Instagram growth services that target your competitors' followers

If you want growth from people who already follow businesses like yours, choose a service that lets you name the accounts it targets and shows you which ones work. We run one, Virallized: on every plan your targets are the accounts whose followers match your ideal audience, competitors included, and your dashboard shows which targets bring followers so the weak ones get swapped. Gainsty also targets by competitors. Kicksta is software you configure yourself, targets included, and Path Social works through a promotion network and AI targeting rather than a list you choose. The table shows how each one works.

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The shortlist: six real services, the same facts for each

Trustpilot figures as read on each live profile on the date above; prices and methods from each provider's own public pages. We run Virallized, so it is listed first. Everyone else keeps Trustpilot's order.

Every provider's full record, ranked by its live Trustpilot score: the full ranking. What each tier really costs, and the billing traps: Instagram growth service cost.

In this guide

• Why competitors' followers are the best place to start
• How competitor targeting actually works
• Questions to ask before you pay
• How the six services compare
• How Virallized targets, plan by plan
• Picking good competitor targets

The idea

Why competitors' followers are the best place to start

Someone who follows a competitor has already told Instagram what they want: your kind of product, service or content. They are the warmest audience you can reach without paying for ads, and they already know what to look for in a profile like yours. That makes them likelier to follow back, and to become customers, than people found by volume.

Competitor is a wider word here than it sounds. The best targets are any accounts whose followers would want you: direct competitors, complementary businesses, the creators your customers watch and the publications they read. A cafe's best targets might be another cafe across town, a local bakery and the neighbourhood food page.

The method

How competitor targeting actually works

You give the service a list of accounts, called targets. It then puts your profile in front of the people who follow those accounts through quality interactions, at a steady, human pace, and the ones who like what they find follow you. Nothing is posted from your account and nothing is sent to the competitor.

No list is bought and no follower is moved. Every new follower is a person who chose to follow after looking at your profile, which is why the profile itself matters as much as the targets.

Five checks

Questions to ask before you pay

Ask whether you can name your own targets, competitors included, or only pick from categories. Ask whether you can see which targets work, because a good list changes every month. Ask who maintains the list: you, a person on their side or software. Ask what the refund terms are in writing. And read the live Trustpilot record.

The table above answers several of these for six real services. A service that cannot tell you which accounts it is targeting for you is asking you to pay for a method you cannot see.

The table

How the six services compare

Gainsty is a well-run managed service that targets by competitors, location, gender and language, with a free trial on every plan. Social Boost pairs clients with a dedicated growth manager who runs manual outreach. Ampfluence is an agency team at agency pricing.

Kicksta is software: you configure the targeting and the software runs it. Path Social grows accounts through shout-outs, newsletter promotion and AI targeting, and Trustpilot currently shows its rating as suspended after removing fake reviews. That is Trustpilot's judgement, quoted in the table, not ours.

Our pick

How Virallized targets, plan by plan

We run Virallized, so weigh this accordingly. On every plan your targets are Instagram accounts whose followers match your ideal audience: the competitors and peers you name at setup, plus accounts our AI finds in your niche if you choose, each one marked so you know where it came from. You can add or remove targets from your dashboard at any time, and the change reaches the growth work automatically, usually within the hour.

Your dashboard shows how each target is performing, so one that brings the wrong people gets swapped for a better one, and an optional setting removes weak targets automatically. From Pro at $149 a personal account manager reviews the list with you, and Managed at $299 adds target research and hands-on management. Every plan has a 7-day money-back guarantee.

Hessam Khabbazian, a client, wrote: "I was able to secure followers who were in my target market, grew my following, and will use their service again in the future."

Targeting

Picking good competitor targets

Mid-sized accounts usually beat the giants: an account with 25K to 200K followers has a focused audience, while a famous brand's followers came for the brand. For a local business, pick local accounts under 25K whose followers actually live in your area. Choose active accounts with real conversation under their posts, and skip any that grew on giveaways.

Five to ten targets is a good start; with only two or three the pool runs dry and growth slows. Each month keep the targets that bring followers and test new ones in place of the rest.

Common questions

Is it allowed to target a competitor's followers?

Yes. Who follows an account is public on Instagram, and a competitor's followers are free to look at your profile and decide for themselves. Nothing is taken from the competitor and nothing is sent to them.

Is it safe for my account?

No service can honestly promise an account will never see a routine security check from Instagram, so we don't. What a service controls is how the work is done: real people at a steady pace, no bought followers, and nothing ever posted from your account. That is how Virallized works, and it builds the pace up slowly on new accounts.

How many competitor accounts should I target?

Five to ten is a good start. With only two or three, the pool of new people runs dry and growth slows; past that, quality matters more than quantity, so add accounts whose followers really match your customers.

What if a target brings the wrong people?

Swap it. Your dashboard shows which targets bring followers, so a target that sends the wrong people, or nobody, is replaced with a better one. A good list changes a little every month.

What does an Instagram growth service with competitor targeting cost?

Virallized is $99 to $299 a month with a 7-day money-back guarantee and no contract; Pro at $149 adds a personal account manager. Verified managed prices run from about $49 to $549 a month, with agencies higher.

Which Instagram growth service targets competitors' followers?

Virallized does on every plan, with the accounts you name and a dashboard that shows which ones work; Gainsty also targets by competitors, and Kicksta lets you configure targets yourself in software. We run Virallized and list it first; the table shows the alternatives with live figures.

Keep reading

• Growth services with a real account manager
• How to get local followers on Instagram
• Every Instagram growth service, ranked by live Trustpilot record
• What an Instagram growth service really costs
• Virallized plans and pricing