Getting started to grow Instagram with Combin Growth
Application overview
Combin is a desktop tool, designed for safe and convenient Instagram audience growth. The application allows searching profiles and posts of potential followers by multiple different queries and performing single and mass actions. Combin processes following, liking and commenting actions in strong accordance with individual Instagram activity limits and at a speed that doesn’t bring suspicion the activity is automated.
The application operates directly from user computer, doesn’t perform unsolicited actions on user’s behalf and allows analyzing and filtering interaction inefficient, already engaged and previously unfollowed accounts. Combin doesn’t use or sell fake accounts to boost the growth. All results received after the application use are genuine and depend on the frequency and quality of user interaction with the correctly targeted audience, apart from other Combin-unrelated factors (content quality and relevance, publishing time rate, etc.)
Installation
Combin Growth is a desktop application for Windows, Mac and Linux. Before installing the application, make sure that your computer meets the following requirements:
- Windows 8 and later, Mac OS 10.13 and later, and Ubuntu 18.04 and later (64-bit only).
- 4GB of RAM and 2GB of free disk space.
You can download the installation file from the main product page. The application does not contain any malware or ads.
Start growing followers with Combin!
Logging in
After installing and launching Combin, login using your account credentials. The application doesn’t store or share passwords, only uses them for the access token request. Two-factor authentication is supported.
Profile
As soon as you log into your account within Combin, you are taken to the Profile tab window. It displays account information: username and userpic, number of following and followers, posts count and their preview, and following/followers ratio.
Click the funnel icon at the top right corner of the window to sort your posts by date, number of likes or comments.
The open lock icon located next to the funnel is meant for Combin premium subscription activation.
Activation
Free version users may move to the Search tab or Users tab to start searching for potentially interested accounts and managing their current audience.
Combin subscribers should activate their subscription keys before starting to use the features to increase the available number of daily actions, search results and accounts to manage.
In order to activate your subscription, click the open lock icon located at the top right corner of the Profile tab. Paste your key into the specialized field and click Apply.
Proxy setup
In case you manage more than one account, it’s highly recommended to use Combin in-app proxy setup to imitate multiple accounts management from an adequate, unsuspicious number of computers/IP addresses.
Click the open lock icon at the top right corner of the Profile tab, switch from the Subscription tab to the Proxy (alternatively, the menu bar > Tools > Preferences > Proxy.)
You can set one proxy for all accounts (Proxy > Default) or connect separate proxies for each account (Proxy > Account Proxy.)
Search
Potential audience search is initiated through the Search tab. Open it and click the Add Search button to start looking for profiles and publications to engage with.
The search window has two tabs for two corresponding search types, Posts and Users. Both tabs have default search parameters and advanced settings. Enable the Advanced Filters and Analysis feature to determine the gender, language, and interaction efficiency of your target audience’s accounts through Combin’s deep user analysis. Drag the indicators to the left and right along the Following and Followers count bars to set the range your potential followers should fit into.
Posts search
Post search is performed by single and multiple hashtags and locations, as well as by different variations of single and multiple hashtag+location combinations. Additional parameters, such as publication date, likes/comments number and advanced filters, can be set up under the hashtag and location fields.
Note that search by multiple hashtags brings results that contain either one or the other hashtag, not all of them in each post. Some users prefer these type of searches to save time from creating separate searches for each hashtag/location.
Search by hashtag
Type in a hashtag into the specialized field. A list of similar hashtags and number of tagged posts for each option will appear. Pick one of the tags by clicking it.
In case you want to create a multiple hashtags search, click the “+” icon located to the right from the hashtag field. A new hashtag field will appear below the default one. Each time you fill a newly created search field, the option to add another hashtag appears.
Tip: If you are at a loss for what hashtag you should search by, think of words that describe and represent your business, occupation and account content, as well as keywords your potential client is likely to use. Specialized sites and services, such as Display Purposes provide many relevant options to choose from.
Search by location
Posts tagged within specific location can be found by either typing in the place name into the specialized field located below the hashtag field, or picked on the interactive map.
In order to open the map, click the map icon located to the right from the location field. The interactive map has three tabs: Auto, Manual and Recent. The first two are the search modes, the third one is a list of places you’ve searched recently. They are saved for a quick subsequent search initiation in the future.
Drag the interactive map using a cursor or type in the location name into the Move to field located at the top left corner of the map in order to find the area you want to search within. Enlarge or reduce the map using “+” and “-” icons to cover bigger or smaller areas.
Auto search mode: Define the location search radius on a map, click Next and give the selected area a name, then click Apply. Combin will automatically detect places within the selected radius and display the results from each place in one search results window.
Manual search mode: Click Search to start determining all available places within the selected area. Once all places are loaded, select all or some of them you want to search by, click Next to entitle the places group and then click Apply.
Note that searches by country, city, region or state names bring no results or very few after a long time. Combin finds posts by specific places Instagram users tag their posts within (streets, shops, parks, museums, clubs, etc.)Selecting a more general location causes the application to firstly find all the smaller places within it, then all posts tagged within each. As a result, the application generates the results for hours. It’s better to use a more specific place for search, as described above.
Search by hashtag and location combination
Fill both the hashtag and location fields, specify the date of posts publishing and the number of search results. Click Find.
Note that combination searches take longer to generate as they require gathering and analyzing more data than single searches.
Users search
Start searching profiles of potentially interested accounts by opening the Search tab and switching from the Posts search category to the Users.
Click the Search by menu and specify whether you want to search by Followers, Followings, Commenters, Likers or Bio of your Instagram competitor’s account. Type in their username into the specialized field. Enable Advanced Filters and Analysis to get additional filters and activate user analysis; enable Fast Search mode to receive search results faster, but without advanced filters.
The Search by Likers and Search by Commenters options allow finding accounts that liked and commented not only accounts, but specific posts as well. After picking the Likers or Commenters option within the Users search tab, either type in your Instagram competitor’s username or paste in URL to one of their posts.
Among the above, there is also a User list search option. It’s meant for a quick search of one or many accounts by username. Pick the User list option from the drop-down menu and type or paste in usernames, the profiles of which you would like to find. Separate the usernames by space and click Find.
Search results sorting and filtering
Sorting and filtering the results before applying actions help hiding inapt posts and profiles and engaging with the hottest content first.
You may sort users by number of followers and filter out already liked and commented profiles, your followers, following, previously unfollowed accounts, private and public profiles, and old search results.
You may sort posts by date, followers count, number of likes, number of comments, and filter out already commented and liked posts, posts of previously unfollowed account, posts published by your following and followers, photo and video types of publications, your own posts, and old search results.
At the bottom of the search filters tab, there are the range sliders for likes and comments (Posts search) and the following and followers (Users search). Drag the indicators along the sliders to adjust the preferred range. Only those search results that fit within the range are displayed within Combin.
In case the Advanced Filter and Analysis setting was enabled on search initiation, there are additional filter options (for both Posts and Users search results):
- Hiding interaction inefficient accounts (“Irrelevant users”)
- Hiding interaction efficient accounts (“Relevant users”)
- Filtration by gender
- Filtration by language
- Filtration by last activity (“User had to be active last week”)
Tip: Accounts you are not interested in engaging with may be prevented from appearing in the search results ever again by adding them to Black list within the application. Click on the profile with the right mouse button and picking the Add user to Black list option.
Combin subscribers can update search results to load more posts or accounts for the same query. Click the rounded arrow symbol at the top right corner of the search results window.
Interaction
Attract the attention of potential audience by single and mass following, liking and commenting. Liking and commenting actions may be applied not only to newly found accounts but also to those you already follow to maintain communication.
The following, unfollowing, liking, and commenting action buttons are located at the bottom of the search results and the Users tab windows.
The amount of the recently published posts for user liking is adjusted at Tools > Preferences > Activities > Like last.
Multiple different comments may be left for numerous posts and accounts in batch. Open the Recent category within the commenting window and click the bookmark sign to save comments as templates for future use.
Note that Instagram algorithm is sensitive to repeated and very similar comments. Make sure the text does not come off as spam-like and keep an eye on how many alike comments are you are going to leave. The recommended ratio is 1 text variation per 5-7 comments.
Audience management
Accounts you don’t want to accidentally unfollow during mass unfollowing actions can be protected. Open the Users tab > Followings select one, several or all accounts, click on one of them with the right mouse button and pick the Add user(s) to the Safe list option.
Accounts that do not mutually follow you back can be found and mass unfollowed at the Users tab > Following > Not followers by selecting the accounts and clicking the Unfollow button.
All user lists, the Following, Followers, Unfollowed, Safe and Black lists, can be exported in CSV and XLS formats. Sort the accounts by date of following, last interaction date, number of followers and name. Hide accounts you aren’t interested in, such as accounts followed through Combin, accounts scheduled to be unfollowed, private profiles, and interaction inefficient accounts. Filter them by language and gender, set the following and followers count range. Click the list’s name with the right mouse button and select to either Export (as is) or Export filtered.
Tasks
Once you’ve chosen profiles and posts and applied the actions, the application automatically schedules them for safe, gradual performance in accordance with Instagram activity limits.
The progress can be monitored at the Tasks tab. Action tasks can be removed and canceled by clicking the “X” sign located to the right of each task.
In case a big number of task or few massive ones were scheduled, it takes some time for them to be processed. Task processing intensity may be changed at Tools > Preferences > Activities > Intensity. There are three processing intensity modes: Safe, Optimal and Risky, which differ from each other by the length of time interval between the action performance.
Note that Risky mode should only be used temporarily to speed up big tasks. Regular use may compromise the account.
Combin is not cloud-based, it works from desktop and has to be launched at least in tray in order to process the scheduled tasks.
Tip: Create multiple small tasks instead of a couple of big batches to make them progress faster.
Gradually schedule more tasks each week and the amount of allowed Instagram actions for your account will be increasing. Combin will respectively be able to process more tasks hourly and daily.
Statistics
Information about the precise number of sent and received follows, likes and comments over different periods of time is displayed within the Statistics tab.
Note that Combin only counts actions processed through the application. Actions performed via other third-party services, as well as via official Instagram mobile application and web version, are not tracked by Combin.
Hover the cursor over any of the graphics given within either of the sections to get more information and specific numbers related to the account activity flow and audience growth.
Change the time period for which the data is displayed at the upper right corner of the application window. The application shows statistics for the last day, last week, last month and the previous month.
Logging out
Open the Profile tab and click on the logout icon located next to your username in the main tab window.
Note that as soon as you log out of your account, all related information will be irretrievably lost, including contents of the Unfollowed, Safe, Black lists, as well as search and task history. Backup account information if needed before logging out.
