How to Spot Fake Instagram Followers: 4 Quick Checks

Whether you are looking to strengthen your brand’s reputation or to expand your market reach, influencers can do it all., Imagine spending thousands of dollars in marketing through an influencer with fake followers on Instagram. While the money you invest in such influencers will be lost, consumer trust will be impacted negatively. In this guide, we will discuss how to spot unauthentic audiences to ensure the influencer of your choice is real. 

Key Highlights

• Research conducted by Statista concluded that 58.5% of Instagram influencers engaged in fraudulent activities to increase their followers and engagement rates. 

• Influencers buy fake Instagram followers to artificially increase their audience size, increasing their chances of being approached by brands for collaboration.

• To spot fake followers on Instagram, conduct an audience audit, monitor engagement rates, and monitor the influencer’s social media presence.

• The influencers you choose must become your brand partners and advocates. Ensure you work with influencers with no fake Instagram followers for a positive return on investment. 

Why Checking Fake Instagram Followers Is Essential? 

Fake followers on Instagram are bots or automated accounts that do not belong to real people. Fake followers are only meant to boost an influencer’s audience count. This is by bringing generic comments and fake likes with no authentic engagement. 

Research conducted by Statista concluded that 58.5% of Instagram influencers engaged in fraudulent activities to increase those following them and engagement rates. 

Prevalence of Influencers With Fake Instagram Followers (Source: Statista, 2024)

Partnering with influencers with fake followers does not generate a meaningful impact on your brand since the audience is not real. Additionally, if your target audience suspects that your brand is linked to influencer fraud, then your brand’s reputation is adversely affected. Therefore, it is important to understand how to tell an unauthentic audience when selecting the best influencer for your brand. 

Why Influencers Buy Fake Followers

Influencers buy fake followers to artificially increase their audience size. Consequently, this increases their chances of being approached by brands for collaboration. A detailed discussion about why people buy unauthentic audience is provided below:

1. To create the perception that an influencer is popular 

Buying fake followers helps a user create the illusion that they have a wide audience. According to Forbes, accounts with more followers appear more credible at first glance. This increases the influencer’s chances of securing brand partnerships. 

2. To show that the account is growing 

Brands are likely to collaborate with influencers whose Instagram accounts show continuous follower growth since it implies they have a wider audience reach. However, brands should learn how to spot fake users to avoid wasting money on the wrong influencer. Authentic users engage with content, post comments, and share posts which promote the brand. 

3. To boost their ego

Fake Instagram followers make the user feel more popular and important. While this gives them a boost given more real users join the list, there is no audience engagement. They just appear successful on Instagram which validates their ego. 

4 Ways to Spot Fake Followers on Instagram 

The simple guide below will help you see unauthentic influencers on Instagram. 

1. Conduct a Followers’ Audit

Conducting a followers audit entails analyzing a user’s audience to identify automated users or bots. Use the following steps to confirm whether they are real:

1. Analyze the follower list: The first step to auditing Instagram followers is looking for Instagram accounts with generic images or no profile picture. If an influencer has many users who have never posted and have no profile pictures, they are fake. Genuine Instagram accounts have a normal mix of pictures, audience, and those they follow. 

2. Check out followers’ usernames: If a username consists of random numbers and letters, there are high chances it’s an unauthentic user account. Real users select their preferred usernames when opening their accounts. 

3. Analyze the engagement of the followers: One of the major tips to tell fake followers on Instagram is to analyze their engagement rate. Unauthentic users do not like, share, or comment on the influencer’s posts. Identify whether the reactions to an influencer’s posts match up with the number of users following them. 

4. Compare the number of followers to the number following: An influencer should have a loyal community. Therefore, if he/she has many accounts following thousands of other users and minimal audience, there are chances such users are fake.  

5. Use tools like Instagram bot checkers or IG Audit: These tools help automate the process of checking automated followers. They also provide detailed reports on the same. 

6. Analyze comments on different posts to check generic responses: Responses that do not sound organic when reading them are most likely bot accounts. 

Auditing followers helps brands to ensure the authenticity of an influencer’s audience before collaborating with them. 

2. Analyze Engagement Rates 

Instagrammer Mosseri Explains Why Engagement Rate is Important 

Instagram engagement rate is one of the key strategies used to spot fake followers in Instagram. It communicates about the performance of the influencer’s posts. How do you analyze user engagement rates on Instagram? The guide below shows how you do it. 

1. Compare the number of followers to comments and likes: An account with fake followers does not present increased engagement activities as the number of users grows.

2. Analyze engagement consistency: Identify abnormal changes in follower engagements. Disproportionate increase in comments or likes indicates they are purchased. 

3. Check comments for authenticity and relevance: Look out for generic comments like “Amazing picture”, “Great post”, “Love this!”. Such comments lack a personal touch and are irrelevant to the original post. 

4. <...