One key metric most brands use when considering influencer partnerships on Instagram is the number of followers. Unfortunately, most forget to analyze the quality of these followers, and when they sign into partnerships, they soon notice they are not getting the desired results: no engagement at all.
Fake followers—or bots—can significantly damage an account's engagement rates and brand credibility, making it difficult to measure the true impact of influencer marketing efforts. According to a report, businesses have faced losses of up to $1.3 billion annually due to fraudulent activities, including the use of bot followers.
With over 95 million fake Instagram followers, how can you ensure that you’re working with influencers with real, engaged audiences?
In this article, we’ll explore how to identify and remove bots on Instagram, discuss the tools and strategies available for detection, and provide tips on maintaining an authentic and influential presence on the platform.
In 2023, 55% of brands experienced issues with fake followers when working with influencers, raising concerns about the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Regardless of your marketing objectives, it’s crucial to understand the difference between bot followers and real accounts when evaluating potential partnerships with influencers.
While a high follower count might seem impressive, bot followers can significantly undermine an account’s credibility and engagement. These fake followers fail to contribute to meaningful interactions, ultimately harming your brand's reputation and potential for growth.
Here are the main differences between bot followers and real followers:
One of the major signs to spot an Instagram bot is an incomplete or suspicious profile. Bots typically lack the effort and detail that a genuine user would put into their profile.
Most fake Instagram accounts have no profile picture at all or use generic images such as a logo or a stock photo. Additionally, they often have little to no bio information. If there’s a bio, it might be overly generic, filled with promotional content, or suspicious links.
Authentic influencers always provide a bio where they share their interests, profession, things about their personality or valuable information such as contact email, Linktree or relevant links.
For example, beauty influencer Monica Hamada has a detailed profile where she shares her location, TikTok account email and Linktree that redirects you to her Amazon storefront, target haul and other products related to her niche.
A key indicator that an influencer has fake followers is if they have a low engagement rate. Engagement rate refers to the level of interaction an account’s posts receive relative to its follower count.
You can calculate ER by using the following formula:
ER = (Total likes + total comments) / followers x 100
Engagement rates vary depending on the influencers’ size. For nano influencers, the average ER is between 3.29%-4.39%, while for macro-influencers, it's 0.86-1.09%. In the table below, you can check Instagram’s Engagement Rate values, from low to high:
Let’s say you’re interested in working with an influence with 150K followers but average only 300 likes and 10 comments per post; this results in an engagement rate of 0.2%. Typically a healthy engagement rate for a macro influencer is between 0.86%-1.09%, so an engagement rate this low strongly suggests that a significant portion of their followers may be bots.
To facilitate the process of calculating the engagement rate, you can use Influence Hero’s Free Engagement Rate Calculator, which provides a detailed report with details like engagement rate, audience demographics and more.
If you notice that an influencer has an unusual or erratic growth rate in their follower count, this may indicate that they have fake followers. A natural and authentic growth pattern tends to be steady, with occasional spikes due to viral content or successful campaigns.
Let’s evaluate Lindcey Nava, a US beauty influencer known for her tutorials and lifestyle and beauty content. When checking her report with Influencer Hero, we can notice that her follower growth keeps a steady pace, considering that the average monthly growth rate for influencers with 200K to 1M followers is 2.9%
The report also indicates the proportion of fake followers, which is low and consistent with Lindcey’s growth and engagement rates.
Another key sign that can tell if an influencer has bot followers is if they’ve had a significant drop in followers. Instagram periodically purges fake accounts. In 2023, they deleted over 20 million accounts, so if you see an influencer losing large numbers of followers all at once, it might be due to the removal of fake or inactive accounts
When reviewing an influencer following account or comments, if you see strange or generic Instagram handles this may indicate these are bots. Bots and fake accounts often use usernames that lack originality or personal relevance, making them easy to spot.
Bot handles are usually made with:
When checking an influencer's comments, if you see that their followers comment generic things or comments that don’t have to do with the publication, this is a high indicator that these are bots.
Influencers with authentic followers often receive comments related to each of their publications.
For example, fashion and lifestyle influencer Rogan Rae Hill has over 422K followers. When browsing through her videos and picture, you can easily tell that her followers are real. In this particular example, where she shares a video of thrift shopping, you can see that the comments are directly related to the publication.
And by running a quick check on her profile with Influencer Hero, you can see that she has a low percentage of fake followers (15%)
If you notice that an influencer has high inconsistencies between engagement in their content, this can be a red flag indicating bots. Genuine accounts typically experience relatively steady and predictable engagement, while accounts with fake followers often show irregular or unusual engagement behavior.
Similarly, when an influencer’s posts receive significantly more likes and comments than others without a clear reason (such as content quality, timing, or relevance), it could indicate that the engagement on those posts has been artificially boosted. This might involve buying likes or using engagement pods, where groups of users agree to like and comment on each other's posts to inflate their numbers.
When evaluating the six latest posts of Madeleine White, a beauty influencer with over 1.5 million followers, you can see the consistency of numbers:
The first picture that had the most comments and likes had to do with the passing of her dog, which in events like this often posts have more engagement than others with a clear reason.
An influencer’s audience is a key factor for influencer marketing campaigns. If your brand is targeting a US market, you need to ensure that all the influencers you work with are located within the US and have an audience from the US as well.
When this doesn’t happen, it may be because influencers may be from other cultures, or in some cases, they have fake followers.
When an influencer’s content is related to their country, but their followers belong to a completely different region, this mismatch often indicates bots.
For example, Lele Pons, a Venezuelan-US influencer, targets content both to the US but also to Latin American countries. When evaluating their audience, you can easily see a match between the type of content she does and her audience.
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If you’re noticing that your brand has fake followers on Instagram, it’s time to take matters into your own hands. Our advice is to avoid doing mass removals, as this can seem as suspicious to Instagram. Removing 100 followers per day is the recommended amoun
To remove bots on Instagram, you have three options:
Go to your profile > Tap Followers > Find the follower you want to remove > Click on Remove > Confirm Removal
For accounts with 1,000 followers or more, Instagram provides a feature that may flag accounts if they’re potentially spam, bots or irrelevant. This way, you can easily get rid of those unwanted followers.
To remove flagged followers on Instagram:
Go to your profile > tap Followers > if Instagram has flagged any followers, you’ll see a notification called Flagged for review:
Tap “Remove all” to remove all flagged followers at once or remove each individual account by tapping Remove next to the account > Tap Remove to confirm.
If you want an easier way to remove bots, you can consider using applications and tools that specifically focus on helping users identify fake followers and mass removal.
To do a health check on any Instagram account, whether it’s yours or the influencer you’d like to work with, is useful to have tools such as:
Influencer Hero offers a comprehensive solution for brands and influencers to manage and analyze their social media presence. One of its standout features is the ability to detect fake followers.
Features:
HypeAuditor is a widely recognized tool in the influencer marketing space, known for its detailed analytics and AI-powered audits.
Features:
Upfluence is a top-tier influencer marketing platform known for its robust analytics and influencer discovery features.
Features:
Maintaining an authentic and engaged follower base is essential for any brand or influencer on Instagram. Bots and fake followers can significantly undermine your marketing efforts, leading to skewed engagement metrics and reduced credibility. By identifying and removing these inauthentic followers, you can ensure that your audience is genuinely interested in your content and brand message.
Leveraging tools like Influencer Hero, HypeAuditor and Upfluence can help you detect and remove bots, keeping your account's follower base clean and trustworthy. By staying vigilant and using the right strategies, you can safeguard your brand's reputation and optimize the effectiveness of your influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram.
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