Instagram Business Accounts: Does Your Brand Need One?

What is an Instagram business account?

An Instagram business account offers additional features that are specifically useful to brands trying to expand their reach, engage their target audience and, ultimately, drive more business.

Most entrepreneurs understand that their business should be on Instagram, but a common question is “Why should I take the extra step of creating a business Instagram account?” 

“For businesses that can leverage its tools … Instagram offers a powerful opportunity to build brand awareness and meaningfully engage with customers,” Mary Robins, a lecturer in communications and language studies at Bryant University, told us.

Instagram business account features

Any marketer will tell you that the extra features an Instagram business account offers make it well worth the time and energy it takes to set up and manage a brand-specific Instagram profile. These include:

• Instagram Insights: Instagram Insights is a comprehensive analytics tool that provides detailed data about your followers, content performance and audience engagement. Track metrics like reach, impressions, website clicks and follower growth over time.
• Contact information: This feature allows businesses to display essential contact details like email, phone number and physical address directly on their profiles, making it easier for customers to reach out.
• Description label: A category or industry identifier that appears under your business name, helping potential customers immediately understand what type of business you run, such as “Coffee Shop” or “Digital Marketing Agency.”
• Shoppable posts: These posts let you tag products directly in your posts and Stories, creating a seamless shopping experience where users can purchase items without leaving Instagram.
• Action buttons: Customizable buttons on your profile that enable specific actions like “Book Now,” “Reserve” or “Order Food,” streamlining customer interactions with your business.
• Boosted posts: Boosted posts are a paid promotion that allows you to turn regular posts into ads, expanding their reach to a targeted audience beyond your current followers.
• Post scheduling: This built-in functionality helps to plan and publish content at optimal times automatically, helping maintain a consistent posting schedule without manual intervention.
• Meta Business Suite: Gain access to a unified platform for managing your Instagram and Facebook business presence, offering tools for content creation, scheduling, messaging and analytics across both platforms.
• Integrations: Third-party integrations allow you to connect your Instagram business account with various third-party tools and platforms, enhancing functionality in areas like social media management, analytics and e-commerce.

Leveraging these tools can help brands build an authentic relationship with their audience, which Robins said should be the primary goal of an Instagram marketing strategy. 

“Stay open to trying new features — Instagram often rolls out updates and adopting tools like Reels or broadcast channels early can give you a competitive edge,” she said. “Most importantly, keep the focus on your customers. The best Instagram strategies prioritize building relationships over just pushing products. At the end of the day, it’s all about showing up authentically and connecting with your audience.”

Pros and cons of a business Instagram account

Most of Instagram’s more than 2 billion monthly active users have personal accounts. However, businesses often have different Instagram goals than personal users and the added functionality a business account offers can be a great way to increase your digital marketing return on investment. 

However, business accounts have a few potential drawbacks as well, so it’s important to consider the pros and cons of an Instagram business account before launching one.

Pros

It provides access to more detailed analytics

Instagram Insights can help you tailor your Instagram posts and content to better suit your audience and reach your goals. For example, you can use Insights to determine which campaigns are the most effective, which posts perform best and which stories result in the most follower engagement. You can also leverage these analytics to target specific segments of your audience based on key demographics like age, interest and more.

“Instagram Insights is your cheat code to smarter content. Pay attention to your top-performing posts — what’s resonating? What’s falling flat? Use that data to double down on what works,” said Nadia Kaminskaya, founder and chief marketing officer at Branding Bosses. “Also, check your audience demographics — if your best content connects with a specific age group or location, tailor more posts to them.”

It’s helpful for distinguishing your brand

Part of building a successful brand is making it stand out and an Instagram business account can give your brand the feeling of official legitimacy that supports that goal. It also enables you to bring a dedicated brand strategy to your Instagram content, rather than muddying it with a personal account that may not have always aligned with a consistent brand message, voice or aesthetic. 

Sole proprietors and freelancers may have relied on their personal Instagram accounts when starting out, especially if they wanted to position themselves as thought leaders. As your business grows, though, it becomes larger than any one person. That’s not to say individuals shouldn’t reference the brand on their personal accounts, but the brand itself needs social media accounts of its own to reinforce its image in the minds of your audience. 

It supports a paid advertising strategy

Instagram business accounts are free and can be a great way to generate organic follower growth and brand awareness, but they also enable a paid advertising approach on the platform (and other Meta platforms like Facebook). Coupling a targeted paid advertising campaign with the ongoing production of quality organic content can be a winning combination for brands.  

“Instagram advertising should complement organic efforts by amplifying reach, targeting new audiences and retargeting website visitors,” said Roxy Hulyk, account director of influencer marketing at Acceleration Partners. “Advertisements can drive specific goals, such as sales or email sign-ups, while organic posts maintain community engagement and brand authenticity.”

It offers on-platform e-commerce selling tools

Developing and maintaining e-commerce websites can be expensive, especially for new businesses. Instagram business accounts give brands the opportunity to begin selling online without the upfront investment. 

If you want to test the waters to see how much business you can drive online, an Instagram business account is a great way to do it. If you find the demand is indeed there, you can confidently make the investment needed to develop a fully functional e-commerce website. 

If you already have an e-commerce website, an Instagram business account can help you expand your reach to a broader audience by tapping into the social platform’s user base.

Cons

There are some drawbacks and challenges associated with running an Instagram business account, too and it’s important to consider these before making one part of your social media marketing strategy.

“Instagram might not be the best fit for every business. Companies lacking visually appealing content, targeting older demographics or without the resources to maintain an active presence may find it challenging,” Robins said.

It requires social media management work

Business accounts require oversight and consistency, which means someone needs to spend time managing your Instagram business account. If you hire a social media manager, managing a business Instagram account can also get expensive. You can update a personal account whenever you feel like it without a business reputation and potential customers at stake.

It may have a less personal feel for users

Social media for business is all about engagement and making connections. However, followers may feel less inclined to engage with an Instagram business profile than a personal account. They may see your business account as promotional and therefore scroll by your content more readily.

It could decrease engagement (if managed incorrectly)

Some followers’ feeds may be filled with businesses and Instagram influencers trying to sell their products or services. They may become overwhelmed and frustrated with the lack of organic content and unfollow business accounts. Avoid this by limiting promotional content and striving for an organic, natural tone when partnering with an influencer to market your product.

Kiely Kuligowski and Jennifer Dublino contributed to this article.