by Want to drive more traffic to your site from Instagram? Are you using all of the options available on Instagram?
In this article, you'll discover four places to drop your links on Instagram and discover pro tips and tricks to optimize your links for clicks. You'll also find a valuable hack to bypass the link in bio issues with a solution that lets you easily retarget your Instagram traffic.
To learn how to get more traffic from Instagram, read the article below for an easy-to-follow walkthrough or watch this video:
#1: Add Links to Your IGTV Description
Let's start first with IGTV because any Instagram account can add a link in their IGTV video description that's fully clickable. If you've got people tuning into your IGTV videos, you can include a call to action (CTA) to open up the video description and click on that link. It's a quick and easy way for anyone to drive traffic from Instagram.
#2: Add Links in Instagram Direct Messages
Another feature that any account can take advantage of is direct messages (DMs). Yes, you can put a link in any DM conversation and it's fully hyperlinked. This makes it easy to share links with people on Instagram.
#3: Add Links in Instagram Stories
For Instagram Stories, you're probably familiar with the swipe-up feature for links. As of now, only business accounts and creator accounts with more than 10,000 followers and verified accounts can share a link in their Instagram stories.
If you don't fall into one of these categories, you can still add a swipe-up link to your IGTV video. Yes, it takes a few more steps, but you can drive traffic from your story to your IGTV video and have a CTA in the video telling viewers to click the link in the description. Read this article to learn more about this tactic.
Returning to the topic of DMs, you could include a CTA in your story that says, “If you want the link, reply to this story and I'll send it to you.” You'll generate a ton of active engagement on that story, which is algorithmically advantageous. And you're now having personal conversations with your audience where they invited you to send them a link.
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Pro Tip: Use the DM Me sticker to make it easy for people to message you.
You can also take advantage of the link in your bio with your Instagram stories. To do this, include a CTA in text or in the video that says, “Click on the link in the bio,” so your followers know to navigate to your profile and click on the link there.
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GET THE DETAILSPro Tip: To make this even easier for your audience, @mention yourself in the story with a text box, which creates a direct hyperlink to your profile. Then add a “Click Here” GIF or text box on top of your username, hiding it behind the sticker but clearly stating “Click Here.” When anyone clicks on that sticker, they'll be taken directly to your profile where they can click on the link in your bio.
#4: Add a Link in Your Bio
The “link in bio” tactic started with Instagram feed posts when it was the only place you could put a link on Instagram. You'll see people include a simple statement to “Click the link in the bio” in their feed post captions. This is the most common CTA and most recognized way to drive traffic on Instagram.
But, of course, you only have that one link in the bio. While you can change it as frequently as you like, that can be tedious. And if you post frequently with CTAs to click the link in the bio, your audience may see an older post and go to your bio, only to find a new link that doesn't relate to the post they just saw in the feed.
Years ago, a number of tools came onto the market to solve the single link in bio challenge. These third-party tools allowed you to essentially create a landing page with multiple links on it. While these tools can be convenient, why would you want to send your hard-earned traffic to a third-party tool when you can keep all of that traffic for yourself?
Hack: Retarget Bio Link Traffic
My pro tip for solving this link in bio problem is simple: Just create a dedicated landing page on your own site. This page should be easy to access and read on a mobile device and have a clean design without any pop-ups or sidebars.
Ideally, keep your list of links to only a handful of options and don't require users to do much scrolling. You might have one option for your blog page, one for your YouTube channel or Facebook page, one for your list of services, or a couple of options for your product lines (not necessarily the individual items, but the product types that you sell).
Once you've set up this page, you shouldn't have to change it often—only if you add or update something you're promoting on Instagram.
You may be wondering, why would you want to do this? Because you'll own all of that traffic. You can see where every visitor goes from that landing page. If you review your Google Analytics, you'll be able to see which pages are the most visited from that page. You'll also get insights into audience behaviors and even conversions generated from that page.
You can also add your Facebook pixel and set up retargeting for Instagram or Facebook ads to that audience, which you know came to you from Instagram.
And the best part is that it's free.
Conclusion
If you're frustrated with Instagram's limitations on sharing links, you're not alone. It can be challenging to drive site traffic from the platform unless you have more than 10,000 followers or are constantly swapping out your bio link. But there are creative ways you can easily drive website clicks from Instagram. Using the link sharing tactics above—from your Instagram bio to content formats like Stories and IGTV—can help you effectively drive traffic on Instagram.
What do you think? Which of these tactics will you try? Do you have any tips of your own to offer for driving traffic on Instagram? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
More articles on Instagram marketing:
- Discover the pros and cons of using Instagram Reels for marketing.
- Learn how to use user-generated content (UGC) on Instagram.
- Find out how to navigate and use the desktop version of Instagram for your marketing activities.
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