However, these followers typically aren't real, and they're either bots or inactive accounts that won't actually engage with your profile. So although your follower count may be going up, your engagement will stay the same. This is why buying followers isn't generally considered an effective Instagram marketing plan.

Technically, buying Instagram followers can lead to account deletion, but this outcome is extremely rare. In most cases, Instagram may issue a warning rather than outright ban an account. The reality is, if purchasing followers directly led to bans, it could be misused against competitors by buying followers for them.

It can harm your engagement rate: Fake followers are often inactive and do not engage with your content, which can harm your engagement rate. This can also negatively affect how Instagram's algorithm ranks your content and may make it harder for your posts to reach your real followers.