Instagram boasts over 2 billion monthly active users as of 2023, making it one of the largest social media platforms worldwide. But while the sheer size brings huge audiences, it also means intense competition for attention. Solo creators and small business owners can quickly get lost in the mix without social media marketing expertise or advertising budgets. The allure of artificially inflating perceived popularity through services like Ingramer is understandable. Yet the risks likely outweigh any temporary vanity metric gains according to industry experts who have studied Instagram growth hacking tools and tactics extensively since their genesis.
Meet Your Guide: Pro Instagram Growth Strategist Ethan Since 2014
Today we will dive deep into a recent YouTube review on Ingramer from Ethan, a verified Instagram growth strategist and founder of multiple social media agencies catering to influencers and brands. With nearly a decade of hands-on experience helping clients succeed on Instagram, his verdicts on the legitimacy and potential dangers of growth services carry significant weight.
"I‘ve been working day in and day out with Instagram since really the start of the platform back in 2014," Ethan explains in the video. He breaks down his star rating methodology for evaluating different growth tactics and companies—from safe and sustainable strategies warranting 4 or 5 stars down to shortcut hacks risking Instagram bans. "I‘ve seen services literally destroy people‘s accounts, get them disabled."
As part of his full-time focus on Instagram consulting and community building, Ethan closely tracks emerging growth services and shifts in Instagram‘s stances and algorithm rules. "I keep my ear very close to the ground with anything new that comes out or any new changes."
Let‘s examine Ethan‘s key conclusions from his testing and informed discussions with contacts at Instagram. While not an official company perspective, he offers wisdom from the front lines few possess.
The Gradual Creep of Over-Optimization on Instagram
Instagram exploded in popularity thanks to its focus on compelling visual content and intuitiveness over text-heavy posts. But with scale came increased advertiser priority—now 70% of users follow at least one brand profile. The days of effortlessly gaining traction solely by posting great photos organically have passed.
In 2023, over 140 million photos and videos get shared to Instagram daily. The average post now only receives a dismal 2% engagement rate on average. Cutting through the noise requires strategic hashtag research, frequent posting, community interactions, and continued refinement through analytics.
Many solopreneurs and gaming personalities lack the talent or time needed to manually grow at the pace required today. Ingramer and tools like it promise to auto-pilot the busywork of targeting relevant accounts, scheduling content, and engaging likely new followers. But will such services actually undermine your odds of Instagram success?
Ethan‘s Star Rating Methodology for Instagram Growth Services
Ethan explains his 0-5 star scale for categorizing Instagram growth services and tactics, which we‘ll reference throughout this piece.
***** (5 stars) = An exceptionally safe and strategic approach to genuine Instagram growth
**** (4 stars) = A solid methodology unlikely to trigger engagement limits or bans
*** (3 stars) = An average solution with moderate risks depending on implementation
** (2 stars) = An unsustainable growth shortcut likely to cause issues if used at scale
- (1 star) = An unsafe tactic virtually guaranteed to incur penalties or bans
Later we‘ll explore real-world examples of services and techniques occupying different levels on this scale. Instagram maintains strict policy stances, but still focuses bans largely on visible spam-like activities vs more discreet growth experiments. First let‘s examine Ethan‘s assessment of Ingramer specifically.
Ingramer Review Highlights: AI-Fueled Pros and Cons
The expert describes creating an Ingramer trial account to directly test its capabilities and user experience promises. Ingramer appeals to solo creators and entrepreneurs lacking the resources for dedicated community management—leaning on automation and AI to run growth experiments at scale behind the scenes.
Key capabilities the tool claims to offer include:
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Automatic direct messaging and commenting outreach to potential new followers
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Discussion prompts and canned content to simplify engagement
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Tracking brand mentions and hashtags related to your niche
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Analytics on optimal posting times based on your audience patterns
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Scheduled photo and video posts queued for consistency
For those struggling to balance content production with audience engagement, the proposed value is obvious. But how does Ingramer‘s artificial growth approach actually hold up?
Ethan praised Ingramer‘s targeting and suggestions for relevant profiles and hashtag opportunities to tap into. However, he adamantly stressed the continued need for manual oversight and thoughtfully tailored interactions.
"Bots can‘t pick up on trends, nuances, sarcasm, context, or culture," he warned. "Instagram hates anything disrupting their vision for organic creative expression and community."
Let‘s analyze the reasons why Instagram historically downranks accounts seeming overly bot-dependent regardless of policies technically staying within guidelines.
The Murky Line Between Growth Hacking and Manipulation
Even with Ingramer emphasizing not blindly spamming contacts or blasting irrelevant hashtags, relying too heavily on automation poses risks according to experts. Instagram actively seeks out and restricts attempts to programmatically game interactions no matter how subtle or well-intentioned.
But plenty of individuals and brands still employ dicey tactics daily, rarely facing outright bans as long as staying below detection thresholds.
"I‘ve definitely used services exactly like this in pretty sophisticated ways to grow accounts," Ethan admits. "But just because you can do something doesn‘t always mean you should. And I‘ve seen the dark side""
He references the common growth hacking strategy known as follow/unfollow: repeated cycles of finding target niche accounts, following them to gain initial visibility, then unfollowing soon after hoping some will stick as permanent engaged followers.
Many continue successfully utilizing follow/unfollow manually or via automation. So is it "safe" by Ingramer‘s metrics? Let‘s compare some growth hacking pros and cons through Ethan‘s experienced lens.
Pros of Tactics Like Follow/Unfollow:
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Clearly effective for inflating followers and engagement rates when used consistently
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Generally technical compliance with Instagram‘s carrier policies if executed properly
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Relatively affordable growth investment compared to traditional ads
Cons of Depending on Tricky Tactics:
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Rapid spikes or volatile stats patterns risk triggering "inauthentic behavior" signals
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Potentially receiving fake followers with low actual content affinity
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Fewer options for recourse if unexpectedly flagged or banned
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Negative brand experience if called out publicly for "shady" growth tactics
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No long-term impact on revenue or real fanbase building
Verdict? "You gotta decide where you stand. There‘s no right answer," Ethan concludes. "I just know I always win when I stay patient with creative content itself at the core rather than chasing metrics."
Instagram seems to share this outlook based on past platform-wide algorithm shifts calling out engagement bait tactics and inflated vanity metrics devoid of authentic community connections.
Instagram‘s Whack-a-Mole War on Artificial Growth
Ethan compares Instagram to a giant game of whack-a-mole when it comes to blocking questionable growth services one-by-one as they pop up trying to exploit loopholes. For example, back in 2019 they outright banned the site LikeBoost.ai he uncovered aggressively selling automated liking software and bot-powered follower services.
"They never publicly announce exactly what triggers bans because that allows room for people to walk the line and test limits," Ethan notes. "But Instagram can change the rules and algorithms at any point, so promises of risk-free growth will always carry big caveats."
He warns how a sudden shift could cause accounts leaning heavily on tactics like rapid follow/unfollow or vanity metric padding to suddenly crater without reliable warning signs:
"I‘ve seen accounts go from 30K down to 3K followers seemingly overnight after updates targeting inflated engagement rates."
For these reasons, Ethan discourages creators and brands from anchoring long-term Instagram strategies around gaming metrics, no matter how consistently it ranks content higher pre-algorithm shakeup.
"Stacking the deck temporarily won‘t teach you the hands-on skills to win once the house changes rules. I‘ve just seen the beast recover from too many apparent ‘kills‘ to not expect more lives."
But plenty still rightfully wonder, "What specifically even triggers the dreaded disable hammer even if avoiding clear spam?"
Reading Between the Fine Print of Instagram‘s Policies
Rather than outright ban common growth tactics publicly shown driving results but tough to clearly pinpoint in isolation, Instagram simply continues tweaking its ranking algorithm. They essentially hide accounts seeming overly dependent on what they deem "inauthentic engagement" without needing to call them out directly or document exact penalties.
But Instagram does specifically prohibit the following activities in its Terms of Service—violate these, and you likely endanger your account existence:
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Registering accounts via automation/scripts rather than manually
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Coordinating with others to artificially inflate post performance
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Utilizing fake accounts or misrepresenting identities/intentions
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Selling, purchasing, or trading user accounts, followers, or media metrics
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Posting repetitive or irrelevant content focused solely on gathering metrics
The key common thread seems to be deliberately distorting perceived popularity rather than earning it organically. Even if software like Ingramer technically checks policy boxes, Instagram remains wary.
"I don‘t think anybody has ever been disabled specifically for using a service like Ingramer alone," Ethan clarifies. "But do you want to risk becoming a test case?"
For him, the short-term gains fail to balance outplaying long-term roulette with account stability integral to creator livelihoods. But the lure for those struggling to gain traction remains.
The Allure of Automation When Growth Stalls
Ethan sympathizes with marketers, company owners, and influencers drawn to automation promises as organic efforts hitting walls. Producing amazing content proving itself resonating with engaged followers sounds good in theory. But the reality of constantly optimizing posts based on tedious trial-and-error and analytics leaves many burning out.
"Going from 0 to 1000 followers can take ages grinding manually no matter your talent," he observes. "But then I watch a slick video ad for a service getting me there in days and it‘s tempting to give shortcuts a whirl."
The Instagram expert even admits having previously used automated tools at times to jumpstart momentum for client accounts and his personal branding pages after posting consistently incredible content still failed to gain meaningful visibility.
"I don‘t judge anyone too harshly for testing some growth hacks here and there," Ethan says. "Building audiences today across so many platforms with wavering attention spans feels brutal."
But he always cautions creators that even if seeing initial results, make sure you fully understand the tactics used to fuel spikes under the hood. Relying too heavily on black box automation creates fragile perceptions of community support unlikely to convert to sales or withstand major platform shifts.
My Take As a Fellow Marketing Technologist
While not working specifically on Instagram, I have over a decade of experience managing digital campaigns and analyzing social media engagement data across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other top platforms.
The patterns Ethan points out here regarding the platform‘s wariness towards automation mirror what I‘ve seen play out across rivals also focused on fueling "authentic" user generated content and discussions.
Short-sighted growth hacking can produce quick vanity metric wins, but distracts from long-term viable channel strategies. The communities providing creators and causes true mutual value resist manipulation attempts.
I‘ve also worked closely with gaming enthusiasts, tournament organizers, and content producers navigating social platforms. The gaming community in particular grapples with inflated metrics and follower counts disconnected from meaningful support.
Viewbotting on streaming sites like Twitch has led to trust issues, for example. And I commonly coach creators struggling with Instagram follower counts not translating to genuine brand lifts or event turnout.
Ingramer seems a relatively safe middle ground approach to experimenting with AI assistant-style growth. But I stand by Ethan‘s advice focusing on both creative content improvements and strategic audience building through partnerships and cross-promotions initially.
Lean on automation to enhance rather than artificially manufacture creator success. You want swelling momentum in-step with impact to attract true supporters.
The Verdict: AI Assist OK, But Don‘t Get Addicted
I agree that Ingramer avoids clearly violating Instagram‘s policies based on its reasonable automation limits and guidance. However, creators clearly bear significant risks leaning too heavily on tactics keeping their accounts perpetually under review.
The tool could help genuine content creators lacking expertise fine-tune some best practices. But buying into inflated metrics risks addiction without matching monetary return.
Ethan gives Ingramer an average 3-star "use with major caution" rating. I concede hackers gonna hack, and not all growth playbooks neat and tidy. But for most, I suggest focusing creativity on content itself over chasing shortcuts until you better grasp engagement authenticity signals.
"Ultimately Instagram wants an app people enjoy spending time on more than chasing metrics." Ethan concludes. Stay aligned with that, and you‘ll build audience momentum benefiting sales and passion pursuits alike."
What innovative yet policy-compliant growth hacks have you found most effective for standing out on Instagram without distorting community member perceptions? I believe the best marketers marry automation efficiently with strategic human creativity and relationship building. But excess vanity metrics rot foundations built on sand. Test carefully rather than staking your channel‘s entire existence on black box software promises.