For some time now, Instagram engagement has been declining overall, but it isn’t for all the bad reasons. One of the major reasons behind this is due to Instagram’s commitment to removing bots, spam, and comment pods in order to ensure that your followers and engagement are real.

It took Instagram roughly four years to reach its first 300 million users. The number of monthly active users reached 500 million in June 2016. Almost a year later, the same number of people joined. At the end of September 2017, there were 800 million active monthly users on the platform. In 2021, there are 1.074 billion Instagram users which is a 22.9% increase from 2020. While Instagram was meant to be only a photo-sharing platform popular with teens, it has grown to become one of the most popular social media sites in the world.

However, this kind of rapid growth leads to saturation. The saturation of feeds leads to greater competition for users’ attention, which means decrease in engagement. 

Let’s explore the reasons for this downward spiral:

1. Poor quality audience

Lack of quality followers is one of the biggest factors affecting engagement, and it is generally a good thing to have many followers, unless they are inactive or fake followers. Having fake followers will decrease the overall engagement rate, regardless of whether it was intentional or not.

Instagram’s algorithm evaluates engagement in the following way:

• Initially, only a small percentage of your followers will see your new post.
• This feature measures likes and comments on your latest post and compares them to engagement on older posts.
• The new post will be shown to your remaining audience if it is getting a higher engagement rate.
• In contrast, less engagement indicates you may have fake followers, and this might contribute to a lesser chance of having your post seen by the rest of your audience.

If your audience is fake and inactive accounts, they almost never interact with your posts which in the end will lead to a decline in your engagement rates.

2. Shadow bans and hashtag restrictions

As a result of a recent change in Instagram’s algorithm, users have started using comment pods as a way to bypass the algorithm. Engagement can be improved by using comment pods, but they are inauthentic. Furthermore, Instagram bans users they believe are part of an abusive comment pod.

Another reason users are seeing a decrease in engagement is restricted hashtags. Platforms classify them as either NSFW or spammy (like #beautyblogger or #follow4follow) and reduce post visibility. As soon as an account is flagged, it is checked for suspicious activity and you could be shadowbanned. 

Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t ever release a list of banned hashtags, so it’s difficult to know or check on a regular basis. However, if you think your hashtag is banned, we recommend you search the hashtag and see what comes up. If there are “posts hidden” messages, you should know that the hashtag is banned, and it’s best to stop using it. 

3. Robots and automation

Several automation websites, such as MassPlanner and Instagress, have been shut down by Instagram. These apps help users gain followers and engagement by creating bots. These are like mini robot clones with the same interests and preferences as the original user. These are not necessarily fake accounts, but they artificially boost engagement as they just like and comment on other people’s posts. It does not matter if you use automated tools yourself, you will be affected if your followers used them. Since they don’t like everyone’s post in their feed, engagement can decline.

4. Suppression of hashtags for business accounts

The new algorithm acts differently depending on the account type, and posts related to a hashtag can only be seen by people who follow the pages associated with that hashtag unless it is a top post.

Business accounts are subject to this rule,  and this means that accounts that follow specific algorithmic rules will have a harder time getting featured for some hashtags.

5. Saturation

Overall, Instagram post interactions have decreased by a whole 33% in the past year. A 27% drop was seen in likes and comments, and 39% drop in comments and likes on videos. The primary cause of all of this is Instagram saturation.

There is an increase in both the user base and posting frequency. More content is showing up in users’ feeds since they follow more accounts than before. There’s a ton of content to keep up with, and it’s a bit overwhelming. In the end, this increased competition for engagement has resulted in a decline in engagement.

In light of all of this, what is the solution to the decreasing Instagram engagement?

1. Using #hashtags strategically

When used correctly, hashtags can be used to gain popularity among target audiences. They enable other users to find, follow, and interact with your Instagram account. However, you won’t achieve anything by using and abusing random hashtags.

You can get featured in feeds by using relevant hashtags that are popular with your target audience. It is also recommended to use creative hashtags with your posts, as the narrower their scope, the more engaging they are to users.

2. Calls-to-Action

Get your posts seen by your followers by adding a captivating caption. Adding a call-to-action to the caption of your posts is the easiest way to get them to interact. According to the Instagram algorithm, posts with higher engagement are more likely to appear in user feeds.

For Example, engage your audience by providing a question, for instance, how they feel about a product or asking them to leave a reply in the comment section. 

3. The best time to post

Another way to improve your engagement is by posting during peak hours, when your target audience is most likely to be online. This way you can reach the greatest number of people with your posts.

Obviously, peak times will vary depending on the kind of target audience and time zone. You can use Instagram Insights to discover when your followers are using the app if you have a business account. Posting at different times can also be an experiment to determine the best time to post.

4. High-quality content

Here is a recommendation that comes right from the source: Last year Instagram for Business responded to users experiencing issues with its new hashtag search policy.

Instagram wants people to put more emphasis on quality content to increase engagement. Rather than focusing on hashtags, they suggest focusing on a proper growth strategy for their target audiences. This shows their commitment to encouraging and promoting authentic engagements.

This also means, businesses are encouraged to allocate appropriate budgets for their Instagram growth, as organic growth is going to be a slow option. Allocating budgets for the business account growth also means building your target audience which will result in higher and quality engagement which is beneficial in the long run.

5. Instagram Stories

More than 80% of consumers prefer brands to post live content on social media. This is exactly why you should take advantage of Instagram Stories. Use relevant hashtags in your Stories to reach more people and catch their attention, along with other options such as location tag.

Engage your followers by posting behind-the-scenes photographs and bloopers, make it fun and engaging. Another trick is to share stories from live events. The Instagram Stories feature is a great way to gain more likes and comments in real-time, which improves your engagement rate.

Conclusion

Instagram is constantly changing and improving its algorithm to provide a better experience for users. There is no doubt that engagement has declined over the past few months, but shortcuts like bots and comment pods won’t last. All they can do is create a false sense of security.

We recommend to focus on the tips shared here because they are timeless and will not change with time or algorithm changes. You will be on the right track.

Digital marketing has proven itself to be the most effective type of marketing. For instance, email marketing\, social media, content marketing, search engine optimization, to name a few, are types of digital marketing strategies that are fundamental for business success in today’s world.

It’s obvious why as many as 95% of organizations have expanded their digital marketing budgets in recent years and also why nine out of ten marketers expect that their budgets will increase in the forthcoming years.

All things considered, digital marketing is very complex and includes various strategies, all extremely important. As the consumers progressively expect omnichannel experiences and need to have the option to reach brands on all their preferred channels, marketers have the big challenge of loosening up that spending plan for countless channels and strategies.

So how would you make a budget that ensures your marketing strategies will flourish?

Know your marketing objectives

First thing first – What are your main goals this year?

The most ideal approach to begin planning your budget is to be extremely clear and realistic about your objectives for the upcoming year (or quarter). Having objectives set up will allow you to focus on the strategies that you should focus on the most.

For example, if you wanted to grow the business website and bring more business out of it, then you should invest more in delivering high-quality content, leveraging conversion optimization to boost conversions on your website, and invest in better search engine optimization to support the targeted traffic and any other strategies that drive targeted traffic.

Audit your past results

When you understand what you need to accomplish this year, you should take a look at your past results to help inform your 2020 strategy and budget.

Using the same example as before – creating more business from your site – in order to identify the best tactics to achieve that goal, you should review your past results to see which channels and strategies performed best before, just as what hasn’t filled in as you’d needed it to. Which channels drove the most (targeted) traffic? Which ads created the most leads? Etc.

For example, some of the things you should look into:

• Which channels drive the best outcomes, reliably, based on your marketing objectives? These are the channels you’ll need to keep on putting resources into and even increase your spending.
• Which channels aren’t performing well enough? If you evaluated certain channels and they’re basically not creating results,  it might be worth removing them totally from your methodology or cutting down the spending plan.
• Which marketing tactics have you used in the past? What was your ROI (return on investment) for every one of these strategies?

When performing the audit, remember your objectives so you will know which strategies will really help you achieve these goals.

All things considered, if a strategy didn’t turn out for you as you would hope it would, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should altogether eliminate it.

For example, your SEO efforts in 2020 probably won’t have worked out as you needed. Search engine optimization is an unquestionable requirement with regards to digital marketing so rather than totally eliminating it from your budget, you should rather attempt to understand why it didn’t work and what you need to improve for the next year/months.

For example:

• Your financial plan probably won’t have been sufficiently high for all you needed to accomplish and you should, in fact, allocate a bigger budget in the future.
• You haven’t utilized the correct methodology: evaluate your whole way to understand why it’s not proceeding as it should.

Evaluating your options

As mentioned before,  digital marketing is a complex practice, with various strategies and systems – and large numbers of them are must-dos.

Allocating your budget

So, what should your marketing budget be?

Preferably, it’s suggested that your marketing budget is somewhere close to 7% to 15% of your complete business income – the sweet spot is around 9-10%.

When you realize exactly how much your spending plan is and have a list ready of all of the digital marketing strategies to use in 2021, it’s an ideal opportunity to begin allotting that budget to the different strategies.

It is ideal to allocate the majority of your budget to any strategies that have demonstrated success before, while additionally guaranteeing that they’re in line with your objectives. Be open minded to explore new strategies, because the digital is constantly changing and you have to keep up to be at the forefront.

There is no solution that works for everybody – every business is different and recommendations will change significantly relying upon your industry and niche, your products and services, your business objectives, and obviously, your actual budget. That is the reason you need to remember these things when you plan your budget and designate assets.

Don’t forget marketing software’s

Marketing is practically impossible without devices and software, and you need the tools for a variety of marketing strategies and it’s something that you should investigate in great detail, each time you plan a new budget or strategy.

Here is a list of the most important marketing tools and software’s to consider: 

• Social media marketing/management software
• Project management and collaboration tools
• Email marketing tool
• Marketing automation software
• Personalized marketing software
• Outreach tools
• Content creation tools: video creators, graphic design software, and so on

Budget for trying out new strategies

To wrap things up, it’s critical to understand that testing is fundamental with regard to marketing.

All in all, you should consistently put a portion of your marketing budget just for testing new marketing strategies, platforms and tools. Some will work, some may not – yet testing and experimenting are a major piece of the work and how you introduce new and quality techniques with your overall digital marketing strategy.

For example, some of the strategies you might want to try:

• Customized advertising: make more customized content, introduce personalization programming on your site to show customized content automatically, set up automation to deliver customized emails at the correct time, etc.
• Video marketing: on the off chance that you’ve not utilized video yet, presently is definitely an opportunity to begin – or be abandoned. Use video on your points of arrival, via web-based media, on your blog, or even form a YouTube channel.

At last,  crafting a comprehensive digital marketing budget can be complex, but if you get it right, it can have a major impact on your businesses’ success in 2021.

At the point when you plan your budget, follow the tips illustrated in this article and focus on your goals and your previous outcomes – without overlooking the significance of attempting new strategies and techniques also.

Hiring a professional and experienced digital marketing agency can be a major benefit to your business, as it may bring to light the latest within the digital marketing and truly help your business grow.

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