Questions, answered straight
These are the questions clients and prospective clients actually ask, answered the way we answer them by email. If yours is not here, contact us and a person will reply within 24 hours.
How it works
What does Virallized actually do?
We grow your Instagram account by engaging, through your own account, with the real followers of target accounts you choose, so your profile is seen every day by people who already care about what you do. The ones who like what they see follow you. It is a done-for-you service run by people, not a software tool you operate and not a course.
Are the followers real?
Yes. Every follower is a real person who saw your profile and chose to follow it. We do not sell followers, use bots, run engagement pods or deliver follower packages, and we never will. Bought followers never engage, Instagram reads that as a quality signal, and your real posts reach fewer real people as a result.
Do you post, comment or send messages for me?
No. We never post content, comment, send direct messages or change anything on your profile. Your account becomes visible to the right people; everything they see when they arrive is yours. If you also want help making content, that is a separate product, Virallized AI, described further down.
Why do you need my Instagram login?
Because real growth requires real engagement, and Instagram only lets an account engage from inside itself. Services that advertise no login either deliver fake followers or use methods that do not last. Your login details are stored encrypted, used only to run your campaign, and never shared. Most accounts also need an 8-digit two-factor backup code, explained in the safety section below.
What is a target?
A target is an Instagram account whose followers you would like as your own: a competitor, a peer, a publication, a brand your ideal follower already follows. We engage with the real, active followers of the accounts you name. Targets are accounts, never hashtags, and specific beats big: a focused 10,000-follower account usually outperforms a generic million-follower one.
How is this different from running ads?
Ads buy reach for as long as you pay for it, and nothing compounds. An audience of real followers keeps seeing you for free, month after month. The two work well together; many clients run both. We compared them in organic growth versus ads.
Results and timing
When will I see followers?
Growth usually begins within 12 to 24 hours of setup completing, and ramps up over the first two to three days while targets are tested and the account warms up. Your dashboard can take up to 48 hours to fully populate. If your account was ever disconnected, for example after a password change, growth counts from when it was reconnected.
How many followers will I get a month?
It depends on your niche, your content, your profile and the quality of your targets, so we quote typical ranges rather than promises. Standard typically brings 150 to 500 real followers a month, Pro 250 to 1,000, Max 500 to 2,000 and Managed 750 to 3,000. The dashboard shows exactly what is happening, and we will always tell you what it says rather than what you hope to hear.
Why is my growth slower than I expected?
In most cases it is the targets. Too few, too broad, or aimed at an audience that does not match your content. Your dashboard shows each target's follow-back rate, so weak ones are easy to spot and swap. The other common reason is the profile itself: someone landing on it needs to see quickly who you are and why they should follow. Start with why isn't my Instagram growing.
Will my engagement rate go up too?
Followers who arrive through genuine interest engage like it, so engagement tends to grow with the audience rather than being diluted, which is what happens after a giveaway or a follower purchase. Your content decides the rate, so we never promise one. What a good engagement rate looks like explains the benchmarks by account size.
Can I check my account before I start?
Yes. The free growth checker reads any public profile and reports your real engagement rate, how it compares to accounts your size, which formats work for you and where your follower count is heading. No login, no card.
Safety and account access
Is my account safe?
We keep activity steady and well inside Instagram's limits, and we work through your own account rather than from outside it, which is what keeps growth real. No service can honestly promise an account will never see a security check, so we do not. What we can say is that we take every safety concern seriously, we keep activity conservative, and a person is on hand if Instagram ever asks you to confirm something.
Instagram says someone logged in from Houston, Texas. Is that you?
Yes. We log in from Houston, Texas, so Instagram may show you a login attempt from there rather than from your own city. That is our session, not an intruder. Approve it with This Was Me, and do not log that session out if you want the service to keep running. If you see a different city, it is almost certainly still us from a different device; email us if you are unsure.
I have two-factor authentication on. What do you need?
An 8-digit backup code. Not the 6-digit code from your authenticator app, which changes every 30 seconds and can never be saved. In Instagram: your profile, the menu at the top right, Settings and activity, Accounts Center, Password and security, Two-factor authentication, choose the account, then Additional methods, then Backup codes. Codes can be single-use, so if one has been used we may ask for a fresh one.
Can I keep using my account as normal?
Yes. Post, reply, go live, run stories, everything. The one thing we ask is to keep heavy outgoing activity, such as following or unfollowing large numbers of accounts in a day, to a minimum while we are active, so the combined activity stays comfortably inside Instagram's limits.
Do you follow and unfollow people?
Engaging with a target's followers usually includes following them, and follows that are not returned are tidied up after a couple of days so your following count stays healthy. We never unfollow accounts you followed yourself, and you can protect any account from being unfollowed by adding it to your never-unfollow list. Clients who prefer a liking-only approach can ask for it; it is gentler and usually produces noticeably slower follower growth.
What happens if my account gets disconnected?
Instagram can end a session after a password or two-factor change, a security check, or if the session is logged out. Your dashboard and an email tell you exactly what is needed to reconnect, usually a new password or a fresh backup code entered in Settings. Activity resumes shortly after reconnection, and if there was meaningful downtime we extend your subscription to cover it.
Plans, billing and the guarantee
What does it cost?
Standard is $99 a month, Pro $149, Max $199 and Managed $299, each with a higher typical growth range and, from Pro upwards, a personal account manager. Annual billing is cheaper and can be switched on from the Billing tab in your dashboard. The full breakdown is on the pricing page.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Yes. Every plan carries a 7-day money-back guarantee from the day billing starts. If it is not for you, email us within those seven days and you are refunded in full, no questions. After that window, refunds are considered case by case.
Is there a contract?
No. Every plan is month to month, or annual if you choose it for the lower price. You can cancel at any time by emailing us, and there are no cancellation fees.
How do I cancel or pause?
Email support@virallized.com, or use the prefilled email in your Billing tab. There is no self-serve cancel button, deliberately: a person checks your account, confirms whether growth stops now or at the end of the period you have paid for, and sends you a written confirmation. Your targets, settings and history stay on file, so coming back never means setting up again.
What is the Strategy Audit?
A one-off $79 add-on, separate from every plan: a written review of your profile and content strategy, delivered as a report in the Strategy Audit tab of your dashboard. It is a document, not a growth service.
Can I run several Instagram accounts?
Yes. Several profiles can sit under one login, each with its own plan, targets and status, and you switch between them inside the dashboard. Agencies managing client accounts should see agency pricing.
Targeting
How do I choose good targets?
Pick accounts whose followers would genuinely want your content: competitors and peers first, then the publications, communities and brands your ideal follower already follows. Specific beats big. Smaller, focused accounts, often under 25,000 followers for a newer page, usually send better people your way than huge generic ones. We wrote a guide to choosing targets that follow back.
How many targets do I need?
Five to ten good ones to start. Accounts on one to three targets exhaust that audience quickly and grow noticeably slower, so the dashboard will nudge you if your list is that short. Managed clients usually run ten or more, and on that plan we research and maintain the list for you.
Can you target a specific city or country?
Not with a map, because Instagram does not offer precise geo-targeting to anyone. Location is guided through the accounts you name: the followers of your town's businesses, venues, media and community pages are local people. Clients running shops, clinics, gyms and restaurants grow local audiences this way every month.
Can I stop you engaging with certain accounts?
Yes. Your dashboard has two lists under Exceptions: a never-unfollow list, which protects accounts from ever being unfollowed, and a never-contact list, which stops us engaging with an account at all, for example a competitor or an ex. Accounts you follow yourself are never unfollowed by us and rarely need listing.
Virallized AI
What is Virallized AI?
Our second product: a content studio. You type one topic and get back a post-ready carousel, post or image in about 20 seconds, written in your own brand voice and laid into a real designer template with your logo, colours and fonts. Everything opens in a full editor afterwards, exports are clean and unbranded, and you own what you make. It does not post to Instagram for you.
Is it included in my growth plan?
Yes. Every active growth client gets 10 generations a month included, with every feature unlocked, reset on the first of each month. You open it from the Virallized AI strip on your dashboard Overview. If you need more than the included allowance, top-ups and its own plans are available.
Can I use it without the growth service?
Yes. It sells on its own at virallized.com/ai, with plans for creators, teams and agencies, and new subscribers get a handful of free generations with every feature unlocked before anything is charged.