How many followers can you gain using Gary Vee’s famous $1.80 Instagram growth strategy? Gary Vee—the marketing powerhouse with over 20 million followers—claims this tactic works for everyone, whether you’re a total newbie or a company worth billions. Seems worth a shot, right? We tested this method from scratch on an Instagram account dedicated to Tony Robbins and personal development. Here’s what happened over a few hours of hard work and plenty of engagement.

The $1.80 Instagram Growth Strategy Explained

If you’re new to this tactic, it’s pretty straightforward. The $1.80 strategy boils down to sharing your “2 cents” on 90 posts a day. That’s 90 insightful, thoughtful, and valuable comments daily. Not spammy “Nice post!” or “Great vibe!” but meaningful contributions that show you’re actively engaging and adding value.

Of course, as Gary often says, no “right hooks” until you’ve given enough “jabs.” You’re building rapport and credibility first, not asking for anything upfront.

The Account We Used

We started with nearly zero. Our account—focused on Tony Robbins’ motivational content—had only 94 followers. The niche? Personal development and self-motivation. This let the account stay focused and reach an audience that actively seeks inspiration. The goal was simple: how much could we grow this account in just two hours using Gary’s strategy?

Getting Started: Hashtags and Setup

The first step of Gary Vee’s $1.80 strategy is identifying the top 10 hashtags in your chosen niche. Some of the hashtags we picked included #tonyrobbins and #motivation.

If you’re ever stuck on this, you can easily find your relevant hashtags by using Instagram’s search box. Just start typing keywords related to your niche, and it will fill in suggestions. You want hashtags that have high engagement but aren’t so massive that your comments get lost immediately.

We then set out to interact with posts under these hashtags for two hours. The plan? 90 comments in 2 hours—literally giving out “two cents” 90 times.

The First Hour: Generic Doesn’t Work

After the first hour, we had results—but just barely. One new follower.

Why wasn’t this ideal? Most likely, because we were being too generic. Comments like “Great content!” or “Love the positive vibes!” don’t cut it anymore. Too many people are playing the same game, and those weak responses don’t stand out.

It became clear that merely doing the motions wasn’t enough. Engaging requires more depth.

Additionally, switching to interacting with recent posts instead of top ones helped ensure the person was close to their phone and would notice the comment. Yet, even with that adjustment, one follower in an hour wasn’t exactly a home run.

Time for Precision: Focusing on Quality Over Quantity

For the second hour, we took a new approach. Instead of spamming 90 comments, we aimed for quality. We chose 10-12 highly relevant people and left genuine, meaningful comments. This included asking thought-provoking questions like “What decisions did you make today?” instead of leaving meaningless “thumbs up” comments.

We even expanded our interaction to DMs, showing real interest in their posts and asking relevant questions based on what they shared.

The result? A handful of followers, but more importantly, deeper engagements. People started tagging us back or replying. No, it wasn’t thousands of followers instantly, but the few that came through seemed far more likely to stick around.

Lessons Learned: Quality Beats Quantity

After about an hour and a half of concentrated effort, the total follower count increased to 100 (that’s 6 new followers). While 6 followers might not sound like much on the surface, several important things happened during this test:

• There was more engagement overall, meaning people were noticing the account in their feeds and stories.
• Not all engagement leads to immediate follows. Several people liked our comments or posts but didn’t follow right away.
• As time passed, we started to see more traction. We live in Australia, so some American users might not have been awake yet. There’s a rolling effect as your activity gains visibility in different time zones.

Growth isn’t instant, but the momentum builds.

Refining the Strategy: Niche Down

One thing became clear: narrowing your niche can significantly amplify your results. When testing comments under broad hashtags, things were too general. For example, engagement under #run or #5k worked especially well because runners are people actively bettering their lives—exactly our target audience.

Rather than focusing on “motivation” or “inspiration” in a broad sense, you could create an account around “runner’s motivation.” Drill down into one specific area. Engage directly with those under-represented hashtags, like #run, who might not be getting that personal engagement anywhere else.

Conclusion: The Hustle Is Real

Gary Vee’s $1.80 Instagram growth strategy works—but only if you put in the effort. It’s far from a get-followers-quick scheme. You need to be genuinely passionate about your niche because this method is labor-intensive.

If you’re not authentically interested in building relationships, it’ll show.

But if you enjoy the process, love connecting people over shared interests, and commit to doing this consistently, the strategy can transform your account. The more niche-specific and targeted you are, the better your results will be.

Final word? The method gets a B+ for growth tactics simply because it demands so much work. That grind is real—especially when quicker options like Instagram Reels might yield faster results. Still, once you find your rhythm, things do get easier. You build momentum, and once you’ve connected with your audience, growth comes faster.

Stay tuned because we’ll be testing Instagram Reels next to see if we can hack a more scalable way to grow 1,000 followers a day. So smash the like button, subscribe, and we’ll catch you in the next one!

10 Reasons to Test Gary Vee’s $1.80 Instagram Strategy Now – Growth Tactics