164: How To Use Instagram To Create A 7 Figure Ecommerce Business In Under A Year

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Bishoi Khella’s best-performing Instagram placements were nature and animal accounts. He sells wooden watches, and neither audience was searching for watches.

Paid influencer shoutouts built the whole business. Truwood reached nearly a million dollars in its first year using Instagram as its only marketing channel, starting from a $5,000 government grant.

Bishoi and his partner Ibrahim launched mytruwood.com during their final semester of university. They sell affordable wooden watches and plant ten trees for every order.

This episode covers how to find and vet influencer accounts, what shoutouts actually cost by follower count, the content ratio that keeps an account engaging, and how the algorithm change raised their costs.

A note on timing: this is a 2017 conversation. Instagram’s algorithm and influencer pricing have shifted considerably since.

Key takeaways

• Paid shoutouts on adjacent-interest accounts outperformed accounts in the actual product category.
• Vet accounts on engagement percentage, targeting above 2% and above 1% for million-follower accounts.
• Expect $30 to $100 per post under 200,000 followers and $300 to $500 at a million.
• An account charging far below market rate for its size is almost certainly fake.
• Send your own photos rather than letting influencers shoot, so the product stays prominent.
• Post two pieces of engaging content for every product photo on your own account.
• Track placements with unique coupon codes, then double the count since half of buyers skip the code.
• Space repeat posts with the same influencer three to five days apart.

How do you find Instagram influencers to promote your product?

Search Instagram directly for accounts in and adjacent to your niche, then vet them individually. Bishoi types target terms into the search bar and works through what appears.

Adjacency beats category matching. Nature and animal accounts outperformed watch accounts for Truwood.

Engagement explains why. People like a scenic photo far more readily than a watch on a table, so nature pages carry stronger engagement rates.

The tree-planting story connects the two. Nature audiences respond to the environmental angle even without watch intent.

Inbound arrives once you are visible. Truwood receives around ten influencer emails a day from accounts that spotted their ads elsewhere.

Marketplaces exist as an alternative. Shoutcart and similar platforms handle payment, and Bishoi works direct to negotiate better rates and build relationships.

How do you spot fake Instagram engagement?

Compare engagement to follower count and check whether the comments look organic. Bishoi targets above 2% total engagement, counting likes and comments together.

Larger accounts get more latitude. Above 1% is strong for a million-follower account.

Comment pods inflate the numbers. Influencers in reciprocal commenting groups produce real people leaving hollow comments, and Bishoi counts those as fake.

Likes reveal a lot alone. A 50,000 follower account pulling 300 likes is a red flag.

Price is the clearest tell. A two million follower account asking $25 per post is not a real account.

Business profiles share demographics. Ask for screenshots of age, location, and peak engagement times.

What does an Instagram shoutout cost?

Roughly $30 to $100 per post under 200,000 followers, rising to $300 to $500 at a million. Truwood started at the bottom of that range with 50,000 follower accounts at $30 to $50.

Celebrities operate separately. A few million followers on a celebrity account runs into the thousands.

Ask for pricing immediately. Bishoi requests rates in the first message and negotiates from there.

Most influencers price accurately. They know what their engagement is worth, which limits how far negotiation goes.

Leverage past results in the pitch. Point to your performance on comparable accounts against their other ads.

How do you measure influencer marketing ROI?

Watch site traffic in the window right after the post, and track sales with a coupon code unique to that account. Truwood targets marketing spend under 15% of revenue, roughly a 6X return.

Traffic measures the influencer fairly. Driving visitors is their job, and converting them is yours.

Traffic quality matters as much as volume. Visitors from countries unlikely to buy online carry less value.

Coupon codes undercount by half. About 50% of customers buy without using the code, so double the redemptions to estimate real sales.

The portfolio carries the target. Individual accounts falling below 6X stay in the mix if the overall return holds.

Should influencers shoot your product photos?

Send your own photos instead, so you control how prominently the product appears. Influencers naturally minimize the product to protect their aesthetic.

The interests diverge. Their best photo hides the product, and yours features it.

Reuse your best-performing posts. Photos that performed on your own account usually perform on theirs.

Test new photos as ads first. Sometimes a strong new image runs as a shoutout before appearing on your own page.

Where should influencer traffic point?

To your Instagram profile rather than a link in their bio. Either route requires two clicks, and routing through your page earns you followers.

Instagram blocks links in captions. Bio links are the only option, which forces the second click regardless.

Your page compounds the spend. Every shoutout builds your own following alongside driving sales.

Follower growth pays out later. Those followers see your content without further ad spend.

What should you post on a brand Instagram account?

Two engaging non-product posts for every product photo. Truwood posts nature scenery from around the world alongside watch shots.

Product-heavy accounts lose engagement. People engage far less with product shots than with strong imagery.

The photos come from other accounts. Truwood credits the original photographer, which sends traffic back and makes it a fair trade.

Captions matter less than the image. Bishoi keeps them relevant to the photo and spends his effort on finding great photos.

Follow-for-follow was skipped. Truwood follows one account, their tree-planting partner.

How often should you repost with the same influencer?

Every three to five days. Posting more often burns the influencer’s audience and many will refuse.

Ads cost influencers followers. Every promotional post drives unfollows, which is why frequency is negotiated.

The spacing reaches new people. These accounts add thousands of followers within a few days.

Early on the cadence was tighter. With a small roster Truwood ran daily or every other day, and many accounts declined.

How did the Instagram algorithm change affect influencer marketing?

It roughly doubled Truwood’s marketing spend within a couple of months. Feeds moved from chronological to engagement-ranked, which suppresses promotional posts.

Instagram scores a post fast. Engagement in the first ten minutes determines how widely it gets shown.

Ads underperform native content by design. A shoutout on a nature page will never match that page’s own nature photos.

Lower engagement means lower reach. The post reaches a fraction of the followers it once would have.

Bishoi’s response was diversification. Instagram still works for early reach and social proof, and he stopped relying on it alone.

How do you start an ecommerce brand with limited capital?

Truwood launched on a $5,000 grant from Ontario’s Starter Company program. Bishoi and Ibrahim pitched a panel of judges while still students.

Sample costs came first. Watch samples ran $80 to $150 each across roughly eight manufacturers.

The first order was small. Three hundred watches across six styles, at a premium price for the low quantity.

Margins improved with scale. Gross margin went from about 50% on the first order to 70% at volume.

Manufacturers help with design. Neither founder had a design background, and the factory’s team worked from reference photos and component catalogs.

Negotiate pricing before ordering samples. Otherwise you spend on samples for a product you cannot afford to produce.

Frequently asked questions

How much do Instagram influencers charge per post?

Roughly $30 to $100 under 200,000 followers and $300 to $500 at a million. Celebrity accounts of similar size charge thousands.

What is a good Instagram engagement rate for influencers?

Above 2% combining likes and comments, with above 1% acceptable for million-follower accounts. Larger audiences engage at lower percentages.

How do you tell if an Instagram account has fake followers?

Check engagement against follower count, look for pod-style generic comments, and compare their rate to market. An account priced far below its size is not real.

Should influencers be in your product category?

Not necessarily. Truwood’s best results came from nature and animal accounts, which engage far more strongly than watch accounts.

How do you track sales from influencer posts?

Use a unique coupon code per account and monitor traffic in the hour after the post. Roughly half of buyers skip the code, so double redemptions to estimate sales.

Should you send influencers your own photos?

Yes. Influencers tend to minimize the product to protect their feed aesthetic, and your own photos keep it prominent.

How often can you repost with the same influencer?

Every three to five days. More frequent posting costs them followers and reaches the same people twice.

Does Instagram influencer marketing still work?

It works for early reach and social proof, with rising costs. The engagement-ranked feed suppresses promotional posts, which doubled Truwood’s spend within months.