Sudden drop in engagement

About 12 weeks ago my engagement dropped by about 50% overnight. My account is a real business, selling a real product in a fairly popular niche and was growing organically (with some give aways sprinkled in). I know my audience well and I know what pictures should get better response than others. I have tested with everything I can think of. My account seems to be throttled or something because all pictures get a very similar amount of likes. The likes also seem to come in batches, a whole bunch at once, then nothing, then a bunch more. I have some evidence that my pictures aren't showing for all of my followers. Is there anything I can do to fix the account? I've tried contacting instagram several times with no response. Coincedentally this happened almost exactly when I moved into a new city with a new internet provider and stuff. I''m trying to think of anything that could have caused it. There are other accounts that I know the owners of and some of them are having a similar issue and some are not. Can anyone please help me?

Hi
This issue has been discussed in many threads. Hit it up in search function. You aren't the only one. Seems like instagram invented this after launching their commercial services.

A 50% drop in engagement is also what others have experienced. It has dropped from 10% to 3-5%

Instagram in "taking share of the pie" shocker...

So do you think they aren't showing pictures to all followers or throttling in some way? How are others compensating? Are you posting pics a bit more often? Is it a random sampling of followers that see the posts or is it always the same followers? I read many threads on this issue but was hoping someone had some answers on what I could try to do.

It is the algorithm that changed for the explore page that is the culprit.

Instagram is now running something similar to Facebook's commercial intent detection. When they detect commercial intent they throttle your post so you have to buy boosts on FB. Something similar probably starting at IG since FB bought them.

bartosimpsonio said:

Instagram is now running something similar to Facebook's commercial intent detection. When they detect commercial intent they throttle your post so you have to buy boosts on FB. Something similar probably starting at IG since FB bought them.

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Does that mean Instagram will no longer be a viable money-maker for income, or just harder to get up into the game from scratch?

point4design said:

So do you think they aren't showing pictures to all followers or throttling in some way? How are others compensating? Are you posting pics a bit more often? Is it a random sampling of followers that see the posts or is it always the same followers? I read many threads on this issue but was hoping someone had some answers on what I could try to do.

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Just try to raise you number of quality followers. Only way you can help the situation.

I have 48K followers now and my likes less than when I had 30K followers..... only 1.2%-1.5% rate for now..... crazy... need to buy likes soon...

Xjin2 said:

I have 48K followers now and my likes less than when I had 30K followers..... only 1.2%-1.5% rate for now..... crazy... need to buy likes soon...

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I know it's has gotten crazy! it's unreal engagement is all around 1,5-3% MAX. and evertyhing has been tried. From Quality posts, to different times in a day.. Following quality followers with low followings and you name it. engagement does not seem to get any better. Seems like we need a new platform on the market ASAP

It's not you. It's Instagram. Many in the niche I'm in have experienced the same, and they do everything manual.
Since about 3-4 months ago, likes have dropped drastically. It is not throttling because the likes don't come back later.

Accounts that used to average 1.2K-1.4K per photo for months, are now getting 600-700 and sometimes less. It is not the followers, it is not the engagement, it is not changing IPs or cities, it is not using a different device - it is Instgram F'ing around.

I heard a rumor that Instagram was going to start charging for likes, sort of like "advertise your photo" for more engagement. Of course, since Instagram wants the "likes to be organic", you'd see "more likes" after advertising your photo, when in reality, it is just your regular followers liking your photos.

Get it? You used to get 100 likes. Now you get 50 likes. You pay Instagram to advertise your photo, now you get 100 likes. Sneaky. Don't know if that's what they are really doing, but it sure looks like a scam.

Just try to make true followers