To be honest, Facebook does not offer a direct ad type specifically for growing Instagram followers. However, why am I writing this title? Because we can achieve this goal through another form of advertising and settings.
Let’s think about it: if our goal is to grow Instagram followers through ads, but unfortunately, the Facebook Ads Manager does not provide a campaign objective for increasing Instagram followers (currently, it only supports a campaign objective for growing Facebook Page followers). How can we solve this problem?
Let’s change our approach. What is the key event just before the audience follows your Instagram account? The answer is visiting and browsing your Instagram profile. Conveniently, this event falls under the campaign objectives supported by Facebook ads. So, we can create and optimize ads for this event, which will very likely (95% probability) lead to an increase in followers for our Instagram account.
The ads are optimized solely for Instagram profile visits, meaning the algorithm does not focus on increasing your followers. However, based on current strategies, this method is the best way to grow Instagram followers through advertising channels.
Ad Setup Steps
Use the Traffic campaign objective.

In the ad set settings, select “Instagram Profile” as the event conversion location.

The campaign objective will default to Instagram Profile Visits, with no other options available.

Review the ad placements, and you will find that only Instagram placements are enabled.

The specific eligible ad placements include:
- Instagram Feed
- Instagram Explore
- Instagram Explore Home
- Instagram Story
- Instagram Reels
- Ads on Instagram Reels
- Instagram Search Results
When creating the ad, you only need to provide the text copy and creative assets; no need to input a link.

The CTA button will default to “Visit Instagram Profile.”

Finally, publish the ad.
Ad Optimization Instructions
It needs to be reiterated that this is an ad with the campaign objective set to Traffic, optimized for Instagram Profile Visits. Instagram Profile Visits do not exactly equate to follower growth, but there is a strong correlation between these two events. However, the algorithm only focuses on driving traffic. Therefore, we need to pay close attention to two key data metrics: the number of visits and the increase in followers.
Meta has added the Instagram Profile Visits metric to the Ads Manager. You can add this metric as a column in your report.

You can always monitor if the ad is driving traffic to your Instagram profile. Meanwhile, you need to manually track the growth of your Instagram followers.
The best practice is to add a call-to-action (CTA) text on your Instagram profile, encouraging visitors to follow you. Additionally, test different CTA texts to increase the likelihood of gaining followers.