don't need a hard sales pitch at all.

• Headline: Use a simple, benefit-driven hook here. For example, “Learn this and more on our page.”
• Primary Text: Briefly outline the value of the video. Then add your explicit call to action, something like, “Found this helpful? Follow us @yourusername for more daily tips like this.”
• Website URL: This is where you paste your full Instagram profile URL (e.g., `https://www.instagram.com/yourusername/`). Double-check to be sure that it is correct.
• CTA Button: Choose “Learn More” or “Visit Instagram Profile” if available.

Budgeting and Measuring Success

Budgeting: Start Small

You don't have to break the bank to run these campaigns. Start with $5 to $10 a day to test. This will give you enough data to see whether your audience and creative are working. You're looking for a low Cost per Landing Page View, as that's how much it costs you to get people to click through to your profile.

Measuring Success

How will you know if it’s working (besides seeing your follower count increase)?

• Primary Metric: Landing Page Views. This will tell you how many people clicked your ad and actually landed on your profile. What's your Cost Per Landing Page View (CPLPV)?
• Secondary Metrics: Click-Through Rate (CTR), Cost Per Click (CPC), and post-engagement. These help tell you how effective your ad creative is.
• Correlate to your follower growth: Manually check your follower number before and during the campaign. This isn't a direct metric in Ads Manager, but it's the ultimate Key Performance Indicator.

Optimization

Don’t just set and forget an ad. This is all about optimization. If your first campaign isn't getting good results, don’t worry. Try a different video, different ad text, or different audiences to see what works best. Pause the ads that aren't performing well (high CPC, low CTR), and put more of your budget into the winners. That's how you scale your growth efficiently.

Final Thoughts

Running ads to get more Instagram followers isn't just about boosting a number. It's about strategically placing your best content in front of a highly-targeted audience, inviting them to join your community. Remember: the goal is to attract the right people, not just any people, and to build a community that genuinely cares about what you do.

As your community grows, you’ll find that managing your content and engaging with new followers can become quite a challenge, especially if you show up across other channels too. That’s why we designed Postbase, a visual calendar to help you plan and schedule all your social content from one spot, so your new followers always have something valuable waiting for them. Our unified inbox also makes it simple to manage all your new comments and DMs, ensuring no one in your growing community feels lost in the crowd.