Follow back ratio plummeting

Hey guys,

I've been using FL on a personal account for about 2 months now. This account is aged, about 2yrs old but I've only recently started to use it regularly. I'm into fitness so that would be the accounts niche.

I started slow by following 200 - 300 and liking 500 - 600 and after a few weeks of gradual increases I was following 700 - 900 and liking 1400 - 1600. I would pick a popular fitness account and follow their followers, as for like I would just pick popular hashtags to like. When I hit 7.5k followings I would unfollow back down to a select 30 users at a rate of 700 per day.

Initially this worked great, I would get 100 - 150 followers per day. I started with 200 followers and I'm currently at 2,300. However on my latest follow cycle I'm getting terrible results with a max of 20 follow backs per day. I haven't really changed my settings that much and I'm still posting regular content.


I'm now wondering if IG has flagged my account to have less visibility/reach, as this sudden and steep decline in follow back ratio doesn't seem natural. Have you guys noticed this with your accounts before or think my settings my be too high causing a reaction from IGs algos?

Should I just lay low for a few days, let things settle and start slow on the account again? Any other suggestions are very welcome and appreciated


Thanks

These results seem to be very low in comparison to what many others are experiencing. You could try altering your settings to some lower limits and/or looking through some of the similar threads. Many people are experiencing decreasing engagement at IG in recent days. It's just that your case seems extreme.

Most others are complaining about LOST followers, whereas you're simply not generating the results you may have in the recent past. It could be temporary?

I've lowered the limits back down to what I was using the the past and have it running, so I'll check back in later tonight to see if there is any uptake in followers. I've pretty much read every thread on BHW related to optimal settings for FL and I don't see myself doing anything out of the norm, I'm just following and liking.

Is there any ratio of following to followers where people find it hard to grow? For example, when I was starting out I had very few followers and a lot more followings, now it's the opposite. Just wondering if there is a physiological influence on potential followers whereby they are reluctant to follow?

Maybe you're not scraping new users, try scraping only top results and clear the current list of scraped users. Or maybe the user you're scraping from is buying fake followers? Try switching the source as well, see if that helps.

Why would any normal personal account follow 1400 people a day? Put yourself in IG's shoes, obviously they've flagged you.

JustChillin said:

Maybe you're not scraping new users, try scraping only top results and clear the current list of scraped users. Or maybe the user you're scraping from is buying fake followers? Try switching the source as well, see if that helps.

Click to expand...

Yup I've switched up sources for today and will do so again tomorrow to see if that has any impact. Thanks.

bartosimpsonio said:

Why would any normal personal account follow 1400 people a day? Put yourself in IG's shoes, obviously they've flagged you.

Click to expand...

I've never followed 1400, max followed per day was in the region of 800 (increased by 25 per day over the space of a few weeks from an initial start of 200-300). Is that also considered too much?

If they have flagged my account what steps are required to be unflagged? Should I simply lay low for a few days?

markopolo187 said:

Yup I've switched up sources for today and will do so again tomorrow to see if that has any impact

Click to expand...

Don't forget to go into your scraped users list and select "Delete All" like JustChillin said.