Methods for Earning Money from Instagram Reels: Strategies, Techniques, and Case Studies
After the discontinuation of the Reels Play Bonus program in early 2023, content creators have several alternative methods to monetize Instagram Reels effectively. Here are 11 ways to make the most of your Reels:
- Affiliate Marketing: By recommending products or services in Reels and sharing affiliate links, creators can earn commissions when followers make purchases through these links. Reels work well for tutorials, reviews, and unboxings, often paired with shoppable links in Stories or bios.
- Selling Products or Merchandise: Using Instagram Shopping, creators can tag products (physical merch, digital goods like courses or e-books) directly in their Reels, enabling easy purchase by followers.
- User-Generated Content (UGC) for Brands: Some brands hire creators to produce high-quality Reels for their own marketing campaigns. Creators get paid without necessarily posting sponsored content on their own profile.
- Promoting Other Monetized Platforms: Reels can funnel audiences to platforms like YouTube, Patreon, or Twitch, where creators monetize through ads, donations, or memberships.
- Instagram Gifts: Eligible creators can receive virtual gifts (stars) from fans during or after Reels. Each star is worth $0.01, converted to cash payouts after reaching a minimum threshold.
- Instagram Subscriptions: Creators offer exclusive content, including special Reels, to subscribers who pay a monthly fee that creators set.
- Ads on Reels: Instagram is testing ads on Reels, where creators can earn based on performance metrics like the number of plays. This ad revenue sharing is in a gradual rollout stage.
- Promoting a Patreon account to your Instagram followers could be an alternate way to monetize your Instagram Reels.
- Instagram Gifts feature allows select creators to earn income directly from their audience by accepting stars as gifts, with about $0.01 USD for every star sent.
- Promoting your other social media platforms that pay creators, such as TikTok and YouTube, might be a good approach to monetize Instagram Reels.
- Building a community of subscribers is crucial for long-term success. By adding multiple styles to a single Reel, you create more engaging Reels that hold your audience's attention and increase the likelihood that someone will find at least one dress they like or even purchase multiple styles.
To maximize income, creators often combine these streams, using Reels to build an engaged audience and then leveraging affiliate sales, direct fan support, product sales, and brand deals.
Online stores that sell physical products can add shoppable product tags to their Reels to direct people to their Shop so they can purchase some amazing products. Influencers can launch a merch brand that they promote in their Reels more subtly. Find the best times to post Reels to boost engagement. When creating branded content, remember to keep it relevant to your niche and your followers. Brands like Lulus make compilation videos where they'll show multiple outfits in a single Reel.
Small, engaged audiences in relevant niches tend to convert better for brands than large followings. Creators used to get paid based on the performance of their Reels, how many Reels they created, and by participating in themed Reels "challenges." Sell a service, such as a coaching session, group trips, catering, bookkeeping, or even construction. Accept donations through Patreon.
In summary, after Instagram discontinued direct Reels Play bonuses, creators primarily monetize through affiliate marketing, product sales with shopping tags, virtual Gifts, subscriptions, ad revenue sharing on Reels, UGC for brands, and cross-platform promotion.
