According to the latest social media statistics, Instagram has more than 2.4 billion users, making every marketer want a better presence on the Platform.
This also means you must produce more content to stay on top of the feeds to give your branding renown. And, being on top means the endless job of liking and commenting on endless posts, designing compelling stories, brainstorming for Reels, and following people, and you almost feel like dropping the ball.
You can lead this race with Instagram automation tools for automating content creation, post scheduling, reporting, and publishing on Instagram to grow your account or get hidden audience insights.
If you invest in the right automation tools for Instagram, you can maintain steady branding on this platform at a breakneck pace.
How we analyze and select IG Automation Tools:
This list of automation tools has been formulated through in-depth research and experiential analysis. We have considered various aspects of the tool, such as user engagement, user ratings and reviews, price points, and scalability. The list ranking also reflects the evaluation of these tools’ competencies in automation, content production, visualization, analytics, and collaborative features. Our goal in curating this list is to enable marketers to choose tools that will help scale their business.
Instagram Automation Tools at a Glance
To help you make faster decisions and pick the best Instagram automation platform for your business, we have gathered data on the top 5 tools to give you an overview of each one’s capabilities for automating your Instagram activities.
 SocialPilot |
 Later |
 Kicksta |
 Sprout Social |
 Loomly |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Starts at $30/Month | Starts at $25/Month | Starts at $39/Month | Starts at $199/Month | Starts at $60/Month |
| Best for | Agencies & Small Businesses | Brands & Creators | Brands & Creators | Brands & Enterprises | Brands & Enterprises |
| Social Profiles | 7 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Ease of Use | |||||
| Support | |||||
| Scheduling & Publishing | |||||
| Reel Scheduling |  |
|
 |
|
|
| Story Scheduling | |
|
|
|
|
| Personal/Creator Account Post Scheduling | |
|
|
|
|
| Instagram First Comment | |
|
|
|
|
| Smart Queues | |
|
|
|
|
| Instagram Feed Preview | |
|
|
|
|
| Bulk Post Scheduling | |
|
|
Yes 350 Posts |
|
| Auto Post from RSS Feeds | |
|
|
|
|
| Repeat Posts | |
|
|
|
|
| Staggered Post | |
|
|
|
|
| Direct Publishing | |
|
|
|
|
| Schedule with Push Notification | |
|
|
|
|
| Post Creation | |||||
| Instagram Carousel Scheduling | |
|
|
|
|
| Instagram Collaboration Post | |
|
|
|
|
| Location Tagging | |
|
|
|
|
| Image Editor | |
|
|
|
|
| AI Assistant | |
|
|
|
|
| Tag Profiles on Images | |
|
|
|
|
| Instagram Post Preview | |
|
|
|
|
| Canva Integration | |
|
|
|
|
| Content Library | |
|
|
Yes Only in higher plans |
|
| URL Shortener | |
|
|
|
|
| Hashtag Generator | |
|
|
|
|
| Calendar | |||||
| Visual Content Calendar | |
|
|
|
No Basic Calendar |
| Holiday Calendar | |
|
|
|
|
| Drag-and-Drop Rescheduling | |
|
|
|
|
| Post Editing on Calendar | |
|
|
|
|
| Color-coded Calendar Notes | |
|
|
|
|
| Team Collaboration | |||||
| Approval-on-the-go | |
|
|
|
|
| Real-time Multi-user Collaboration | |
|
|
|
|
| Feedback Workflow | |
|
|
|
|
| Comments on Posts | |
|
|
|
|
| Client Management | |
|
|
|
|
| Access Management | |
|
|
|
|
| Engagement | |||||
| Centralized Social Inbox | |
|
|
|
|
| Targeted Followers Engagement | |
|
|
|
|
| Like After Follow | |
|
|
|
|
| Welcome DM Automation | |
|
|
|
|
| Reply to DMs & Comments | |
|
|
|
|
| Can Reply on Visitor Posts | |
|
|
|
|
| Analytics & Reporting | |||||
| Automated Reporting | |
|
|
|
|
| Post Performance | |
|
|
|
|
| Detailed Social Media Analytics | |
|
|
|
|
| Competitor Tracking | |
|
|
|
|
| Hashtag Performance Tracking | |
|
|
|
|
| Auto-schedule Report Sharing to Clients | |
|
|
|
|
| UTM Parameter | |
|
|
|
|
| White Label | |||||
| White Label Dashboard | |
|
|
|
|
| Branded Downloadable White Label Reports | |
|
|
|
|
| Email PDF Report to Client | |
|
|
|
|
| Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | ||
8 Instagram Automation Tools to Save Your Time
Best for:
Creators, Agencies, Social Media Managers, and Growing Businesses.
Star Rating:
4.5 on G2 & 4.4 on Capterra
Apps:
Android and iOS Mobile App and Web Version.
Social Media Networks Supported:
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok.
Key Features:
- Multi-account Management
- Auto-publish for Reels
- Visual Content Calendar
- Instagram Post & Reel Scheduling
- Hashtag Suggestions
- Instagram Analytics
- Auto-publish for Reels
- AI Assistant
- Team Collaboration
Pros
- Later has a drag-and-drop visual calendar to help reschedule and plan Instagram posts well.
- Users get a post-performance tracking ability that allows them to learn more about how their content is doing.
- Later can auto-publish Instagram stories, which helps in automating content effectively.
Casey G
I like the full calendar view of your week’s worth of content. I also find the analytics page very helpful for my monthly overview of content performance.
Cons
- Regarding automation abilities of Later, it does not offer features like automating comments and DMs, which makes it a lacking point.
- Considering the abilities of Later’s automation features, users often find the pricing higher.
- Many users complain about Later’s customer service issues with billing and refunds.
- Even though Later provides post-performance data, it contains very basic metrics already available on Instagram insights.
Julianna O.
I really dislike when Later tells me a video I’m posting is too long, or the dimensions aren’t right and when I try to edit the content in Later, it doesn’t update. I then have to manually send myself the content, edit it on my phone, and post it manually. It is very time consuming and seems glitchy.
Our Experience:
The next tool we explored was Later. It is a fairly good automation tool for Instagram with intuitive and efficient abilities. It can particularly benefit brands and established businesses looking to automate their Instagram presence.
Content Calendar and Scheduling Posts
Later, it has a standout feature for automation as a visual content calendar. Its drag-and-drop interface allows users to reschedule and plan posts and reels visually for Instagram. This helps manage multiple Instagram accounts at once with effective automation.
Also, its auto-reel and post-publishing feature for Instagram keeps you away from manual work as you can schedule your reels in advance on time for a consistent workflow. Even though the visual calendar works well for Instagram automation, it often shows an occasional lag in syncing the Calendar across devices.
Analytics and Hashtag Suggestions
With detailed Instagram analytics, tracking post-performance metrics such as engagement, Instagram followers growth, and post impressions became easy. These insights help optimize the content strategy effectively with in-depth tracking.
Later, it offers the hashtag suggestion feature to help users discover your content in trending hashtags and increase visibility. This combination of automated analytics and hashtag suggestions ensures data-driven decisions for better engagement.
AI Assistant and Team Collaboration
Later has its own AI assistant that we used to generate content ideas and captions. This tool is particularly beneficial for social media agencies to automate the Instagram content composing process for those managing multiple accounts. For team collaboration, Later allows multiple users to work on content seamlessly, along with an approval workflow that reduces back-and-forth communication.
Pricing and Cost-effectiveness
Later has five different pricing plans that start at 25$ per month for 1 user and are suitable for individuals, range to $200/month for 15 users, and are ideal for large agencies and businesses. Later, we also have a custom plan for those with unique demands and feature requirements.
Overall Verdict:
Overall, Later is a suitable tool for automating Instagram content, but it is not an answer for those who want features like automated engagement. However, it has many useful features, such as AI, report automation, and scheduling, making it a good option.
Best for:
Creators, Agencies, Social Media Managers, and Brands.
Star Rating:
2.1 on G2
Apps:
Web Version only
Social Media Networks Supported:
Key Features:
- Automated Engagement
- Real-time Growth Analytics
- Follow/Unfollow Automation
- Hashtag-based Targeting
- Audience Targeting
- Daily Instagram Audit
- DM Automation
- Advanced Engagement Insights
- AI-Generated Comments
Pros
- It automates Instagram posting and engagement and promotes organic growth.
- Kicksta allows you to target specific audiences based on interest and competition.
- The tool dashboard provides real-time updates.
Sheffy B.
Kicksta helps to increase your reach on Instagram by gaining more followers and that too organicly. It is an automated system to like your recent posts, help understand what page and hashtag is useful to follow and which has more reach.
Cons
- Kicksta only offers the ability to automate Instagram, making it a very expensive pricing tool.
- It does not have scheduling, publishing, analytics, and team collaboration abilities.
- Kicksta does not have popular automation features like hashtag analytics.
- For users looking just for likes and comments, it can benefit initially, but sometimes, users complain that Instagram growth stalls.
Jordan W.
The product fails repeatedly, with no notice, and until you notice you’ve been charged for time it was not working. Tech team seems to be completely negligent. Huge waste of time and energy. Avoid.
Our Experience:
While exploring software for Instagram automation, we came across Kicksta. Even though it has limited feature support for only Instagram, it does have some interesting abilities; let’s know them:
Targeted Engagement
Even though Kicksta only supports Instagram, its features allow engagement automation. Its follow/unfollow capabilities allow you to engage with followers of competitors and influencers from your niche. So, this can be a suitable tool if you are looking for automated and targeted engagement.
For better content targeting, Kicksta has hashtag-based targeting that enables further refining the interaction with users for trending hashtags. This level of targeting can be a valuable asset for Instagram automation to grow business.
Real-time Growth Insights
Kicksta provides detailed analytics with real-time data on followers, engagement rate, and overall performance. This information can be vital to automating your Instagram and also lets you measure how your content is performing.
With daily Instagram audits, Kicksta generates detailed information about the health and performance of your Instagram account so you can easily adjust for better growth.
Automation and Interaction
It is one such tool that provides automated interaction with a built-in chatbot that sends welcome DMs to new followers, adding a personal touch. This feature is combined with AI-gen comments and engagement insights that boost engagement and help foster a stronger relationship with the followers.
Pricing and Cost-effectiveness
When we came down to the pricing plans of Kicksta, we found it has 4 plans that start with a reasonable price of 49/month, which guarantees you 800+ followers every month. Apart from these plans, you can even take a 7-day free trial on Kicksta to see if this tool is what you need.
Overall Verdict:
Kicksta can be a good option for freelancers and Instagram influencers, but it can be difficult for brands and businesses with multiple accounts. It is because Kicksta only supports Instagram and no other social media platforms. It does not allow scheduling, content creation, and team collaboration, and it has limited analytics abilities, making it difficult to digest its pricing, at which you can get all social networks supported.
Best for:
Entrepreneurs, Medium to Big Businesses, and Enterprises.
Star Rating:
4.5 star on G2 &4.4 star on Capterra
Apps:
Android and iOS Mobile App and Web Version.
Social Media Platforms Supported:
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), YouTube, Threads, Pinterest, and TikTok.
Key Features:
- Instagram Engagement
- AI-Generated Caption and Responses
- Hashtag Performance Analysis
- Instagram Story and Reel Scheduling
- Automated Report Generator
- Unified Inbox
- Approval Workflow Management
- Post Performance Tracker
- Hashtag Suggestions
Pros
- Sprout Social provides detailed analytics on Instagram analytics that help users.
- It has social listening features that help automate Instagram content, engagement, and responses.
- Sprout Social AI Assistant lets you generate ideas, captions, and hashtags.
Kavin V.
Sprout has a clean, simple and intuitive interface and main navigation. It makes it easy for new users to learn. At the same time the tool is feature packed and customizable. I love the reporting section and how easy it is to sort and filter with quick responsiveness.
Cons
- Regarding the features, Sprout Social is much more expensive for small businesses and startups.
- Even though Sprout Social has social media listening abilities, it lacks automated comments and DM responses.
- Sprout Social’s interface is complex, and it takes a lot for new users to get used to the tool.
Amanda P.
Like any platform, it’s not perfect and sometimes has frustrations. When I have to reauthorize accounts and it turns into a much bigger process — it can become annoying. Sometimes scheduling just doesn’t work or glitches. Posts don’t push through, etc. Certain limitations to Sprout as well, but all minor things.
Our Experience:
In our hunt to find an automation tool for Instagram, we learned about Sprout Social and its ability to streamline content management, analytics, and engagement for brands and businesses.
Engagement and AI
For automation, Sprout Social has features like a unified inbox that consolidates all the messages and comments for faster responses. It also has an AI Assistant for caption and response generation, allowing users to create an on-brand tone through the platform.
In addition, Sprout Social also has a hashtag suggestion ability that intelligently recommends modification to boost visibility based on trends. These AI-powered features make managing Instagram with automation more efficient in a brand-centric and personalized manner.
Scheduling and Team Collaboration
Regarding scheduling Instagram content, Story and Reel scheduling can go live at optimum times without any manual intervention. When paired with approval workflow, this ability allows easy collaboration on content before time without any back-and-forth communication.
Even with the ability to schedule Instagram reels and stories, users can ensure they stay consistent with all types of content. However, we discovered that setting up an approval workflow can sometimes be complex, which might require a learning curve for new users.
Automated Analytics and Reporting
Another Valuable feature of Sprout for Instagram automation is its post-performance tracker that shares critical insights into how the content is being liked by the target audience. You will also get hashtag performance analysis, which makes it a combined package.
If you want to automate reports, Sprout Social has features to generate reports weekly and monthly and even schedule them. Although these analytics are well-detailed, they are only available for users with higher-tier subscriptions, which can be a limitation for smaller businesses.
Pricing and Plans
Regarding pricing, Sprout Social takes the position of a premium tool that mostly big brands and enterprises can leverage. The starting plan costs $249/month for 5 profiles, a professional plan for 10 social profiles, and features like custom reports and workflow.
Overall Verdict:
With features like social media listening and advanced analytics, Sprout Social is one of the ideal tool for big businesses and brands. However, considering the pricing, features, and automation abilities, Sprout Social is a more suitable tool for brands and enterprises. If you are a business willing to invest more, this is a good solution.
Best for
Agencies, Startups, Individuals, SMBs, Freelancers, and Creators.
Star Rating
4.5 on G2 & 4.7 on Capterra
Apps
Android and iOS Mobile App and Web Version.
Social Media Platforms Supported
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), YouTube, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, and TikTok.
Key Features:
- Instagram Post Scheduling
- Story and Reel Scheduling
- Direct Publishing
- Post Approval Workflow
- Hashtag Suggestions
- Carousels Scheduling
- Team Collaboration
- Instagram Post Preview
- UTM Tracker
Pros
- Loomly’s clean and simple user interface is appreciated, which eases up Instagram post scheduling.
- Marketing teams especially love its approval workflow and team collaboration features.
- It also lets you schedule Instagram stories while automating content.
Brie B.
A lot of great feautres! Love that I can separate accounts in different calendars and how easy it is to schedule Instagram posts on different platforms on their own individual day/time and even clone to other calendars. Also really enjoy that I can internally title and categorize each post!
Cons
- Regarding automation, Loomly is not a complete solution as it has several features.
- The analytics offered by Loomly are not as comprehensive as other more affordable tools.
- Like all social media automation tools, Loomly does not have a free trial plan for users to test whether the tool works for them.
Brianna H.
While it is cost-effective, it is a bit off-putting to have to pay more to download a calendar. I downgraded because I didn’t need all the features but I didn’t realise I’d lose the ability to save a calendar to send to clients.
Our Experience
For automation of your Instagram, Loomly can be a cost-effective tool for businesses. In our experience, it has some impressive features like seamless scheduling and posting and a few high-level functionalities for automation.
Instagram Scheduling and Publishing
While experiencing the automation abilities, we realized Loomly’s core strength is scheduling Instagram content like stories, Reels, and Posts. These can be scheduled for direct publishing to save time and eliminate manual work.
We also found the ability to schedule carousel posts an effective addition to its features that help stay consistent with various content. You can also preview these posts before they go live to ensure the aesthetic presentation of your feed.
Collaboration and Approval Workflow
An important function for small and big teams is approval workflow and team collaboration provided by Loomly, which ensure cohesive content creation and approval process. The smooth approval process simplifies content management, where managers can easily review, provide feedback, and approve posts before they go live.
This establishes Loomly as a suitable tool for agencies where they can automate Instagram marketing and ensure brand standards.
Advanced Planning and Insights
Loomly has a visual content calendar and UTM tracker for automated content planning with detailed insights. The calendar is intuitive and allows users to plan their Instagram content over extended periods of time, while the UTM tracker helps find out the success ingredient of the campaign by tracking link performance.
Even though Loomly has analytical abilities, they are limited compared to more in-depth competitors. It provides basic data rather than extensive performance data. It offers a good overview, which might not be enough for advanced marketers and social media or Instagram marketing agencies.
Pricing and Value
Loomly offers various price ranges, starting at $42/month and going up to $369/month for its premium plan that offers custom branding abilities. Not all plans have Instagram automation features, so you might have to pay more for additional features.
Overall Verdict
As per our review, Loomly is an automation tool for IG with features like post scheduling, auto-publishing, approval workflow, and a few automated engagement abilities. These are especially useful for teams managing multiple accounts. Overall, it is an easy-to-navigate platform that streamlines automation and improves growth.
Best Instagram Automation App for:
Businesses, Publishers, Non-profits, Mid-stage startup teams, Solopreneurs, and E-commerce.
Star Rating
4.5 on G2 & 4.5 on Capterra
Apps
Android and iOS Mobile App and Web Version.
Social Media Platforms Supported:
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), YouTube, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, Shopify, Threads, Mastodon, and TikTok.
Key Features:
- Instagram Post Scheduling
- Content Planning
- Instagram First Comment Management
- Hashtag Manager
- Best Time to Post Suggestions
- Media Management
- Multi-Account Management
Pros
- Buffer’s intuitive design makes it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise.
- Buffer lets you plan posts in advance and choose between automatic publishing or manual posting with reminders.
Tracy W.
Buffer is extensively used in our company in marketing and corporate communication departments. It enables users to schedule and track scheduled posts across all major social networks. The analytics are great that show the performance of each post and aslo buffer is pretty affordable.
Cons
- Some users have reported issues with scheduling, such as posts not being published as planned.
- Buffer’s capabilities are subject to Instagram’s API restrictions, which can impact certain functionalities.
Victory J.
The mobile app isn’t as seamless as the web version. I guess this isn’t an issue for many as most people prefer to work pon their computers. I do a lot of repetitive tasks on the move so it kind of is a big deal for me.
Our Experience:
After using Buffer extensively, we’ve really gotten to know its ins and outs. We’re sharing that firsthand experience with you here to help you decide whether it can benefit your Instagram automation needs.
Instagram Post Scheduling
One of Buffer’s strongest features is its ability to schedule Instagram posts—including stories, reels, and carousel posts. This allows you to plan your Instagram content well in advance.
Whether it’s a single image post, a video, or multiple images in a carousel, Buffer handles all of that. You can set up auto-publishing for most content types so posts go live without you lifting a finger—or Buffer can send notifications for you to add that personal touch to your captions and hashtags when you prefer.
Content Planning and Hashtag Management
Buffer’s content planning interface is easy to use. The Create section is where you organize your post ideas, brainstorm new content, and even get suggestions for post improvements. That tool is invaluable for creators who are juggling content creation with a consistent posting schedule.
Buffer also makes it simple to save and reuse groups of hashtags for different types of posts. You can organize those hashtags by categories, which makes executing strategic hashtag campaigns a lot easier—and a lot less time-consuming.
Comment Management and Engagement
Buffer lets you respond to comments directly from the platform, so you don’t have to toggle back and forth between Instagram and your management dashboard. You can even prioritize comments based on sentiment analysis so you engage with the most critical comments first.
Those engagement tools are handy for community-driven accounts and businesses wanting to improve their relationships with followers. Buffer consolidates comments from Instagram and Facebook, so you can handle cross-platform interactions seamlessly.
Pricing and Value
Buffer offers four plans, including a free lifetime option with some basic features, but it lacks analytics capabilities. The paid plan begins at $36/month for one user and comes with limited analytics.
Overall Verdict:
Buffer is an excellent tool for automating your Instagram marketing without getting bogged down in complex workflows. Of course, there are some limitations to remember, especially regarding post scheduling accuracy and the restrictions imposed by Instagram’s API. But Buffer remains a highly reliable tool for most Instagram automation needs to streamline your Instagram operations and grow your following effectively.
Best for:
Creators, Brands, Enterprises, and Marketers.
Star Rating
4.5 on G2 & 4.4 on Capterra
Apps
Android and iOS Mobile App and Web Version.
Social Media Platforms Supported
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and TikTok.
Key Features:
- Instagram Post Scheduling and Auto-publishing
- Analytics and Reporting
- Story and Reel Scheduling
- Likes and Comments Tracking
- Instagram Content Calendar
- Post and Story Analytics
- Team Collaboration
- Automated Instagram Reporting
Pros
- Iconosquare offers a comprehensive solution for scheduling Instagram posts with precision over time.
- It provides detailed analytics along with Instagram stories analytics for better insights.
- It also has social listening abilities for monitoring Instagram brand mentions.
Jonathan S.
It has all the tools and analytics needed to effectively run a business on Instagram. It allows us to see what works and doesn’t to have a better presence on the platform.
Cons
- Iconosquare does not have any functionalities for automating Instagram DMs and comments.
- It does not allow users to customize Instagram reports without the highest subscription.
- The Instagram analytics interface is often complex and not user-friendly.
Verified User in Arts and Crafts.
For a long time, there was a glitch in Iconosquare that didn’t allow you to directly post to Instagram due to the new algorithm. I also found that Iconosquare was very glitchy and didn’t always post when it said it would. Analytics were also hard to digest.
Our Experience
Iconosquare is a suite for IG automation designed for scheduling, collaboration, and analytics. After experiencing it for automation, we have broken down its strengths and weaknesses.
Scheduling and Auto-publishing
Scheduling is the most important aspect that makes an automation tool a good solution for Instagram management. This is the area where Iconosquare stands out with its post-scheduling and auto-publishing features without any intermediate manual work. You can schedule Instagram posts for the optimum time and ensure maximum reach and engagement.
Not only that, but an automated content calendar provides an organized view of all the scheduled posts, making it easy to manage and reschedule anything for the upcoming campaign. Additionally, Iconosquare lets you automate stories and Reels, which reduces manual work.
Analytics and Reporting
Iconosquare’s automation strength lies in its ability to analyze content performance and automate reports. It has comments and likes tracking posts, story performance, and audience insights.
However, one of the core features is automated Instagram reporting, which shares details of followers’ growth, engagement rates, and story views. We could automate these reports and schedule them to be shared with stakeholders, making it faster to track performance.
However, we found that Iconosquare is not entirely spill-proof; the complexity of the analytics interface was initially a bit overwhelming and had a learning curve.
Collaboration and Listening
After scheduling and reporting, Iconosquare also has strong team collaboration abilities. It enables multiple team members to manage the accounts and work together effectively. The tool facilitates a “conversations” feature that allows users to manage Instagram comments and likes and track interactions.
Another vital automation feature is social listening, which lets users monitor brands’ mentions and conversations about them across the platform. All these abilities add value to the brand monitoring and automation abilities over Instagram.
Pricing and Value
Iconosquare has 3 pricing plans that start at $59/month for 5 social profiles and 1 user with 14 days free trial option. For brands with unique requirements, it also has a custom plan that lets you formulate packs of necessary features.
Overall Verdict
Iconosquare is surely one of the social media automation tools for businesses with advanced analytics, automated reporting, scheduling, and collaborative requirements. If you can overlook the complexity of the analytics data and afford the price plans, it can be a valuable tools for your Instagram automation needs.
Best for:
Marketing Agencies, Individuals, and Small and Medium Businesses.
Star Rating:
4.3 on G2
Apps:
Android and iOS Mobile App and Web Version.
Social Media Channels Supported:
Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Key Features:
- Post Scheduling
- Hashtag Suggestions
- Story and Real Scheduling and Publishing
- Analytics and Reporting
- Instagram Feed Preview
- Bulk Scheduling Posts
- User-Generated Content Management
- AI Assistant for Caption and Ideas
Pros
-
- Tailwind has an impressive and user-friendly Instagram scheduling and auto-publishing feature.
- It also suggests hashtags to improve your Instagram visibility.
- Tailwind provides an Instagram feed preview that helps in cohesive visualization.
/li>
Verified User in Consumer Services.
The best feature of Tailwind was the ability to batch schedule Pins to Pinterest. Additionally, the SmartSchedule feature was helpful to an extent. Their marketing materials around Pinterest were also useful when Pinterest was more popular for my business niche.
Cons
- Tailwind’s Instagram analytics feature is very basic compared to other less expensive tools.
- Users often report difficulties while scheduling Instagram stories and publishing.
- The Tailwind mobile application needs to be more intuitive and have all the features for Instagram automation.
Kate B.
It could be due to the API, but its analytics are fairly limited, so I tend not to use these.
Our Experience:
Tailwind is a social media management platform with robust features tailored to automate Instagram. Here is a breakdown of our experience using this tool Tailwind:
Post Scheduling and Feed preview
The ability to schedule various posts for Instagram is a standout feature of Tailwind that lets users automatically publish content. You can also schedule images, videos, and stories to automate them. This makes it easy to schedule posts and then directly get your content published for the optimum time.
Not just posting automation, Tailwind also has an Instagram feed preview, which visually represents the feed by collecting the scheduled content. Its user-friendly interface simplifies the scheduling process, but it sometimes can cause issues with scheduling stories.
AI-powered Features
AI has been the core of automation since the beginning. Tailwind has incorporated AI assistants to help craft captions and content ideas tailored to your target audience, making content creation less daunting. When these features are combined, they ensure performance growth and visibility, helping you get more impressions and reach without any manual intervention.
Analytics and Bulk Scheduling
When we experienced the analytics, they were basic for posts that offered insights into likes, comments, and follower growth. The data on past performance is not as advanced as other tools, as it lacks insights into engagement and audience behavior.
With bulk scheduling, Tailwind can save hours of your weeks, especially for businesses managing multiple client accounts. You can upload and schedule multiple posts on the go and sit back as they go live at your scheduled time.
Pricing Comparison
The division of Tailwind is in 4 plans, starting at $25/month for 3 social accounts and 1 user. Tailwind has an all-time free forever plan with limited features for 3 accounts.
Overall Verdict:
Overall, Tailwind is a fine platform for automating Instagram and social media management. However, it only supports Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, making its price plan slightly higher. But, if you need these platforms and a medium to streamline your posting and boost engagement, this can be a strong option.
Key Decision Factors in Choosing IG Automation Tools
Choosing among the best Instagram automation tools can elevate your Instagram strategy and attract higher growth. But, having a vast array of automation tools makes it even more challenging to make the right choice.
Here are the key decision factors to consider before finalizing an Instagram automation software:
1. Understand Your Current Proficiency
Before thinking about automation, your first step should be understanding your current proficiency level. Assessing your current social media management resources is crucial to knowing exactly what you need and why you need that automation ability.
With that knowledge, you can easily converse if you need seasonal or advanced functionalities. This will protect you from picking a tool with fewer or more features than you need.
2. Top Automation Features
The efficacy of an Instagram automation tool is determined by its core features that should match your needs and future strategy. Major features necessary for Instagram automation are:
Scheduling and Publishing: If you want to automate Instagram posts, you need a tool that has advanced scheduling and auto-publishing abilities for Instagram. This will help you get over the manual work and schedule posts for the most active to stay consistent for more reach and effective social media management.
Engagement Automation: To automate your Instagram engagement, you need a tool that facilitates interactions through auto-responses or triggers engagement that can help maintain an active Instagram presence. These tools make it easy to see and respond to regular DMs and post comments, mentions, and queries through a centralized social inbox.
Content Creation: Along with scheduling and engagement, another vital aspect of automation is the content creation tool. This tool allows you to create posts, captions, hashtags, ideas, templates, and more with the help of AI and built-in tools. These factors in the best Instagram automation tools allow you to create posts with the least manual work.
Analytics and Reporting: You need a tool that will help you analyze your content and automate reporting functions efficiently. It supports automated analytics and reporting abilities. This way, you can enable data-driven decisions, know engagement metrics, and reduce the most challenging job of report sharing to automated report scheduling.
Several other automation features, such as approval-on-the-go, team collaboration, content rescheduling on the calendar, and more, can help you grow on Instagram.
So before you decide on the tool, ensure it has all these abilities to get you the highest results.
3. Ease of Use
The best Instagram automation software will not only have powerful features but also be easy to use, learn, and navigate. Ensure your tool is user-friendly, intuitive, and easy for team members to learn and maintain proper social media management.
Automation tools can be complex, with steep learning curves that make the process long and, in the end, just make no sense. Look for a platform that offers office drag-and-drop functionalities, has good customer support, and has a clear design. Also, remember to check the customer reviews from authentic platforms.
4. Integration Capabilities
By integration, we mean a tool that is not isolated but can integrate with other systems like CRM, email marketing systems, multiple social media platforms, and mobile applications and is regularly evolving.
Ensuring these factors, you can be sure that with the evolving nature of social media platforms, you won’t be left out from the necessary feature upgrade.
5. Cost Effectiveness
Ultimately, whichever tool you pick, you will weigh it out with its pricing and determine if it’s worth it. Your mind will find the clear feature packs to balance price with functionalities. Automation tools offer several tiered plans catering to different business needs and sizes; this is where we have to balance that.
Consider free trials and demos in the pricing plan to make an even more intelligent decision. If the tool offers a free trial plan, see if it suits your needs. This way, you can test the tool before commenting financially.
By carefully considering these factors, you can choose a tool that matches your business needs and supports its future Instagram growth. Automation tools for Instagram have several advantages, such as saving time, reducing manual work, maintaining consistency, and much more. Let’s discuss them further.
Why Use Tools for Instagram Automation?
Using a tool to automate your Instagram activities means shortcuts to faster growth. Manually managing an Instagram account or multiple accounts can be overwhelming.
This is why using a tool offers a solution that saves time and enhances the overall performance. With minimal manual intervention, it streamlines your social media management, scheduling, engagement, and content creation.
If you are not yet convinced enough, here is why you should use a tool to automate your Instagram.
It Saved Time: This is an obvious one. Using a tool for automation can reduce manual work to the least effort and ultimately frees our time for other important parts of the planning. This time benefit is crucial, especially for marketers and businesses managing multiple accounts.
Improve Engagement: Automation tools have features like automated responses, unified and centralized inboxes, engagement monitoring, etc, that automatically respond to comments, DMs, queries, mentions, and more. This means you won’t always have to be active to respond to the audience promptly; the tool will do it for you and eventually improve engagement.
Data-Driven Insights: Tools often include analytics and reporting as an important part of automation. They give you real-time performance details about the content and allow you to automate report sharing to save hours from your day. You will be able to make data-driven decisions, which will boost your growth and visibility.
Help Managing Multiple Accounts: Incorporating a tool can make a huge difference for businesses managing multiple Instagram accounts. Automation tools make managing all accounts from a single dashboard easy, so tasks like scheduling, responding to messages, and tracking performance become easy.
Optimizes Posting Tims: An Instagram automation tool can help you identify and schedule posts when your target audience is most active. This tool uses your past performance data and engagement and generates the best time to post during the day to get maximum reach, followers, and growth.
These are the top practical benefits of using tools to empower your business to grow online with a focused strategy.
Is Instagram Automation Legal?
As per the Instagram community guidelines, yes, Instagram automation is legal, but it depends on how it’s used and the type of automation involved.
Instagram terms and services mention that using bots for activities is prohibited for automatic liking, following, or commenting on posts. Instagram says that these actions can get your account suspended or permanently banned.
The automation activities that are allowed on Instagram are:
- Scheduling and publishing
- Analytics and insights
- Scheduling report sharing
- Social inbox management
The key difference lies in whether the tool enhances your workflow without violating Instagram policies or engaging with the audience unauthentically.
So, yes, Instagram automation is allowed, but only until you don’t manipulate engagement and follower growth.
Conclusion
Managing Instagram marketing can be quite cumbersome. There are loads of things to do, from strategizing and providing customer service to being consistent.
That’s why businesses rely on Instagram automation tools to cater to an audience of billions. There’s no surprise why Instagram marketing has picked up its pace now, with so many people using it daily.
It becomes more imperative than ever to maintain your presence on this platform. While you could use many Instagram tools, a wise decision would be to pick one that helps you tackle all your social media marketing needs.
That’s where SocialPilot lends you a hand. SocialPilot is a cost-effective social media marketing solution that helps you save time by automating most of your tasks so you can work on crucial things.
Take the SocialPilot 14-day trial period without wasting time and see the benefits yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of Instagram automation is not allowed?
Using bots to automate your Instagram activities, such as:
- Automated liking
- Commenting and messaging with bots
- Interact
- Follow
Instagram community guidelines strictly frown upon using bots to optimize engagement and activities on Instagram.
Should I use bots on Instagram?
No, using bots on Instagram means you violate the Instagram community guidelines that state that using automated bots for likes, comments, responses, etc, is prohibited. The use of bots can get your account suspended or permanently banned.
Also, considering the impact of bots on your growth and reach, it is very short-term. It might get you those new random Instagram followers, but as they are not in your niche, eventually, they will not create any useful impact on your business growth.
Can I use Instagram automation to grow followers?
Yes, by using the Instagram automation tool, you can indirectly grow your followers by maintaining a consistent posting schedule and improving your engagement through scheduling practices and analytics data.
Hence, if staying within the limits of Instagram community guidelines, you can automate your Instagram effectively without fearing getting banned or suspended.
About the Author
1. SocialPilot
$30
per month
Best Tool for:
Marketing Agencies, SMBs, Multi-Location Brands & Professionals.
Star Rating:
4.5 star (G2), and 4.4 star (capterra).
Apps:
Android and iOS Mobile App and Web Version.
Social Media Platforms Supported:
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), YouTube, Google Business Profile, Threads, and TikTok.
Key Features:
Pros
Verified User in Consumer Services
SocialPilot has been the best marketing tool for the small business I work at. There haven’t been any errors when posting on any social media platforms, unlike other marketing tools which are unable to effectively post to Instagram. The company is also competitive and offers a lower price for entry and more analytics than other companies. Additionally, I enjoy being able to correct photos to the right sizing with their crop tool.
Verified G2 Review
Cons
Brookelyn W.
Nothing really. I love everything about it. More options of custom reports would be great. Also something to compare competitors (similar to what eclincher offers).
Verified G2 Review
Our Experience:
With a quick comparison, the above table establishes that SocialPilot is the best Instagram automation tool for small businesses and marketing agencies. It has advanced features but is still cost-effective. Its clean and simple interface makes it one of the best tools for all your automation needs for Instagram and all social media platforms, especially for marketing agencies and small businesses.
Instagram Scheduling and Publishing
As we analyzed the IG automation features of SocialPilot, one of the most impressive functionalities was bulk scheduling posts, which allows users to schedule and auto-publish upto 500 posts at once. This is especially beneficial for social media marketers who want to manage multiple accounts simultaneously.
Additionally, SocialPilot supports scheduling Instagram posts, stories, Reels, and carousels, giving small businesses and agencies the full flexibility to automate Instagram posts without manual intervention.
AI and Advanced Abilities
With a further dive in, we discover the core AI capabilities of SocialPilot that enhanced the automation experience. You can use it to generate post ideas, captions and hashtags that will streamline the content creation and make it more discoverable with relevant content. With SocialPilot AI Pilot, you can optimize your content on the go. You can also translate content into 10 different languages, expanding your reach across global markets.
With the latest SocialPilot integration with Canva, you can design and schedule Instagram visuals from one platform only. This reduces manual work and automates the process for faster results. While automating your Instagram post, you can also schedule first comments alongside the posts, optimizing your posts and making it a handy feature for hashtag management.
Analytics, Reporting, and Collaboration
Regarding automated analytics and reporting features, SocialPilot excels with deep insights into your Instagram performance. The hashtag tracking and analytics feature lets you track and learn about hashtag performance and whether it works correctly.
Regarding reporting abilities, it has custom-branded reporting skills that allow for fully customizable Instagram performance reports. With the unified inbox, you also get a consolidated view of all your Instagram mentions and DMs so you can manage and respond to them on time.
For collaboration, you get the automation ability to approve on the go, facilitating quick client approval directly through the app and improving the workflow by reducing bottlenecks.
Social Pilot’s latest updates bring potent tools for managing reviews and client roles, starting from our AI-powered content generation tool, AI-Pilot, which empowers your content ideas and quality.
Now, you can also review replies with tailored templates and automate them by setting up roles based on sentiments. Now just that, SocialPilot WordPress Plugin and Chrome extension are amazingly working together to make social sharing easy for your, be it from your website or WordPress.
Pricing and Value
SocialPilot offers a 14-day free trial and access to all premium features (no credit card required & cancel any time). Choose a plan that fits your needs.
$170.00/mo
$85.00/mo
$42.50/mo
$25.50/mo
Overall Verdict:
Among all Instagram automation tools, SocialPilot is the top contender for its wide array of features that cover high-level strategic needs for all business types and daily tasks. Its competitive pricing and comprehensive features make it an excellent choice for Instagram automation for experienced social media managers and teams looking to streamline their workflow.