How to find competitors on instagram

how to find competitors on instagram

Instagram is no longer just a place for lifestyle influencers and meme pages. For B2B companies, it has become a silent battleground for attention, brand trust, and even direct lead generation. If you are building a sales pipeline, ignoring what your rivals do on this platform means you are flying blind. The challenge is that Instagram’s search algorithm is not built for traditional market research. However, with the right tactics, you can reverse-engineer your niche, uncover hidden players, and build a targeted prospect list that feeds your sales outreach.

This guide walks you through practical, step-by-step methods to find competitors on Instagram, analyze their engagement, and turn those insights into actionable sales opportunities.

Start with Your Own Customer’s Follow List

The fastest way to find competitors is to look at who your ideal customers already follow. Open your Instagram app, go to the profile of a current satisfied client or a well-known industry advocate, and tap “Following.” Instagram shows this list in reverse chronological order, so you will see the most recently followed accounts first.

Look for brands that offer similar solutions, complementary products, or even adjacent services. You are not just looking for direct rivals here; you are looking for anyone who competes for the same marketing budget or attention span. For every account you identify, click through and check if they have a “Contact” button or a link in their bio to a booking page. Those are your immediate prospecting targets—they are already investing in Instagram lead generation, which means they understand the channel’s value.

Use Hashtag Research Beyond the Obvious

Generic hashtags like #marketing or #SaaS will drown you in noise. Instead, go niche. Think about the specific problem your product solves. If you sell a CRM for real estate agents, do not search #realestate. Search for #realtorlife, #prospectingtips, or #listingsoftware.

Here is a concrete workflow:

• Type your core keyword into Instagram’s search bar.
• Switch to the “Tags” tab and note the top 10 posts under each relevant tag.
• Open those posts and examine the accounts that comment regularly. Commenters are often smaller, scrappier competitors or complementary service providers.
• Click on the profiles of those commenters. If they post educational content or client testimonials, they are likely running competitor-focused sales plays.

To scale this, use a tool like Display Purposes or All Hashtag to generate semantic variations of your seed keyword. Then, manually check the top posts for each tag. This DIY approach takes about an hour, but it reveals accounts that standard competitor analysis tools miss.

Analyze Your Direct Rivals’ Engagement and Mentions

Once you have a list of 5-10 direct competitors, do not just look at their follower count. Look at their engagement patterns. Go to their most recent posts (not the pinned ones) and note the following:

• Who is tagging them in stories or posts?
• Who is leaving thoughtful comments asking for pricing or demos?
• Are they replying to comments with a call-to-action like “DM us for a quote”?

Those commenters are warm leads—they are actively comparing solutions. For B2B sales teams, this is a goldmine. You can extract those usernames and add them to your outbound sequence. Additionally, check the “Mentions” tab (via the search icon) for your competitor’s handle. Often, industry podcast hosts, event organizers, or review sites will tag them. Those accounts are your indirect competitors and potential partners.

Leverage Instagram’s “Suggested” and “Explore” Algorithms

Instagram’s algorithm is smarter than most give it credit for. If you spend five minutes engaging with a competitor’s posts (liking, saving, and visiting their profile), the Explore page will start showing you similar accounts.

Here is how to hack this for B2B prospecting:

• Open a competitor’s profile.
• Tap the three-dot menu and select “Similar Accounts” (this feature exists on many business profiles).
• Instagram will display a grid of 10-15 related accounts. Most of these will be direct rivals or adjacent service providers.
• Repeat this process on every new account you find. After three rounds, you will have a list of 50+ potential competitors.

For a more automated approach, use a third-party social listening tool like Hootsuite or Brand24 to monitor keywords and competitor handles. These tools show you who is gaining followers quickly, which signals a rising threat. However, note that these platforms require a paid subscription. A free alternative is to use Instagram’s web version on a desktop, open two competitor profiles in separate tabs, and let the algorithm do the work over a few days.

Monitor Competitor Ad Campaigns and Funnel Pages

Your competitors are not on Instagram just for organic reach. Many run paid ads to capture leads. To find them, visit the Instagram profile of a known rival and tap “View Ad Library” (or use Meta’s Ad Library directly). This shows you every active ad they are running, including the copy and the landing page.

This is crucial for your sales strategy because it reveals their target audience and value proposition. If they are investing heavily in ads for a specific use case, that is a signal that the market for that use case is profitable. You can then tailor your outreach to prospects who are likely seeing those ads, offering a comparison or a different angle.

For a DIY approach, simply turn on notifications for a competitor’s posts. When they go live with a promotional post, click the “Sponsored” label to see their full ad. Take notes on their call-to-action. Are they sending people to a calendar link? A PDF? A free trial? That tells you what stage of the funnel they are nurturing.

Turn Competitor Insights into Sales Contacts

Finding competitors is only half the battle. The real value lies in converting that research into a sales pipeline. Once you have a list of 30-50 competitor accounts, categorize them:

• Direct competitors (same product, same market).
• Indirect competitors (different product, same problem).
• Complementary players (offer adjacent services, could become partners).

For your sales team, the indirect and complementary players are often more valuable than direct rivals. Why? Because they have the same audience but solve a different piece of the puzzle. You can reach out to them for a joint webinar, a co-marketing campaign, or a data share. Alternatively, you can target the followers of these accounts. Use a manual export of their recent post likes or use a scraping tool (carefully, within Instagram’s terms) to build a CSV of active usernames.

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape competitor follower lists from Instagram?

Scraping public data is legally gray. Instagram’s terms prohibit automated scraping without permission. You can manually compile lists of usernames from public posts, but using bots to mass-extract data risks an account ban. For safe, scalable prospecting, use a sales intelligence platform that provides verifiable B2B contacts rather than relying on Instagram scraping.

How often should I repeat this competitor analysis?

The Instagram landscape shifts weekly. A new startup can appear overnight with strong ad spend. Review your competitor list monthly for big changes, but do a quick 15-minute check every week on your top 3 rivals. Look at new followers and recent ad activity. This keeps your sales pipeline fresh without consuming your entire day.

Can I find competitor email addresses from Instagram?

Many B2B accounts list an email in their bio or have a “Contact” button. However, that is usually a general inbox. To reach the decision-maker (the founder or sales head), you need their direct email. Instagram does not provide that. You will need to search their website’s staff page or use a B2B contact database.

Why BatScout

Conducting manual Instagram research is effective, but it is time-consuming and leaves gaps in your data. BatScout consolidates this entire process into one workflow. You get real company contacts with verified emails, automated competitor research across social channels, and outbound email automation—so your sales team spends less time scrolling and more time closing. With BatScout’s daily AI market reports, you will see new competitors and market shifts the moment they appear, keeping your pipeline ahead of the curve.