One of the biggest myths about Instagram is that you need to be an “influencer” to be successful. 

So many people think that you have to film yourself, put on your brightest personality, and show your face to have any chance of growing an account. 

In reality?

There are thousands of faceless Instagram accounts that are raking in thousands of dollars on the platform. 

Yes, showing your face is a way to be more personal and earn trust…but it’s not the only way.

And certainly not the only way to make money on Instagram. 

Here’s a simple, 4-step process that faceless accounts use to go viral, gain followers, and monetize their accounts.

How to Make Money on Instagram Without Showing Your Face – My 4-Step Process

Step #1: Choose Your Style

How much of yourself do you want to show? 

Sure, you’re not showing your face, but how will you make your videos from there?

There are generally three levels of faceless accounts on Instagram:

• Human Made and Partially Personal – content where you might show your hands or body, just not your face. People typically use their real voices for voiceovers. It’s still you and personal, with your face out of shot. 

• Hybrid AI – content where you show stock videos or screen recordings, paired with voice narration. Voice narration may be AI and even some of the stock images or videos might have some AI help.  

• Full AI – content that’s 100% AI. You’re not on camera at all, and you don’t use your real voice either, relying on AI to fully represent you. 

Picking a style you’re comfortable with is important.

For hybrid AI content, you can grab stock footage from sites like Pexels and Pixabay for free, or Storyblocks and Adobe Stock for more options. 

For full AI Instagram accounts, you can use AI-generated image tools to create your videos. My favorites are Dall-E, Midjourney, and Adobe Firefly. 

Whatever the case, before you go and start creating content, you’ll first need to do this next step…

Step #2: Choose a Faceless Niche

Some niches only do well if there’s a face attached to it. 

But, there’s plenty of options for a niche that doesn’t require a visible person. 

Avoid niches where your personality needs to shine, like lifestyle niches.

Instead, look for niches that:

• Are highly visual 
• Solve specific problems
• Create curiosity
• Are very entertaining 

Highly visual niches like cooking, DIY home improvement, or artwork work great when they’re human-made, even without a face. Since they’re highly-visual, the person behind it doesn’t matter too much. Which is why accounts such as @noellecurtis.art are doing very well even without a face.

Problem-solving niches like dating advice, negotiating skills, or online business advice do great with hybrid or full AI. When people have a problem they need solutions to, they don’t really care who is giving them the advice. You can see how well accounts like @hermindset.era are doing with stock footage + advice captions. 

Curiosity niches are the ones where you talk about interesting facts (even if they aren’t super useful). The topics of these videos are so interesting, once again, it doesn’t matter who’s presenting it. Think of accounts like the super popular @ZackDFilms (and all the people trying to copy him). Hybrid and Full AI styles work perfectly with these types of niches. 

Entertaining niches are great if you can find a repeatable format. It’s very possible to make people laugh, smile, or send reels to their friends without showing a face. These work with any style, but they’re especially great if you’re doing full AI, such as my student @letscreate_ai, who blew up on TikTok and Instagram using our templates.

Step #3: Get Followers

You picked a niche and style, now how do you actually go viral and get followers? 

While the principles are mostly the same no matter if you’re actually in the videos or not, there are some unique things you need to be aware of if you’re going faceless. 

You’ll want to:

Create a Repeatable Format

One disadvantage of faceless content is that it’s much harder to genuinely show your personality. 

But there’s a workaround. 

Replace personality with consistency. 

Find a format that does well or goes viral, and keep repeating that format until people recognize you for it. 

A lot of people don’t follow if they see one good reel. But if they keep seeing you pop up in their feed, they’re eventually going to follow because they know you put out good content. 

If you can get to the point where people know it’s your account just based on the visuals, format, or story, that’s how you know you’ve brought your personality in, even without showing your face. 

Post Every Day

Posting every day is important for all accounts. 

But for faceless accounts, it’s even more important. 

Posting every day not only exposes your content to more people, but it also helps you find out what content works faster. 

Remember, finding content that works is critical, so you can use it as a repeatable format. 

So don’t get too attached to your content. 

Yes, make sure there’s quality. But quantity beats quality when you’re first starting out. 

Borrow From Accounts That Work

Go to Instagram search, type in a keyword related to your niche, and see what’s going viral. 

Then check the account that posted it, and look for ideas there. 

You don’t want to just copy their content. Instead, look at the structure, think about how their posts make you feel, and look at how they’re interacting with their followers. 

Do this for a couple of keywords, and you’ll have a bunch of new ideas that you can try. 

Learn the Essentials

Even though this isn’t specific to faceless accounts, it’s still critical to learn the essentials of what makes viral content.

Your hook, the first three seconds of your video, has to be the most attention grabbing part of your reel. The hook is what stops people’s scroll. If your hook isn’t interesting enough, people will keep right on scrolling. 

For faceless accounts, use the most interesting visual paired with text on screen in your hook.

The tension in reels is what makes people stay until the end. Don’t you hate it when you stop scrolling because someone is about to show you how to cook the best Thanksgiving turkey, but then that person goes on to talk about their personal life? 

That’s them losing the tension. 

So cut out any part of your reel that isn’t necessary. Once you’ve hooked someone in, only feed them what they’re interested in so they’ll stay until the end. 

The emotional payoff is what gets people to like, comment, save, and share your video. For faceless accounts, make sure your ending is inspiring, helpful, or gets a laugh out of people. If people send your reel to their friends, there’s a much bigger chance you’ll go viral. 

Step #4: Monetize

Monetizing a faceless Instagram is tricky because it requires you to build trust enough that people will want to buy from you. 

Remember, Instagram doesn’t pay you for views. 

So what do you sell and how?  

Here are some specific strategies for faceless accounts (some with help from AI) that are proven to make money…

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to monetize on Instagram. 

Find brands with affiliate programs, get your special link, and if people buy using your link, you’ll get a commission. 

So if you’re doing artwork, you can find brands that sell paintbrushes, paint, and other painting materials. 

If you’re a dating advice account, look for a dating advice course and partner up with them. This can be great because digital products typically give bigger commissions. 

If you’re making entertaining AI reels, you can even partner up with the AI tools you use to make your videos. Chances are, people watching your content will want to make something similar for themselves. 

Digital Products

Instead of promoting an affiliate product, why not make your own product instead? 

Digital products like ebooks, courses, and templates all work well for faceless accounts that teach specific things like dating advice or language lessons. 

If you’re known for giving good advice, they may want a more complete guide. That’s where your ebook or course comes in. 

Not every niche lends itself to digital products, especially if your account is for entertainment or driving curiosity. 

For that try something else, such as…

Print on Demand Shirts

If your style becomes recognizable, you can start selling designs on shirts, mugs, journals, and other physical items. 

You can either make your own products or you can go the easy route and print on demand. 

Print on demand is easier because you don’t have to worry about inventory and shipping. Just design the shirt, and the print on demand platform like Printful, Printify, or Gelato will handle the rest. 

However, this only works if your account becomes super recognizable or you know how to design catchy shirts. So focus on that if you’d like to earn using this method. 

Sponsored Posts

Most brands want to work with real people. But they also care about follower counts.

If you can show brands a strong follower base that matches their ideal customer profile, you can get brand collabs even running a faceless account. 

The trick here is targeting a specific group of people. 

If you only post simple painting videos, your follower base will likely have lots of beginner painters. This makes you valuable for companies selling painting equipment for beginners. 

If your followers are super engaged with your tech updates account, tech companies might want to promote their product launch through you. 

But if your followers are a mixed bag with people of all ages from all over the world, it can be much more difficult to get sponsored. 

4 Proven Tips for Making Great Faceless Instagram Content & Growing Your Account

Tip #1: Use Motion to Replace Your Face

Faceless Instagram accounts are the polar opposite of talking-head accounts. 

Because here, it’s all about motion. 

The more you study successful faceless accounts, the more you’ll realize how much movement they have. 

You’ll realize that the graphics never sit still. The stock footage cuts every 2 seconds. Or, you’ll notice a clear progression from start to finish. 

So either make plenty of movement in your clips, or use fast cuts 2-3 seconds per clip to keep people hooked. 

Tip #2: Use the STRONGEST Visual Hooks

There are people who instantly scroll away from reels that are clearly using stock images or AI. 

However, if you can find or generate a clip that’s so attractive, even these people will stop to check it out. 

Visuals are critical for faceless accounts.  

So study the accounts that are doing well, and try to replicate how they catch attention in the first three seconds. 

Tip #3: Use Text on Screen

Aside from visual hooks, using text on screen is another great way to get people to stop scrolling. 

And just like the visual hooks, you’ll want your text on screen to be jarring. 

Don’t just write things like “3 Money Saving Tips,” go for something more hard-hitting like “3 Reasons You’re Still Broke.” 

Tip #4: Aesthetics, Aesthetics, Aesthetics

Successful faceless accounts usually have a consistent aesthetic throughout their reels. 

Once they find a style their audience likes, they stick with it. 

So try and find yours. 

Is it bright and cheery? Sad and melancholic? 

Maybe it’s slow and inspirational? 

Again, visuals are extremely important. So find an aesthetic, and keep it consistent. 

Don’t Know How to Use AI To Create Content?

Creating a faceless Instagram account makes for some unique challenges. 

You have to learn the platform, the algorithm, how to go viral, and how to monetize all with a BIG handicap. 

But it is possible with these tips. 

And…you can speed up the process. 

AI can fill in the gaps to help you make content and even give yourself an identity outside of your personal one. 

But that can be an additional challenge on top of creating an Instagram account that will need your full attention. 

That’s why I’ve developed an AI content generator that’s complete with tools, templates, and ideas that’ll get your account off the ground running as fast as possible. 

It’s the same platform one of my students used to get 564k views from a few videos, all without ever showing his face. 

So if you want instant access, sign up here today!