How to Upgrade Instagram to a Business Account

Switching your Instagram from a personal profile to a business account is one of the most effective moves you can make to start growing your brand seriously on the platform. This simple change unlocks a suite of powerful, free tools designed to help you understand your audience, reach more people, and drive real business results. This guide will walk you through exactly how to make the switch, what benefits you'll gain access to, and how to start using your new features immediately.

Why Switch to an Instagram Business Account?

Moving from a personal to a business profile isn't just about appearances, it’s about gaining access to a toolkit that changes how you interact with your audience and measure success. If you're using Instagram for anything other than sharing photos with family and friends, making this switch is a complete no-brainer. Here’s what you stand to gain.

Get Access to In-Depth Analytics with Instagram Insights

This is arguably the single most valuable benefit. A personal account is a black box - you post content and hope for the best. A business account gives you Instagram Insights, a built-in analytics dashboard that pulls back the curtain.

With Insights, you can track key metrics like:

• Reach and Impressions: See exactly how many unique accounts saw your post and the total number of times it was viewed. This helps you understand which content truly captures attention.
• Audience Demographics: Learn about your followers, including their age range, gender, and top locations (cities and countries). This data is gold for tailoring your content and ad targeting to the people who are actually listening.
• Active Times: Discover the days of the week and the hours of the day your followers are most active on Instagram. Posting during these peak times can dramatically increase your initial engagement.
• Profile Activity: Track how many people are visiting your profile, clicking your website link, and tapping on your contact buttons. This shows you how well your profile is converting visitors into leads or customers.

Without this data, you're essentially marketing in the dark. With it, you can make informed decisions to create more of what works and less of what doesn't.

Add Actionable Contact Buttons and a Business Category

A business account makes it incredibly easy for users to get in touch with you right from your profile. You can add buttons for "Email," "Call," and "Directions," reducing friction for potential customers who want to connect. For a local coffee shop, a "Directions" button is essential. For a consultant or service provider, an "Email" button is the perfect call to action.

You can also add a specific business category (like "Restaurant," "Clothing Brand," "Digital Creator," or "Health/Beauty") which appears directly under your name. This simple label instantly communicates what your brand is about, making your profile look more professional and credible.

Unlock the Ability to Run Ads and Promote Posts

If you ever plan to put money behind your content, a business account is non-negotiable. Only business and creator accounts have the ability to create Instagram ads and "promote" or "boost" existing posts. This allows you to serve your best content to a highly targeted audience based on their location, interests, demographics, and behaviors.

Want to show your new product video only to women aged 25-40 who live in Chicago and are interested in sustainable fashion? You can do that. Promoting posts is a great way to amplify your reach beyond your existing followers and get your content in front of people who are most likely to become customers.

Set Up Instagram Shopping and Product Tags

For e-commerce brands, a business account is the key to unlocking one of the platform’s most powerful features: Instagram Shopping. By connecting your product catalog (usually through Facebook Commerce Manager), you can tag products directly in your feed posts, Reels, and Stories.

When a user taps on a tagged product, a small pop-up appears with the product name and price. They can then tap again to view a full product details page within the Instagram app and click through to your website to purchase. It turns your Instagram feed into a visually compelling, shoppable storefront, making the journey from discovery to purchase incredibly smooth.

Use a Link Sticker in Your Stories

It used to be that only accounts with over 10,000 followers could add swipe-up links to their Stories. Now, Instagram has rolled out the "Link Sticker" to all business accounts. This small but mighty feature allows you to place a tappable link directly in your Stories, making it one of the most effective ways to drive traffic off the platform. You can use it to link to blog posts, new products, sign-up forms, YouTube videos - anything you want. For a personal account, the only place you get a clickable link is in your bio.

The Step-by-Step Guide: How to Upgrade Your Instagram Account

Now that you know the why, let's get into the how. The process is quick, free, and can be done entirely within the Instagram app in just a few minutes.

Step 1: Go to Your Profile Settings

Open the Instagram app and navigate to your profile page. Tap the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner to open the main menu. From there, tap on "Settings and privacy."

Step 2: Find Your Account Management Tools

Inside the "Settings and privacy" menu, scroll down until you find the section labeled "For professionals." In that section, tap on the first option, which should be "Account type and tools."

Step 3: Choose "Switch to Professional Account"

At the top of the next screen, you'll see a blue line of text that says "Switch to professional account." Tap it. Instagram will then show you a few introductory screens highlighting the benefits you're about to unlock. Tap "Continue" on each of these screens.

Step 4: Select Your Business Category

Next, you’ll be asked to select a category that best describes what you do. You can scroll through the list or use the search bar to find the most fitting option (e.g., "Entrepreneur," "Artist," "Restaurant"). Below the categories, there's a toggle to "Display on profile." You can decide if you want this category label to be visible on your public profile or not.

Step 5: Confirm You Are a "Business"

Instagram will ask you to choose between two types of professional accounts: "Creator" or "Business." While they are very similar, there are subtle differences. "Creator" profiles are designed more for public figures, influencers, and artists, offering slightly more flexible profile controls. "Business" profiles are designed for companies, retailers, local businesses, and service providers. For most brands selling a product or service, choosing "Business" is the most appropriate option.

Step 6: Add and Review Your Public Contact Information

This is where you'll input the details for your contact buttons. Instagram will prompt you to review your business's public contact information. You can add an email address, a phone number, and a physical business address. You don't have to fill in all three, but you must provide at least one. Remember, whatever you enter here will be publicly visible on your profile for anyone to see and use.

Step 7: Connect a Facebook Page (Recommended)

Finally, Instagram will prompt you to connect your business account to a Facebook Page. While you can skip this step, it is highly recommended. Connecting to a Facebook Page is necessary to use certain features like running ads across both platforms, setting up Instagram Shopping, and using many third-party management tools. If you have a business Facebook Page, log in and connect it here. If not, Instagram will give you the option to create a new one directly from the app.

And that’s it! Your profile is now an official Instagram Business Account.

What to Do Immediately After You Switch

Your work isn't done yet. Now it's time to start using the tools you just unlocked to your advantage. Here are three things you should do right after making the switch.

Explore Your Instagram Insights

Start familiarizing yourself with your new analytics dashboard. On your profile page, you'll now see a button that says "Insights" or "Professional Dashboard." Tap on it and start reviewing the available data. Look at the "Total followers" section to see where your audience is from and when they're most active. Check out "Accounts reached" to see which of your recent posts performed the best. This early exploration will help you build a habit of checking your data regularly to inform your content strategy.

Optimize Your Profile for Business

Now that you have your new features, do a quick audit of your profile. Make sure your contact buttons are working and lead to the right places. Re-read your bio - does it clearly and concisely explain the value you provide to your target customer? Your bio is often the first impression a potential customer has, so make it count. Use a clear call to action, like "Shop our new collection👇" or "Book your free consultation now," pointing to the link in your bio.

Plan Your First Promoted Post

There's no better way to see the power of your new account than by testing the promotion feature. You don't need a huge budget to start. Dive into your Insights and find a recent post that already performed well organically - one that got a lot of saves, shares, or comments. Good organic performance is usually a strong indicator that the content resonates with people. Use the "Promote post" button on that piece of content, set a small budget (even $10-20 is fine for a test), define your target audience, and let it run for a few days. You'll get firsthand experience with how ads work and see the immediate impact on your reach.

Final Thoughts

Upgrading to an Instagram Business Account is a simple, no-cost step that provides incredible value. The access it gives you to analytics, promotional tools, and customer-facing features transforms your profile from a passive content feed into a powerful engine for growing your brand and connecting with your audience.

Once you have access to these new features, the real work of consistently planning, creating, and scheduling great content begins. We built Postbase to make that part easier, especially for managing the video-first content like Reels and Stories that drives so much engagement today. You can use our visual calendar to plan your entire strategy and trust our reliable scheduler to get your posts live exactly when they should, letting you focus on building your brand without fighting your tools.