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How Do You Get Approval for Branded Content on Instagram?

Instagram Marketing
How Do You Get Approval for Branded Content on Instagram

Branded content is a new feature that Instagram recently released. It’s meant to help the process of brands and Instagram influencers partnering for marketing promotions. If you’re wondering how to get approval for branded content or why you can’t use branded content on Instagram, keep reading. 

How Do You Qualify for Branded Content on Instagram?

Instagram has been vague about who actually qualifies for their new branded content program. To qualify for branded content, Instagram has stated you have to:

  • Have a business or creator account.
  • Have an established presence with authentic and original content.
  • Follow all community guidelines.
  • Cannot be a government official.

For some creators, these qualifications are confusing. It’s hard to tell what exactly qualifies as an “established presence” on Instagram. Although, a good estimate would be at least 10,000 followers. Many of Instagram’s other features they’ve rolled out over the years all required at least 10,000 followers to use them. 

That said, the best way to find out if you qualify is to request approval from Instagram. 

How Do You Get Approval for Branded Content on Instagram?

Requesting approval for branded content on Instagram is pretty simple. Just go to Settings > Account > Branded Content > Request a Review. Once you take those steps, there’ll be a quick form to walk you through the application process. After that, you’ll have to wait and hope that Instagram approves your account. They should send you a notification if you’re approved. 

What Is a Branded Content Notification on Instagram?

The branded content notification is a label that shows a content creator was compensated to promote something for a brand. This notification is meant to provide transparency to Instagram’s user base.  Instagram uses the branded content label to flag promotional posts, so viewers know what content is sponsored.

While some creators see this as a downfall, others like this feature, since it shows other brands they are a reliable asset to promote products and services. If creators with a branded content label get good results, it could allow other companies to take notice and provide even better opportunities in the future. 

Notifications Within the Branded Content Program

If you’re participating in the branded content program, you’ll also get notifications from Instagram with updates. 

Creators will receive notifications when brands approve their posts for a branded content promotion.

Brand owners will also get notifications when creators have labeled themselves as ambassadors for the brand. 

These notifications help both creators and brand owners manage their influencer marketing programs

How Do You Remove Branded Content Notifications on Instagram?

Sometimes users will wrongfully get a notification such as “this looks like branded content” on one of their posts. If the post isn’t a branded promotion, there should be a place to click that says, “this isn’t branded content.” Instagram should then be able to review your post and will most likely remove the notification if it isn’t an influencer promotion. 

Brands will also automatically get notifications whenever someone tags them in a branded content post. This is meant to prevent everyone from being able to label themselves as one of your official brand ambassadors. 

To remove a request for branded content that you don’t want to approve, you can simply hit “decline” on it. If you don’t want to receive these notifications, you can go into Settings > Business > Branded Content and toggle off “Manually Approve Tags.” However, disabling this isn’t recommended. You don’t want everyone to appear like they’re representing your brand. 

What Is the Paid Partnership Feature on Instagram?

The paid partnership feature on Instagram was created to allow brands and influencers to collaborate more easily. It’s a great sign that Instagram fully supports influencer marketing, as it has many benefits for social media platforms, content creators, and audience members alike. 

The paid partnership feature also helps provide more transparency to audience members. All content creators on Instagram are advised to label sponsored posts as a paid partnership. This lets people know that the content creator received compensation for creating the post. 

Benefits of Paid Partnership on Instagram

There are many benefits of paid partnership on Instagram, including:

  • It provides tools for brands to see data from promotional influencer posts right on Instagram
  • It makes it easy to see when influencers you’ve partnered with post promotional content. 
  • Influencers will receive more credibility with verified sponsorships on the platform. 
  • Brand names get more of a boost from paid partnerships, since their name is clearly tagged on the post. 
  • Consumers are aware when posts are promotional. 

All these reasons make the paid partnership program on Instagram a great addition. 

How Do I Use the Paid Partnership Feature on Instagram?

Once you’ve been approved for the paid partnership feature, making use of it is easy. All you have to do is:

  • Go to “Create Post” as you would normally do. 
  • Near the caption box, there will be an “Add Paid Partnership Label” that you should click. 
  • Click on “Add Brand Partners.” 
  • Search for the brand partners you want to add. 
  • Click on “Next.”
  • Then click “Done.” 

After that, the brand partner should have been successfully added. They will get a notification that you tagged them in the post, which they can approve or decline. 

How Lionize Can Help with Your Influencer Marketing

While Instagram’s branded content feature is great, it doesn’t provide brands with all the features they need to be successful with influencer marketing. To get the best results, you’ll want to use an influencer marketing platform that helps you easily find influencers to partner with, track data from posts in an organized way, and manage influencers effectively. 

Lionize can help with all of this. Lionize is an influencer marketing platform that uses artificial intelligence software to help you make more educated decisions about your influencer marketing strategy. 

The process of getting started with Lionize is easy. Our software will take you through a set of questions to get to know your brand and marketing objectives. You will then be matched with influencers that fit your needs, be given tools to automate outreach to influencers you want to work with, and get the ability to see all the data you need in one place. 

To get the most out of influencer marketing, Lionize is the answer. Book a Discovery Call with us today to learn more.