Home ⚙️ Kicksta Features

⚙️ Kicksta Features

Detailed guides about our features and how you can use them to maximize your growth.
Albert Luka
By Albert and 1 other
• 9 articles

Welcome DMs 💬

This short guide will tell you everything you will need to know to effectively use the Welcome DM feature on your dashboard. 💬 What is a Welcome DM The Welcome DM feature allows you to send a personalized welcome message to all new followers you gain with our service. It’s a great way to build engagement with your new followers - share a coupon, survey, or invite them to check out your YouTube and TikTok channels, the possibilities are endless! 🚀 How Welcome DMs work Welcome DMs are configured from your dashboard Dynamics Page. You can turn your DMs ON or OFF at any time by clicking on the toggle button next to the feature. To set a DM, simply click on the text field and enter what message you would like to send to your new followers. Any text that you write will be saved as a “Draft”. Once you are satisfied with your message, click the “Save” button to save that message and start sending. Don’t worry if you make a mistake or change your mind - you can change your message whenever you want. P.S. It never hurts to sprinkle in a few emojis and make your message more interesting. 😉 Important things to note Since Welcome DMs are part of our Core Growth Features, it’s important to keep a few things in mind: - Welcome DMs are sent out just before Unfollowing - Because of this, there is a delay of a few days between someone following you and them receiving a Welcome DM - You can see how many Welcome DMs have been sent out in the Welcome DM section of the Dynamics page - You Need to be in Auto Mode (Default) to send Welcome DMs

Last updated on Apr 07, 2025

Targeting Suggestions

Whether you’re a business, e-commerce store, influencer, blogger, or any other type of Instagrammer, the best way to grow on social media is to find your target audience and get them hooked on your content. 🎯 Finding your target audience requires a lot of research, knowledge, and experience. And while no one knows your profile better than you, it never hurts to have a little help along the way. That’s where we jump in! How Suggested Targeting Works Targeting Suggestions will show up automatically every time you add any targets to your account. You can add as many as you like - up to 30. 📈 Our system automatically researches and suggests top-performing Targets for your account, so they’re always ready when you need them. We use the data from the millions of Targets added to our system and filter out the best ones that will be a good fit for your profile. 🤖 Instagram accounts are categorized into dozens of different groups, all of which are decided by Instagram directly. We automatically detect what type of account you have and only show you suggestions that fit your niche. If you are not satisfied with your suggestions - you can always change your group and receive targeting suggestions that work better for you. 👌 Important things to note Suggested Targeting is a feature that works straight out of the box, but there's still a few things to keep in mind when using it. - Suggested Targeting is based on total Followback % and interactions for that Target - Targeting Suggestions do not take your Location into account, so you may for example get targets that perform well in Europe, even though your account is in the US - Suggested Targeting categories are dictated by Instagram, which means they may also heavily vary in number. Certain older categories can have hundreds of targets, but other newer ones might only have a few

Last updated on Feb 28, 2025

Like after follow

Growing on Instagram isn’t just about building an audience, it’s also about keeping them engaged and coming back for more. ❣️ That’s exactly why we have built our Like after Follow feature, which will automatically Like posts of your targeted audience and get them to engage with your account. Like after Follow is a core part of our service, and is available on all plans. It’s advised to keep this feature ON at all times, since it has a tremendous impact on performance and growth. How Like after Follow works Like after Follow is a core system feature, and can be toggled at any time on your Dynamics page. The feature is ON by default, since it significantly boosts your performance, growth, engagement, and makes your activity seem genuine and organic. So - how does it work? Our system is designed to follow and unfollow targeted users in order to organically grow your account, and this feature is perfectly integrated with that process. ⏱️ Like after Follow automatically likes anywhere from 1-3 posts from an account that has followed you back, ensuring they get one last reminder to engage with your account. We always make sure to avoid liking old posts, and we adjust the number of likes to the number of posts the account has. This ensures that your activity seems authentic and prompts them to check out your account again. 🚀 Important things to note Since Like after Follow is a part of our core service, it’s important to keep a few things in mind: - We only Like posts from accounts that our system followed, and that have followed you back - You can see the number of Likes done in your Dynamics Screen, in the Like after Follow section - We Like posts before unfollowing an account - Because of this, there will be a delay of a day or two before you notice an update to your Like after Follow counter

Last updated on Apr 07, 2025

Targeted Growth vs Growth Pods Network

When it comes to Social Media Marketing, every Instagram user has unique goals—there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Some Instagram users aim for rapid exposure and a broader audience, while others focus on deepening engagement and fostering loyal connections. 🎯 No matter your approach, we’ve designed solutions that work with your goals—whether it’s building a vibrant, engaged community or maximizing your account’s visibility. 🚀 Targeted Growth Building an engaged audience starts with authenticity, and that’s exactly what our system is designed to achieve. By tailoring your targeting preferences on your dashboard, we help you connect with the right people who align with your niche and vision. 🎯 The process is straightforward yet highly effective: Kicksta engages with potential followers by following, liking, and even sending DMs, creating real connections that foster growth. Over time, we streamline your account by performing a series of unfollows, ensuring your community is made up of those who truly resonate with your content. This personalized approach is unmatched when it comes to fostering meaningful engagement and driving real, organic growth! Our Targeted Growth method is available on Growth and Advanced plans, and here’s what you need to know: 1. Login Required: To enable Targeted Growth, you’ll need to log in to Kicksta with your Instagram credentials. Keeping your credentials up-to-date ensures uninterrupted service. 2. Targeting Setup: Choose how you want to grow by selecting Instagram accounts or hashtags as your targets. If you target accounts, Kicksta will engage with their followers. If you target hashtags, it will interact with users who have used them. To make things easier, we also offer niche-based targeting suggestions to help you reach the right audience. 3. Warmup Phase: All accounts undergo a 72-hour warmup phase. During this time, Kicksta simulates natural user behavior—viewing stories, scrolling, and exploring feeds. This ensures that real interactions like follows, unfollows, likes, and DMs appear organic and stay fully compliant with Instagram’s guidelines. Keep in mind that organic growth is a journey, and while it takes time, it’s one of the most rewarding ways to create a loyal audience. Your content, niche, and targeting preferences all play a role in shaping your success with Kicksta. Our Customer Support Agents, a team of growth experts, are here every step of the way to provide you with the right strategy to unlock your account’s full potential and create a community that aligns with your brand. 🚀 Growth Pods Network Success on Instagram starts with meaningful interactions, and our Growth Pods Network is designed to amplify your presence. With advanced machine learning, Kicksta analyzes your account and strategically places it into Growth Pods tailored to your niche and goals. 🌟 These aren’t random groups—they’re made up of real Instagram users who have opted in to be part of Growth Pods. Each pod is organized based on account type and niche, ensuring your profile is placed where it fits best. This helps increase visibility and create opportunities for authentic interactions. Whether you want to expand your reach or deepen audience engagement, Growth Pods work alongside any organic strategies to give your account an extra boost. 🚀 The Growth Pods are available on all plans Kicksta offers. However, the Kickoff plan exclusively relies on Growth Pods as its main growth method! Important Notes - Every account is automatically pre-set to the Growth Pods Network, as most clients prefer rapid growth and increased visibility! - Switching between the types of growth is simple—just head to your Dynamics page and toggle the option to match your goals! - The Growth Pods are available on all plans Kicksta offers while the Targeted Growth is exclusively available on Growth and Advanced plans! In Conclusion The main difference between Targeted Growth and Growth Pods Network lies in their approach. Targeted Growth focuses on building an organic, loyal audience through personalized interactions like follows, likes, and DMs based on your selected targets. Meanwhile, the Growth Pods Network boosts visibility by connecting your account with real users in niche-specific groups, offering faster exposure and follower growth. No matter what your growth goals are, you have the flexibility to choose what works best for you—whether it’s organic engagement, increased visibility, or simply…both. 🚀

Last updated on Jan 31, 2025

Follow/Unfollow method 📝

One of the most widely used growth tactics of organic Instagram growth is the Follow-Unfollow method, and Kicksta automates this process to help you attract real, engaged followers. This method works by interacting with potential followers, people who are likely to engage with your content, so they notice your account and decide to follow you back. Understanding How the Follow-Unfollow Method Works Behind the Curtains Once you connect your Instagram account to Kicksta, the system begins executing a series of actions designed to attract the right audience. 1. Connecting Your Account The first step is logging in to your Instagram account via Kicksta’s system. 2. Selecting Targeted Users You can select Instagram accounts and/or trending hashtags as your targets. Kicksta then performs interactions with the followers of those accounts or users using those hashtags, helping you attract the right audience to your content. You can learn more about setting up your Targeting here. 3. Following Users Strategically Our system begins following those users in small batches, typically 15-20 per day, during the first 24-48 hours. This warm-up period helps maintain a natural interaction pattern and prevents detection by Instagram’s algorithm. Once the system is fully optimized, it can follow between 100 and 350 users daily, depending on various criteria and limitations. 4. Increasing Visibility Through Story Views To make your presence more noticeable, Kicksta also views the users' stories it follows. This additional engagement increases the chances of getting an initial followback. 5. Unfollowing Users After a Few Days The Kicksta system automatically unfollows users after 2-4 days, whether they follow back or not, helping to keep your following-to-follower ratio balanced. If someone does follow you back, Kicksta engages further by liking 1-3 of their latest posts to strengthen the connection. 6. Whitelisting & Auto-Whitelisting The Kicksta system also automatically whitelists everyone you followed before joining, ensuring they’re never unfollowed. Any users Kicksta follows will eventually be unfollowed, but you have the option to manually add users to your whitelist, keeping them in your network even after the unfollowing stage. Why Unfollowing is Essential? Some users may wonder why Kicksta unfollows users who followed back. The answer lies in Instagram’s limitations and best practices: - Keeping Your Account Balanced – Following too many accounts while having fewer followers can make your profile look less authentic. Unfollowing helps maintain a natural and credible ratio. - Staying Within Instagram’s Limits – Instagram caps the number of accounts you can follow at 7,500. Without regular unfollowing, you’d hit that limit fast, making it impossible to continue growing your audience. - Ensuring Steady Growth – By continuously following and unfollowing users, Kicksta keeps your engagement moving, helping your account grow in a way that looks organic and sustainable. Manage Your Interaction Preferences By default, Kicksta ensures that your account never exceeds 800 new followings beyond its starting point. However, users can adjust this limit based on personal preferences. Additionally, Kicksta only unfollows users it has followed. If you make valuable connections, you can whitelist specific users to prevent them from being unfollowed. Importantly, Kicksta never removes users you followed before joining the service. Your previous followings remain intact and are automatically whitelisted to prevent accidental unfollows. In Conclusion By following and engaging with users who are likely to be interested in your content, Kicksta helps you gain real, active followers, all while keeping your account balanced by unfollowing users over time. Although the follow-unfollow method has its limitations, it’s still one of the most effective organic growth methods there is!

Last updated on Apr 07, 2025

Close Friends feature 📝

Let’s face it, Instagram can make it difficult for your posts and stories to reach all the right followers. Even if someone follows you, there’s no guarantee they’ll see the majority of your posts due to the way Instagram prioritizes content. A recent case study showed that using the Close Friends feature can increase story views by up to 10 times which can be beneficial for both inactive accounts that need to regain engagement and active accounts looking to broaden their reach. The Close Friends Auto-Adder is a new Kicksta feature designed to help you gain more visibility by leveraging Instagram’s core Close Friends feature. It automatically adds your current and every new follower to your Close Friends list, increasing the chances that they will engage with your stories, reels, and other content you post. How Does It Work? 1. Turn On the Feature You can turn on the Close Friends Auto-Adder in your Kicksta dashboard. Once it’s on, it will start adding your current followers to your  Close Friends list. 2. Add Followers Gradually Instead of adding everyone all at once, the feature adds up to 1000 followers a day. This slow and steady approach makes sure everything looks natural to Instagram. 3. Keep Adding New Followers When you get new followers, Kicksta will automatically add them to your Close Friends list, so they don’t miss out on your updates. 4. Clean Up Your List If you need to remove followers from your Close Friends list, you can turn on the auto-removal option. This option slowly removes people while keeping your original Close Friends list the same. 5. Pause Anytime If you ever want to stop adding followers to your Close Friends list, you can pause the feature anytime directly from your Kicksta dashboard. Why the Close Friends Auto-Adder is Useful? The Close Friends Auto-Adder is a great way to keep your audience engaged, no matter where your account stands. If you’ve noticed a drop in engagement, adding followers to your Close Friends list can help get more eyes on your stories and spark interactions again. If things are already going well, this feature can take your reach even further. Plus, Close Friends Stories are a tried-and-true way to increase views, share exclusive content, and make sure important updates don’t get lost in the feed. In Conclusion: At the end of the day, the Close Friends Auto-Adder is just an effective way to make sure more of your followers actually see what you post. Whether you’re trying to bring back lost engagement or just want to keep your audience more connected, this feature makes things easier by automatically keeping your followers in the loop. 👉 You can access the Close Friends Auto-Adder exclusively through our Advanced Plan!

Last updated on Apr 07, 2025

Followbacks, Activity & Queue

At Kicksta, we believe in transparent and data-driven growth. That’s why your dashboard includes tools to help you monitor how your targeting strategy is working, specifically through the Followbacks, Activity, and Queue sections. Here’s a breakdown on how to make the most out of these features and optimize your settings for future growth: Followbacks section The Followbacks section gives you a breakdown of how many users are following you back based on the specific targets you’ve chosen. Here are some major key points: - Kicksta checks for followbacks a few days after the initial interaction, typically during the unfollow phase, which happens 2 to 4 days after someone is followed. This timing gives people a fair chance to follow you back before the results are recorded. - Due to this, the dashboard data may update with a slight delay, so don’t worry if it doesn’t immediately reflect activity. What’s a Good Followback Rate? - A healthy followback rate is 10% or higher. - If a target is sitting between 6–7%, give it a bit more time, it may improve. - If a target drops below 5%, it’s usually a sign that it needs to be replaced since it’s not resonating with your account. Refining your targets can significantly improve your growth quality and consistency over time, so keep an eye on your performance! Activity section The Activity section shows all engagement actions performed by Kicksta on your behalf. Here, you can: - View a timeline of who was followed or unfollowed and when based on different targets. - See how individual targets perform over time, giving you insight into trends and patterns. This section is especially useful if you’re testing different types of target accounts! Queue section The Queue section displays all users who are scheduled to be followed or unfollowed by the system. Think of it as a coming-up next list on your dashboard. A few important things to note: - If you remove a single user from the queue, Kicksta will instantly replace them with the next one in line. - If you remove an entire target account, the users already queued from that target will still be followed until the queue clears. The system doesn’t retroactively remove those queued users unless manually adjusted. - The Queue gives you full visibility into what’s about to happen, so you’re never left guessing. In conclusion: By regularly checking in on the Followbacks, Activity, and Queue sections, you’ll get a better feel for what’s working and what’s not with your targeting. These features are here to give you insight into your growth so you can adjust along the way and get more out of your Kicksta experience. Small tweaks over time, like changing out underperforming targets or watching for patterns in activity, can really make a difference and lead to stronger results and more engaged followers you'll obtain through Kicksta.

Last updated on Apr 07, 2025

Whitelist & Blacklist

Who your account follows and interacts with matters. If you’re trying to grow steadily and avoid cluttering your audience with random or irrelevant users, it’s worth having some control over who stays and who gets filtered out. Kicksta’s Whitelist and Blacklist features let you hold onto the connections you want to keep and skip over the ones that don’t make sense for your account. Here's a short breakdown of how Whitelist and Blacklist features work! Blacklist: Avoiding users that don’t fit The Blacklist is your first line of defense against low-quality growth. It tells Kicksta to completely avoid specific users, such as spam or fake accounts, direct competitors, or simply users that don’t match your ideal audience Once someone is on your Blacklist, Kicksta will stop engaging with them entirely. - This won’t undo any previous actions, but no new actions will take place. - You can update the Blacklist at any time by adding or removing users in your dashboard. Using the Blacklist helps ensure that your growth stays clean, strategic, and relevant to your goals. It’s a simple but powerful way to avoid wasting your reach on the wrong users. Whitelist: Keeping the key connections The Whitelist, on the other hand, is designed to make sure Kicksta doesn’t unfollow anyone you care about, people like close friends, collaborators, or creators you regularly engage and want to keep up with. Here’s what to keep in mind: - Anyone you followed before connecting your Instagram account is automatically added to your whitelist. - You can add or remove people from the list anytime. - If you manually follow a new account after starting with Kicksta, it’s a good idea to add them to your Whitelist, too. That way, they’re never caught up in the unfollow process. In Conclusion: These two features give you more control over how your account engages on Instagram, helping you stay focused on real, relevant growth instead of attracting the wrong crowd. Checking in on your lists every now and then, whether to clean things up or make small tweaks, can go a long way in keeping your audience aligned with your goals and making sure important connections don’t get lost in the process.

Last updated on Apr 07, 2025

The tech behind Kicksta’s growth method

As Instagram continues to evolve, users are constantly looking for ways to expand their reach and audience. Growth tools have become an essential part of that process, but not all of them operate the same way. Many rely on outdated methods that put accounts at risk, while Kicksta takes a smarter, authentic approach to growth. To power your Instagram growth, you’ll first need to log into your account through Kicksta Dashboard. This step allows the system to seamlessly integrate with your account and start engaging with your target audience.  At the core of Kicksta’s system is a network of real, physical mobile devices designed to interact with Instagram just like a human would. Unlike other platforms that use virtual machines or emulators, Kicksta’s technology mimics real user behavior, ensuring smooth and organic engagement while maintaining Instagram’s trust. Keep reading to see how our technology makes it all happen.  Real Devices, Not Virtual Machines Most Instagram growth tools rely on emulated environments, which are detectable and flagged by Instagram’s security algorithms. Kicksta operates on real phones, not virtual devices, making interactions identical to actual users. This approach removes the risk of bans or action blocks, ensuring stable and long-term growth. Dedicated Proxies for Each Account Each Kicksta client gets a dedicated phone within Kicksta’s system, paired with a unique proxy to ensure secure and authentic interactions. This setup makes every action appear as if it’s coming from a real user with a dedicated residential IP address, reducing the risk of detection and avoiding issues common with mass automation tools that operate from a single source. Advanced System Behavior Mimicking Human Activity Kicksta’s system is designed to act like a real person browsing Instagram. From scrolling feeds to engaging with posts at different intervals, every movement is randomized to reflect organic engagement. During the initial 72-hour warmup phase, every newly onboarded account goes through a gradual adaptation period where interactions are introduced progressively—starting with passive activities like browsing and story viewing before ramping up with more complex ones such as follow and unfollow. Unlike basic Instagram growth tools with predictable behavior patterns, Kicksta introduces dynamic delays, pauses, and activity switches, just like a real user would. This helps establish a history of organic activity before Kicksta’s system transitions to full speed. With this approach, you’re gaining real, organic followers, however, Kicksta’s growth method is only one piece of the puzzle. Many factors can influence your growth, and understanding them can help you maximize results. Why This Matters for Growth Instagram’s algorithm is constantly evolving to detect and penalize suspicious activity. By using real devices, dedicated proxies, and realistic activity patterns, Kicksta keeps interactions natural, allowing your account to grow without any risks. The system is built to work within Instagram’s ecosystem, ensuring consistent and sustainable growth over time. If you’d like to dive deeper into Kicksta’s growth strategies and the key differences between the growth types we offer, check out the full breakdown here. 👈

Last updated on Apr 07, 2025