Meta’s decision to allow Instagram content to appear in Google and Bing search results may seem like a technical update, but it has significant implications for influencer marketing and branded content. For the first time, Instagram is enabling crawling, meaning search engine bots can now scan and index public posts from professional accounts. This includes everything from Reels and captions to hashtags, alt text, and images.
The change gives Instagram content a life beyond the app, allowing it to surface in web searches much like traditional websites or YouTube videos. For marketers and creators, this represents a major shift. What was once content confined to the Instagram ecosystem can now reach broader audiences across the internet.
Across the country, there are an estimated 3.5 to 4.5 million creators, and Instagram alone accounts for 1.8 to 2.3 million of them. And, the Indian influencer marketing industry is currently valued between ?3,000 and ?3,500 crore, according to a recent report by Kofluence.
Brands Are Investing Accordingly
As per market estimates, 25 to 30 per cent of digital budgets are now being allocated to influencer campaigns. E-commerce brands are the top spenders, making up 23 per cent of all influencer investments, followed by FMCG players at 19 per cent. Over a quarter of brands also ramp up influencer spending during product or service launches.
According to Kantar, creator-led ads have an average skip time of 17.8 seconds, more than double that of traditional branded content, which clocks in at 7.9 seconds. Influencer videos also stay visible longer on platforms.
Brands See Strategic Opportunity
Marketers are reacting quickly. Swiggy Instamart’s Chief Marketing Officer Abhishek Shetty described the update as a “game-changer” for digital branding. He said the company will now brief influencers to optimise content not just for virality on social platforms, but also for visibility on search engines.
“Every reel can now become a mini-ad. If someone searches for 'best snacks under ?500', a creator’s video can show up. That’s a big opportunity,” Shetty said.
Fashion brand Libas is also revisiting its content guidelines for influencers in light of the indexing update. Chief Marketing Officer Nisha Khatri noted that the change could help stretch the return on investment in influencer marketing by expanding the reach of content beyond the Instagram feed.
“With the ever-growing creator pool and rising collaboration costs, this could significantly enhance content ROI by expanding its discovery beyond social platforms. The indexing feature is a valuable amplification tool,” Khatri said.
She added that Libas is working with Meta and Google to adopt optimisation strategies that align with search algorithms. The brand will now focus on voiceover-led videos embedded with relevant keywords, geo-tagging, and caption strategies tailored for discoverability.
Technical Shift: Organic Reach, Not Paid Visibility
The update, however, is not tied to paid campaigns. Rahul Vengalil, CEO and Co-founder of digital agency TGTHR, clarified that the shift is limited to organic indexing of public content.
“A long time ago, Facebook content used to be indexed on Google. Then, for several years, that stopped—Meta’s platforms, including Instagram, were no longer searchable on Google. Now, after all this time, they’ve started indexing Meta platforms again,” he said.
He pointed out that unless a post is made public and relevant settings are turned on, it will not appear in search.
“If your Instagram post is not public, and you haven’t enabled the relevant settings, your content will not show up on Google—whether you're an influencer or not. That’s how it works today.”
Illustrating the opportunity for brands, Vengalil explained:
“Let’s say you search for ‘Royal Enfield’ on Google. Right now, you’ll see websites like CarDekho, BikeWale, maybe Wikipedia entries or news articles. But you won’t see any Instagram posts, even if 100 influencers are creating content about Royal Enfield. Their content just doesn’t show up.”
“That’s the shift,” he said. “If influencers are posting about Royal Enfield—and they use the right keywords in their captions—those posts can start appearing in Google’s search results too.”
SEO Playbook for Creators May Need to Change
Vengalil stressed that creators will need to use keyword-rich language that algorithms can understand.
“Instead of writing ‘VH ride,’ they should write ‘Royal Enfield Himalayan Forest ride’—mentioning the brand name clearly and in context,” he said.
He also warned that agency-led scripting practices could run into trouble if not adapted.
“If 100 creators post the same caption, that looks like duplicate content. Google may start flagging that as spammy. Yes, include relevant keywords, but avoid copy-pasting the same caption 100 times,” he said.
“Google is indexing the text—the captions, descriptions, and context. Placement of the brand mention in the video itself won’t affect how it’s indexed,” he clarified.
Performance Media Meets Influencer Marketing
Industry experts say the development could blur traditional distinctions between awareness-focused and performance-led marketing.
Shradha Agarwal, Co-founder and Global CEO at Grapes Digital, called the integration a potential turning point.
“Until now, Instagram has served the top of the marketing funnel—driving discovery and impulse. Google, on the other hand, has dominated the lower funnel—driven by intent and conversions,” she said.
“This update merges those functions. A consumer searching for wellness products on Google may now encounter a reel from a trusted creator alongside standard search results. That enhances credibility and purchase intent.”
Agarwal added that brands will now need to evaluate creator partnerships not only on reach or engagement, but on search performance and indexing quality.
“This is no longer just influencer marketing—it’s performance media in the truest sense.”
Impact on Branding and Sales
Even as content gets a longer shelf life, the core strength of influencer marketing still lies in its ability to drive immediate consumer action.
Kantar data shows that 73 percent of influencer campaigns fall into the “amber zone” for Short-Term Sales Likelihood—well above the 40 percent norm for other digital formats.
However, when it comes to long-term brand building, influencer campaigns show limitations:
- Only 7 percent of influencer-led content ranks among top-performing ads for brand equity
- General digital ads perform at 32 percent
- The average brand power score for influencer campaigns is 38
- Celebrity-led campaigns average at 54
Upper-funnel impact also remains modest. Brand awareness lift from influencer campaigns is just 3 percent, and message association scores a 2 percent lift.
That said, the format performs better in the mid and lower funnel, delivering a:
- 10 percent increase in brand attribute perception
- 7 percent lift in purchase intent
Scepticism Over Immediate Impact and Platform Readiness
Not everyone is convinced of the feature’s short-term value.
Vaibhav Gupta, Co-founder of influencer marketing firm Klug Klug, said the process is still technically unclear and subject to delay.
“Google doesn’t crawl Instagram in real-time. It can take between 30 to 60 days for content to appear in search results, depending on engagement and tagging quality,” Gupta said.
He also noted that there is currently no dedicated tab on Google for Instagram content, unlike other categories such as news or shopping.
“Until there’s more clarity on how Instagram content will be displayed or prioritised, it's difficult to align strategy fully.”
Gupta said agencies are waiting for further direction before altering their content scripting processes.
“There’s no roadmap yet on what criteria qualify a post for indexing. Until we have that, it’s hard to guide clients on how to optimise for this change,” he added.
What It Means for Creators
Until now, Instagram content had limited visibility outside the platform. It was largely dependent on in-app virality and Instagram’s algorithm. If a user did not follow a creator or stumble across a post via hashtags or the Explore page, they were unlikely to see it.
This update changes that.
With search indexing in place, even older posts—those created after January 1, 2020—can now appear in web searches. For creators, this means a single post can continue to bring value long after its original upload. For brands, it allows past campaigns to be rediscovered by potential customers at any time.
Raunaq Sahni, better known by his handle Monkey Magic, welcomed the change. Sahni, who gained over 1.5 lakh YouTube subscribers and nearly 1 lakh Instagram followers through a zero-budget journey from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, said the move would decentralise content promotion.
“This is a great opportunity. It will allow a regular Instagram user or small influencer to reach wider audiences without needing large ad budgets,” Sahni said.
He also expressed concern that some may try to game the system by paying for visibility, but added:
“If your content is good, it’ll organically show up. Visibility should come from real engagement, not from inflated numbers.”
Despite the operational gaps, the change represents a structural shift in how influencer content is treated. For marketers, the challenge is immediate: to equip creators with the tools, language, and understanding required to make content both engaging and discoverable.
For creators, the expectation has shifted from making viral posts to making searchable ones.
.jpg)
