How to seperate legitimate from botted Instagram accounts?

[ScribScribScrib]

Hey everyone, I'm a complete newbie to IG, but am eager to learn.

I'm actually looking to buy promotions from legitimate IG accounts, however, I'm not sure what ways I can check if an IG account has legitimate engagement.

Here's what I do currently:

-check share to comment to like to follower ratio
-check the accounts of those who like/share/comment
-check post frequency, percentage of posts that are ads
-check if the account is grown with slave/master method
-check followers to follow ratio

I feel like with the advent of AI, the five steps above are not as good.

Can an Instagram expert please add to this list so I'm not paying to be a sucker? Much appreciated.

 

[RapidWorkers]

Hey everyone, I'm a complete newbie to IG, but am eager to learn.

I'm actually looking to buy promotions from legitimate IG accounts, however, I'm not sure what ways I can check if an IG account has legitimate engagement.

Here's what I do currently:

-check share to comment to like to follower ratio
-check the accounts of those who like/share/comment
-check post frequency, percentage of posts that are ads
-check if the account is grown with slave/master method
-check followers to follow ratio

I feel like with the advent of AI, the five steps above are not as good.

Can an Instagram expert please add to this list so I'm not paying to be a sucker? Much appreciated.

Check story views and saves and watch for natural consistent engagement, since fake or inflated accounts usually show weird spikes and drops

 

[AlekhyaDas]

Yes story views is the biggest one if you have access to it.
Other than that, just see the account usernames, it's easy to get an idea.

 

[Yoram]

Try to send a few DM's, usually you can sniff out people who used smm panels fairly well.

 

[ScribScribScrib]

Try to send a few DM's, usually you can sniff out people who used smm panels fairly well.

Can you explain please?

 

[barakoburg]

One extra thing I always look at is engagement consistency over time, not just on a single post, because fake or boosted accounts usually have big spikes and then dead periods. It also helps to check Story views and audience demographics if they’re willing to share insights, since those are much harder to fake than likes or comments.

 

[Isabellaura]

Hey everyone, I'm a complete newbie to IG, but am eager to learn.

I'm actually looking to buy promotions from legitimate IG accounts, however, I'm not sure what ways I can check if an IG account has legitimate engagement.

Here's what I do currently:

-check share to comment to like to follower ratio
-check the accounts of those who like/share/comment
-check post frequency, percentage of posts that are ads
-check if the account is grown with slave/master method
-check followers to follow ratio

I feel like with the advent of AI, the five steps above are not as good.

Can an Instagram expert please add to this list so I'm not paying to be a sucker? Much appreciated.

Also check story views authentic bios and real engagement beyond likes tools like social blade or hypeauditor help spot bots or fake spikes.
True audience interaction is the best signal of legitimacy.

 

[muntant 7mm]

You can also pay attention to content originality accounts that repost everything or rely heavily on templates often have inflated numbers. Genuine pages usually have a mix of personal touches, captions and consistent style that bots cant replicate.

 

[Hansio]

The easiest way is to check if they EVER watch stories. Bots rarely interact with stories, so if they never do, it's a red flag. Also, look at their like/comment patterns: real people don't just spam under every post.

 

[Kichwaen]

That said, the real question isn’t “is engagement real?” but “does it convert?”
Have you tried starting with small test promos + tracked links instead of full buys?