Why they matter, and how to get more in 2025

Instagram likes are one of the top three signals the Instagram algorithm uses to promote or hinder your post’s reach. Put simply, more likes = more reach.

But should you buy Instagram likes? Does it matter if you hide likes or not? How do likes help grow your Instagram account? Do popular hashtags matter?

All the answers and how to get more likes on Instagram ahead.

Are Instagram likes still an important metric?

Adam Mosseri explains why Instagram likes matter in 2025 in a recent video:

“The top three signals that matter most for ranking are watch time, likes and sends. So if you’re trying to understand why one Reel did better than another, look at […] average watch time, likes per reach, and sends per reach.”

He further explained that Instagram has two types of ranking:

1. Connected reach (people who follow you)
2. Unconnected reach (people who don’t follow you)

While Instagram likes are important for both, they actually matter more for “connected reach,” in other words: getting a wider audience to see your content.

There are four groups of Instagram ranking factors, including interest, post popularity, poster information, and interaction history. Instagram likes fall into the popularity category, along with comments, shares, and saves.

And while they’re not the most important thing to grow, Instagram likes still matter because they’re easy for your audience to do, so they do it more often.

It’s easier to get an Instagram like than a comment or share. The average post received 513 likes in 2024, but only 19 saves and 15 comments.

Source: Statista

Since likes are easier to get and faster for your audience to do, getting a lot of likes as quickly as possible after posting can be a massive signal to the Instagram algorithm that your post is high-quality content—increasing reach and growing your account.

What are the risks involved in buying Instagram likes?

Since Instagram likes are so powerful, wouldn’t buying them help even more? No.

NO.

Say no to bots. Instagram has been able to identify accounts who purchase fake likes, comments, or Instagram followers since at least 2018 and actively penalizes those who use bots. Buying Instagram likes violates the Community Guidelines and Terms of Use and Instagram is always developing new AI tools to weed out bad behavior. In 2024, Instagram confirmed they keep track of accounts engaging in “potentially scammy activities.”

Since “scammy” labels are automatically applied, there’s really no telling if that label is ever removed from your Instagram account. Any potential increase in reach or new followers you get will be temporary, but the consequences of buying likes can be permanent.

How to get Instagram likes from real audience engagement

1. Share new posts and Reels to your Story

Simple and effective. Whether you’ve posted a photo, carousel, or Reel, share it from your profile to your Story.

Source: @colbertlateshow on Instagram

Try this strategy:

2. Use Instagram Collab posts

Reaching new people has never been easier on Instagram thanks to new collab posts. Instead of only being able to tag other accounts in your posts, now the same post can exist on up to three Instagram profiles by adding others as collaborators.

Besides instantly tripling your potential reach, all engagements on the collab post benefit each collaborator. It’s an engagement party, and for once, you’re invited.

Try this strategy:

• Still looking for your social soulmate(s)? Tips on who to collab with:

3. Post carousels

Instagram Reels are still great, but don’t sleep on the power of plain ol’ Instagram photos posts and carousels.

Our data from Q4 of 2024 shows that carousels outperform Reels by 26% when it comes to engagement.

Try this strategy:

Bonus: Get 5 free, customizable Instagram carousel templates and start creating beautifully designed content for your feed now.

4. Track what works

As Hootsuite’s own Trish Riswick notes, getting more likes means knowing what your audience wants, without guessing:

“Without analytics reports, we may have guessed [which social media platforms different types of videos performed best on], but we wouldn’t have known for sure or been able to measure the difference trying new strategies made.”

Hootsuite Analytics makes it easy to track social performance across all social platforms in one place. Plus, save time with customizable reports, custom tagging, and intelligent tools like benchmarking, competitive analysis, and more.

Try this strategy:

• Monitor analytics at least monthly to see what’s working (and what’s not).
• Run a full audit of your social media marketing strategy with our free social media audit template.

5. Use the right hashtags

You’ll get more Instagram likes and other engagement by sticking to three to five hashtags per post. Anything more than that can look spammy and confuse the algorithm.

Choose relevant hashtags that reflect the audience you’re trying to reach and the content you’re posting. Simple is best! They don’t need to be currently trending hashtags, they just need to accurately describe the type of content you’re sharing.

Source: @methodk9 on Instagram

Try this strategy:

• Check our list of top Instagram hashtags by industry for inspiration.
• Get Instagram likes on easy mode with our free AI Instagram hashtag generator.
• Put hashtags in the first comment instead of the main Instagram caption for less clutter. You can schedule a first comment at the same time you schedule and post content with Hootsuite.

6. Use interactive Stories

Stories are a goldmine for Instagram engagement, including likes. Besides only sticking around for 24 hours—encouraging fast action—Stories feature many interactive elements your audience can respond to, and you can learn valuable insights from.

Source: @grelhadosrestaurant on Instagram

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7. Partner with UGC creators

Partnering with big-name influencers still has many benefits, but is out of budget for most small businesses.

User-generated content (UGC) campaigns include organic content your real customers share on social media, or content made by professional creators for you to post on your own channels.

This often less-polished content appears more authentic and builds trust. 86% of consumers say they trust brands who share UGC content.

Try this strategy:

• Identify organic UGC content your customers have already shared about you and boost those as ads. You’ll need the creator’s permission and advertiser permissions first.

8. Listen to your audience

Listening to your audience is important for all sorts of reasons but one is that it plain makes your life easier. Not sure what new products to make? Just ask!

Social listening takes it further, uncovering exactly what your audience wants, plus current trends, predictions, competitive intelligence, and alerts about your brand.

The world’s best social listening tools are included in every Hootsuite plan so you can gather intelligence and grow your social accounts all in the same place.

Try this strategy:

• Try Hootsuite for free and get the social listening data you need to inform your content strategy, secure budgets, and prove social ROI to your boss—with automated, customizable reports.

9. Reply to comments and DMs

Instagram counts interaction history as a ranking factor in the algorithm. The more you reply to comments and DMs, the more likely it is they’ll see future posts in their Instagram feed.

Plus, replying to every comment will double your post’s engagement rate for comments, even though it’s you doing the replying. Not replying is leaving engagement on the table.

More engagement = further potential reach, which equals more potential Instagram followers and likes, too.

Try this strategy:

• Use Hootsuite Inbox to streamline replying to all your comments and DMs from multiple social media platforms from one dashboard.

10. Try a giveaway

People are always going to like the potential of winning free stuff, especially if all it costs is a few seconds to like and comment on a giveaway post.

Try this strategy:

• Ask people to like your post and tag a friend to enter. Include the necessary disclaimers and information in your caption to abide by Instagram’s promotion rules.
• Bonus: Run a giveaway as a collab post for even more Instagram like potential.

11. Embrace creativity

The boldest brands who take leaps of creativity are reaping rewards.

Our Social Trends 2025 report found 43% of brands tried out a new tone of voice or personality on social media over the last year. It pays off: marketers who post creative content more often report positive ROI from social media.

Source: Hootsuite Social Trends 2025

Try this strategy:

• Grab our free Social Trends 2025 report to discover what’s moving the needle in social media marketing this year, then try out the ideas for yourself.

12. Tag other accounts

If you’re not posting an official collab, you can still tag other accounts in your posts or captions. This sends them a notification so they’re likely to see your post and, potentially, share it to their followers’ feeds—resulting in more Instagram likes for you.

Source: @bezartshub on Instagram

Try this strategy:

• Use something from a company whose products complement yours (like the PB to your J)? Tag ‘em!

13. Use location tags

Location tags are great for building relationships with nearby businesses and establishing yourself with new audiences in a local area. For geographic-based tags, like cities or public spaces, your post can show up when Instagram users search for that location in the Explore page or tap the tag in someone else’s post.

For local businesses, you should especially use location tags in Stories—and encourage your audience to as well—because all tagged Stories are added to Instagram’s in-app map.

Source: @sem.art2 and @wavescoffee on Instagram

Try this strategy:

• Holding a meeting at a cafe or restaurant? Use their business as your location in an Instagram post, or use the location tag sticker in Stories to give them a shoutout.
• If you have a physical location, tag it in all your posts.

14. Run an Instagram likes poll

One of the best ways to encourage engagement, including for Instagram likes, is to ask your target audience questions. Of course there’s the actual poll feature for both posts and Stories, but this is a clever way of getting likes and comments.

Try this strategy:

• Tease an upcoming event or launch by saying you’ll reveal more information when a post reaches a certain number of likes. (Keep it achievable!)
• Post memes and ask followers to double-tap the post if they can relate.

15. Use Instagram advertising

A reach-focused ad campaign can help you get more new followers, likes, and brand awareness. Reaching more people increases the probability of more likes.

The easiest way to try out ads is to boost an existing organic post. Or, experiment with creating simple photo, carousel, Instagram Reels, or Stories ads.

Source: @designmehair on Instagram

Try this strategy:

What is the best time to post on Instagram for likes?

The best times to post on Instagram 1-3 PM on Sundays and 7-9 PM on Mondays.

(Actually, that’s the overall best time to post. Check out the best time to post on Instagram for 11 industries based on our extensive research.)

But is that your personalized best time to post? Nope.

The right time to post on Instagram for likes is the time when the majority of your current and target audience are online, ready to see and interact with your content.

Much like a metaphorical tree falling in a deserted forest, Instagram likes won’t happen if your audience never sees your post.

Luckily, you have access to a secret weapon against the Instagram algorithm (and philosophy majors): Hootsuite’s personalized best time to post feature.

Hootsuite uses your analytics from the last 30 days to determine the right time to post for Instagram likes based on your target audience’s real activity patterns.

Going even further, Hootsuite identifies your personal best time to post depending on your growth goal. Choose from:

• Extending reach
• Building awareness
• Increasing engagement rate
• Driving traffic

Your best time to post is calculated from your actual social media performance, based on metrics specific to each goal, not industry benchmarks or random account samples.

With Hootsuite best time to post, you can:

• Schedule posts for the best times with one click across Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
• Fine-tune your content strategy with real data, not guesswork.
• Effortlessly update your posting strategy with fresh best time to post recommendations every 30 days.
• Look like a freakin’ genius to your boss when your performance reports keep on bangin’, just saying.

Learn how to maximize your Instagram likes with Hootsuite in just a few minutes:

What’s the most-liked Instagram post ever?

From January 2019 to December 2022, this egg was the most liked Instagram post of all time with 56 million likes.

In 2022, the egg was dethroned by this photo of footballer Lionel Messi hoisting the FIFA World Cup trophy, which now has over 74 million Instagram likes and is still the most-liked Instagram post ever.

Rounding out the top three is another post by Messi, shared two days after the one above, of him taking a lil’ snooze with the trophy. It has 54.5 million Instagram likes.

Fun fact: Lionel Messi has five of the top 10 most-liked Instagram posts of all time.

Source: Statista

Bonus: How to hide likes on Instagram

There are two areas you can hide Instagram likes:

1. Hide the like count of posts and Reels from accounts you follow (so you don’t see them)
2. Hide the like count of your own posts and Reels from others (but you can still see them)

Some marketers say hiding likes on your posts can increase engagement by up to 500%:

Source: r/InstagramMarketing on Reddit

Other marketers say hiding Instagram likes makes you look untrustworthy:

Source: @itscandidsocial on Instagram

Okay, but what about how hiding Instagram likes affects you, the human being attached to those thumbs behind the screen? Some Instagram users say they hide likes to make creating Instagram content and browsing more enjoyable:

Source: r/InstagramMarketing on Reddit

Neither option officially impacts ranking in the algorithm—hidden Instagram likes still count as likes to the app—so the choice to hide or not is up to you.

Manage and grow your Instagram account with Hootsuite. Schedule and publish posts, analyze results, and engage your audience all in one place, for all your social media profiles. Try Hootsuite free today.